Hellig Usvart is the debut studio album by Australian unblack metal band Horde, released on Nuclear Blast Records in 1994. Upon its release, the album created a controversy among many black metal fans; death threats were sent to Nuclear Blast demanding the label to drop the album from its catalogue because the album contains Christian, anti-satanic lyrics that counteract the usual black metal thematics at the time. As a result of the strong lyrical contradiction, the album was thought to be a parody of the Norwegian black metal movement by magazines such as Morgenbladet in 1995. The sole member of the band, Jayson Sherlock (who used the pseudonym Anonymous), later stated in interviews that the album was intended to bring "some hope, some light to the bleak black metal subculture." Rowe Productions, Metal Mind Productions, and Soundmass have since released reissues of the album. Hellig Usvart has achieved a respected landmark status in the Christian metal movement, and it is regarded as the first and most groundbreaking Christian black metal album. Recording history In 1993, drummer Jayson Sherlock parted ways with the Christian death metal band Mortification and joined the death-doom metal band Paramaecium. During this time, Sherlock was charmed by Northern European black metal music, but did not like the malicious lyrical approach of the movement. He decided to record similar music but with a Christian message, with the intent to bring hope to the bleak black metal subculture. Sherlock ended up forming a solo project, as he could play guitar, bass, and keyboards aside with drums, his main musical instrument. In 1994, Sherlock's solo project, Beheadoth, recorded the song "Mine Heart Doth Beseech Thee (O Master)" for the Godspeed: Australian Metal Compilation album by Rowe Productions, going under the pseudonym Unpaganuth Necronomoccultociduth. He later changed the name of the solo project from Beheadoth to Horde and changed his pseudonym to Anonymous. Sherlock made use of his former band Mortification's relationship with Nuclear Blast Records and talked to the label owner, Markus Staiger, about releasing Horde's album. Staiger became interested in the project and decided to release it. Hellig Usvart was recorded in four days, beginning on 11 July and ending on 15 July 1994; Sherlock mixed, played, and produced everything himself. A person under the pseudonym "Unblack Mark" handled the studio and recording techniques. As a graphic artist himself, Sherlock created the album's packaging and cover picture. Sherlock