First off, there’s no such thing as one Spanish black metal scene. It’s a bunch of separate pockets that barely talk to each other. Madrid had its own crew — Primigenium, Ouija , Cryfemal — just copying the Norwegian second wave. Catalonia had Foscor, trying to be more progressive. Galicia, way out in the northwest, was on its own trip and didn’t sound like either of them.
Galicia isn’t the sunny Spain you see on postcards. It rains more than half of northern Europe, everything’s green, forests everywhere, granite, and constant mist from the Atlantic. People speak Galician, which is closer to Portuguese than Spanish, and the Celtic roots run deep — bagpipes aren’t some tourist thing, they’re just normal here. So when Galician black metal bands use folk stuff, it’s not some fake pagan act. It’s just what makes sense if you’re actually from there.
The network was tiny. Nocturno started Xerión in 2001 as a one-man thing, writing and recording in Galician from the start. In Vigo, Kathaarsys were doing their own progressive, more international thing, and actually managed to tour Europe. Dantalion showed up in 2004, same city. Balmog came out of the same mess in 2003. It was always the same people, swapping bands, playing the same tiny venues in A Coruña and Pontevedra, putting out splits with Portuguese and French labels. Nocturno ran Nigra Mors Records to keep everything local. This scene survived because a handful of people just did the work themselves and didn’t wait for anyone else to care.
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The Galician stuff from this era was darker and actually sounded like where it came from. Madrid bands just copied Norway, but the Galician bands wrote about their own myths, Celtic stuff, Santa Compaña legends, forests, the Atlantic. They sang in Galician, not Spanish, and that’s important — the language changes the whole feel. Softer vowels, heavier consonants, and it fits the landscape. You can hear the difference.
When Xerión did "Nocturnal Misantropia," Nocturno didn’t even bother with the Spanish underground. After a couple of small Spanish and French releases, he just sent it to foreign labels. It landed on Tour de Garde in Canada (tape) and Schwarzdorn in Germany (CD), each with its own cover. That’s how Galicia worked — no waiting around for local approval, just sending stuff to the people who actually get it.
"Nocturnal Misantropia" is where it all comes together.