Death metal=pop? Say it ain’t so!

Black metal. Death metal. To most, the terms are interchangeable. But to real metal fans, they are two different worlds.

Death metal equals guys with long hair head-banging their way through grinding songs with Nietzschean worldviews. Death metal conjures up images of loner adolescent boys, sitting in their rooms and cursing their parents.

Now, black metal, that’s the good stuff: European dudes dressed in full gothic garb, singing about Norse mythology, medieval curses and, most importantly, vampires — perfect Halloween music.

But just because black metal emphasizes costumes does not mean you shouldn’t take it seriously. Just listen to the story of one of the premiere black metal bands, Mayhem, which broke up in the 1990s but still lives on through compilations and reissues.

Mayhem was formed during the mid-1980s in Norway and was one of the first black metal bands to make a big impact there. If you want to talk about practicing what you preach, this band would straight from the textbook.

Lead vocalist Dead shot himself in 1991, and legend has it that Hellhammer, Mayhem’s drummer and the person who discovered the body, made a necklace out of pieces of Dead’s skull. Guitarist Euronymous then allegedly cooked and ate portions of Dead’s brain.

Karma may have come full circle for Euronymous in 1993, when he was stabbed to death by Mayhem’s bassist, Count Grishnackh. Grishnackh’s apparent motive? He was jealous that Euronymous had a more evil reputation, and he inflicted 23 stab wounds to outdo a rival band’s drummer, who had also killed a man by stabbing.

When the police searched Grishnackh’s home, they found a bunch of stolen dynamite and a plan to blow up a large church on a religious holiday. At that time, he was already suspected of setting fire to numerous historical churches in Norway.

But for every black metal band like Mayhem, there has to be the “pop” equivalent. Enter Cradle of Filth, England’s bid for a scary goth band.

Cradle of Filth seems to have caused more of a stir over the years for its obscenity-laced T-shirts than its music. The songs combine traditional metal elements with pipe organs, and lead singer Dani Filth, dressed in leathers and chains, alternates between traditional metal growls and super-high shrieking.

The problem with Cradle of Filth is that they are just actors playing a roll — not true believers in their music, like Mayhem. Sure, they have albums with names like “The Principle of Evil Made Flesh,” but they also have a low-budget horror movie and a DVD tour documentary that shows them sitting around, getting drunk and acting like frat boys.

Would Mayhem ever make a poorly written movie? Never. But Halloween is a good metaphor for the black metal scene. Some people are just playing dress-up.