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black metal

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what is black metal?

"The instruments are mimicking the elements and the essence of nature for sure. Like guitar would be the mist, the frost, the snow, Winter and so forth. Drums would be like the heart of the land, the trees and the rocks and certain things like that. The vocals are like the voice of the forest. It's all just about, it's- atmosphere's important, nothing else matters."

-- sin nanna, person behind striborg, interviewed in part 1 of noisey's 2012 documentary "one man metal"

recommended listening for this part: granite by lurker of chalice (5:27)

black metal is an extreme subgenre of metal which is an extreme subgenre of rock. it was first established in the 80s, specifically in the UK and sweden by the bands venom and bathory respectively, but only heavily popularized in the 90s by a new wave of northern european acts, mainly norwegian, that re-invented the genre by shrouding it in occultism, both for show and out of a desire to live according to that sort of belief system, and making the sound both more lo-fi and heavier. some members of some of these norwegian bands have attained lasting infamy by burning churches, committing suicide and having their corpse used as an album cover or killing each other over what i can only presume to be minor disagreements. i suppose that's just how the folks up there do it

the americans then decided they didn't get their fair share of satanic panic and infamy, and in turn started creating some of the more interesting takes on the genre, with lurker of chalice or xasthur for example adding a more melodic, more depressing flavor to the already bleak music or liturgy doing whatever off-kilter pretentious bs they're doing with their stuff

my journey to the discovery of black metal

i came across the genre around 2014 when i was anticipating the then-upcoming death grips release "n-words on the moon". the person doing vocals, stefan burnett, once wore a shirt with a peculiar logo on it and had his picture taken shortly after. this picture found its way onto my moto x (2013), specifically onto the "reddit is fun" app that i used to browse the death grips subreddit. the poster of said image said something about how neat it was that mr burnett was into black metal. as a matter of fact, i just did a quick google search and found the exact post. what a trip down memory lane. also, what an amazing band logo. top 5 of all time for sure. anyway, i looked up the mentioned album on youtube and descended into the rabbit hole

and then i promptly crawled back out of the hole because this was not music, it was a mistake. the pig-like grunting made me physically sick, and i couldn't listen for long before the urge to throw up overcame me, so i turned it off before that point was reached. even the wall of noise the album opens with gives me goosebumps to this day because i so distinctly remember the visceral reaction i had almost 10 years ago. what i didn't realize back then is that this album or even this sound is not representative of black metal. revenge is a war metal band that exclusively does stuff like this, but there were sonically much more interesting albums to be discovered

i don't exactly recall how my journey continued, but the next excursion i do remember began when music critic anthony fantano of "theneedledrop" fame posted a video about a nails record, presumably his "you will never be one of us" review. i gave it a listen and found the death metal style to be quite enjoyable to my surprise. death metal is quite different from black metal in that its pacing is faster, the sound is less atmospheric and the vocals are less strange. to me, it's music for quirky gym bros that want to hype themselves up for their one-rep max push. still, looking back, i think nails laid the foundation for new adventures to come

one day while on youtube, i think i found a myke c-town video in which he talked about kim kardashian wearing a morbid angel shirt. i might have hallucinated this, and maybe myke c-town never talked about it, but i remember kim's appropriation of this niche white man's genre causing quite a stir. it also gave me an excuse to investigate this morbid angel band. the sound was a bit too much for me, but it directed me towards another early death metal project: death

aptly named, death is one of THE death metal bands responsible for the birth of the genre. i could never decide whether i liked symbolic or the sound of perseverance better, but both albums influenced my taste in music greatly at that time, and they became mainstays in my rotation. i was still scared of black metal due to my revenge experience, so i thought that i had found my happy little niche and hit my limit when it comes to extreme sounds

it gets a bit fuzzy here, so i don't know how i actually re-discovered black metal. i think it involved burzum, mayhem, emperor and other such norwegian acts. if i had to guess, the mysterious nature of the unexplored genre intrigued me to a point where i finally delved into the norwegian classics and found them to be mostly okay, with burzum being my personal highlight that has stuck with me over the years. it was all a little disappointing. one of the songs that accompanied me during my foray into the genre around 2018 to 2020 was darkthrone's quintessence, a slow grind of a song with a menacing vocal track that eventually escalates into a release of chaos around half-way through, only to wind back down and resume the marching chord progression for the remaining three minutes of the track. the panzerfaust album art is also beautiful. if i was kim kardashian, i also wouldn't be able to help myself and only wear shirts with black metal logos on them. thankfully i'm not kim kardashian

what black metal means to me

much like veganism can't simply be narrowed down to dietary restriction, black metal is more than a genre. to quote jr robinson, interviewer in noisey's excellent 2012 documentary "one man metal" that i can't shut up about, black metal houses artists "who [...] don't just scream about isolation and misanthropy but live it". this was not always true, however. early acts used the controversial satanic imagery, one of the cornerstones of black metal, as nothing but a very effective sales booster

"Venom’s Satanism was largely a promotional technique and, in spite of how they would be interpreted by certain excitable young Norwegians, they never pretended to adhere to any literal type of Satanism. As Venom’s singer Cronos stated to Kerrang! magazine in 1985, “I don’t preach Satanism, occult, witchcraft, or anything. Rock and Roll is basically entertainment and that’s as far as it goes.” This statement illustrates a vital difference between earlier forms of metal and Nordic black metal. Black metalers, as we will see, do not dismiss their music and culture as mere “entertainment.” Black metal is ideological, with ambitions regarding the construction and maintenance of personal identities that continue both on and off stage."

-- benjamin hedge olsen in his 2008 master thesis entitled "I am the Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticism and Identity in Black Metal Music and Culture"

like these non-descript "black metalers" mr olsen referenced, i treat black metal as a world, and enjoy submerging myself in its waters and exploring its history and its characters. the sound is unique and unlike anything else i have heard. it's raw emotion expressed using highly distorted guitars, blast-beat drums and at times ethereal melodies that evoke dungeon synth vibes, which is not a happy little coincidence by the way. dungeon synth acts greatly influenced some of the later black metal artists, burzum for instance. despite its initial appearance of an uncoordinated mess of unrestrained noise sources, there's a structure behind it, an art and a science at the same time. it also gives you the chance to metaphorically walk through the halls of the artists' minds, to feel what they were feeling when they made the music. as you get more acquainted with the genre, the initially off-putting, agonized wails transform into instruments of their own, giving the music the thing that you didn't know it needed and without which it would be incomplete. in my opinion, black metal artists have created both some of the catchiest and coldest riffs in the entire rock subgenre catalog as well as some of the most atmospheric soundscapes in the history of music

throughout this post, i'll be quoting bits from the aforementioned noisey documentary, specifically words uttered by sin nanna, the person behind black ambient outfit striborg. not exlusively for atmosphere and flavor, but also because i find what he says to be relatable and intriguing. all of the featured personalities in said documentary have lead interesting lifes and therefore have something worthwhile to say. if you can see yourself entering this strange parallel society, even if only for touristic purposes, i can whole-heartedly recommend the documentation as it offers a glimpse into the world without focussing on the unpleasant things traditionally associated with the genre

what unpleasant things, you ask?

the nazi part

"I don't think it'd be a good thing at all. If people were to google up 'Striborg' or 'black metal', the negative shit comes to you on the screen. You know, all the bad stuff about it, so they'd probably absolutely hate me and throw rocks through the window or whatever."

-- sin nanna, person behind striborg, specifically when asked how his neighbors would react if they knew he was a black metal musician, interviewed in part 1 of noisey's 2012 documentary "one man metal"

please note: sin nanna is not a national socialist and i don't want to imply that he is. his quote just fit well as a section intro

you can't talk about black metal without talking about its problem with national socialism. the topic is very niche, so there's not many good videos or essays or video essays on it that i could spontaneously find or be bothered to read, but i did certainly stumble upon a video about nsbm that begins with a half-assed and bad faith defense of black metal artists. i won't link to the video because the lack of self-awareness on display by the german behind it is honestly embarrassing, and i don't think it's worth watching for even 10 seconds. some of the (mostly paraphrased) points made include:

the video creator does a strange thing here and uses the term "black metal" when he really should have used the more specific "national socialist black metal" label. in an effort to make the nazi problem seem like less of a thing, he ends up equating two things that should not be equated and kind of destroys his whole point by making it seem like nazis are not only welcome in black metal but a staple that people just accept as normal, and therefore you might just call national socialist black metal "black metal" instead

you know, i can't help but wonder who this video was made for and who he is ascribing these claims to. to me it seems like he listened to a song made by a national socialistic black metal band, posted a link to it, got accused of being a nazi for linking to it, and then in his head decided to make up a person who believes that all black metal is nazi garbage and tried to debunk that claim. but this conversation is frankly dishonest and not worth having. if you like a song made by a nazi black metal band, why not just say that you like the song and then take a stance against the ideology if you truly have an issue with it? why instead talk strangely about "making songs about your beautiful country" or make the laughable argument that misanthropy and antisemitism is somehow mutually exclusive? it's almost like you want to make the issue worse for yourself. they're bottom of the barrel talking points, but those are definitely par for the course for these youtube nerds. give a man a microphone and internet access, and watch him embarrass himself for the rest of his life

one good point the creator of the video has accidentally really drilled home, however, is that talking about liking art made by some of the most reprehensible and irredeemable people on earth is difficult and requires a good deal of reflection. you have to walk a fine line to not make a fool of yourself. most importantly, for a start, you have to not be a deflecting piece of shit masquerading as a semi-popular niche youtuber

anyway, here's my confession. i really like the music made by burzum and satanic warmaster. i won't portray burzum since much has been said about the band and the man behind it, so if you're curious to learn more, i recommend the wikipedia page. here's an excerpt from a southern poverty law center personal article on national socialist black metal that i found funny

Vikernes also tackles such topics as "Mother Earth, Tolkien, the power of fantasy, radical environmentalism and space travel."

-- unknown author of article linked above on the topic of varg vikernes, the person behind burzum

satanic warmaster is (currently?) a one-man metal outfit created by pan-european traditional satanist aka raging nazi werwolf, or finnish man #37 as i like to call him. you see, there's only about 40 finnish people in the world, and it's easy to uniquely identify them via their government-issued number. in interviews, he has tried his hardest to get rid of the nsbm label by stating how he's just your friendly satanist instead, but there's plenty of evidence to the contrary such as

if i dug deeper, i could probably find more, but that will suffice for now. you could say that he does all of this for publicity and that it's all just ironic, bro, but if it looks nazi, talks nazi and is surrounded by other nazis, it's probably a nazi, and we really cannot afford to not simplify it like this

i do, however, hold the often difficult-to-defend view that nazis can make good black metal, and that you can disregard the artist and simply enjoy the medium for what it is. as a result, i really like some of the songs satanic warmaster has released, one shining star for example. if you're curious about the more general sound, here's a top 10 warmaster riff video where some guy sitting in the forest plays some of their riffs which should give you an idea. for this separation from the artist to work though, i'm assuming that the vocals are unintelligible because they usually are, and that the cover art does not consist of two nazis jerking each other off onto their nerd flag they bought off of nazi twink merch dot biz dot cc. by extension, this means that i must also trust the average person to, when confronted with nazi ideology, make the conscious and informed decision to reject it based on its egregiously inhuman nature and its status as a proven failed worldview that does nothing but cause suffering for everyone involved, even its adherents. i'd liken the exposure to nazi artists to being confronted by national socialism in a voter's booth. it's a thing that unfortunately exists, and the duty to reject and oppose it in the name of all that is holy and good falls on you. and you must be trusted with this power because if you can't be, then we have already lost and democracy can safely be declared a failed experiment (which in the age of disinformation and stunningly widespread media illiteracy i already consider to be the case, which is heartbreaking because is there really an alternative? but that's a topic for another post)

on the topic of sharing black metal songs made by nazis: you could argue of course that advertising it is not only tolerating the thing but actively aligning with it, however i disagree. sharing a link to a song that you may or may not know to be made by a nazi and advertising a nazi party are not the same thing. with the former, there is something to separate from the artist, something that you can entirely ignore and potentially not even come into contact with at all. again, this is only valid as long as the band doesn't reference national socialism in any way, i.e. on their album or song covers, in their names or in their lyrics. as an innocent(tm) listener, you have some flexibility in regards to the latter. as i have already mentioned, vocals are often entirely incoherent, obscuring what is being said to a point of being unrecognizable. even when audibly discernible, the lyrical content often centers on the occult, satanism or paganism instead of explicitly talking about how jew are bad. you have to consciously look into the artist's history to make the connection to national socialism. once you give these people money, however, to wear their merchandise or buy physical records instead of doing your civil duty and not helping a nazi sustain himself, you've unfortunately crossed the line and will be purged. find your invitation to the event in the mail within 14 business days

as i said, the line to walk is fine, but i must believe it exists because i listen to satanic warmaster and idolize lina e. i have in the past voted for left wing parties and think nazis and their sympathizers should be met with force rather than an offer for a seat at anything resembling a table

okay. the hard part of this post about nsbm is done. let's talk about suicide now

the deepest abyss

"What I'm trying to do here is call the shots, keep contact with humanity to a bare minimum. But I've found that as days go by, the solitude that I used to enjoy so much is becoming a problem. It's more like a window into depression. Because I think I had long-term solitude, and that's what the main effect has been. I spend too much time alone and it drives you a bit nuts."

-- sin nanna from striborg, part 1 of noisey's 2012 documentary "one man metal"

recommended listening for this paragraph: consumed by a dark paranoia (3:30) by xasthur

warning: the words that follow might induce or worsen a depressive episode if you're not in a good place mentally. seriously, i mean it when i say it. don't scoff at this. proceed at your own risk

let me paint you a picture: it's 6pm. the force of evil that every day pressures you into selling a substantial amount of your life hours for an arbitrary number on your bank account has retreated for now. it's cold and dark outside, but it could be worse. you work from home, so your commute is zero minutes long, which is a freedom many people will never get to enjoy

you take a deep breath and change into your outdoor clothes. the schedule you created in the ios notes app to keep you anchored in reality says it's time for a walk, so you oblige out of fear of losing your sanity in the deafening silence of your sparsely decorated apartment. your legs feel heavier than usual, presumably due to your recent subscription to what you surmise could only be described as the least nutritious diet ever followed by a human being. you have stopped exercising. why bother even? exercise for what? the weight that the idea of forcibly elevating your heart rate for 40 minutes to an hour puts on your shoulders is enough to keep you in bed for the day, so you opt to not think about exercising at all

it rains. the streets of your irrelevant city of 250 thousand inhabitants in the mideast are barely alive. why do you live here? why live anywhere? you don't have the energy to move somewhere cool. also, the housing market has reached absurd levels and finding a place in a "cool" town is highly unlikely at best, so you stay put. as your steps take you along the same path you always trod down for lack of actually interesting alternatives, your mind is filled with nothing in particular. there is only this strange sensation of emptiness and pointlessness

you reach the inner city and walk past a kid dragging his mother along to an apple repair shop, hurriedly talking about how they're gonna look at the iphone 15, making you crack a faint smile at their ability to still get excited about buying consumer electronics. your steps take you along the main shopping street, your eyes are either wandering with no particular purpose or fixed to the pavement ahead of you. you feel so lonely among these countless strangers walking with purpose. you see happy couples holding hands, groups of friends laughing and gathering, and here you are, trying to mentally go through all major life decisions you have made and pinpoint the one where it all went wrong. you wish you could just reach out in your desperation, strike up conversations, form bonds with the other members of your species, just to prove to yourself that you still can and that it's not too late for you, but you're afraid. afraid of judgement, of embarrassing yourself, of appearing needy and weak. and you are weak, and pathetic even for thinking this deeply about and struggling with something that should come naturally to you as a human. and so you keep to yourself. besides, you're not good enough for the people you're attracted to anyway. you don't look particularly good, you have nothing interesting to say, you have all these glaring flaws, things to be examined and rejected for. and what about the people you do have in your life? they're not friends to you. what is a friend anyway? it's all just words that you desperately want to mean something but you fail to find said meaning in them. when talking to your "friends", you can't help but analyze the way they speak down to the minute detail. what they talk about, how they talk about the things they like or themselves. how much they talk, and how much room they give you to exist in the conversation. the way they react to what you say, whether it's genuine interest or acknowledgement for the sake of holding the conversation. are they making fun of you? was that a sly remark intended to disrespect you or humor you? have they always made these remarks or has that increased? is that indicative of them losing their respect for you? have they ever respected you at all? and if not, why bother talking to them? it all gives you clues into their psyche, and you start to find the images of them that form in your head to be repulsive, whether they are based on fact or your imagination. getting to know people you like means eventually burning the idea you initially had of them them to the ground and facing the harsh fact that they're people, and they probably suck. is this normal? you don't know. if you do happen to find a person you can get along with, they might just leave you instead. think about how many people you have liked that have abandoned you. you have no one. you're destined to be alone and there's no way out of destiny. well, there is one actually

if this concoction of thoughts that i definitely have no first-hand experience with sounds like potent poison to you, dsbm or depressive/suicidal black metal pours you a glass of it and hands it to you. maybe you need to be particularly sensitive to depressive episodes to hear it, but to me, these albums sound like concentrated mental anguish, and listening to them will drastically worsen my condition due to the heavy guitars playing the most hopelessness-inducing chord progressions and melodies while optional synthesizers torture you with their sad notes and the deafening drums try their hardest to beat the last bit of resistance to accepting the freezing embrace of death out of you. it's truly the most evil of all genres, not because the associated artists are evil, quite the opposite, but rather because they have inadvertently, yet very successfully created a weapon that sucks any semblance of joy out of life. it's really quite impressive

author's notes

so ends my post on black metal. it's unfinished and ends rather abruptly, and there's probably much more i could say, but i've hit my limit on exploring my own sadness and depression for the day, making it impossible to flesh out the section on dsbm. i've spoken about what it means to me and tackled the nazi issue that you must deal with when talking about this strange genre, so i suppose it's good enough. also, 6pm is rolling around, and if i don't release this post by the time i leave the house, it will probably get scrapped again because of lost momentum, and i've put so much time into every single version i ended up deleting, that i really don't want to throw another one away. i'm not happy with it, but whatever

watch the documentary. remember that the sun rises in the morning, vanquishing the darkness. embrace humanity. eat your vegetables. subscribe to hbomberguy

so long

I’m a negative of a person. All I want is blackness, blackness and silence - Sylvia Plath