traptunderice wrote:
Panopticon and Deafheaven are two separate results from the influence of post rock on black metal. Panopticon's Austin Lunn is an old crust punk dude, not comparable to Deafheaven who are more like Shining (Nor) in suave slickness.
Yes, and Panopticon not being comparable to Deafheaven is a good thing for Austin Lunn.
Quote:
When I presented at a conference last spring, somebody asked the question: are there any black metal bands that support more moderate forms of politics as opposed to NS or anarchist-socialism? I responded with it's called extreme metal for a reason. And if someone is a moderate liberal/conservative; they are probably emphasizing something else in their musical content a la Satanism or outer space or metaphysics, etc.
Here is where the hipsters/Brooklyn vegan.coms/pitchfork experts are missing the point. That article Azreal posted is a good example of this: these people are fetishizing the Norwegian second wave into something that for them, is the complete opposite of what they (meaning lefty indie cultured types) are supposed to like. It is taboo for them to enjoy this, so no wonder Varg is their fulcrum.
But I also think it misses the larger point of second wave black metal: that most of these guys were, and are, fairly normal dudes. The inner circle was a bunch of mostly wealthy kids from nice families in one of the consistently top rated places in the world to live. The rebellious phase took extreme forms. Their world got fucked up when the leaders of their clique engaged in increasingly bizarre and criminal behavior, and a bunch of these guys got caught up in it...without necessarily adhering to it. Varg (Euro is harder to read because he died so young, but he appeared to love music as much or more, as any bizarre ideology) was the outlier, not the standard.
The Emperor guys were also involved in what happened, and I don't see anyone claiming Samoth is a sociopath now. Ihsahn is a respectable music teacher, Bard Faust, based on forum discussions with him in 2001-2002 was a normal beer-drinking metal guy that had a very clear head in prison, not some raving lunatic. I heard Hellhammer was obsessed with porn...the Darkthone guys really enjoy beer, Garm bought a nice car with the money Century Media gave Ulver to record Nattens Madrigal but again, as far as I know none of these constitutes sociopathic or extreme anti-social tendencies. Satyricon, Immortal, Limbonic Art, Enslaved, etc. were even less 'extreme'.
Obviously there was a moment where serious stuff went on in 1992-1994, a few people were murdered or hurt, and some picturesque churches were burned, so the label of extremity is not unjustified, but I think it has also been heavily exaggerated. Varg can always be counted on to say something odd and the cycle will continue.