Metal Reviews

I realize that, but unless I am insane, I could swear that Varg was (at every oppurunity) raked over the coals for holdng those positions to begin with... he can't win.

This editorial is kinda ridiculous...black metal doesn't need to be attached to philosophical and political ideals, like noodles said. Why can't there be a liberal black metal band? It's just a type of music. Plus, I just think it's ridiculous to assert that the views held by black metal bands in the early nineties are BETTER for the genre...it's borderline morally wrong when you consider some of the views held and things done by said bands. I'm a little baffled that something like this has been written on MR, especially by Zad...

Music is just another artform, a vehicle for self-expression, after all.
Of course, succumbing to whatever urges one has that are driven by anger, loneliness, despair, what have you, in a way that is physically harmful to yourself and / or others and your surroundings is a stupid way to go about things.
The more evolved person can and does express these things through art.

I definitely agree with this, I wasn't saying that black metal shouldn't have hate, anger, nihilism, and all those things associated with it. But A. this shouldn't have to be a prerequisite for "black metal" and B. just because a bm band doesn't associate with those ideals doesn't mean they're any less passionate about their music and definitely not that they're any worse of a black metal band for it.

We have to keep in mind, when all those things (we all know the story) were going down the participants were still teenagers; evolution comes with age (usually).
I see what you are getting at and that is basically my postion as well; I don't really care what the impetus for the creation was, as long as the final result is good.
This music (BM) is a very personal thing, and what I get out of it and why I get anything out of it all is certain to vary from individual to individual.

Poop article is poop.

I want to see what Varg has to say about this.

Hahaha. A lot of uncharacteristically defensive talk, bookended by a ' '

What the fudge are you talking about guy?

You basically just said that ART has to fall into an objective lyrical category. Do you have any idea how terrible that is?

Any form of art should be able to express any opinion, feeling or idea. Saying that black metal with a political message is not black metal (or shouldn't be) is like saying that surrealist paintings are only allowed to be about fantastic subjects. It doesn't make any sense to try to pigeonhole the subject of an art form.

What I'm saying is that black metal is the guitars, drums, bass, and vocals (as opposed to lyrics). That is it. The lyrics could be about fluffy bunnies and it would still be black metal. Why? Because music is MUSIC, not speech, poetry, prose, or any other word-based form of expressing ideas.

Black metal should be about the music, not the content of the lyrics or the personal beliefs of the people playing the music. To say that those who wish to import their personal beliefs into that form of music makes it not that form of music is a huge misunderstanding of what music is supposed to be.

Understand fellah?

Quite a few interesting points raised, not always by people focusing on what I felt to be the point of the piece, but whatever. I'd like to answer everyone, but just haven't the time; I set everything out in the editorial well enough, I think (and certainly never meant to advocate restricting art, Crono - as I'd hoped was clear, art is the thing potentially being stranged by politics).

Just wanted to answer this bafflement on heatseeker's part:



Obviously, as you all presumably know me from the forum's various debates and as I mentioned in the editorial, I don't believe in the values and crimes associated with the early 90s Norwegian Black Metal scene. There is, however, something extremely powerful about the best black metal, and something extremely creepy about people willing to kill for any belief system - the ones making the best BM, in a lot of cases (and yes, obviously that's not always the case). To quote a quick part of what I said:



Highlighting the hypocrisy of this is something that is never done in the Metal "press", such as it is, nor are the bands I mentioned called out on their bullshit. I do think that political black metal isn't given a hard enough time, hence the original intention behind the writing of this piece, in which an argument was pressed hard to get the point over. Clearly, not everyone agrees, and that's fine, that's great, but to expand on something a colleague said in another thread: if I got even one person thinking as a result of this, it was worth it. Heck, call it an intellectual grenade tossed into what can often be a rather complacent crowd. I got two people registering to post their thoughts - intellectualism has won the day and it was worth writing this editorial, whether y'all agreed or not. I'm rather tired at the moment so I hope that's all clear.

From what I see of the norweigan scene...

1. Drug use
2. "Mental Illness"
3. Need attention
4. REALLY NEED their music and self to be taken serious
5. Extreme music that strongly affects the listener
6. NEED to sell records
7. NEED to be famous (want attention go hand in hand)
8. NEED to be remembered

combine these 8 points and you have people willing to do pretty much anything man can do. Mental Illness in quote because I don't believe in Mental Illness. Notice how I put NEED and not want.

...So in your eyes, bipolar disorder, split personality, and PTSD don't exist?

just people who think differently, like they told us to in school.

when you start hearing voices, just don't believe them and you'll be fine.

Eh, I know someone with bipolar disorder and it's definitely not just thinking differently :\

I've been through the depressive phase and manic phases of bi polar. It's thinking differently, maybe not in a good way, maybe you have insane chemicals in your body that are all out of wack, I don't care. No such thing as mental illness for me. Why? I don't want to be called mentally ill, I want to be called CRAZZZZZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I was wondering what would be awaiting me in this thread today.

This, this is... unexpected.

There needs to be more crazy people in black metal is what your article basically told me.

I'm the man for the job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZ9ku_wInw

Buncha bullshit. Terrible article. lol.

This is a different time than the ye olden days where very little was known about bands other than that they appeared like they wanted to kill people and wore evil face paint. This is the days of the internet, where you can find out something in regards to a band in a matter of seconds that may automatically qualify them for being less " hardcore " than their image or music may have given off.

As for it being commercial, that's a complete joke. There may be a few bands that are in the eye of the mainstream, but that's how its always been. I don't see people walking around telling me " Ah shit, new Wolves in the Throne Room was badass, right? Lets go buy some shit at Hollister! "

Terrible article. I maybe know five other people IRL that can spell black metal and name a few bands.

Of course fucking Varg cares what people think, he's a human being like anyone else, even though a fucked up one.

I don't even want to get started on the suggestion that black metal bands are selling out trying to cash in, the example about that reissue is a joke. I'm sure they made jack shit from it.

Then to state that it really matters what the content of a black metal bands lyrics are is just silly. They have to be limited all to the same content?
I just laugh at the article in its entirety. It reeks of elitist snobbery.

+ a fucking million, I'm sorry Zad, but this article made me laugh...