people often ask me what is is about black metal that draws me to it like a moth to an icy, windswept flame. i hear all kinds of objections to my predilection . "that shit is SO gay, dude. really?" they say. "it sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom by a retarded janitor" they say. "i can't stand 40 minutes of blastbeats" they say...
and, honestly, i don't have a really good answer to give anyone. taste is, obviously, a subjective matter: an opinion that is pretty hard to define and compartmentalize. it's like somebody asking why you prefer apple juice to orange juice, or beer to champagne. you can't really know why, you just do. truth be told, i thought BM was a pile of dumb horseshit when i first heard it myself. this was from me, who was heavily into 90's death metal and 20 minute long doom 'opuses' at the time. "black metal? why would anybody even bother to write a riff if you can hear the goddamned thing? plus they look like dead, gay clowns." ultimately, i'll thank mayhem and varg vikernes for turning the corner for me. what follows may seem like a non sequitir, but i promise to steer everything back on track in due time...
i will admit with conviction that i love manowar more than a lot of things. and while i can't remember the year, i remember very VERY clearly the first time i heard 'hail to england'. there was something about the over the toppedness, the macho bullshittery, the sheer 'kicking-ass-for-the-sake-of-kicking-assedness' that those guys exuded that made me buy into them immediately. they weren't on about chicks or partying at all back then. what you had instead was an entire album about valkyries and satan and gratuitous piccolo bass solos and goddamned cat-skin gloves and poisoned lips... on an album called 'hail to england'... and they were from goddamned auburn, new york. if you were to ever watch an inter view with manowar (most notably joey demiao, you would very quickly deduce that these guys are either totally, 100% behind every word they say pertaining to their love for metal as a whole, or that they are all fucking lunatics. personally, it is my opinion that joey demiao is 90% metall-er than shit and 10% loony. anyhow... it's this sort of conviction that leaves me believing eric adams when he talks kooky shit about 'dying for metal'.
that about sums it up. kinda makes me want to go to germany.
BM for me, at least in the beginning, kind of embodied that same "no, i'm not fucking kidding you" attitute. moreso than punk, which ultimately boiled down to a manufactured look, cultivated by petulant teens in the early 70s, those few early pioneers of the 2nd wave of BM took some questionable philosophical stands to an extreme end. norwegian kids obviously had an 'issue' with the spread of christianity in norway back in the early 90's, but what makes the whole phenomenon noteworthy is that there was a musical theme to their specific blend of activism: a specific soundtrack to the movement. it's comparable to PETA creating a genre of music to accompany them acting like stupid dicks outside of department stores. and pay attention here... they fact that they like to listen to fiona apple is not the same as starting a band. instead, all the rage (albiet baseless in reality) and feelings of isolation (again) were channeled into a distinct movement, the likes of which had never been fully explored. these were pissed off, middle class children railing furiously against intangible things that really didn't have much impact on their day-to-days. i think, ultimately, they were pissed because they had no genuine grief. comfortable and happy, they decided to hate jesus... and the gap... and people who weren't quite as angry as they were. but goddamnit, they did it with enthusiasm. and made some damn fine records along the way.
see... i admire conviction, i really do. and a lot of times, i wish i wasn't so apathetic about most things. i wish i had the balls to lay down and die for something that i believed in, but i don't. after all, even a questionable cause is still a cause which merits the tiniest modicum of respect in standing for. you hear these tales of church burnings and suicides over the depressive nature of life that these wacky kids had and you've gotta kind of admire (is that the right word here?) their willingness to subject themselves to prison and death to carry out their intent, no matter how screwy. it's something i'd never have the gumption to fuck with. hell, i bet even old joe demaio would wash his hands of the whole mess.
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