Metal Reviews

So why does black metal affect you? (Considering what you quoted of Zad's) Just a general sense of negativity? Or do you mean certain riffs/sounds in music just have the desired black metal effect?

That's where Black Metal and Arnie films overlap, for me; they may not make a great deal of sense, but who says they have to? I don't bother sitting and critiquing Eldrig's Ariosophy whilst listening to the stuff, nor do I question Rob Darken's extreme desire for dressing up like a pillock whilst blasting the Graveland. I don't sit and go 'well come on Glen, some Christians are nice peoples' whilst listening to Deicide, nor do I bewail the fact that violence should be the last resort in any situation when listening to Cannibal Corpse or Autopsy. OF COURSE Kvarfoth or whateverthefuck his name is from Shining is a whiny junkie bitch, but I'm no more hung up over that than I am over Geddy Lee looking like a hippie lesbian or Neil Peart like an alcholic Tom Hanks. Yes, (Black) Metal is not something that can always be taken 100% seriously, so?

Well gee, if we're counting angelraping then nevermind Something tells me my attempt at a sense of humour in my last post was lost to some. Les sigh, oh well.

The only person here whose posts I take to be completely devoid of humour is Lucifer's Son, heh. I was making le funny as well, as I'm sure you recognised.

Yes, I recognized your making of the fun, it was the Ulver/acoustic interlude comment that made me do a slight doubletake wondering which one of us was missing something...could just be me though.

Ha, I know exactly who you mean... he's getting enough of a drubbing in the Venom argument, not much point dragging the poor lad through shit yet again.

Yeah burning churches makes you a better musician FUCK.

Thats not what he said.

A lot of people on these boards seem to read completely differant posts to the ones I do, and then react like arrogant shits. (not targeted at noodles, he just made me think)

Why does anything affect anyone? I don't why, but, to paraphrase Stephen King, the subconcsious is like a filter and everybody has a different filter; what passes through mine, gets stuck in somebody elses, etc...but I certainly do not hate mankind or myself... I like the feeling created, is all. Like I said total hate for everything is as ludicrous as total love for everything; both conditions are a squandering of those two emotions.
Black Metal leans more towards romanticism than misanthropy, for me, as far as the music itself is concerned.

That being said, I do hate the consumerist attitude that afflicts so much of our species, and that may equate to a majority of said poulace, but there are plenty of genuinely decent people out there.

Exactly.

I love that song so much, yo.

Exactly.

I would imagine, or at least hope, that most black metal bands don't take themselves all that seriously? Music is entertainment, the corpsepaint or whatever the fuck adds to the atmosphere, another element to fuel the fire.

I think they know they're just playing music and having a good time. I'm sure there's only a few who think they're absolutely the most hardcore and grim SOB's on the planet because of their get up that goes with the music.

I know that's not what he meant but the idea that burning churches and killing people makes your music more intense is silly. To me it just says the musicians were dicks.

I agree with this, as well... take Fenriz. He has a great sense of humor, and is one of the cornerstones of the Black Metal scene, for want of a better word.
Also, listen to any old interview with Cronos and Abaddon, they seemed to take very little seriously, let alone themselves.

Not at all. It's the difference between true crime stories and random made up stuff; the fact that people actually died over it does give it a certain spookiness, certainly more than the usual posturing.

It shows they took music about satan and orcs way too seriously. Don't really see how that's spooky.

Dead people, noodles. Corpses. Actual crime.

I guess my problem is that I think that (black) metal posturing is silly and should be taken with a grain of salt, so killing people over it is even sillier. Even if the guy from Coldworld killed himself, I don't think that would make Melancholie² a less ridiculous album title, and just because the guy from Silencer is actually crazy doesn't make his singing any good.

I tend to seperate the music from the antics, personally.

Any Metal genre's posturing can be called "silly"... Power metal, Death metal, even Thrash, so singling out Black Metal's theatrics is, well, silly.

Exactly. If power metal bands started setting each other on fire and saying they were combating with the dragonflame it wouldn't add to the genre's mystique.

I try to separate the music from the musician too although I'll admit I'm biased towards bands who don't put on corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.