Black Metal.

[Krigloch the Furious]

damn. I havent listened to Farsot in a long time. gotta bust that out.

 

[Eligos]

Yes, yes you do.

 

[unknown]

one of the reviews on metal archives claims "Thematik: Trauer" to be one of the best black metal songs in the past 10 years, and I'd have to agree.

 

[MasterOLightning]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/arts/music/15metal.html?_r=1

So check that out. For an article in the New York Times, it's great, and I'm not sure you could ever expect much better given the word count.

I'm sad inside that I was never that good of a journalist.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like coverage of black metal is escalating here, due to things like the recent documentary, and American bands that are a little more palatable than say, Judas Iscariot (Which I like, but you should understand what I mean). I feel like the new Burzum release will really generate a lot of buzz, and it'll be interesting what the media response will be. I hope that I (and lots of you) am not hoping for too much. If it's as transcendent as we all want it to be, here come the hipsters. If not, black metal can operate in obscurity for the next decade.

 

[unknown]

interesting! cook-ta and I were just talking about writing "scholarly" papers on black metal. this would've been fun to attend

 

[Eligos]

Also, I had not previously heard of Liturgy and the reviews seem promising. I'm checking them out.

 

[Evil?]

NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Do not check them out. Fucking hipster Black Metal 100%.

He talked of “life and hypertrophy” replacing “death and atrophy,”...

Seriously? Fuck off. This sentence alone shows they do not understand Black Metal. Black Metal is not life. Black Metal is not hopeful or joyful. This is a person/band who sees "black Metal" as a sound and nothing more.

 

[challenge_everything]

His comments about modifying the blast beat were interesting. I'd be keen to hear that in practice. Despite Evil?'s (valid) criticism, that guy was about the only one who appeared to have something relevant to say. As for the rest of them...

Black metal could use some scholarly analysis, but judging by that article, a lot of what went on was typical intellectual pseudo-babble, a massive circle jerk for academics who enjoy coming up with 'unique' ways of analysing cultural phenomena without actually contributing anything useful and meaningful to the knowledge and understanding of society.

 

[Tonka Time]

Sample of "Sector G" from Blacklodge's "T/ME”,the split with Abigor, is on End All Life's site . Definently looks like it will be one of my favorites of 2010.

 

[Eligos]

Come on, Evil?, you know me. I'm a serious hipster. Anyway, I couldn't sleep last night so I checked this band out and was very impressed. It reminded me of like... Terry Riley meets Krallice, with more involved drums. Their drummer plays blast beats ("burst" beats?) in an interesting and unique way. /trendsterbabble

 

[unknown]

Black metal could use some scholarly analysis, but judging by that article, a lot of what went on was typical intellectual pseudo-babble, a massive circle jerk for academics who enjoy coming up with 'unique' ways of analysing cultural phenomena without actually contributing anything useful and meaningful to the knowledge and understanding of society.

sounds like any other academic conference

 

[skeptik]

I checked this band out and was very impressed.

Makes sense.

That article makes me want to smash my fucking brain in. I am obviously all for an intellectual evaluation of metal, as I myself have attempted to do, but the problem here is that this "intellectual" evaluation is being done by a bunch of people who don't know what the hell they're talking about, and as a result have produced a bunch of utter fantastical nonsense. This is the kind of shit that is more likely to hurt the genre than help it.

 

[cookiecutter]

There was already a band named Liturgy before this hipster black metal one

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

And they're probably just as meh.

 

[Eligos]

For what it's worth, I have no idea how much replay value Liturgy's debut album has. It made a good first impression on me.

But seriously, it blends two of my favorite styles of music.

 

[Gold]

who else is a fan of narjahanam andd who is going to recommend me more bands like them? just raw and evil with no english.

 

[Perdition's Light]

I admit I felt a perverse tingling down my spine when I clicked the link, halfway hoping to read an intelligent exposition on the essence of black metal and perhaps a summary of the current US scene in one of the places I would least expect to find it - one of the most widely read and circulated national newspapers. The tingling went away about as quickly as it had come on when I started reading and realized it was all professorial psychobabble nonsense masquerading as a meaningful and heartfelt treatise. I doubt this article is going to inform any skeptical or curious readers whose only perception of the genre is "some losers wearing make-up who can't play their instruments" and the sad thing is it creates a perception that black metal's sound and ideals are as pretentious and halfhearted as the journalists and academics who wrote the article and are featured in it (guilt by association). One thing is clear to me now, however, which is Black metal has no place in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or the fucking Today Show and never will as long as it retains any legitimacy or sincerity.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

bad journalism is a surprise to people really? really?

 

[Perdition's Light]

oh i suppose not really. i just get excited sometimes

 

[MasterOLightning]

The story was well-reported and well-written. Of all the criticisms one could make, ragging on the writer shouldn't be one. It was in the New York Times, what did you expect? After seeing some really, really sad attempts at writing about metal music in the news media, this was a significantly better try. It reported on this particular segment of black metal. It was factually accurate. Like good journalism, it lets you make the judgments. If you came away thinking that this thing was pseudo-intellectual crap, well, that was the story. It should be the content that the article was based that upsets people, not the article itself.