Justin S. said:
I briefly touched upon the idea of scientific discovery, specifically biology, revealing pre-determined human responses in the Philosopher section.
I would not be surprised if our increasing understanding of the brain and all its workings largely closed this debate.
It is undeniable that the human psyche responds in certain ways to its environment. One of these aspects is sound. Certain sounds inherently arouse sepcific emotions and responses that can be measured in terms of brain activity and chemical composition.
Regardless of what lyrical or overt message is superficially plastered on top of the sound, the physical and psychological responses will occur and alter mood, perception, level of excitement, etc.
A cacophony of instruments or machinery will create tension, unrest, fear, etc., the very mechanisims that metal, and especially death and black metal utilize to transmit their message. The lyrical and vocal aspect is simply the dressing. The vehicle is the sound itself. At some point the symbols arranged on top are trivial in terms of a psychological response. A great example is the inaudibility of many extreme metal acts. You dont need to understand or even comprehend human vocalization to literally feel the discontent.
What is so ridiculous about many of the opinions here is that they actually try to claim that contradicting sound and metaphysical concepts can be synthasized. Hopefully you can see why I see this as insane.
A barrage of discordance, anger, fear, and anxiety cannot, no matter the rationalizations and language manipulation, be used to support ideals of order, harmony, love, etc. They are fundamentally juxtaposed. To make a claim of consolation is to throw all ideas of reason and critical evaluation out the window.
that is not the point. that isn't even being debated. discord, harmony, tension, these are musical tools. they are not meaning, they are feelings. much as color can be manipulated to form various different images, color itself is not an image, and has no meaning.
red for example, you could propose "means" many things to many different people, from love, sex, war, blood, the sun, the planet mars, a national flag, a tribe of people... the list goes on and on and on. not to mention that the element satire is a common tool in art, to use an icon or idea to criticize itself. not to mention that again, colors, as well as musical tonality, are used in juxtaposition since the beginning of their invention.
therefore how can you claim that discord, a color of music, automatically claims one meaning? without words, you do not know the cause of such discord. you are free to interpret it as you see fit. it could be discord caused by a lovers' fight, or a brutal battle. it could be caused by the suffering of oneself with conscience. without lyrics or a title (ie, words) you have no claim to certainty.
case in point: Sigur Ros - ( )
an album that has no titles and no definitive lyrics. (the vocals are an adapted gibberish based on icelandic.) the band wanted their listeners to discover their own meaning, and so left ambiguous the title and lyrics. listen to it and tell me if you can claim exactly what is happening in each song.
by this ruling, i conclude that black metal or any genre has no inherent meaning, only inherent genre-related tonality.
PS: freud may have been honest and methodical, but that does not make him right.
