Unblack Metal

[AchrisK]

noob thread once again on this board

At this moment:

My post count = 364
yours = 346
My years listening to metal = about 26
your AGE probably < 26 (of course I am assuming. please correct me)

...and I don't care. I don't care about my post count vs your post count vs the moon! It's irrelevant.

Make a contibution by saying something relevant or by shutting up.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

I don't give a rats flying fuck if its performed by Hassidic Jews singing about the Ten Commandments, if the music is good and it sounds like black metal, I call it black metal and I listen to it.

I agree. I would still listen to it and think of it as Black Metal if it shares the musical characteristics of the majority of Black Metal bands. And yes I know it can't logically be considered Black Metal from a lyrical and image standpoint.

But anyways, I'm not arguing about this again. Dodens and I already had a long arguement about this a little while ago.

 

[Evil Dead]

christians should stick to country.

 

[Vitor]

At this moment:

My post count = 364
yours = 346
My years listening to metal = about 26
your AGE probably < 26 (of course I am assuming. please correct me)

...and I don't care. I don't care about my post count vs your post count vs the moon! It's irrelevant.

Make a contibution by saying something relevant or by shutting up.

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

 

[Belligerent]

noob thread once again on this board

Way to call a n00b
a n00b
Douche.

 

[AchrisK]

Just to clarify about Aquarius Records, it is not a Christian propaganda site, or any other type of "Christian" site. It is an independant music store located in San Fransisco (and online) that carries all kinds of genres, including black metal. They apparently stick to stuff they like, and it's usually slightly eclectic stuff. The reviews of these bands surprised me. I assumed these bands were just some Horde copy bands and not worth the time, until I read the reviews.

Aside from these unblack releases, I would highly recommend the site. Their review writing is pretty good, and you could discover a lot of cool music there.

 

[Vitor]

Just to clarify about Aquarius Records, it is not a Christian propaganda site, or any other type of "Christian" site. It is an independant music store located in San Fransisco (and online) that carries all kinds of genres, including black metal. They apparently stick to stuff they like, and it's usually slightly eclectic stuff. The reviews of these bands surprised me. I assumed these bands were just some Horde copy bands and not worth the time, until I read the reviews.

Aside from these unblack releases, I would highly recommend the site. Their review writing is pretty good, and you could discover a lot of cool music there.

thanks dude

 

[Scourge of God]

But the color of the sky is a scientific fact.

But we're not talking about the 'scientific fact' of reflected wavelengths, were talking about how people communicate the idea of color to one another. We don't say the sky is 'blue' because it is in any sense absolutely blue, we say it is 'blue' because that is the signifying element within this particular symbolic structure (the English language) which is socially understood to indicate what we see when we look at the sky.

We say 'blue,' but it could just as easily have been 'pink' or 'flibaflab.' The point here being that language is inherently arbitrary, and that meaning is not an absolute value of a given signifier, but rather a product of social consensus modified by placement within a larger symbolic structure. So, while symbolic communication has no inherent meaning, it has a very real meaning in the practice of social consensus, and when you step far beyond the bounds of that social consensus (say, by trying to use the musical language of black metal to express Christian sentiment), what you do is step outside of meaning to produce something meaningless on every level (in other words, crap).

 

[kmik]

I'd go further than that... music is not symbolic like language. For example, the chaotic structures of death metal do not symbolize chaos: they are *inherently* chaotic. And the same could be said for black metal, I think. The demonic vocals could symbolize something else in a different universe where human biology is different, but the music itself just fundamentally communicates some basic ideas which are not even culturally dependent (although some people go too far in assuming a coherent ideology behind it)

 

[AchrisK]

So, this wasn't meant as just a thread to argue about Christians playing black aesthetic metal, though that is appropriate. What bands does anyone like?

Not all these are pure UBM or whatever, so no need to make the ever pending "(Insert band name) is not black metal!!1!" statement, but these do have a heavy leaning towards the black metal aesthetic.

I like:

Horde
Lengsel
Antestor
Frost Like Ashes
Sanctifica

all links are to myspace sites.

 

[AchrisK]

I'd go further than that... music is not symbolic like language. For example, the chaotic structures of death metal do not symbolize chaos: they are *inherently* chaotic. And the same could be said for black metal, I think. The demonic vocals could symbolize something else in a different universe where human biology is different, but the music itself just fundamentally communicates some basic ideas which are not even culturally dependent (although some people go too far in assuming a coherent ideology behind it)

But is it chaotic? I think it seems chaotic to the untrained ear, and some bands do go towards chaos (think early Kataklysm vocals). But by being music, it is order by nature. And the "Demonic" vocals are indeed something the untrained ear doesn't know how to deal with, but why are they called demonic? Who has heard a demon? And those who have, what did they sound like? And would they sound like that if that's what they thought you were expecting? I mean, I have no idea.

 

[Scourge of God]

I'd go further than that... music is not symbolic like language. For example, the chaotic structures of death metal do not symbolize chaos: they are *inherently* chaotic. And the same could be said for black metal, I think. The demonic vocals could symbolize something else in a different universe where human biology is different, but the music itself just fundamentally communicates some basic ideas which are not even culturally dependent (although some people go too far in assuming a coherent ideology behind it)

Sure they are. There's nothing 'inherently' chaotic about death metal structures, they may suggest chaos in a way that allows them to carry the symbolic weight of chaos, but they are very much a calculated, controlled and organized element of sound. The 'demonic' vocal styles, again, may be quite suggestive of something inhuman (just as onomatopoeia in some way mimics natural sounds without actually duplicating them), but they definitely don't have meaning independent of a sort of cultural consensus.

 

[~Derek~]

I don't give a rats flying fuck if its performed by Hassidic Jews singing about the Ten Commandments, if the music is good and it sounds like black metal, I call it black metal and I listen to it.

Same here it'd be interesting to hear Hassidic Jews singing about that, same as a true black metal band, which I've yet to hear(by true I mean black members of a black metal band).

 

[500_Channels]

hmm.. maybe all the christian black metal bands are really bands hired by big christian leaders in order to get evil satanic people to listen to god's message in their domain.




you just gotta realize that anyone could write something like that and call it black metal. black doesnt even necessarily mean evil when you think about it. considering lucifer translates to bringer of light.

plus i don't think Unblack is a word

 

[kmik]

Sure they are. There's nothing 'inherently' chaotic about death metal structures, they may suggest chaos in a way that allows them to carry the symbolic weight of chaos, but they are very much a calculated, controlled and organized element of sound. The 'demonic' vocal styles, again, may be quite suggestive of something inhuman (just as onomatopoeia in some way mimics natural sounds without actually duplicating them), but they definitely don't have meaning independent of a sort of cultural consensus.

I'll give you three examples that I really like about music. Think about a song that slowly fades away to symbolize that's what's been going on it will continue, or a song that starts and ends with the same motif, or one that ends abruptly to symbolize the abruptness of, say, death. "Blue" is a completely arbitrary word, but elements such as these are not. They're not even relative to humans (even onomatopoeia - cool word - is arbitrary because we interpret sound waves subjectively).

I don't think that there is any person in the world who can listen to Mars, the Bringer of War and not think about, well, war.

 

[skeptik]

What about somebody who has no knowledge of war?

 

[AchrisK]

What about somebody who has no nothing of war?

Yeah, like me. I have no nothing of war!

 

[ohiogrinder]

The very idea of it is fucking laughable because it's not as if lyrical expression is a completely separate realm independent of musical expression. Certain aesthetic tropes develop in service of the expression of certain ideas, and it's not all just arbitrary. Black metal is just not an appropriate medium for the expression of Christian ideas and it's an insult to the genre.

I agree with this guy

 

[rednirgoiho]

is crap

/thread

Ohio, Do you like the new band rednirgoiho?

 

[The Ozzman]

Ohio, Do you like the new band rednirgoiho?

LOL IT'S OHIOGRINDER BACKWARDS!!!

I see what you did there