Out of last minute paranoia, I am adding my second final post to my blog...I apologise for what must seem like the height of craziness, but I can assure you, if I could have stopped myself from freaking out and not posting this at the last minute, I would have.
Early in my research for my annotated bibliography, I found and discussed an article by Leigh Krenske and Jim McKay on various sub-groups within the Brisbane metal club, Club Thrash. THough I found several problems with this article - notably Krenske's inability to personally interview several members of the groups she analysed, I found it a valuable insight into the ways in which cultural studies scholars might examine various groups within the metal community.
In light of Kahn-Harris's discussion on gender within his work, (I think I love this man), I'd like to further discuss Krenske's ideas, and combine them with my experiences from my aforementioned night out yesterday eve.
Firstly, I have to say the academics are right - women at the club were relatively few compared to the numbers of men, and were ogled at every turn. Similarly, their respect by most members of the community seemed to be based around their capacity to interact in a scenic, masculine fashion - by moshing, fawning over high-status members of the scene community, and engaging in contests over who knew the most about metal. On the other hand, there were substantial groups of women who did not engage in such activities, and instead interacted without any shred of subservience or desire for approval with the men within the club. This I would personally attribute to social, and scenic change since the years in which Krenske's study was performed - doubtless even within the self-perpetuating and scene of metal in Brisbane, women have become more assertive and respected without having to conform to the social norms of men.
Similarly, on a related note, I noticed that although there was a definite demarcation of various social groups within the club, there was not nearly as much of the parochialism Krenske described in her article, indeed people from all sorts of different metal sub-genre scenes mingled freely and interacted with each other with no sense of self-consciousness or fear. From brief discussion with my friends, we felt this was likely because of the growth of the metal scene within Brisbane - in Krenske's article, Club Thrash almost seems like a sort of heavy metal "Cheers", where everybody knows your name etc. In the substantially larger current Brisbane metal scene, no such groups and social orders can really develop, because of the constant influx of new participants and members. This does slightly alter my conceptions of Kahn-Harris's ideas about the stability of a scene provided by the commitment of its members, but given the broad range of metal played and enjoyed within Brisbane, I think I would hesitate we would require the same sort of stability that a purely EM scene would - indeed any transgressive behaviour I have experienced in clubs didn't seem nearly exciting as Kahn-Harris indicated it should :)
My paranoia assuaged, I shall name this my final post and thank you all (or just you Ian), for reading and hope that it has at least been entertaining if not informative.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Satan Rides the Blog
For my last research based blog, I have decided to tackle as my main subject of discussion, the documentary Satan Rides the Media by Torstein Grude. It focuses on the burning of the Asane and Fantoft churches, the murder of Oystein Aarseth, and the proceeding of the criminal case around Varg Vikernes, and his interaction with the Norwegian press.
Even for someone who has done a lot of reading on the Varg case (me), I found it to be a very interesting documentary that raised a number of interesting points, the bulk of which I will discuss here (I have to save something for my essay, don't I?).
The general narrative of the documentary follows the investigation that followed a journalist, Finn Bjørn Tønder's meeting with Varg Vikernes, which had been organized by two junior reporters who had found him, and developed a poorly written, and ultimately unpublished article about his extremist views and interest in the occult and criminal actions directed against Christianity. Finn Bjørn Tønder asked Varg more questions, which revealed the musician had intimate knowledge of both the arson and murder at Lillehammer which indicated Vikernes was at least partly responsible for the crimes. Bjørn Tønder claims that his enquiries to determine the truth of Varg's claims led to police who had also been quietly investigating the case to pounce on Varg and leave the finalisation of their evidence collecting until later. Because of this, Varg still blames Finn Bjørn Tønder for leaking his name and leading to an arrest that he still claims was unfounded and a miscarriage of justice.
Secondly, the documentary focuses on the way the Norwegian media as a whole interacted with the case. Understandably, the arsons, murders and Satanic views expressed by black metal musicians during the early 1990's caused a flurry of reports to emerge, and as the media developed further into a frenzy, so too did the public. People did not know which church would be next, with youth could become a Satanic murderer, when this terror would cease. Quite importantly, the documentary raises the point that had this media storm not ensued, likely the black metal movement would not have become so prominent, nor would have the large number of copy-cat arsons that occurred have become such a widespread problem. Indeed, if anything, Varg now admits to have enjoyed the attention as he admits in interviews in Lords of Chaos, stating that anything that helped undermine Christianity's authority was a good thing. As such, he sees his persecution by the media in almost a martyr-like role, comparing himself to the Nordic chieftain whose life was suffering for the betterment of his people. On the other hand, as Kahn-Harris argues, (man, I love that article), the mass attention on the black metal scene almost caused it to destroy itself through ever-increasingly transgressive behaviour without the stability of mundanity.
A particularly interesting moment in the documentary arrives when Varg attempts to explain his side of the Oystein Aarseth murder, at which point the footage fades out and disappears, leaving the viewer with only a half-told story, from which only negative inferences about Vikernes's character can be made. It would be rediculous of me to try and argue in his defense given how much I know about his crazy ideas, but it does clearly display the capacity of even seemingly informative media texts to influence their own reading through editing and careful display of footage. This is particularly relevant to the course I feel, because even though has little to do with new media, the presence of media of any form does provide some sort of launching point for my own discussion.
Ironically, from my own reading and understanding, if anything, new media has done the opposite for black metal that the news media did in the early 1990's. Whereas the news media latched onto the most violent aspects of black metal and brought out so much transgressive behaviour it almost collapsed, the new media, especially the internet, provides a vibrant ground for development and discussion of all sorts of extreme metal and ideas without going outside of the safe boundaries of the scene. As such, with new media at its side, black metal, and indeed all of extreme metal, is even more safely self-sustaining than ever.
Even for someone who has done a lot of reading on the Varg case (me), I found it to be a very interesting documentary that raised a number of interesting points, the bulk of which I will discuss here (I have to save something for my essay, don't I?).
The general narrative of the documentary follows the investigation that followed a journalist, Finn Bjørn Tønder's meeting with Varg Vikernes, which had been organized by two junior reporters who had found him, and developed a poorly written, and ultimately unpublished article about his extremist views and interest in the occult and criminal actions directed against Christianity. Finn Bjørn Tønder asked Varg more questions, which revealed the musician had intimate knowledge of both the arson and murder at Lillehammer which indicated Vikernes was at least partly responsible for the crimes. Bjørn Tønder claims that his enquiries to determine the truth of Varg's claims led to police who had also been quietly investigating the case to pounce on Varg and leave the finalisation of their evidence collecting until later. Because of this, Varg still blames Finn Bjørn Tønder for leaking his name and leading to an arrest that he still claims was unfounded and a miscarriage of justice.
Secondly, the documentary focuses on the way the Norwegian media as a whole interacted with the case. Understandably, the arsons, murders and Satanic views expressed by black metal musicians during the early 1990's caused a flurry of reports to emerge, and as the media developed further into a frenzy, so too did the public. People did not know which church would be next, with youth could become a Satanic murderer, when this terror would cease. Quite importantly, the documentary raises the point that had this media storm not ensued, likely the black metal movement would not have become so prominent, nor would have the large number of copy-cat arsons that occurred have become such a widespread problem. Indeed, if anything, Varg now admits to have enjoyed the attention as he admits in interviews in Lords of Chaos, stating that anything that helped undermine Christianity's authority was a good thing. As such, he sees his persecution by the media in almost a martyr-like role, comparing himself to the Nordic chieftain whose life was suffering for the betterment of his people. On the other hand, as Kahn-Harris argues, (man, I love that article), the mass attention on the black metal scene almost caused it to destroy itself through ever-increasingly transgressive behaviour without the stability of mundanity.
A particularly interesting moment in the documentary arrives when Varg attempts to explain his side of the Oystein Aarseth murder, at which point the footage fades out and disappears, leaving the viewer with only a half-told story, from which only negative inferences about Vikernes's character can be made. It would be rediculous of me to try and argue in his defense given how much I know about his crazy ideas, but it does clearly display the capacity of even seemingly informative media texts to influence their own reading through editing and careful display of footage. This is particularly relevant to the course I feel, because even though has little to do with new media, the presence of media of any form does provide some sort of launching point for my own discussion.
Ironically, from my own reading and understanding, if anything, new media has done the opposite for black metal that the news media did in the early 1990's. Whereas the news media latched onto the most violent aspects of black metal and brought out so much transgressive behaviour it almost collapsed, the new media, especially the internet, provides a vibrant ground for development and discussion of all sorts of extreme metal and ideas without going outside of the safe boundaries of the scene. As such, with new media at its side, black metal, and indeed all of extreme metal, is even more safely self-sustaining than ever.
More thinking about my last post
Last night I went out to a metal club with my friends (one of the few in brisbane), to see if what I'd read about scene in Keith Kahn-Harris's article played out in real life. Given what I saw, I have to say I'm still on the fence.
From my own personal experience, I don't necessarily agree with him - I do very much enjoy extreme metal, but I am in no way reliant on the scene for transgressive pleasure in any sense. If anything, my enjoyment of extreme metal occurs very much alongside my every day life, without any real demarcation existing between it and the mundanity of every day existence. I realize in a sense I've just agreed with Kahn-Harris's point, that most EM fans make their musical enjoyment coincide with their non-scenic engagements, but that isn't at all how it is with me - I have no scenic engagements. Sure I might go to the occasional gig, or hang out with friends who enjoy EM, but that isn't really engaging in the scene with the same fervor Kahn-Harris seems to expect from EM fans within his article. As such, I don't think he, in that article anyway, accounts for those who may simply just enjoy the music without the transgressive experience within the scene. No doubt, listening to EM provides me with a transgressive experience, but it is rarely anything to do with the scene - I am much more likely to be rocking out to some decapitated in my room of an evening than I am going out to a club to headbang and drink with the local EM scene dudes.
On the other hand, a lot of people I saw last night could have walked straight out of Kahn-Harris's article. There were a group of large, long-haired, patch-jacketed lads covered in all sorts of metal paraphernalia, drinking heavily, shouting at each other and at one point, even punching each other along to the music. I realized I knew one, got to talking to the rest of them and noticed very quickly how they conformed to Kahn-Harris's article's ideas. They seemed to live their entire lives within the scene, between them they ran a message board, organized the odd gig for friends' bands, recorded their own EM, wrote regular reviews on a metal community site, and went out to gigs or clubs several times a week. One told me he had repeatedly been fired for various jobs simply because he had trouble living the normal life of a worker...he was apparently, generally too drunk and sore to do anything useful 9-5.
Again, on the opposite side of that, I ran into several of my friends who have successfully balanced their EM-scene commitments with their non-scenic lives. By day he wears a suit and tie, goes to work in the city, and has a family, and by night, he goes to metal clubs, gets drunk and headbangs, and goes to every EM gig that goes on. When I asked him about it, he joked with me that he had a roster for what he does - work or go crazy. But when I told him about Kahn-Harris's ideas about the logic of mundanity and the need to successfully balance the scene and non-scenic lives, he was in total agreement. Though EM had essentially become just part of his everyday life, its transgressive experience at gigs and the like gave him the excitement and joy his outside life sometimes lacked, but at the same time, his job and family gave him the stability and support to continue to engage in the EM scene without detriment.
So there we have it - the briefest ethnographic research ever performed, but one that I think does reveal some interesting stuff. Kahn-Harris was proved correct in some senses, but myself, and those like me seem to prove exception to his theory. Though it would be foolish of me to expect that anyone could even attempt to completely classify scene interaction and member types within any group, let alone one as diverse and diffuse as EM, that Kahn-Harris didn't qualify his statements at all leaves me uneasy. at the same time, it was very gratifying to see examples straight from his article of how various members balance their scenic and non-scenic lives, and for that, I shall call my expedition a success in the name of scene theory, Keith Kahn-Harris and science.
From my own personal experience, I don't necessarily agree with him - I do very much enjoy extreme metal, but I am in no way reliant on the scene for transgressive pleasure in any sense. If anything, my enjoyment of extreme metal occurs very much alongside my every day life, without any real demarcation existing between it and the mundanity of every day existence. I realize in a sense I've just agreed with Kahn-Harris's point, that most EM fans make their musical enjoyment coincide with their non-scenic engagements, but that isn't at all how it is with me - I have no scenic engagements. Sure I might go to the occasional gig, or hang out with friends who enjoy EM, but that isn't really engaging in the scene with the same fervor Kahn-Harris seems to expect from EM fans within his article. As such, I don't think he, in that article anyway, accounts for those who may simply just enjoy the music without the transgressive experience within the scene. No doubt, listening to EM provides me with a transgressive experience, but it is rarely anything to do with the scene - I am much more likely to be rocking out to some decapitated in my room of an evening than I am going out to a club to headbang and drink with the local EM scene dudes.
On the other hand, a lot of people I saw last night could have walked straight out of Kahn-Harris's article. There were a group of large, long-haired, patch-jacketed lads covered in all sorts of metal paraphernalia, drinking heavily, shouting at each other and at one point, even punching each other along to the music. I realized I knew one, got to talking to the rest of them and noticed very quickly how they conformed to Kahn-Harris's article's ideas. They seemed to live their entire lives within the scene, between them they ran a message board, organized the odd gig for friends' bands, recorded their own EM, wrote regular reviews on a metal community site, and went out to gigs or clubs several times a week. One told me he had repeatedly been fired for various jobs simply because he had trouble living the normal life of a worker...he was apparently, generally too drunk and sore to do anything useful 9-5.
Again, on the opposite side of that, I ran into several of my friends who have successfully balanced their EM-scene commitments with their non-scenic lives. By day he wears a suit and tie, goes to work in the city, and has a family, and by night, he goes to metal clubs, gets drunk and headbangs, and goes to every EM gig that goes on. When I asked him about it, he joked with me that he had a roster for what he does - work or go crazy. But when I told him about Kahn-Harris's ideas about the logic of mundanity and the need to successfully balance the scene and non-scenic lives, he was in total agreement. Though EM had essentially become just part of his everyday life, its transgressive experience at gigs and the like gave him the excitement and joy his outside life sometimes lacked, but at the same time, his job and family gave him the stability and support to continue to engage in the EM scene without detriment.
So there we have it - the briefest ethnographic research ever performed, but one that I think does reveal some interesting stuff. Kahn-Harris was proved correct in some senses, but myself, and those like me seem to prove exception to his theory. Though it would be foolish of me to expect that anyone could even attempt to completely classify scene interaction and member types within any group, let alone one as diverse and diffuse as EM, that Kahn-Harris didn't qualify his statements at all leaves me uneasy. at the same time, it was very gratifying to see examples straight from his article of how various members balance their scenic and non-scenic lives, and for that, I shall call my expedition a success in the name of scene theory, Keith Kahn-Harris and science.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Shameless discussion of what I did in the tute.
Given I am doing metal as the subject for this blog, and just today I gave my tutorial presentation on...metal, it seems somewhat silly for me to not talk about the article I poured over for so long.
To begin with, I very much enjoyed reading Kahn-Harris's work, and found the application of scene theory and its comparison with traditional CCCS subcultural theory one of the more illuminating discussions of metal I have seen so far in my reading of literature. Though, as always as a metalhead I want to display my metal cred by arguing with his definitions of various genres and the way he describes the music and culture, I found little to disagree with, indeed, if anything I found my understanding of the extreme metal scene expanding as I read on.
One thing I was particularly interested in, especially given my last blog topic, was the ways in which he described the EM scene almost exactly align with the ways in which Asatru is described in the scholarly religious writing I have read on the topic. Asatru, especially extreme and radical Asatru is a very close-knit and isolated socially, but quite globally diffuse spirituality, relying mostly on the internet and small, committed groups to survive. As Kahn-Harris, and indeed Rob Zombie mentioned today, Asatru, much like EM, is rarely a passing interest - those who develop an interest in them, even if they do have non-scenic or non-spiritual outside social obligations tend to continue being involved somehow in their respective scenes.
This is made all the more interesting by the consideration that a large portion of Black Metal fans and artists would definitely consider themselves at least pagan, if not members of Asatru, something that I know not only from my own metal knowledge, but from interviews and analysis within Lords of Chaos. Indeed, Varg in particular identifies quite strongly with Asatru, and if anyone is the posterboy of extreme metal, surely it is him. On the other hand however, conventional Asatru groups often seek to disassociate themselves from Varg and his black metal buddies, seeing them as latching onto a spirituality they do not necessarily understand. But like it or not, the links between extreme metal and alternative spiritualities are there.
What then is the meaning of this relationship? Where does it stem from? Doubtless, both of these groups are much maligned and misunderstood by mainstream culture, if indeed mainstream culture is aware of them at all (Kahn-Harris seems to think it isn't), they are made up of similarly insular and committed groups, and they both undertake some sort of transgressional practice - be it religious or crazy metal.
I think to answer this, I probably would need to do some reading and research above my level, but I hope I've at least raised an interesting comparison, and thus some questions about the way non-musical groups interact with various music-based scenes.
To begin with, I very much enjoyed reading Kahn-Harris's work, and found the application of scene theory and its comparison with traditional CCCS subcultural theory one of the more illuminating discussions of metal I have seen so far in my reading of literature. Though, as always as a metalhead I want to display my metal cred by arguing with his definitions of various genres and the way he describes the music and culture, I found little to disagree with, indeed, if anything I found my understanding of the extreme metal scene expanding as I read on.
One thing I was particularly interested in, especially given my last blog topic, was the ways in which he described the EM scene almost exactly align with the ways in which Asatru is described in the scholarly religious writing I have read on the topic. Asatru, especially extreme and radical Asatru is a very close-knit and isolated socially, but quite globally diffuse spirituality, relying mostly on the internet and small, committed groups to survive. As Kahn-Harris, and indeed Rob Zombie mentioned today, Asatru, much like EM, is rarely a passing interest - those who develop an interest in them, even if they do have non-scenic or non-spiritual outside social obligations tend to continue being involved somehow in their respective scenes.
This is made all the more interesting by the consideration that a large portion of Black Metal fans and artists would definitely consider themselves at least pagan, if not members of Asatru, something that I know not only from my own metal knowledge, but from interviews and analysis within Lords of Chaos. Indeed, Varg in particular identifies quite strongly with Asatru, and if anyone is the posterboy of extreme metal, surely it is him. On the other hand however, conventional Asatru groups often seek to disassociate themselves from Varg and his black metal buddies, seeing them as latching onto a spirituality they do not necessarily understand. But like it or not, the links between extreme metal and alternative spiritualities are there.
What then is the meaning of this relationship? Where does it stem from? Doubtless, both of these groups are much maligned and misunderstood by mainstream culture, if indeed mainstream culture is aware of them at all (Kahn-Harris seems to think it isn't), they are made up of similarly insular and committed groups, and they both undertake some sort of transgressional practice - be it religious or crazy metal.
I think to answer this, I probably would need to do some reading and research above my level, but I hope I've at least raised an interesting comparison, and thus some questions about the way non-musical groups interact with various music-based scenes.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Modern Day Vikings
Having just finished reading Trafford and Pluskowksi's article on heavy metal's relationship with Viking history and imagery, Antichrist Superstars, I've decided it's the perfect time to make another post.
As a connoisseur viking metal myself, I found the article quite well written, and the authors are obviously well informed - mentioning pretty much every band in the genre that immediately came to mind upon reading the article's title. I do perhaps think more could have been made of the bands' actual philosophical viewpoints, rather than simply focusing on their aesthetics and basic lyrical themes, though the authors' referencing of Lords of Chaos indicates they are familiar with deeper studies of at least a few higher profile viking metal stars and bands.
I also found the way that they characterized all viking metal band's lyrics as essentially focusing on war and death somewhat misleading - indeed, there is often a playful, joyous element to a lot of modern viking metal, both musically and lyrically, generally focusing on mass consumption of alcohol. Similarly, the authors' assertion that viking metal's actual musical substance has little to do with authentic viking music is perhaps overstated, indeed a large number of viking metal bands incorporate classic folk elements into their music, marking them as obviously different from vanilla black metal bands (if I can use such a term), and though it is unlikely that bands like Turisas sounds anything like traditional viking music, a number, if not all of their of their songs have obvious stylistic references in their composition.
In regards to their arguments about vikings as elements of popular culture, and indeed, their adoption into the metal mythos as figures of unbridled masculinity, I agree entirely, and much of what they argued fits quite well with my last post examining album covers and videoclips. That metal bands are defined by the various tropes that they adopt, be they viking or otherwise is an argument well made, and one which would have to figure heavily in any analysis of the subculture.
I was particularly interested in the authors' mentioning of Asatru, given it is a topic I've already dealt with this semester in a religion elective, and have had an general curiosity about over the years I've been into metal. That it crosses the realms of music, religion, society and racism makes it a particularly important and rich source of discussion, and though the article deals with it only vaguely and briefly, much more could be made of its study, and hopefully by the time I write my next blog entry, I'll have more to say about it.
Well, now I'll leave you with something nice and vikingy...I could have gone all Bathory on you, but I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't have at least one Vintersorg song on this blog :)
As a connoisseur viking metal myself, I found the article quite well written, and the authors are obviously well informed - mentioning pretty much every band in the genre that immediately came to mind upon reading the article's title. I do perhaps think more could have been made of the bands' actual philosophical viewpoints, rather than simply focusing on their aesthetics and basic lyrical themes, though the authors' referencing of Lords of Chaos indicates they are familiar with deeper studies of at least a few higher profile viking metal stars and bands.
I also found the way that they characterized all viking metal band's lyrics as essentially focusing on war and death somewhat misleading - indeed, there is often a playful, joyous element to a lot of modern viking metal, both musically and lyrically, generally focusing on mass consumption of alcohol. Similarly, the authors' assertion that viking metal's actual musical substance has little to do with authentic viking music is perhaps overstated, indeed a large number of viking metal bands incorporate classic folk elements into their music, marking them as obviously different from vanilla black metal bands (if I can use such a term), and though it is unlikely that bands like Turisas sounds anything like traditional viking music, a number, if not all of their of their songs have obvious stylistic references in their composition.
In regards to their arguments about vikings as elements of popular culture, and indeed, their adoption into the metal mythos as figures of unbridled masculinity, I agree entirely, and much of what they argued fits quite well with my last post examining album covers and videoclips. That metal bands are defined by the various tropes that they adopt, be they viking or otherwise is an argument well made, and one which would have to figure heavily in any analysis of the subculture.
I was particularly interested in the authors' mentioning of Asatru, given it is a topic I've already dealt with this semester in a religion elective, and have had an general curiosity about over the years I've been into metal. That it crosses the realms of music, religion, society and racism makes it a particularly important and rich source of discussion, and though the article deals with it only vaguely and briefly, much more could be made of its study, and hopefully by the time I write my next blog entry, I'll have more to say about it.
Well, now I'll leave you with something nice and vikingy...I could have gone all Bathory on you, but I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't have at least one Vintersorg song on this blog :)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
New Post!
Any analysis of metal as a subculture would be essentially pointless without at least some examination of the various visual media associated with them, and as such, the purpose of this entry is to both inform the reader and to provide hilarious insight into the way various metal bands dress, perform and display themselves!
We'll start with a classic. Immortal.
Though they may look like Satan's hockey team, Immortal are perhaps one of the most respected and popular black metal bands in the scene today. Though ridiculous as their appearance might seem, the fact that they are prepared to wear such clothing so boldly on their album cover not only immediately presents the viewer with a basic understanding of their musical genre, it also increases their authenticity as a black metal band. Clearly a readerly text, this album cover also perfectly advertises the band and its music.
Similarly, in the below videoclip, poor sound, low production qualities and amusing poses aside, Call of the Wintermoon has become a cult hit with the black metal community, and knowledge of the clip can easily provide a rallying point for BM fans who have never met, but share a similarly penchant for foresty shenanigans.
Next, Emperor!
Again, obviously a readerly text, with the prominent band name and album title, though lacking the hilarious band photo, Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse provides an excellent example of the ways in which metal bands commonly rely on fantasy style drawings as album art. Here, Emperor's collection of happy little goblins and trolls easily convey the album's obvious focus on the occult, mysterious and downright evil.
Again, similarly, Emperor's The Loss and Curse of Reverence provides the perfect staging point for them to display their grimness and metal cred, posing as they are in armor, with swords at their sides, in some sort of medieval courtyard. Terribly theatrical, this sort of thing typifies black metal videoclips, as it not only attracts the eye and attention of the viewer, it lends the band a sort of heroic status, easily identified by fans.
Finally, for a nice change from all this black and evil, we'll go for a Rhapsody cover and clip, to prove that such silliness exists in worlds apart from black metal.
Rhapsody's Power of the Dragonflame, a fine power metal album, also seems to conform to the black metal album style. Much like the previous Emperor cover, PotD, also displays a rather over the top, fantasty style of art, while still prominently presenting the band's name, and that of the album.
This similarity continues into Rhapsody's videoclip, and though I couldn't expect you to watch all of it, (though it does have Christopher Lee in it, and a hilarious Luca Turilli guitar solo), even watching a portion of it reveals its closeness in spirit to the earlier black metal clips.
So what have we learned? Well, from this briefest of studies, it seems evident that metal album covers are essentially readerly texts, prominently displaying the band's name, style of music, and associated aesthetics. Similarly, we have learned that metal clips are essentially advertisements of the band's metal cred, and authenticity, and while obviously made with some fun in mind, they are inherently designed to impress the viewer with the band's "metalness".
Until next time, stay krieg, kids.
We'll start with a classic. Immortal.
Though they may look like Satan's hockey team, Immortal are perhaps one of the most respected and popular black metal bands in the scene today. Though ridiculous as their appearance might seem, the fact that they are prepared to wear such clothing so boldly on their album cover not only immediately presents the viewer with a basic understanding of their musical genre, it also increases their authenticity as a black metal band. Clearly a readerly text, this album cover also perfectly advertises the band and its music.
Similarly, in the below videoclip, poor sound, low production qualities and amusing poses aside, Call of the Wintermoon has become a cult hit with the black metal community, and knowledge of the clip can easily provide a rallying point for BM fans who have never met, but share a similarly penchant for foresty shenanigans.
Next, Emperor!
Again, obviously a readerly text, with the prominent band name and album title, though lacking the hilarious band photo, Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse provides an excellent example of the ways in which metal bands commonly rely on fantasy style drawings as album art. Here, Emperor's collection of happy little goblins and trolls easily convey the album's obvious focus on the occult, mysterious and downright evil.
Again, similarly, Emperor's The Loss and Curse of Reverence provides the perfect staging point for them to display their grimness and metal cred, posing as they are in armor, with swords at their sides, in some sort of medieval courtyard. Terribly theatrical, this sort of thing typifies black metal videoclips, as it not only attracts the eye and attention of the viewer, it lends the band a sort of heroic status, easily identified by fans.
Finally, for a nice change from all this black and evil, we'll go for a Rhapsody cover and clip, to prove that such silliness exists in worlds apart from black metal.
Rhapsody's Power of the Dragonflame, a fine power metal album, also seems to conform to the black metal album style. Much like the previous Emperor cover, PotD, also displays a rather over the top, fantasty style of art, while still prominently presenting the band's name, and that of the album.
This similarity continues into Rhapsody's videoclip, and though I couldn't expect you to watch all of it, (though it does have Christopher Lee in it, and a hilarious Luca Turilli guitar solo), even watching a portion of it reveals its closeness in spirit to the earlier black metal clips.
So what have we learned? Well, from this briefest of studies, it seems evident that metal album covers are essentially readerly texts, prominently displaying the band's name, style of music, and associated aesthetics. Similarly, we have learned that metal clips are essentially advertisements of the band's metal cred, and authenticity, and while obviously made with some fun in mind, they are inherently designed to impress the viewer with the band's "metalness".
Until next time, stay krieg, kids.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Metal shirts
Well, I have managed to drag myself away from GTA IV for long enough to write something before the lecture tomorrow, so fueled with tea, toast and scotch, I bring to you my musings on heavy metal and fashion!
As everyone that knows me is aware, I have a humorously large collection of metal band shirts that I have been wearing for many years now at the exclusion of any other sort of apparel. Over those years, innumerable random people in bars, on the street, at university and various other locations have either expressed encouragement at my open support of a band, or shouted something hurtful about my choice in music taste or hair length.
Just the other day as I strolled down queen street mall, resplendent in my Manowar shirt, a rather alarmingly drunk man in a flannel shirt and jeans sang the first few lines of Kings of Metal at me embarrassingly loudly. Just prior to that, I'd looked at the collection of kids in Slipknot shirts loitering around the Hungry Jacks and thought undignified thoughts about the quality of their taste in metal. Similarly, in the religion elective I'm taking this semester, the Christian youth group guys that seem to make up almost all of my class look at me like I'm a some sort of satanist, with the blood of a goat still on my hands. As such, at the risk of sounding all "nobody understands us because we're different and special", in three entirely different situations, the way in which us metalheads dress has caused immediate assumptions and value judgments to be made by people, who otherwise know nothing about us.
I guess in that sense, especially in the case with the Slipknot fans, metal subculture is fairly obvious filled with ideas of authenticity and of metalheads looking the part. Not only do band members attempt to outdo each other's true metalness, (I'm looking at you Fenriz and Ghaal), us fans also attempt to out perform each other in demonstrating our knowledge and devotion to metal. That's not to say we all sit around arguing about who has the longest hair or the blackest shirts, but there is definitely an element of it. At the same time, as with the Manowar drunk guy, metal clothing also implies a sort of community and bond in which savagely intoxicated strangers can feel comfortable shouting poorly rhyming lyrics at people they don't know. It almost makes me warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
What I think I'm getting at is that the ubiquitous metal band shirts that almost every fan of the genre owns perform a triple function. They signal to other fans that a common ground can easily be established and provide a base for social interaction, they imply certain things about the wearer to people who aren't fans of metal but may have an opinion on it, and they also signal to what particular subset of metalheads the wearer belongs - a Marduk shirt is a far cry from a Soilwork hoodie.
Finally, to answer a question from last time, THIS is power metal, played by quite clearly the best power metal band ever. Blind Guardian! Be amazed and awed by the silly German dudes singing about the Silmarillion.
As everyone that knows me is aware, I have a humorously large collection of metal band shirts that I have been wearing for many years now at the exclusion of any other sort of apparel. Over those years, innumerable random people in bars, on the street, at university and various other locations have either expressed encouragement at my open support of a band, or shouted something hurtful about my choice in music taste or hair length.
Just the other day as I strolled down queen street mall, resplendent in my Manowar shirt, a rather alarmingly drunk man in a flannel shirt and jeans sang the first few lines of Kings of Metal at me embarrassingly loudly. Just prior to that, I'd looked at the collection of kids in Slipknot shirts loitering around the Hungry Jacks and thought undignified thoughts about the quality of their taste in metal. Similarly, in the religion elective I'm taking this semester, the Christian youth group guys that seem to make up almost all of my class look at me like I'm a some sort of satanist, with the blood of a goat still on my hands. As such, at the risk of sounding all "nobody understands us because we're different and special", in three entirely different situations, the way in which us metalheads dress has caused immediate assumptions and value judgments to be made by people, who otherwise know nothing about us.
I guess in that sense, especially in the case with the Slipknot fans, metal subculture is fairly obvious filled with ideas of authenticity and of metalheads looking the part. Not only do band members attempt to outdo each other's true metalness, (I'm looking at you Fenriz and Ghaal), us fans also attempt to out perform each other in demonstrating our knowledge and devotion to metal. That's not to say we all sit around arguing about who has the longest hair or the blackest shirts, but there is definitely an element of it. At the same time, as with the Manowar drunk guy, metal clothing also implies a sort of community and bond in which savagely intoxicated strangers can feel comfortable shouting poorly rhyming lyrics at people they don't know. It almost makes me warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
What I think I'm getting at is that the ubiquitous metal band shirts that almost every fan of the genre owns perform a triple function. They signal to other fans that a common ground can easily be established and provide a base for social interaction, they imply certain things about the wearer to people who aren't fans of metal but may have an opinion on it, and they also signal to what particular subset of metalheads the wearer belongs - a Marduk shirt is a far cry from a Soilwork hoodie.
Finally, to answer a question from last time, THIS is power metal, played by quite clearly the best power metal band ever. Blind Guardian! Be amazed and awed by the silly German dudes singing about the Silmarillion.
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