THE NY TIMES IS IMMORTAL
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Even though metal seems to have (re?)infiltrated the mainstream as of late, I’m still always surprised when I open my NY Times in the morning and see a feature on a metal band. When that feature includes a half a page above-the-fold photo of Immortal, I am outright shocked.
But there they, the chosen visual representation for an article on black metal and, in particular, the black metal symposium that took place at Public Assembly in Brooklyn this past weekend.
Now, unless your interested in having a nice chuckle at the manner in which the author, Ben Ratliff, tries to explain to the squares what all that racket is (My favorite gem: “Black refers to a bleak outlook on life.”), you don’t really need to read this article. Mostly it makes me hope that some of the lectures from this past weekend’s symposium end up published somewhere, or at least posted online, as they sound pretty interesting, if potentially chock-full of naval gazing.
But our friends at Decibel get a shout-out, as do a lot of great bands, including Nachtmystium and Krallice, and, hey, there’s even some quotes from Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. So you can go ahead and read the entire piece here.
On a semi-related note, I’d like to say that the best part of reading all these year-end lists is checking out releases that either never came across your radar or, for whatever reason, you never got around to checking out. Even though Vince said it’s awesome some time ago, I only just got around to listening to Immortal’s All Shall Fall last night and was, by sheer coincidence, cranking it this morning when I sat down to read the times and saw the band’s photo. It’s an awesome record, and I’m glad I finally got around to listening to it!
-AR
cool.
new immortal is damn good, even if your not into bm, id recomend it.
“The black metal event is a confession without need of absolution, without need of redemption,” he said. It is, he added, “a cleaning up of the mess of others.” He invoked the old English tradition of sin eating by means of burial cakes, in which a loaf of bread was put on a funeral bier or a corpse, and a paid member of the community would eat the bread, representing sin, to absolve and comfort the deceased.
“Black metal has become the sin eater,” he intoned. “It is engaged in transgressive behavior to be rid of it.”
Interesting? Or plain silly?
That’s what I love about black metal. Simultaneously the dumbest and darkest thing ever.
Hails!
I actually kind of have to like that outlook…
An admission of sin, but accepting the sin, accepting the evil in order to be rid of it. A purgatory of sorts. Without the painful processes (unless you’re in the moshpit), but still redeption for the self, if no one else….
Hell yeah, “All Shall Fall” hasn’t left my iPizzle since I ACTUALLY PAID FOR IT WOW when it came out. That shit rages.
I, for one, embrace metal being in the mainstream – even if it is as lame as this NY Times article seems to be.
Also, hooray for year-end lists! Been waiting for these for too long.
The real gem here is the title of the article.
Who knew Black Metal itself was such an intricate philosophy? It’s one thing to carry a message in your songs, but when your entire genre of music is in itself an act and idea of philosophy – that shit blows my mind. I still think the music is unbearable to listen to for the most part, but I’ll admit I respect it a whole lot after reading this article.
Naval gazing? Is a carrier task force in town?
Now that I’ve read the NYT article…
Am I the only one who’s not buying Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix when he waxes poetic, as is his wont, about the so-called “burst beat”? I mean, good on ya for promoting your band by claiming you’re doing something new and radical, but my ears aren’t hearing anything rhythmically new in Liturgy’s songs. Maybe Liturgy is more willing to change up the beat than many black metal bands are, but, I dunno, all that really stands out to me is how at least three of Liturgy’s songs use the exact same transition from a blast beat to basically a half-time blast beat. So?
In summation, I hate Liturgy because they’re more successful than me.
When you start taking Hunter Hunt-Hendrix seriously, it’s time to commit yourself to a mental institution. That dude has spewed more bullshit than every television news network combined.
I am, of course, ignoring the whole “transcendental black metal” thing. One can describe one’s band’s music in any silly-ass way one wishes, but I guess I’m starting to draw a line at pretending to pioneer the “burst beat”.
+1
I like Liturgy’s music a lot, and I thought they killed it live, but man do they come across as pretentious. “Burst Beats”, what the fuck is that? Trying to take credit for something that’s already been invented and taken to its full potential, that just smacks of self-righteousness. Renihilation is sick though…
Im pretty sure my IQ dropped a few dozen points after reading this steaming pile of an article.
This makes the staff at Metal Sucks seem like fucking Einstein.
Oh man, why all the hate. It’s always good, in my opinion, when metal is taken seriously, and this is a serious mainstream article about black metal. Whatever you think of the artists and musicians quoted, this is good stuff! And good for the NYT for writing about black metal!
I read that article in the paper this morning, and it was full of incorrect generalizations, such as:
1. Black metal is the most underground subgenre of metal
2. All black metal discusses bleakness/etc while all death metal discusses gore/etc.
To me, it sounded like a guy who knew something about metal – but not that much – was writing this. He sounds like an expert to a non-metalhead, but to us, he’s pretty uninformed and confused. Though I am pretty glad Immortal/Xasthur/Leviathan/Wolves In The Throne Room/Nachtmystium got some exposure.
Generalizations are always incorrect to some nitpickers. This was pretty good for such a mainstream piece–the writer didn’t drink the black metal Kool-Aid so to speak either, which was good. Everyone I know who read this thing and isn’t into metal thought that it was unintentionally hilarious. Bwahahaha!