![andrewtsks:
#1: Liturgy - Aesthethica
[…]
What I can tell from reading what I’ve read of Liturgy’s philosophy is that they are turning away from the negativity and elitism—which is often linked to extreme right wing political philosophies, such as crypto-fascism, the pagan/Satanist authoritarianism of neo-volkisch movements, and even outright neo-Nazism—that dominates the thinking of many black metal fans, scenes, and bands. As much as I do enjoy black metal as a musical style, it’s tough sometimes to feel comfortable with listening to it, and there are some bands who are considered quite important to the musical evolution of the genre—most importantly Burzum and Darkthrone—that I refuse to listen to. While I love Emperor, who were less integral to the criminal activities of the early-90s Norwegian black metal scene but still very much a part of it, it’s tough for me to reconcile the fact that their first LP was recorded inbetween when their drummer committed a murder and when he was arrested for it. I feel a bit more comfortable with later LPs that feature a different drummer, but I still wonder sometimes if I’m a bad person for listening to any of their stuff. I feel like I’m on firmer ethical ground with musically important but non-criminal bands from the Scandinavian region, such as Enslaved, Marduk, and At The Gates, but the truth is that any northern European band linked with the black metal scene has a better than even chance of having extreme right-wing ties.
That reality makes me uncomfortable, but I think I’m probably in the minority there. I feel like there are some black metal fans who feel the way I do, and some who just don’t care about the politics of the music they listen to (even if they do hold divergent political beliefs). But where most black metal fans, particularly fans in America, are concerned, I think a lot of them romanticize the right-wing beliefs of European black metal bands. In Lords Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of The Satanic Metal Underground, which is (sadly) probably the most authoritative black metal-related history currently extant, co-author Michael Moynihan gives a detailed sociological explanation for the movement towards right-wing political extremism in the Norwegian black metal underground. His contention, if I remember correctly (I don’t currently own a copy of the book), is that the liberal socialist society of late 20th century Scandinavia lead to widespread ennui amongst the youth of the region, and that the contrast between their society and that of their pagan Viking forefathers in centuries past made the idea of tearing down modern society in favor of a return to pre-Christian Scandinavian values quite attractive.
Moynihan’s theory makes a lot of sense; in fact, despite the political reality of the modern United States, which is far more repressive and draconian, and far less economically comfortable for the majority of its population, I see a lot of the same ennui and romantic interest in right-wing iconography and ideology in the upper-class white youth culture of the present-day United States—or at least in the extreme musical underground version of that culture. The advent of “mysterious guy hardcore” (which is a whole other story, one that I’ve wanted to tackle for quite a while, but is outside the purview of this article) has involved quite a bit of interest in the crypto-fascist right wing of the industrial noise scene, particularly focused on Whitehouse, a group I find truly repugnant. The fact that important socially-liberal issues of the past decades seem for the most part to be settled (at least from the upper-class white point of view) has inspired a rather ironic return within white youth culture to flirtation with, and sometimes even open advocacy of, racism, sexism, and other forms of intolerance towards those different from oneself.
By the way, it should be noted that Michael Moynihan has often been accused of advocating fascist beliefs himself, and though, after coyly refusing to take a stand in either direction throughout most of the 90s, he’s recently begun to openly reject fascist movements that he’s previously been linked to, his rejections often still bear the telltale tone of crypto-fascist beliefs. Which is to say, I do not trust the guy, and despite finding merit in his sociological theorizing within Lords Of Chaos, I do not share any of the tacit approval that is a textual undercurrent within that book. Just in case there was any doubt about that.
There are plenty of people who fit this sociological profile within the ranks of American black metal fans, and boy does Liturgy piss them the hell off. While Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s manifestos may be difficult to parse, quotes like one he recently gave to Spin, as part of a story by Christopher Weingarten about black metal bands who don’t fit the genre’s typical profile, make clear exactly what they hate about him: “Sometimes it feels like there were metalheads just waiting for this band to come along to hate it. Certain signifiers of looking a certain way and things are really meaningful to people. But it’s important to just do what you want to do, you know?” What’s fun is contrasting that quote with the article’s previous paragraph, which I will quote in full:
Idiosyncratic moves like this are the core of DIY, but in the insular, identity-crazed shred-o-verse, they cause headbangers like black metal misanthrope Wrest of Leviathan to get up in arms. “I’ve never farmed in my life and I don’t play a flute by a campfire,” he told Decibel in October, as he awaited trial for sexual assault. “That shit’s just corny. Black metal at the end of the day is about Satan and will always be about Satan. Black metal seems to be for hipsters with their girlfriend’s pants on nowadays.”
I admire Weingarten’s subtle insertion of the clause that I bolded, casually dropping in the fact that the person he’s quoting, who is going all-out to approve of black metal’s links to right-wing ideology, is also the sort of person that no halfway decent human being should want to be associated with. However, Wrest is a perfect example of what I’m talking about when I talk about extreme music fans who romanticize and fetishize right-wing iconography, and to understand just how perfect, you should all read up on exactly what he’s been charged with and what he’s had to say about it. A good place to start is Brandon Stosuy’s interview with him for Pitchfork, from September (note the dig at Liturgy in the answer to a question about defining black metal). Stosuy’s questions are softball-ish at times, but the interview was conducted over email, so I suppose if he’d been hard-hitting he might not have gotten any answers at all. I’d also direct you to the original print article on the crime, from the Chicago Sun-Times (who seemed to have no idea about Wrest/Whitehead’s musical career). Like a lot of the important figures on the early 90s Norwegian black metal scene, notably Burzum leader Varg Vikernes, Wrest comes off like a disturbed and dangerous individual. Regardless of any personal right-wing allegiances he (or Varg, for that matter) may have, he’s the sort of person you probably would want to have as little one-on-one contact with as possible.
And these are the sorts of people who find Liturgy most disturbing. For someone with my own political beliefs, that’s comforting, and at times even amusing. Some of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s more prominent quotes are flat-out trolling people like this, and I’m pretty sure he’s doing it intentionally. Regardless of how much I like Liturgy, I find it enjoyable to read quotes like this. And in light of how much pleasure I’ve gotten out of Aesthethica over the course of the past year, it is an outright joy to for once feel completely comfortable with a great black metal album.
I really liked this whole post, for the most part. I liked the part excerpted above the most. For some reason, Liturgy’s (supposed, I guess) pretension was something that I had noted and not decided to like or dislike. But after looking at it this way, I’ve decided I like it.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyq40haWKT1qzpapgo1_1280.jpg)
#1: Liturgy - Aesthethica
[…]
What I can tell from reading what I’ve read of Liturgy’s philosophy is that they are turning away from the negativity and elitism—which is often linked to extreme right wing political philosophies, such as crypto-fascism, the pagan/Satanist authoritarianism of neo-volkisch movements, and even outright neo-Nazism—that dominates the thinking of many black metal fans, scenes, and bands. As much as I do enjoy black metal as a musical style, it’s tough sometimes to feel comfortable with listening to it, and there are some bands who are considered quite important to the musical evolution of the genre—most importantly Burzum and Darkthrone—that I refuse to listen to. While I love Emperor, who were less integral to the criminal activities of the early-90s Norwegian black metal scene but still very much a part of it, it’s tough for me to reconcile the fact that their first LP was recorded inbetween when their drummer committed a murder and when he was arrested for it. I feel a bit more comfortable with later LPs that feature a different drummer, but I still wonder sometimes if I’m a bad person for listening to any of their stuff. I feel like I’m on firmer ethical ground with musically important but non-criminal bands from the Scandinavian region, such as Enslaved, Marduk, and At The Gates, but the truth is that any northern European band linked with the black metal scene has a better than even chance of having extreme right-wing ties.
That reality makes me uncomfortable, but I think I’m probably in the minority there. I feel like there are some black metal fans who feel the way I do, and some who just don’t care about the politics of the music they listen to (even if they do hold divergent political beliefs). But where most black metal fans, particularly fans in America, are concerned, I think a lot of them romanticize the right-wing beliefs of European black metal bands. In Lords Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of The Satanic Metal Underground, which is (sadly) probably the most authoritative black metal-related history currently extant, co-author Michael Moynihan gives a detailed sociological explanation for the movement towards right-wing political extremism in the Norwegian black metal underground. His contention, if I remember correctly (I don’t currently own a copy of the book), is that the liberal socialist society of late 20th century Scandinavia lead to widespread ennui amongst the youth of the region, and that the contrast between their society and that of their pagan Viking forefathers in centuries past made the idea of tearing down modern society in favor of a return to pre-Christian Scandinavian values quite attractive.
Moynihan’s theory makes a lot of sense; in fact, despite the political reality of the modern United States, which is far more repressive and draconian, and far less economically comfortable for the majority of its population, I see a lot of the same ennui and romantic interest in right-wing iconography and ideology in the upper-class white youth culture of the present-day United States—or at least in the extreme musical underground version of that culture. The advent of “mysterious guy hardcore” (which is a whole other story, one that I’ve wanted to tackle for quite a while, but is outside the purview of this article) has involved quite a bit of interest in the crypto-fascist right wing of the industrial noise scene, particularly focused on Whitehouse, a group I find truly repugnant. The fact that important socially-liberal issues of the past decades seem for the most part to be settled (at least from the upper-class white point of view) has inspired a rather ironic return within white youth culture to flirtation with, and sometimes even open advocacy of, racism, sexism, and other forms of intolerance towards those different from oneself.
By the way, it should be noted that Michael Moynihan has often been accused of advocating fascist beliefs himself, and though, after coyly refusing to take a stand in either direction throughout most of the 90s, he’s recently begun to openly reject fascist movements that he’s previously been linked to, his rejections often still bear the telltale tone of crypto-fascist beliefs. Which is to say, I do not trust the guy, and despite finding merit in his sociological theorizing within Lords Of Chaos, I do not share any of the tacit approval that is a textual undercurrent within that book. Just in case there was any doubt about that.
There are plenty of people who fit this sociological profile within the ranks of American black metal fans, and boy does Liturgy piss them the hell off. While Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s manifestos may be difficult to parse, quotes like one he recently gave to Spin, as part of a story by Christopher Weingarten about black metal bands who don’t fit the genre’s typical profile, make clear exactly what they hate about him: “Sometimes it feels like there were metalheads just waiting for this band to come along to hate it. Certain signifiers of looking a certain way and things are really meaningful to people. But it’s important to just do what you want to do, you know?” What’s fun is contrasting that quote with the article’s previous paragraph, which I will quote in full:
Idiosyncratic moves like this are the core of DIY, but in the insular, identity-crazed shred-o-verse, they cause headbangers like black metal misanthrope Wrest of Leviathan to get up in arms. “I’ve never farmed in my life and I don’t play a flute by a campfire,” he told Decibel in October, as he awaited trial for sexual assault. “That shit’s just corny. Black metal at the end of the day is about Satan and will always be about Satan. Black metal seems to be for hipsters with their girlfriend’s pants on nowadays.”I admire Weingarten’s subtle insertion of the clause that I bolded, casually dropping in the fact that the person he’s quoting, who is going all-out to approve of black metal’s links to right-wing ideology, is also the sort of person that no halfway decent human being should want to be associated with. However, Wrest is a perfect example of what I’m talking about when I talk about extreme music fans who romanticize and fetishize right-wing iconography, and to understand just how perfect, you should all read up on exactly what he’s been charged with and what he’s had to say about it. A good place to start is Brandon Stosuy’s interview with him for Pitchfork, from September (note the dig at Liturgy in the answer to a question about defining black metal). Stosuy’s questions are softball-ish at times, but the interview was conducted over email, so I suppose if he’d been hard-hitting he might not have gotten any answers at all. I’d also direct you to the original print article on the crime, from the Chicago Sun-Times (who seemed to have no idea about Wrest/Whitehead’s musical career). Like a lot of the important figures on the early 90s Norwegian black metal scene, notably Burzum leader Varg Vikernes, Wrest comes off like a disturbed and dangerous individual. Regardless of any personal right-wing allegiances he (or Varg, for that matter) may have, he’s the sort of person you probably would want to have as little one-on-one contact with as possible.
And these are the sorts of people who find Liturgy most disturbing. For someone with my own political beliefs, that’s comforting, and at times even amusing. Some of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s more prominent quotes are flat-out trolling people like this, and I’m pretty sure he’s doing it intentionally. Regardless of how much I like Liturgy, I find it enjoyable to read quotes like this. And in light of how much pleasure I’ve gotten out of Aesthethica over the course of the past year, it is an outright joy to for once feel completely comfortable with a great black metal album.
I really liked this whole post, for the most part. I liked the part excerpted above the most. For some reason, Liturgy’s (supposed, I guess) pretension was something that I had noted and not decided to like or dislike. But after looking at it this way, I’ve decided I like it.
