The case of the French decadents and the Ukrainian romantics:
Deathspell Omega and Drudkh
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."
-- Ludwig van Beethoven
This article is concentric with regards to its
contents, i.e. it will primarily revolve around two prime examples of
what I, and perhaps others, would term as 'intelligent black metal', and
then attempt to infer whether or not the aesthetics in question are a
natural continuation of the genre itself or a fundamental re-elucidation
of the real potency that the genre can carry. Before I embark, I must
make it clear that the importance of other like-minded bands that have
not been included in this article should not be overshadowed, and that
these two bands in question were selected because they are the most
representative of the issue that I'm stressing herein.
Akin to the
laws of natural selection, there comes a pivotal point in the course of
a musical genre's chronicle where it is confronted with two choices: it
can either evolve and persist, or wither and die. The case of black
metal is still debatable; many a devoted fan will instantly quip that
"black metal died with Euronymous", "black metal only existed between
1989 and 1994", "no more 'evil' atmosphere", "not true enough", "not
kvlt enough" et cetera, et cetera. From my own standpoint, I believe
black metal has matured and streamlined its means of musical clarity in
many ways; one need only look at the quantity and quality of bands that
surface these days. However, I don't believe that it has fully realized
its true potential, as an Art form first and foremost, and as a musical
genre under the Metal banner second. Not yet, at least.
First of
all, how does one define black metal? Every one of its impassioned
listeners undoubtedly know, albeit at an intuitive level, that what
they're listening to is black metal; but let us delve beyond the musical
phenomenon, beyond the tremolo riffing, the double-bass, the low-fi
production and the primeval shrieks, beyond the perceived aspect of the
music itself, and into its very core, which speaks directly to the
subconscious.
"Misanthropy", "nihilistic enmity", "hatred": these
words have been used extensively and interchangeably to describe the
emotive inspirations that drive the music itself. But these words are
quite generic, and in themselves inadequate. Furthermore, the
fundamental fallacy of any such argument is to confuse a cause for an
effect and vice versa; "misanthropy" and "hatred" are both emotive
excrescences of the same psychological predisposition. Now, how about a
fine slab of existential angst the French way?
"But if there is a
meaning? Today I don't know what it is. Tomorrow? Tomorrow, who can tell
me? Am I going to find out what it is? No, I can't conceive of any
'meaning' other than 'my' anguish, and as for that, I know all about it.
And for the time being: nonsense. Monsieur Nonsense is writing and
understands that he is mad. It's atrocious."
"My thought is me:
that's why I can't stop. I exist because I think... and I can't stop
myself from thinking. At this very moment -- it's frightful -- if I
exist, it is because I am horrified at existing. I am the one who pulls
myself from the nothingness to which I aspire."
The former is
quoted from the lyrics of a Deathspell Omega song, titled "Diabolus
Absconditus"; the latter is from Sartre's literary existentialist
masterpiece, "Nausea". Introspectively, what one might infer by
juxtaposing the two segments is the common inherent realization, the
abrupt dissociation and dismantling of an individual's world of apparent
order and reason. Now, here is Camus from his infamous "Myth of
Sisyphus" essay:
"If this myth [of Sisyphus] is tragic, that is
because its hero is conscious. Where would his [Sisyphus'] torture be,
indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman
of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is
no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it
becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and
rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what
he thinks of during his descent."
And Deathspell Omega yet again from "Diabolus Absconditus":
"Would
it all be absurd? Or might it make some kind of sense? I've made myself
sick wondering about it. I awake in the morning -- just the way
millions do, millions of boys, girls, infants and old men, their slumber
dissipated forever... These millions, those slumbers have no meaning"
But
wait! These sentiments were the prime tenets of the finest of fin de
siècle French literature and 20th century existentialism -- how did they
find themselves in the noosphere of black metal so many decades later?
Through what crack did these ideas burrow? What was it in the
fundamental nature of black metal that allowed such a deep-seeded
emotion, deeply buried within the subconscious, to be expressed
musically?
This conscious descent the band members that comprise
DsO have taken, much like Camus' absurd hero, is integral with respect
to the issue herein. In doing so, they have managed to transcend the
very ideology and aesthetics that were originally thought to have
spawned black metal in the first place. They have gone to see "what
causes the shadow", instead of "lingering in the shadow" itself, to
borrow a more Platonic allegory. In the case of the French blacksters,
the ideology has strayed far and beyond the Satanic imagery of yore, it
has surpassed self-indulgent LaVey-an tomfoolery, and has reached the
subconscious fountainhead of the genre that links the sensual and the
psycho-cognitive world.
Was black metal ever capable of achieving
this? Let us look back to early Bathory: in _Under the Sign of the Black
Mark_ we have harsh musicianship and a profoundly enraptured Quorthon
with the dark and the Satanic. One could say that the flood gates were
finally opened to a grey area of our minds that very few dare speak of.
Then come Celtic Frost with their avant-garde masterpiece, To Mega
Therion, which was simply sublime musically and essentially set the
plainfield for the genre.
Fast-forward now to Burzum, and the
quintessential albums _Hvis Lyset Tar oss_ and Filosofem. How could
anyone exude in such a clear and transcendental manner the sentiment of
existential alienation without possessing that very experience I'm
referring to in the first place? And finally Deathspell Omega: for the
first time there is a premeditated direction in the form of an actual
philosophical inquiry. Here the debate on the existence or non-existence
of a Divine Being, the doubt of Reason's plenitude and, last and not
least, the apprehension in dealing with these questions are
systematically analyzed and inquired upon and ultimately channeled
through the musical medium; they are not masqueraded with vain idolatry
or superficial mysticism.
These bands, and of course others that
have gone unmentioned for the sake of brevity, have done the genre a
service -- each in its own way at different stages in its evolution, not
necessarily in terms of sheer musical exploitation but in terms of pure
Art, where the genre has been broadened aesthetically to be more
inclusive of more serious matters.
Onwards now to Drudkh, who from
their titular description one might assume them of being of a more
benign nature. Nonetheless, Drudkh are romantic in the Dionysian sense.
The music therein is restless but bound like a blithesome, belligerent
horse into an ephemeral submission by the daedal artistic dexterity of
its creators.
Again Drudkh's aesthetical fountainhead, as with
DsO's case, lies deeply within the subconscious, but it has taken a
different turn in contemplation. Here the musicians, by primarily
drawing aspiration from folk pride and tradition, have shed light on the
very tragedy of what it is to exist and the perennial struggle to
maintain that state, and more importantly to perpetuate unto posterity
the few things that a man can hold dear -- his values, his ideas --
against the elements and adversity.
This struggle, this dramatic
cycle that countless generations have followed, has never before been so
finely crystallized as in their latest opus, Blood in Our Wells, an
exquisitely epic musical phantasmagoria of sound and emotion. Epic
because of its boldness and uplifting cadence, and exquisite because of
the pure means by which the music reaches the listener. Although
despondent and bleak in tone, it showcases the tenacity of Man through
the ages, the sacrifices he has taken, the blood he has spilt and the
cries of his dead. Yes, Drudkh's offerings are delectable threnodies in
their own accord, with a touching and yet subtle overtone of pride.
Are
Deathspell Omega and Drudkh proof that black metal can migrate from its
stagnated ideological background and settle unto more fertile grounds?
Or are these bands nothing more than a fading glint? Alas, this calls
for yet another long-favored cliché among writers: time will tell. But
be it as it may, the one sure thing is that at last -- after a near
two-and-a-half decades -- black metal artistry has reached a very
interesting plateau of resourcefulness in its history which may prove
defining in its evolutionary course.
(originally written for Chronicles of Chaos - 18/12/2006)
