A Little Light

Monday is my day in the office, and I'm separated from my music -- which is a particular shame because The Morning News highlighted an article, in The Believer, on U.S. black metal. And thank God, cos I'm bored as snot.

Photograph of D. of Vrolok, in 2004, by Joshua Heckathorn

What was more interesting than the Scandinavian mythology that underpins black metal (not death metal, thank you, keep your niche terms straight) is how the American musicians reacted to those at-times ridiculous antics.

...as Blake Judd of Nachtmystium told me: "I just feel that those bands are marketed for what has happened outside of the music, not so much involving the music. Like 'Oh, church burning and murder and [Gorgoroth vocalist] Gaahl kills or tortures guys,' but the last Gorgoroth album was weak as shit. Who cares what he does, if he's a criminal? There's guys selling crack in Chicago that are scarier to me than that guy."

This attitude may explain why the article's author, Brandon Stosuy, finds USBM "[m]ore compelling...its inventiveness and eccentricity and, most importantly, the feeling that it hasn't crested or stagnated."

He certainly makes the case, extensively describing recent bands and evolution.

[I]t's the current crop of American black-metal bands that have really found a voice. These USBM bands, hailing from vastly different cultures and geographies, have managed to latch on to different sounds without diluting their defining brutality (and beauty). The 2008 record Massive Conspiracy Against All Life by California-based Jef Whitehead (a.k.a. Wrest, of one-man band Leviathan) sees an intense blend of warped atmospherics, death riffs, huge drums, and a warbling, at times throaty, Eastern-tinged howl—it's like returning in ways to the early sounds of Profanatica or Judas Iscariot, but layering it fathomlessly with all the developments that have happened since.

Then there's the chaotic punch-drunk tenor of Bahimiron's especially witchy, overlapping, blown-out vocalisms. Another Texas band, Averse Sefira, infuses a personal cosmology and occultism into their pummeling, full-band black metal. Then there are those like the rawer Chicago black-metal duo Cult of Daath, whose dual vocalizing hits with more of a death-metal growl. If My Bloody Valentine was a black-metal band, they might sound like the "eco-fascist," tongue-in-cheek tricksters Velvet Cacoon (who recently told me they moved to Prague to live the lives of decadent Satanists, but it's hard to tell if they were fucking with me). Buffalo one-man band Wrath of the Weak talks about the importance of the western New York landscape; his music sounds like a blizzard. Olympia, Washington trio Wolves in the Throne Room focus on a back-to-nature lifestyle and perform psychedelic shoe-gaze black metal, anchored here and there by a folky, ethereal female singer who cuts the harshness of the black-metal vocals in a Jarboe/Swans style. The Chicago group Nachtmystium, fronted by Blake Judd, shifted from their early black-by-the-numbers sounds to a psychedelic, Floydian form of post-black metal.

Another aspect of USBM is the crossover between straight-up free-noise: New York's Dominick Fernow, of the one-man power electronics project Prurient, performs in the black-metal duo Ash Pool, and avant-garde guitarist Mick Barr of Orthrelm sings and plays guitar in the New York-based black-metal band Krallice.

Maybe the biggest name in USBM, though not the most interesting, is Scott Conner, a.k.a. Malefic, who records as Xasthur. Sticking to the icy, candelabra-lit feel of Burzum or Judas Iscariot, he tosses additional claustrophobic layers into the fire. His most interesting accessory is his voice—he comes off like the ghost of a strangulated raven.

My Bloody Valentine as a black-metal band. Hrm. There's a thought for the day.

As I said earlier, I have access to none of these tunes, nor could I even try to track them down until I get home and feel safe in the relative security and privacy of my own computer. Instead, I will make do with the MOG-supplied "BassAliens" by Sunn 0))). [EDIT: Looks like they may not have it. Unfortunately, you all will have to wait until I get home to post the track.] While strictly not black metal, I include them because

Southern Lord, a label run by Greg Anderson of Sunn O))), has helped certain American black-metal bands cross into indie-rock realms. These are the bigger names like Xasthur, Leviathan, and Leviathan's other project, Lurker of Chalice. Most interesting and strange for such a solitary genre is Twilight, a sort of USBM supergroup made up of Xasthur, Leviathan, Nachtmystium, and Krieg—though they hate the term "supergroup" and its rock-and-roll ramifications.

Supergroups are, of course, very American.

God bless the U.S.A.

In an unrelated note: please check out Candle For Tibet and light a candle for freedom on 07 August at 9PM.