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How do you like your black metal?


HellKell

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On 10/14/2021 at 1:46 PM, NokturnalBoredom said:

 I also am not a fan of RABM as I do not like politics being injected into the music I listen to, because at that point it just becomes propaganda and political messaging rather than an escape from all of that stupid, pointless shit (which is why I listen to black metal to begin with).

Wait.... what?? You won't listen to Antifascist black metal because it has "politics" but yet you have no problem listening to outright Nazi bands like Goatmoon and Nokturnal Mortem?? Care to explain this nonsense?

 

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Where the fuck have I been?? A quick Google search tells me the term RABM (Racist Anarchist Black Metal) has been around for more than a decade but somehow I've never even heard this term before, despite listening to a preponderance of black metal for more than a decade.

Am I really so out of the ordinary in my ignorance of various metal bands' political messages? I just judge metal by the actual music and have no problem leaving lyrics and political themes and ideologies out of my selection process altogether. Which is fairly easy for me because the overwhelming majority of the metal I listen to has very harsh vocal stylings making the lyrics for the most part indecipherable. And I like it that way. I don't want to know the lyrics and I don't care what their message is I just want riffs.

Seems like nowadays politics has infiltrated or been injected into nearly every facet of our lives. It's almost like you can't do or say or buy anything anymore without some political motive or ideology being attached to that action or decision making nearly everything one does akin to virtue signalling whether it's intentional or genuinely inadvertent. I for one am getting tired of this shit.

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5 hours ago, zackflag said:

Wait.... what?? You won't listen to Antifascist black metal because it has "politics" but yet you have no problem listening to outright Nazi bands like Goatmoon and Nokturnal Mortem?? Care to explain this nonsense?

Not really, I don't feel like "explaining" it at all, because I don't have to justify my musical choices to anyone, but since you seem like you're going to have a meltdown over the fact that I don't listen to RABM bullshit, here goes:

Nokturnal Mortum has been my favorite black metal band since I first discovered Goat Horns back in 2000 on the internet. None of the Nokturnal Mortum albums I have (and I have 6), have political bullshit in the lyrics, save for one song where Varggoth is whining about Jews or something halfway through a mediocre song. Half of the time, Nokturnal Mortum doesn't even print their lyrics or they aren't in English, so I can't understand what they're saying anyway and don't care to look them up or translate them. So they could be saying anything and I wouldn't know what they hell they were talking about because although I am a Ukrainian-American, I do not speak Ukrainian.

I have two Goatmoon albums, I've looked up the lyrics. Nothing political or even anything that comes off as "NaZi" on either of those albums either. If there were, I wouldn't listen to them as a rule because I don't like politics. I don't care about whether the musicians themselves have a political thing going on, provided I either can't understand what they're saying or it's in a different language.

I used to listen to shit like Iskra and No Sun Rises, which are both "AnTiFaScIsT" bands, but I don't read their lyrics and can't understand them anyway. When both of those bands started to make all of their lyrics about politics, I stopped listening to them because people who can't shut the fuck up about politics irritate the fuck out of me. Which is why I don't listen to RABM because every lyric to every song is usually whining about "needing communism" or some other shit that I don't care about & don't believe in anyway. Same with "CaScAdIaN" bands that are out of Portland or Seattle, I won't listen to those as a rule because their lyrics are always political and in English.

With Burzum, none of his lyrics are political. That's the interesting thing about people who cry and stamp their feet over NSBM; most of those bands that are worth listening to do not actually inject their weird political bullshit into their lyrics. If they do, and those lyrics are in English, I don't bother listening. I don't want to hear about politics, I listen to music to get away from that shit. It's not my problem that some NSBM bands are good and most RABM bands suck dick.

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26 minutes ago, NokturnalBoredom said:


I used to listen to shit like Iskra and No Sun Rises, which are both "AnTiFaScIsT" bands, but I don't read their lyrics and can't understand them anyway. When both of those bands started to make all of their lyrics about politics, I stopped listening to them because people who can't shut the fuck up about politics irritate the fuck out of me. Which is why I don't listen to RABM because every lyric to every song is usually whining about "needing communism" or some other shit that I don't care about & don't believe in anyway. Same with "CaScAdIaN" bands that are out of Portland or Seattle, I won't listen to those as a rule because their lyrics are always political and in English.

Lol, okay well it's clear as day that you've never once bothered to actually read any lyrics from any of the "CaScAdIaN" bands because the vast majority of them aren't even remotely political at all, this includes the biggest and most renowned bands from the scene like WITTR and Panopticon. There's a reason they're commonly referred as "nature worshipping" or "trees and shit" black metal because their lyrical content primarily relates to nature, mysticism and pagan stuff. You'd know that If you actually bothered to look them up. If you're really so perturbed by that and don't wanna listen to it, that's fine, I don't care for it much myself, nor do I care what you listen to, but this big tantrum you're throwing over nonexistent "needing communism" lyrics is a big ol' nothing sandwich.

 

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I actually like Panopticon because they're like an American take on Nokturnal Mortum, and I was trying to find a vinyl copy of "Roads to the North" with no success. I liked what he did with Appalachian folk music in the way that Nokturnal Mortum did it with Ukrainian folk music, but yeah, as a rule I generally don't fuck with USBM and definitely don't fuck with shit out of Washington or Oregon because seriously, fuck Washington and in particular, Oregon.

And no, I definitely don't read lyrics but I judge by what's popular among the teenz on Reddit. They talk about WitTR and Dawn Ray'd a lot, because they're communists & have political lyrics, so I don't bother to listen to them. Like I may Like Nokturnal Mortum, but I don't listen to the side projects of Varggoth Aryan Terrorism or Warhead because they have political lyrics that are in English and I don't listen to music to hear political crap. I listen to music to get away from all that shit.

The only bands that I own albums by that could be considered RABM would be Iskra and No Sun Rises. No Sun Rises, a lot of their lyrics are in German and I don't bother to translate them because I don't want to know if it's political crap. Iskra, I've read through the lyrics, noticed it was woke political crap so I stopped reading them and just enjoy the fact that I can't understand them anyway.


But yeah, generally I do not read lyrics. I just listen to music. I think the last time I bothered reading lyrics was for Emperor's Promethus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise. Usually when I have music on, I'm doing something else like playing a video game or farting around online looking for more records to spend money on (Have a Nokturnal Mortum album shipping from France right now, actually). I don't put an album on and then sit and try to read the lyrics because I really don't care that much, I'm after the sound... not the "message" (because I don't like hearing "messages". I have my own opinions about shit and don't really care what a band has to say about anything)

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On 10/17/2021 at 10:56 PM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Seems like nowadays politics has infiltrated or been injected into nearly every facet of our lives. It's almost like you can't do or say or buy anything anymore without some political motive or ideology being attached to that action or decision

Always was that way, same with capitalism, only now people are getting pretty good at disseminating the politics behind the message/action. As much as it may annoy you, everything we do has a political and societal effect, even saying "I don't care about politics" is a political statement because it implies that you're so comfortable and secure that you have the option to opt out.

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First of all I would never say that I don't care about politics, because I do. But there are times when it would be nice to be able to put politics aside and have a little break from the nonsense. Everything in life doesn't need to have a political motive or ramifications or consequences. Being a loudmouth who enjoys a healthy discussion I'm certainly not afraid to talk/argue/debate politics with anyone, but there's an appropriate time and place. It's become clear to me over this last year especially, that the subject of politics can be very divisive, and things can get heated even among groups of people that otherwise generally get along fairly well and see many things eye to eye. I've seen this happen not just on the forums or on social media but in actual real life as well. Now I'm a little older than you and I live on a different continent so our life experiences will differ somewhat. But from where I sit no, it wasn't always this way, not all the time everywhere you go and not to this insane degree.

So no Johan, with all due respect I beg to disagree. Everything I do does not necessarily have to have to convey a political statement of intent. Others may wish to attach assumed political motives to every single thing I do and every choice I make in life from the music I listen to or the books/articles I read or the tv shows I watch or the food I eat or the beer I drink or the car I drive or the job I do or where I live or the way I cut my hair or grow my beard or the clothes or shoes or mask I do or don't wear or the fact that I'm Covid vaccinated or 1000 other things. But some people assume too much and that's their problem not mine. 

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Well, no I didn't mean it has to carry a specific, vocalized intent. Just that our actions have a political meaning and can be analyzed as such. In other words, there is no such thing as a non-political person. There are however many people not actively engaged in politics. Maybe that's more clear.

And I do think that the kind of vocalized politicization you're talking about seems to be a lot more common in USA than Scandinavia.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/19/2021 at 3:37 AM, Sheol said:

Just that our actions have a political meaning and can be analyzed as such. In other words, there is no such thing as a non-political person.

I am not allowed to vote (and wouldn't even if I could), so my actions literally have no political meaning. They may have a cultural meaning, but definitely not a political one. I reject all of the nonsense that "Everything Is Political" because it isn't. Me going to the store and buying a can of Bang & drinking it is not a political action, just like my purchasing of music that people do not want me to be able to have is not a political action, it's me simply being a contrarian and wanting something that busybodies on a moral crusade want to try and tell me that I'm not allowed to have (just like it was when it was Conservative Christians trying to tell me in the 90s that as a "child" that I shouldn't "be allowed" to purchase albums by Deicide, Slayer, or Marilyn Manson). Same went with these same busybodies trying to ban Mortal Kombat 3 and DooM. Once those games were on the chopping block, I had to own them (and I did, and I still do). Joseph Lieberman doesn't get to tell me what games I am allowed to play just as Tipper Gore and Pat Robertson do not get to tell me what music I get to rock out to.

When someone tells me that I am "not allowed" to have something, I have to have that thing. Especially if it's a book, music, or a movie. I was a big fan of reading "banned" books when I was in middle school and high school and it got me in trouble with the authoritarian administration at my school quite frequently. 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Long Hard Road Out of Hell... I read all of these books because these shitbags tried to tell me that I wasn't allowed to read them, and nobody gets to tell me what I am allowed to read, listen to, or watch. That's not a political action (remember that I cannot even vote, so if it was a political action, it would be a pointless one), it's a matter of right and wrong. I do not believe that anyone has any right to tell people what they can and cannot read, listen to, or watch because I don't believe in blasphemy or obscenity as it is all arbitrarily decided based on someone's personal feelings and more often than not, I do not respect that person. If someone wants to paint a picture of the Virgin Mary with their own feces, they are completely justified in doing so. Does a museum have to exhibit it? No. Just like if I don't like it, I don't have to look at it. I don't like mumble rap and think that it is irredeemable garbage music about getting one's penis fellated and taking dangerous drugs, so I don't listen to it. I don't try to actively prevent other people from listening to it, because I'm not a piece of worthless shit who would dare to presume that I have a right to censor what other people are allowed to enjoy.

There are very disturbed, maladjusted people out there who have wanted to censor rock music since Elvis began swinging his hips around on television all the way up to a new generation of these church ladies wanting good music banned for no valid reason other than they don't like it because it's "not nice" or uses naughty words. Those people are my enemies. They are people who I do not respect and thus, do not care about their feelings. We have a lot of people in the world today who want to tell me that I am not allowed to listen to certain music, read certain books, or watch something as innocuous as a comedy special by Dave Chappelle. I am not going to let these people win and prevent me from experiencing media that I want to experience, because I am fundamentally a contrarian. When people tell me what to do, I do the opposite because I wholeheartedly believe that nobody knows what's best for me aside from me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My intention is to be emotionally motivated. My emotions are the only complete information. Politics is always incomplete information. Incomplete information is manipulation. There is nothing to be gained by caring about things that I cannot fully know or understand and caring makes no difference. For a while I used information to experience fear and hate as the end goal, fear and hate is very enjoyable, only once these emotions become enjoyable then I stop feeling them, which I suppose is the point, but right now I wish I could read or watch something that would make me feel oppressed and defeated. I am missing my depression and nothing will bring me down. 

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6 hours ago, Sardonicist said:

For a while I used information to experience fear and hate as the end goal, fear and hate is very enjoyable

I kind of understand what you mean. When you feel fear & hate, you feel alive and motivated to keep pushing on out of your hatred for whatever it is. Hate is a remarkably strong emotion and I feel it frequently still, but a lot of the time I simply do not feel anything because the meds for the most part, are doing what meds are supposed to do: flatten my extreme emotions & thoughts. A lot of my hatred is for people who try to tell me what I am and am not allowed to do, so that's so-called "authority" figures, government, and people in the media who dictate the proverbial "cultural agenda" that I am supposed to follow: what I am supposed to be listening to, reading, watching, etc. I hate mainstream culture with a particular vehemence, it could be argued that my hatred of mainstream culture is what has motivated me a lot lately in regard to things I say and do, but looking at it honestly, "doing my own thing" has been the largest motivator for me.

I've never had a favorable view of people who try to tell me what to do, because I feel like "What gives them the right?" but lately it's been hard to even summon up hatred of these types because I realize that at the end of the day, none of them can really stop me from doing the things that I want to do (Listen to music, read books, and enjoy my free time). Like I don't want to commit crimes or kill people or anything, so the argument cannot be made that I have to be locked in a cage until I am "rehabilitated" (even though they tried to make that argument about a year ago and I narrowly avoided it). But just the fact that we live in a so-called "society" where some arbitrary "authority" figure can exercise power over me gets on my nerves and it is not something that I personally believe that I should have to tolerate so long as I am minding my own business.

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I hated myself more than anything, the wolf wasn't getting laid, work and money was always scarce and I had no understanding of existence. Christianity and Secular Positivity are the bugs and viruses I was raised on, these induced inaccurate thoughts. Nothing happens for no reason/everything has a cause. I am 100% caused, nothing is my responsibility. This goes for all biological machines. I can not hate biological machines that are caused, no one chooses anything. There are no causeless effects. Now I watch the culture drama and feel nothing. 

I like my black metal to be from the 1990's and the 2000's. 

 

On 10/18/2021 at 9:56 AM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Where the fuck have I been?? A quick Google search tells me the term RABM (Racist Anarchist Black Metal) has been around for more than a decade but somehow I've never even heard this term before, despite listening to a preponderance of black metal for more than a decade.

Am I really so out of the ordinary in my ignorance of various metal bands' political messages? I just judge metal by the actual music and have no problem leaving lyrics and political themes and ideologies out of my selection process altogether. Which is fairly easy for me because the overwhelming majority of the metal I listen to has very harsh vocal stylings making the lyrics for the most part indecipherable. And I like it that way. I don't want to know the lyrics and I don't care what their message is I just want riffs.

Seems like nowadays politics has infiltrated or been injected into nearly every facet of our lives. It's almost like you can't do or say or buy anything anymore without some political motive or ideology being attached to that action or decision making nearly everything one does akin to virtue signalling whether it's intentional or genuinely inadvertent. I for one am getting tired of this shit.

 

I'm only finding Red Anarchist Black Metal. 

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On 11/14/2021 at 12:30 PM, Sardonicist said:

I like my black metal to be from the 1990's and the 2000's. 

Yeah, same here. I haven't really listened to anything more modern, maybe some stuff from the 2010s or an album from the 2020s here and there, but all of my favorite black metal albums are from the 90s and 00s although a lot of great stuff has come out of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, etc since then (once they began to see artistic freedom again).

There's a great album by a Belrussian band called Vietah that I've been listening to (Smalisty Zah) and there is a cover of Darkthrone's "Quintessence" on it that is pretty solid. I think this album came out in the 2010s and there is some dungeon synth parts that hearken back to the best of Burzum, but all in all it's a really solid record & I'd recommend giving it a listen if you haven't already.

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3 hours ago, NokturnalBoredom said:

Yeah, same here. I haven't really listened to anything more modern, maybe some stuff from the 2010s or an album from the 2020s here and there, but all of my favorite black metal albums are from the 90s and 00s although a lot of great stuff has come out of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, etc since then (once they began to see artistic freedom again).

There's a great album by a Belrussian band called Vietah that I've been listening to (Smalisty Zah) and there is a cover of Darkthrone's "Quintessence" on it that is pretty solid. I think this album came out in the 2010s and there is some dungeon synth parts that hearken back to the best of Burzum, but all in all it's a really solid record & I'd recommend giving it a listen if you haven't already.

The only problem with later/current black metal is that I like all of it and I can't deal with that much music. 

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12 hours ago, NokturnalBoredom said:

Yeah, same here. I haven't really listened to anything more modern, maybe some stuff from the 2010s or an album from the 2020s here and there,

You're missing out on a ton of stuff my dude, just like you do if you only order through Hell's Headbanger and no where else 😀

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Increasingly I like my BM more atmospheric and pagan/folk based as well.  I have really embraced Panopticon over the past 12 months and also have increasingly enjoyed the more avant-garde work of Oranssi Pazuzu.  I think I will always like the more conventional second wave bm sound but as I didn't actually catch on to bm until well into the noughties I am perhaps a little behind in expanding my horizons in the genre.

I am also a lot more tolerant of melodic black metal than I am of melodic death metal.  Spectral Wound's album this year was a particular standout for me.  Also Mork have fallen onto my radar having discovered how well they temper the accessible black 'n' roll elements over the top of that cold bed of more authentic bm.  

The draw towards more atmospheric and especially folk/pagan bm has also seen me grow more and more interested in the likes of Wardruna, Heilung and Danheim.

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13 hours ago, Sheol said:

You're missing out on a ton of stuff my dude, just like you do if you only order through Hell's Headbanger and no where else

I figured as much, but the reason I primarily order through HH is because I trust the distro, it gets here quickly, and he has a lot of stuff that I don't initially know about, but then find out about browsing his site.

I know I should probably be checking out Peaceville and Season of Mist, but I'm strongly biased toward HH because his label has put out so much good shit that I wouldn't have given a second thought to initially.

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  • 1 month later...

Not always the case, but for the most part I like my black metal lo-fi and fuzzy with a bit of melody underneath, so a lot of the so-called "raw black metal" bands are really enjoyable to me. That being said, as long as the production isn't super-crisp sounding, cleaner doesn't necessarily detract from a band for me.

...and not to drag up an old conversation again, but in regards to RABM, my issue with it isn't the lyrics. Hell, even in English I can't understand 99% of what extreme metal bands are singing anyway. My only real problem with it is that the vast majority just isn't really very good black metal. It's a scene that seems overly populated by members, or at least former members, of various punk scenes and the result just sounds like some kind of hardcore or crust punk with some black metal trimmings attached to it. I know it's not all like that, I've heard a couple of bands that I have genuinely liked, but I'd say the majority I've heard would fall into that category

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44 minutes ago, SurgicalBrute said:

 My only real problem with it is that the vast majority just isn't really very good black metal. 

Exactly this. IDGAF what they're saying (don't read lyrics and prefer not to start), but the music better be on point. I've yet to hear a RABM band that can pull off an interesting song. I appreciate the sentiment to a point, but that's not the reason I listen to black metal.

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