Is Black Metal Dead?

Before black metal was accepted, it was a daunting task to form a black metal band, explain it to other people, invent a concept, and keep focus despite criticism. It required a group of strong-minded individuals who were resistant to mainstream opinion and willing to act for the sake of change independently from what the crowd are doing.

Now black metal resembles the state of death metal in the middle 1990s: put on the black tshirt, jeans and sneakers and head off to record something "kind of like Obituary, but fast like Morbid Angel oh yeah and Immortal, Burzum, Darkthrone and Cradle of Filth." The form is so well known it can be immediately cloned without any understanding of where the music in that form can be artistically expressive, and the aesthetics are so widespread that even mainstreamed nu-metal fans can joke about them and adopt a few on their own.

The cause of this, and result of it, is that black metal has lost its spirit. There is no longer any drive toward expression (which, if contemplated, can be conflated with "innovation") nor is there any sense of coherent concept or ideal. As we speak black metal is going through what happened to death metal, and hardcore punk before it: generification (not genrification!) into a social club for wayward people. One could say that becoming generic and becoming popular are the same thing, because in order to become popular, one must be comprehensible to the majority of people - and as any good metalhead knows, most people are not as much stupid as they are mentally inert.

It has been some time since the emergence of a black metal release that was markedly distinct from other recent offerings of the genre. Most newer albums use the same techniques, lyrical recombinations, and song structures; really, if we examine them, most of these methods and patterns date back to the first The Exploited-cum-Discharge clone hardcore band. Further, there is no investment in concept, ideal or even image. Black metal has become an egalitarian, democratic society of tennis-shoe-and-jeans-wearing, tshirted people making indistinguishable music.

Of course, this is a relentless crowd pleaser, because it appeals to every egalitarian, democratic and guilt-ridden historical sentiment in our postmodern consciousness. Some have learned how democracy and "the mob rules" are roughly the same concept. Everyone can now be in a black metal band; there are no barriers! Even the kid everyone thought was stupid can join and make music to the best of his 85 IQ points. While in social terms, the genre has "succeeded" by becoming a mainstream taste, and the people involved are "moral" for not excluding anyone, the results are devastating in terms of artistic coherence. The music quality has suffered, the genre is bloated with losers and imitators, and most of the fans have sacrificed intestinal fortitude for popularity.

The question facing an artist isn't one of "innovation" in the sense of coming up with a new way to express music itself (as that is unlikely: music is an intuitive bond between creator and listener), but of expression in the sense of making something significant out of music, in the same way poetry doesn't reinvent language but speaks through it. It is relatively easy to make a cookie-cutter from accepted types of form, but few people can make music that expresses the intangible and yet emotionally relevant methods of art. As in poetry, words and notes are everywhere and used in almost every context, but a certain arrangement of ideas can make a unique and relevant expression. It is currently AWOL in black metal.

Like a democratic republic, black metal is split between the left (mainstreamers) and right (purists). Both have their errors: assuming an attitude that results in too much acceptance and mistaking obscurity for artistic viability. The immediate solution to black metal is to shut down both of these groups by recognizing and not tolerating their pretense (if you had to state the point of this article in a sentence, that would be it). Accordingly, what is needed is a re-evaluation of values by the brave inventors of the next generation of black metal bands, not a dominance of either 1970s-heavy-metal-as-bm or extremist pure black metal that is unlistenable and indistinguishable from other bands of this type.

Limited releases, numbered releases, signed releases and other eBay fodder are a false elitism that manufactures value, but not artistic value. It is not sensible to hide underground; it is logical to take metal at this point aboveground to some degree in its sales and distribution, but to maintain our musical standards so that the sounds themselves cannot be accepted by the horde of sheep. Metal is an evolving, distinct style made from the elements of other styles, but it is on its way to becoming a genre of some interest. It will by nature of its mood/topical tendencies and the requirements of its sound be dark and hurtful or hateful music, in addition to bohemian pursuits and literary posturing. There is no need to hide fully underground, as Burzum will never sell as many as Mayhem, because Mayhem is far more accessible. Mozart will sell, Holst will sell, but how many pursue even Beethoven past his signature works?

The point here is not to say "we need to get more underground" in terms of sales and availability, but that the underground quality of ARTISTRY needs to return to the music. Mainstream music is less art than it is a product, designed to fill the minimal and distracted needs of people while socializing. While there is artistic mainstreamed music, such as Dead Can Dance or Iron Maiden, it must conform to a wider range of aesthetic standards. Underground music is underground because its essential artistry separates it from the blind and wailing horde, and enables it by casting aside the pretense of aesthetics to become expressive in ways that aren't as socially tolerated as mainstream music. Except that underground sounds can now be sold in mainstream record stores, with a little organization. When you can find CDs by K.K. Null, Merzbow, Morbid Angel and Robert Fripp in a mall store, you know that something has changed from the narrow distribution of the pre-1998 period.

Art explores issues and gives depth to them; mainstream "art" is purely decoration, in which the issue is reduced, as on a Hallmark card or Bible verse, to a simple homily which disclaims the issue more than exploring it. The impulse can be differentiated as following: "I want pretty art to make my walls attractive" or "I want a picture that strikes my passions." While both styles have the same eventual goal (that of improving the quality of life) there is in the second an adventurous spirit toward change, while in the first a desire for a static, safe, unchallenging addition to one's life. Thus one can safely create a product that will offend few, and the latter is a great risk with possibly broader implications to its expression and artistic outlook on life. Art will never outsell decoration. There is no point weeping over this; there is a structural reason for its nature. Most people need to be cannon fodder for problems ahead, and so should trudge forward and get exterminated by car bombs, nukes, biowar, 747s or suicide bombings, while some should know to hold back and wage the war. The former group will never have the cognitive skills of the latter, who will be the Burzum fans.

For this reason it is safe to loosen up on the underground extremism, but also to shrug bands like COF and Dimmu Borgir (now) and Cannibal Corpse into their position of being mainstream rock bands. These will end up sounding more like nu-metal the more they attempt to be "innovative" in a postmodern sense, combining different known entities in discoherent ways, and as a result will be assimilated regardless of their current intent. The music industry is changing with the rise of online content, and as a result it is likely that niche marketing will suddenly apply to almost every genre except the most mainstream and uniform. This will allow genres to take their sounds and ideas to extremes without having to wait for a mainstream audience that is needed to "make it"; making it will probably exist through artists selling their work through a public stream and getting paid per play in some microscopic amount, a cumulative license which will eventually deliver them an even income with less of the overhead of today's system of corporate labels (the "big six").

With this time especially dawning upon it, it becomes apparent that there is nothing more irrational and self-destructive to a genre than opening it up to the mob in the name of social pressures. Black metal was great when its few creators could separate themselves and generate something specific to their own needs. What makes the music strong is its uniqueness, not its ability to blend in by adopting the trappings of other genres. The pendulum has swung in the opposite direction since the early days of black metal, and now must return to its origin.

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