Black Metal Saved My Soul!

I have to confess: although the venerable age of 36 1/2, there's still a teenager in me. Seeing 300 pretty much confirmed this to me. I couldn't say it was a great film...but then, I couldn't say I really disliked it either. All the while, as I watched the spectacle (and it's nothing but), I could simultaneously say, "Oh please, for the love of..." and "Cool."

Another thing that tipped me off was hearing about the latest album by Celtic Frost, Monotheist (2006). (Yes, Virginia, I am a little behind the times.) Out of the slew of thrash and black metal I listened to years ago, CF was one of those bands that I still like to hear. What appeals is their innovative approach, and the fact that they don't mess around. Put bluntly, a lot of rock music is half-assed. A few musicians are not; Celtic Frost is one outfit that's among these ranks.

A lot of things in CF are typical of black metal: lots of dark brooding about death, God, Satan, etc. But they do it so damn well; you can watch their video here.

One thing that's been said often is that contemporary Western civilization is post-religious: we've gotten beyond that, or lost it, call it what you will. It's not in us anymore. To an extent, that's true, but not entirely. Take black metal. What do you think of when you hear that? Gothic letters all cobwebbed up, upside-down crosses and pentagrams, Satan clawing a virgin,... Pretty silly, a lot of it looks. But through it all, there's one thing the standard-issue imagery talks about: God. (Run, kids, it's the G-word! He might even start to evangelize and pray for your soul.)

The relation between artist and artwork is very interesting. We expect to learn something about the one who made this piece before us, and yet we also expect it stand on its own. This generates some controversy as to how to understand art, which I'll go into in a later post.

No, I'm not trying to spread the Gospel here; I do want to point out something worth mentioning. Now while some black metalheads will disagree me - or worse, misinterpret me - I'm going to say it anyhow: this is one of the last areas in regular life where religion is still taken seriously. Martin Eric Ain knows this. (His view of religion is something worth considering, though not here.) The deliberate use of religious symbolism shows a keen sense of their power, which tells me that they're still alive. The inverted world of black metal is a direct negation of what's seen as All That's Good in the World. Why bemoan, rage at the loss of these things if they don't matter? Because it's all cast in such brooding tones, clearly there is a sense of loss conveyed; there is an impact, it does matter. When bands like Celtic Frost cease to have an impact, then I'll know that God doesn't matter in the world today. And I'll start crying.