| |
|
Looking at this thread, there's a response to a non-metaller's question about the aesthetic that I made on another forum that I might as well repost here, since it's relevent:
What is indispensable to metal is the theme of imminent destruction, like Nile put it in their press-release when they announced playing Ozzfest, aimed at all those non-metal folk:
"Well, here's how I see it: There is a brief scene in 'Saving Private Ryan', during the opening sequence on the Normandy Beach, where just for a few seconds the camera moves to a viewpoint of a German machine-gunner — looking over his machine-gun sights down onto the beach — who is laying waste to countless U.S. soldiers as the doors open up to their boats and they are all just helpless and vulnerable, in the water and struggling onto the beach, exposed to devastating machine gunfire — and from this vantage point, one can not help but get the feeling, if only for a moment, of what it must feel like to be that machine gunner, with so many helpless targets right in your sights to mow down at will. Of course, for that machine-gunner, you also feel that, however awesome it must be for those priceless few moments of godly slaughter, it will inevitably be short-lived, because he is soon to be roasted alive in his bunker as soon as Tom Hanks and friends make it up the hill. But for those few moments of unimpeded opportunity to mow down wave after wave of helpless targets, it had to be utterly godly."
That's the important part. Whether you tap that vein by making use of myth or fantasy, or through militaristic themes, or through bleak realism, whatever, as long as you communicate that in some way.
I like the Nile quote because it articulates rather well what to me it seems it's all about, without already being down the metal rabbit-hole: the moment of annihilation, when you aren't the killer or the killed but yourself a part of the spirit of destruction. Surrounded by death on every side, you don't suffer helplessly but become part of the terrifying host itself. Senseless destruction is metal. Tornadoes? Metal. Tidal waves? Metal. People being crushed underneath the juggernaut as they throw themselves at it in devotion? That is metal. Glaciers slowly and inevitably coming down from the mountains, laying flat the earth before them, crushing all in their path, carving valleys as they go? Glaciers are God's way of making the sign of horns. Christ the Redeemer hanging broken from the cross, the sky splitting in anger at the blasphemy - that is pretty fucking metal: being Jesus, being Longinus stabbing the Saviour in the side, being the lamenting believers seeing their Lord become God by suffering before them, any one of these roles screams metal. Unfortunately, Christians don't embrace this very often (the lapsed ones do), so they don't join the party. Not metal.
Metal is not about taking sides, it is certainly not about winning. Cuchelainn tying himself to a post to stay upright and stop his guts falling out of his slashed belly, taunting the army arrayed against him to come and fight, that's what it's about. Desparation, destruction, death. Metal is being caught in a lose-lose situation, and mking something out of it. It's not glorifying the circumstances, but it is revelling in the awesome powerfulness of the forces against you even as you are about to be crushed, admiring the sheer forcefulness of the situation that would be a closed book to you if you were trying to get out alive. Regret is not metal, abandon is.
Iron Maiden sing about the Charge of the Light Brigade, not the first to do so, and they say everything I have here pretty explicitely: The Trooper, which starts off with the line 'You'll take my life but I'll take yours too'. Black Sabbath started this whole game off with a song about being brought face to face with Satan. Death have songs about euthanasia ('Suicide Machine', which fucking slays), Slayer have ones about abortion ('Silent Scream') and the draft ('Expendable Youth') - these aren't protests songs or there to increase awareness, they're there because these things are, and they are a part of our world, the more you ignore them the more powerful they become. Metal is how you talk about being caught up in events far greater than you are which are not moved by your pleas and does not notice your annihilation. The first metal song that really grabbed me was when I saw Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss on VH1 late one night when everybody else in the house had already gone to bed. This spoke pretty goddamn directly to 17 year-old me. It's not a great video, but Dave Lombardo hits those drums with the heavy hand of god's judgement and the song feels like having your skull crushed in a vice and being surprised to discover that you love it. |
|
|
. 
EZO - EZO'S 1st Album