Paul Christensen's Blog - Posts Tagged "graveland"

Black Metal: European Roots and Musical Extremities by Troy Southgate

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It’s hard to remember now, but Black Metal was once an interesting cultural phenomenon

At some point in the 2000s, however, it was infiltrated by New York hipsters, who sucked the life out of it, then tried to rewrite its history as a rebellion against the ‘right-wing, patriarchal church’.

Of course anyone who was around in the ‘90s remembers it was the exact opposite - a rebellion against the stifling left-wing conformity of the Norwegian state church (known in the Scandinavian countries as the Law of Jante, similar to Tall Poppy Syndrome).

Fenriz of Darkthrone recounts a Norwegian swimming race where, instead of the fastest child being the winner, the authorities picked the child whose time was closest to the average. No wonder the Norwegian teenage metalheads rebelled!

At the same time, the best Black Metal bands were more up the volkisch end of the spectrum than the Ayn Rand end.

This book has some interesting essays, and despite being a bit repetitive, is a lot more insightful than the tacky ‘Lords of Chaos’ book.





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England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground by David Keenan

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


This book is a complete whitewash.

In looking at one of the most interesting music scenes of the ‘80s and ‘90s, it removes the more politically incorrect bands (Death In June, Fire + Ice, Allerseelen, Boyd Rice, and even The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud) from the picture, thus making World Serpent music safe for ‘consumption’ by oily hipsters in the 2000s (Tony Wakeford, after jumping through hoops to prove what a good ‘anti-fascist’ he is, gets a token pat on the head).

The same hipsters who leeched onto anodyne black metal bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, scrubbing ‘problematic’ bands like Burzum and Graveland from history in good Orwellian fashion.

When hipsters leech onto something, you know it’s past its creative prime.

In 2020, David Tibet gives art shows in galleries whose curators hold his religious views in amused contempt.

Was the ‘respectability’ really worth it?



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