In his EMP Pop Conference presentation, “Of Wolves & Vibrancy – A Brief Exploration of the Marriage Made In Hell Between Folk Music, Dead Cultures, Myth, and Highly Technical Modern Extreme Metal” (which is nowhere near as academic as its title suggests, and which I can’t wait to see in print), Scott Seward made a reference to Heinous Killings’ “Strangled by Intestines,” mostly for comic effect.
However, that got me thinking – not about Heinous Killings per se, as I’ve already reviewed the band (scroll down or search in the column), but about ugliness (Heinous Killings is about as ugly as music gets, ignoring melody and polish in favor of guttural, purely physical urgh).
What is “ugly,” anyway? Kevin Spacey once called himself an “ugly character actor.” I don’t think he’s ugly. I think Paris Hilton is ugly. “Ugly” normally connotes something bad. But what if the word didn’t have that slant? I usually don’t like “pretty” things, except for nature and animals. When it comes to people and art, “pretty” often means “fake.” “Pretty” is not the natural state of things. Dirt is.
 |
People often call metal “ugly.” But what if “ugly” were good, a badge of pride? “Ugly” kicks the shit out of “pretty,” that’s for sure. I just watched The Fountain, and Clint Mansell’s soundtrack was full of truly pretty moments. But if those sounds were somehow inverted – plus turned to minus, and white turned to black – couldn’t they hold just as much meaning? Light without dark is pretty damn boring.
In his review of Voivod’s Katorz, Chuck Eddy (who, ironically, is Seward’s mentor) said, “Propulsive and swinging, devoid of egotism and ugliness… Katorz shows up most extreme metal for the fool’s cartoon that it is.” He completely missed the point. German Expressionism was more than cartoonish – and therein lay its power. It cast reality in a new light (and new shadows).
Likewise, “extreme” metal is supposed to be ugly. It reaches for something higher and lower. It fights complacency. Now, I’m not arguing that “Strangled by Intestines” is transcendent art. It’s not. But it holds the potential for transcendence – downwards. “Transcendence” usually implies upward movement, sun breaking through the clouds, the “epiphany” chord in The Simpsons intro. Black Sabbath had nothing to do with that. They reached deep down into themselves, and came up with something called heavy metal.
Beyond the Realms of Arcana!
The transfiguration into a different, higher state in Heavy Metal is almost always harrowing, not a zen breakthrough but a bloody and painful process.
But upwards or downwards?
Most of extreme metal deals with a decidedly nihilistic, entropic worldview. From that vantage, if one sees the metal through the extreme side of things, yes, you are correct. Extreme metal is not concerned with pretty or tame or easy. The Extreme breakthrough is one where logic shatters, where man becomes more than he is through being less than human (the ‘anatomy is destiny’ fetish of Extreme Metal). Deterministic, nihilistic, a step behind existential, almost solipsist.
However it’s a bit of a one-sided call to bring Black Sabbath into this and attribute this quality to the whole genre (though not exactly mentioned as such, I adress the possibility) as the main and predisposing one. When they gave birth to Heavy Metal, they did that along with a few other bands (this is somewhat historically controversial but I hold my views on the subject) like Led Zeppelin and King Crimson. 1969’s “In The Court of the Crimson King”, besides encapsulating the sound of progressive rock at the time, is also proto-metal in all its majesty. It might be apocalyptic, but it’s not hopeless like early (really early, only EP Sabbath to be exact. Sabbath turned ‘white’ as soon as Paranoid hit) Sabbath were.
And about majesty is the issue. If Heavy Metal was morbidly consumed with nihil, it would be nothing more than a more audially extreme version of Gothic rock. The other side of Heavy Metal, one today a bit forgotten, the epic side is all about the empowerment of man, an almost transhumanist celebration, for man to go beyond himself in order to arrive to be truly Human.
That whole branch of Heavy Metal, which is not Extreme Metal, should not be considered a curiosity of the past, an outmodded form, or preempted by the regurgitated third-generation ramblings of europower bands. It might be unfashionable but it exists. What it stands for was cast in stone by the band Fates Warning in their early records Spectre Within and (amazingly compactly) Awaken the Guardian in 1984-1985.
Most great Heavy Metal bands, though always leaning stronger on one side of the two, have the full inbetween spectrum within them. That is why Nile will never be considered an emblematic Heavy Metal band, but Hammers of Misfortune will be. That is the downfall of bands that identify with ‘Extreme Metal’ as their signifier. How can those two extremes, nihility and humanism collide and coexist in Heavy Metal? That is a mistery. But that they do is what makes it what it is. An ‘Extreme’ band is fully enveloped in only one direction, by definition.
Iron Maiden. Black Sabbath. Led Zeppelin. Morbid Angel. Savage Grace. Diamond Head. Dark Angel. Crimson Glory. Judas Priest. These names hold in them – literally – a contradiction. If someone wants to understand Heavy Metal, he will start with wondering why that is.
Metal bands without a contradiction living inside them are nothing more than loud music. ‘Extreme’ music.
Heavy Metal didn’t only bring me face to face with the visceral despair that the human experience contains (I Suffer, But Why?) it also taught me honesty, compassion, willpower and courage. It helped me understand what it means to be a human. I love it for this and I am indebted for this.
Transcendence is not upwards or downwards. It is a step inwards, towards that holistic contradiction that holds us together and tears us apart.
Watch now how a different verses from every song on ‘Awaken the Guardian’ encapsures all aspects of what Heavy Metal has ever been about:
Hopelessness, Occultism:
“Children of the darkness dance on the coven of the lost. In blazing pyre, suspended in air she demands holocaust! She can exorcise with the whites of her eyes. She’ll devour your children, in a wink of an eye. Descend from the sky to the cauldron of the damned.”
Arrogance, allegiance:
“Bow to Kings of yesterday,they have given you wings to fly away! What have the phantom Queens but deceived you? Army of shadows climbing silvery mountains lining molten and lead. Kiss my camouflage, the battle scars with oxy-ten and maybelline. Cloning their heroes in hype magazine.
Pirates of underground lightning twice the speed of sound! You will prevail!”
(to get that one you probably have to be aware of the poser/hair metal connection, but it’s plain enough when mentioned)
Lust, Escapism, Death of Desire:
“Fata Morgana. She will take you, hungry scarred harlot hunting another heart! Morrigan, fallen angel queen of magic. Kneeling at the widows’ Altar, temptress of my dreams. She’s the widow my dreams
also in this song the line “Jump into my fire” is Lust encaptured purely as never before or after.
Obligation, Honor, Love and Support:
“Angels in white you have sacrificed. I Witness and bury the pain. Walk hand and hand with the fear-stricken child. Strengthen the weak and the lame. Pillar of pennance and lore. Perpetual journey into the realm the sovereign servitor.
Fatalism:
“Guardian angel guide us through the night we compel. His long constant fight. The moerea they call your destiny the sisters all of three. Clotho, she spun the web to live the thread so tentative. Lachesis she measured out the years. Atropos cuts the thread with her shears.
Time, Time, Time…
An imaginary line. Mine’s not yours nor yours mine. They lead the blind back to mothers’ womb. Tomb of the unborn child. Coming events cast their shadows before wintery wind.
The eye of the storm, witness the past.
The future holds more prelude to ruin.”
Remorse, regret, loss and anguish:
“Kings! Queens! Pirates! Giants! Castle walls, dungeon doors. Bound to earth, treasures, sunken heart to the ocean floor.
I will remember knocking on the cold side of your door.
Spring came soon to the outside world but the worth wind whirled through the castle halls. Children played in the outside sun, frost giants stayed in the garden walls.
Seasons past, locked in winter. Filled with remorse his frost bitten heart…
Through a crack in the garden wall came a child with the gift of spring. The frost giants went away. The dawn of autumn came into the garden of the rising sun. His heart was awakened. He was forgiven then.
Always remembered as a giant among men.”
…and finally, Trascendence!
“False guardian! I will compel! False as the fear of heaven and hell! I should have known it’s all a mirage just as well. The power of good will not be shown by conquering fear. Let it be known it’s a constant resistance, while facing transformation.
Exodus. Ascend the plane! Exile this medium of bondage! Far beyond the myriads of crypts and pyramids, beyond the harpy vultures guarding their tombs.
Arcana awaits you.”
Yes, that is the range of this record. If one hasn’t given it due attention, he doesn’t know what Heavy Metal is. A band that cannot explore the other side of the looking glass, the other side of the ‘intended meaning’ they’re going for, to find it’s antithetical counterpoint, to embrace it, is incomplete. They might be loud. They might play well. But they’re incomplete.
Heinous Killings are incomplete.
Well, I agree that dualisms like up/down, positive/negative are probably simplistic to describe art. And I agree that the “best” metal acts usually are the most “complete.” However, I like listening to the range of metal, not just, say, 5-10 bands, and so I like angry bands, crazy bands, goofy bands, uplifting bands, and so on. On an art level, too, I’m fascinated with nihilism, smashing to nothing, grindcore, etc. extremism. Sometimes the headache is fun – and even enlightening.