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By now, the images are iconic. Frost breathes fire in a cave; King ov Hell glowers next to a blood-red building; Nattefrost wields an inverted cross (see above). Peter Beste’s black metal photography has penetrated popular culture enough so that it’s lost some of its shock value. It’s still striking, though. Those who saw the photos on the Internet likely paused for a minute, then moved on. But a hefty 14.5″ x 11.5″ x 1″ book demands time. Now these images stand still, regarding us as warily as we do them. Beste captured them with simple means, mostly a 35mm camera. Though his shots are skilled, his greatest accomplishment is getting them in the first place. Persuading grown men to don corpsepaint and nail-studded wristbands in broad daylight is no mean feat.
This photo collection is called True Norwegian Black Metal (Vice Books, 208 pages). Perhaps Beste realized that only his photos, which start in 2002, would not live up to that name. Thus, he’s rounded up collaborators. Writer/editor Johan Kugelberg contributes historical context and curatorial direction. “Tara G. Warrior” adds a detailed, three-page timeline of black metal. Most importantly, Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen writes a lengthy history of his Slayer ‘zine and Mayhem’s beginnings. It mentions Beste only in passing; Metalion says, “He has inspired me to pick up the camera. I hope to do a book myself.”
Though Beste serves up a visual feast – shots of Gorgoroth’s infamous 2004 gig in Krakow are particularly satisfying – text is the best part of True Norwegian Black Metal. Following Beste’s photos are pages and covers from old Slayer ‘zines. (The upcoming Slayer compilation on Ian Christe’s Bazillion Points imprint is major cause for celebration.) There’s something urgent and gripping about reading about something as it happens. (A letter by Euronymous regarding Dead’s suicide is especially chilling.) Old photos – not Beste’s, of course – of Mayhem & co. make up in primal intensity what they lack in technical prowess. Also included is contemporary press coverage of the murders and church burnings. Metal journalism back then was just as empty and sensationalistic as it is today.
More than any other metal subgenre, black metal has struggled with image. True Norwegian Black Metal cleverly incorporates various portrayals of black metal, thus preempting attacks of bias. Ultimately, it’s up to one to make of it what one will. Ironically, it would also make a great Christmas present.
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I recently viewed the Los Angeles exhibit of True Norwegian Black Metal, at Zune LA. Yes, that Zune, as in Microsoft. It’s a flexible space that functions as an office, a nightclub, and, in this case, an art gallery. When I visited it, all three uses were on display. Laptops littered the place like some hip architecture studio. People wove in and out, carrying materials for a party that night. The exhibit was upstairs in a single room. Techno music streamed softly from speakers, while large TV screens incongruously showed MTV videos. (Fall Out Boy and Gwen Stefani were on at the time.) Hung on bright white walls were large prints of Beste’s photographs. They lacked placards, though a piece of paper provided a simple index.
Seeing these images for the third time (after the Internet and the book), I was well used to them. But despite the inappropriate setting, their power remained undiminished. This was the closest to life-size I’d ever see them, free of browser restrictions and page divisions. The inappropriate setting only cast these images in greater relief. (The fake snow machine in the adjacent indoor courtyard seemed particularly apt.) A corpsepaint and leather-clad Abbath walking in verdant woods was both risible and touching. My favorite image was of Kvitrafn in the streets of Bergen, as a passing lady eyes his get-up. Despite his inclusion in a camera lens, he’s still a misfit.
Great to read your thoughts on the text. I’ve been looking for this book all year, but have yet to find it in my otherwise outstanding local bookstore. Time to cave in and order the thing!
CBC Radio One did a terrific interview with Beste the other day.
This is a great book. We ran some of the images on the back page of Metal Edge earlier this year.
I have the 2nd edition. I ordered it from Peter Beste and he signed it. I was expecting a coffee table book, but when I got it in the mail, it was MASSIVE. My favorite image is the one of Nattefrost in the bathtub with his corpse paint still on, holding a bottle of wine, looking at the camera like a Black Metal superstar.
Bacon, that Nattefrost picture was great but you forgot that he was also smeared in his own shit. Yikes!
I saw the exhibit at Zune LA as well and appreciated the re-contextualizing of the imagery into a gallery setting. It doesn’t take a metalhead to be drawn to the visual flair of black metal. Having Beste’s photos sitting flush against a white wall made them that much more powerful to me. Of course I was mostly there because of the subject matter, but I loved that a random gallery-goer could fall in love with Beste’s photographs as photographs. Loved the one of Gaahl walking to his grandmother’s shack in a snowstorm.
The recent overground fascination with black metal served to make it extremely self-conscious and then it proceeded to neuter itself (of course exceptions exist). All variations of HM work best when misunderstood and unappreciated by ‘normals’. I don’t think there’s any reason to be excited by recent developments such as these or the KFC commercial besides from an anthropological standpoint of course. And also yes, the pictures are pretty, but for me they’re just one huge facegroan.
Exposing the humans behind the facepaint (which as far as I understand is Bestes point) is not the same as exposing the humanity of their art (which would actually take quite a bit more subversion than just a corpsepainted dude walking around and scaring grandmas). I hope we go back to the time when HM was ridiculed by hipsters and a very distant and confusing mode of expression for most people. Break the mirror, less questions reflect!
Helm, you need to have some perspective here. The vast majority – I would say at least 95% of people I encounter in everyday life whom I expose to metal or – have no basically no understanding of it. For them, dudes with long hair playing abrasive music is already quite foreign, even without black metal’s extra trappings.
> All variations of HM work best when misunderstood and unappreciated by 'normals'…I hope we go back to the time when HM was ridiculed by hipsters and a very distant and confusing mode of expression for most people.
What are you, 15?
Cosmo: I do not understand your phrasing ‘whom I expose to metal or -’ but I think I get your point. In relation to the population at large of course I agree the recent hipster fixation with black metal doesn’t add up to much of a difference, but there is a movement and there is a reason and you can spot it all the way from the art nerd coffetable books right up (or down) to vapid celebrities and their stylist-bought vintage Iron Maiden shirts. Fascination with the image of HM is occurring more and more and instead of feeling flattered we should be more skeptical.
pdf: Your condescension does not touch me. If you to ask a real question, phrase it without the internetisms.
Helm, I don’t understand that phrasing, either – the moral is not to go around commenting on blogs when one is sleepless and just having gotten off a plane. But, yes, you got what I meant. Mainstream exposure of course merits a raised eyebrow. But consider each case individually. Beste’s book is different from an ironic t-shirt. And the sum total is probably nil. I think we have different conceptions about the “danger” to metal from outside forces. I feel there is none. Metal is old and big and strong enough to withstand whatever. It has already survived glam metal, Hot Topic, VH1, Pitchfork, etc. The underground remains. I don’t worry anymore about hipsters or irony. Chaff blows away, is weeded out, etc. Metal doesn’t need to be understood or misunderstood. It just is, and does.
I feel somewhat differently from you, Cosmo, and (obviously) very differently from basement-dwelling Helm. I am quite firmly in the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” camp. Every single person who expresses an interest in metal is welcome, as far as I’m concerned. Sure, new folks are uninformed, and sometimes fail to understand why corpse paint isn’t funny at all, no sirree. But far better to engage them in conversation, and effect a genuine exchange of ideas, rather than turning one’s back and muttering “hipster!”
I don’t believe there’s anything innately virtuous about being “underground.” If your ambition is only to sell 1000 copies of your record, so that’s all you press, well, okay, but don’t expect me to applaud your integrity, or cut you any slack when writing a review. I am of the mind that an artist should always aim for the largest possible audience – by that I don’t mean the artist should cynically imitate that which has been commercially successful in the past, but in rather that he/she should “dream big.” I think, for example, that Nortt’s music (which I love) could be warmly received by more people than are presently hearing it, but the effort to reach out is not being made. On the other hand, I also like Disturbed’s music, and I am glad to see them still selling records.
Success is not something to be feared. And while the customer may not always be right, there’s no such thing as the “wrong” customer, at least not in any business I’ve ever worked in.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, pdf. Our opinions really aren’t so different. I, too, want to draw others to metal, regardless of who they are. That is why we are both commenting in this space. (Also, name-calling doesn’t belong in a “genuine exchange of ideas.”) We differ in that I don’t think that all press is necessarily good press. If the media incompetently presents metal to people, that can hurt our efforts to show them the good stuff.
Yes, “underground” by itself doesn’t deserve lauding. But it is metal’s core. The popular stuff is almost always a variation of some more difficult, “pure” strain. I don’t think that art needs to “reach out.” Not every artist should strive for U2’s universality. Art does need to express genuinely and competently. The audience, in whatever size, will naturally follow. Nortt gets his; Disturbed gets theirs.
>Not every artist should strive for U2’s universality. Art does need to express genuinely and competently. The audience, in whatever size, will naturally follow. Nortt gets his; Disturbed gets theirs.
Yeah, but I think some artists – while they shouldn’t strive for U2-esque numbers (which no band in any genre is likely to achieve in the future; we’re at the end of an era) – are selling themselves short, so to speak. Placing artificial limitations on the potential reception of one’s art (vinyl instead of CD, for example) is self-sabotage, and folks can gussy it up by saying “well, I’m reaching the people I really want to reach,” but how do you know you’re not alienating someone like – I don’t know – me, who loves a lot of underground music but hasn’t owned a turntable since the early ’90s? (I don’t even think my wife brought a turntable with us to our first apartment, and we got married in ‘93.)
pdf – If bands want to shoot themselves in the foot in the market, that’s their problem. And it’s up to them to choose their media. Maybe they feel they can present more or better with vinyl. They will gain or lose accordingly. That should bother them, not you. You, if you want the music badly enough, will find a way to get it, and will interpret it however you want. The beauty of the customer that’s never “wrong” is that he/she can redefine a work outside the artist’s original conception.
>If bands want to shoot themselves in the foot in the market, that’s their problem.
Agreed. I’m just annoyed by bands that do exactly that, but then want a cookie (in the form of “cred”) for doing so. And by scenesters all too willing to pass out cred-cookies for what I see as commercial short-sightedness.
Cosmo:
Beste’s book is different from an ironic t-shirt.
Well yes, I did mention that I understood Beste’s intention to be about humanization and candidacy and not any sort of ‘lol’. I do consider things case by case. My skepticism doesn’t stem so much from the mainstream flirtations themselves but of how these things reflect on the actual HM artists (or black metal in this case). I don’t think this sort of navel-gazing does any good for their art, in fact it hurts it a lot! Thinking about the artists Beste photographed from my taste none of them right now (sadly, not even Taake anymore) are making vital music. Immortal, Gorgoroth, Emperor… he photographed relics for their sociological value. It’s not Beste’s fault, and I will concede the point that HM will just keep on going and ostensibly doesn’t need guardians from the underground. After all, great HM records were and are made in a solitary bedroom, away from other human beings.
What I’m more afraid of is not that actual, good HM records will stop coming out immediately because some celebrity wore an Iron Maiden t-shirt. What I’m afraid is that the few actual visionary, honest and passionate HM records that come out each year will not be understood by an audience that will be comprised more and more of people interested in textures and dynamics of distortion and scenes and hype and not of people interested in the story behind the form, which is in the final matter, the sort of audience this music is made for. The people making visionary HM today realized at some point that it wasn’t just about riffs, but this lesson seems to be going out of style the more the image of HM is appropriated by the mainstream.
pdf:
there is no such thing as bad publicity
Do you say this from an editorial position? Would you run any sort of news on any sort of band and shoulder off the responsibility of what it means on the grounds of that ‘hey, it’s still publicity’?
and sometimes fail to understand why corpse paint isn’t funny at all
Corpsepaint was funny from the beginning. However it was part of a bigger thing… a transgression that was initially innocent and human. Which has been now romanticized and sensationalized and unquestioned to the degree that it reads more like a perpetuating self-conscious farce. It’s people writing shock pieces about a murder or about a burnt church without full concern of what they’re writing that are to blame for this but hey, as you said, any publicity is good publicity, right?
>Do you say this from an editorial position?
Yes. When I am discussing metal here, it is in one of two modes, frequently both at once: I am a fan, but I am also a journalist, a chronicler, a historian. I do not make music myself; the creative part of me doesn't think in bars and notes and chords, but in words and sentences and paragraphs.
>Would you run any sort of news on any sort of band and shoulder off the responsibility of what it means on the grounds of that ‘hey, it’s still publicity’?
I think we're talking past each other. Explain what "responsibility" means in the above context. Frequently, those who are not journalists or critics have a somewhat different idea of what a journalist's or critic's "responsibility" to the reader is than the journalist or critic himself has, or that the journalism/criticism industry as a whole regards itself as having. So define your terms and we can discuss quite a bit from there, I think.
> but hey, as you said, any publicity is good publicity, right?
You requested in an earlier comment that I not condescend to you. I request that from here on, you offer me the same respect.
I’m sorry if you were offended by my leading question. I also think you tried too much there to equate our lapses in manners, but perhaps it’s best not to dwell, it’s not the first time I’ve been insulted on the internet, it won’t be the last.
Responsibility for the journalist:
To tell the truth as you know it, therefore to go to the greatest extent possible to be accurate in your knowledge, to be fair in your judgments, to be held accountable for your statements.
You can go to blabbermouth, as an example, and see none of these qualities on display.
Oh man, I’ve loved that Kvitrafn picture since the first time I saw it. One of my favorite band-related photos ever!