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| by Cosmo Lee |
Another day, another black metal documentary. A fellow named William Shackleford is filming a new black metal documentary called Out of the Black. He is a Christian in Kentucky who runs “The Rural Democrat,” a Democrat-slanted blog. Evidently he has been exchanging emails with Varg Vikernes. You can’t make this stuff up. The press page for the documentary is here.
The field of black metal documentaries is already overcrowded. (Why can’t someone make a doom metal documentary?) At least seven eight exist — not counting that upcoming Hollywood trainwreck.
Black Metal: A Documentary
This is by the infamous Bill Zebub. (Evidently, he has done another black metal documentary, and is working on yet another one called Black Metal: The Music of Satan.) The documentary is online in 13 parts. The first part is here. (Use the “Related Videos” sidebar to see the other parts.) The first part has a good bit by Cronos of Venom where he calls the Norwegian black metal scene “not black metal.”
Black Metal Satanica
I heard this was decent. Evidently it focuses on the religious/anti-religious aspects of the music. It is available online, in nine parts. The first part is here; use “Related Videos” for the rest.
Det Svarte Alvor
A Norwegian documentary from 1994. I have not seen this one. It is online in four parts (subtitles included): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
NRK1 Black Metal Documentary
A 2003 documentary on Norwegian state TV (subtitles included). I have trouble watching this because the female host is distractingly hot. It is viewable online in four parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Pure Fucking Mayhem
This came out recently. I haven’t seen this (I gave away my copy in a giveaway here), but evidently it’s decent. It’s not about black metal in general, but obviously the band’s history relates to the genre’s history. The trailer is here. The first chapter is online in two parts: Part 1, Part 2
Satan Rides the Media
Media about the media: a 1998 Norwegian documentary about press coverage of the church burnings, etc. Online in six parts (subtitles included): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
True Norwegian Black Metal
This is the infamous Vice TV documentary on Gaahl. It is enormously entertaining in ways it did not intend. You can see it online in five parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Until the Light Takes Us
We reviewed this here. This is the recent documentary focusing on Fenriz and Varg Vikernes. Evidently it does not try to encompass black metal as a whole. The trailer is here.
Tired yet? I am, and I haven’t even seen most of these. I’m sure they’re interesting in various ways, but I just don’t care to have black metal explained so much. It’s supposed to be full of mystery and magic(k). Reducing it to talking heads misses the point. By far my most fulfilling experiences with black metal have been hearing it in headphones and immersing myself in the music. My favorite black metal bands aren’t big names. They won’t make it into documentaries — and I prefer it that way. I’d rather discover them on my own terms.
Related posts:
How can you foget the seminal Satan Rides the Media?
Pretty soon they'll have Burzum shirts at Hot Topic.
Stink – Fixed! That was on the tip of my mental tongue, but I couldn't recall it until you mentioned it. Thanks.
I would love to make a doom documentary…
That assumes wearing a pirated Burzum shirt right now isn't equally as lame. It's the extreme metal equivalent of wearing the Rolling Stones logo shirt. It's like, "I get it, you like the same music everyone else knows about and enjoys".
Burzum is the height of meaningless and people still focusing on Norwegian black metal years after any sort of actual journalism would've done some good is kind of pathetic. If someone did an hour-long piece on French black metal, that'd be cool and (barely) timely. What about grind? Or doom? Sludge and doom would be fascinating just because of the dialectic between one's roots in hardcore and one's roots in trad. metal, plus NOLA and Katrina, etc. etc.
Jess – Do it!
Christopher – There is that upcoming sludge metal documentary:
http://invisibleoranges.com/2009/09/slow-southern-steelcoming-slowly.html
"Burzum is the height of meaningless"
Good god. Any god.
For a doom metal documentary if it focused on sludge and more modern stuff you'd get a lot of annoyed people because the whole early era of traditional metal to epic doom metal is arguably more historically significant. The Finnish funeral doom era is a thing in itself also, for example, can't just lump it in with Grief and Eyehategod. Esoteric are another thing, man there's a *lot* of doom branches come to think of it.
I've been hearing about "Such Hawks, Such Hounds" recently. Anyone seen that? I think Wino is in it amongst others.
Wondering why people continue to make documentaries about Black Metal = wondering why media outlets cover death and destruction.
why all the hate on the "hollywood" adaptation of lords of chaos? would it be a more appealing film if it were to be directed by the dardenne bros? Or perhaps reteam larry clark and harmony korine with scion and vice mag writing the checks?
"Reducing it to talking heads misses the point." – I shouldn't think so. If we have the capacity of articulate reflection, we should by all means employ it. THIS is black metal.
Frost's verbalizations, for example, are priceless. "Black metal is a "strict melancholy"…
Of course, few employ their philosophical capacity, and nobody needs empty chatter.
"Pretty soon they'll have Burzum shirts at Hot Topic."
They already do:
http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/BandTees/Burzum-Filosofem-TShirt-168016.jsp
Which isn't a big deal, actually.
^ Of course it is a big deal, unless they're selling Hitler t-shirts as well…
I'm still waiting for "How Grim Was My Valley"
Such Hawks, Such Hounds is a great documentary on what they call "The American Hard Rock underground" with Wino, Dead Meadow, Black Mountain, Matt Pike, Om, Sunn O))), Mudhoney, Billy Anderson. Highly recommended.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1377796/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhRYmYHJxrc
There is also The Misanthrope but that's less of a look into black metal and more of just look into the lives of Darkthone.
Such Hawks, Such Hounds better have Witchfinder General, Pentagram, Trouble, St. Vitus, The Obssessed, Solitude Aeternus, and Candlemass in it.
Carm – Such Hawks, Such Hounds focuses on the American psych/stoner scene (rock, some metal), so it's not going to have Witchfinder General or Candlemass.
I’m looking forward to seeing the new black metal doc.
Although – there are a lot of crap docs out there about black metal, (just as theres a shitload of crap black metal bands) there are still some true gems here and there. Satan rides the media and True Norwegian Black Metal were quite good.
But by now the story of Varg and he kill-starting black metal in the media is getting quite the bore. The world looms ever closer to only wanting to be shocked and abhorred. I’m hoping the new doc will focus on something else than image compared to the real life the artists lead, or the raw music itself.
Almost the entire black metal scene is compromised by having an image, and sell more on the shock value than the music. It is just another commercial value nowadays than what it used to be. Teen rebellion, yawn!