Gregor XIII

Apparantly, this interesting band does not have their own thread. Hipster Black Metal, which of course is by far the best kind of Black Metal. Just kidding. I find their philosophies and manifests quite interesting, and I liked their first album Renihilation just fine. Couldn't really figure out how those two things were related though. The album is mainly BM played as rock songs, it is good and it's impressive how 'normal' they make this really extreme genre sound.

The reason they need their own thread, though, is because of their new album Aesthetica. The first two songs I've heard, High Gold and Generation, are just incredible. Very different, but great and interesting both of them. High Gold is a short Black Metal anthem, with howls and shrieks and the like, Generation is more of a minimalist BM-Kraut-Rock thing. It reminds me of Oneida or Boredoms when they are at their most repetitive, but with a BM tinge. Pitchfork has links to it.

__________________
Agnes Varda's Le Bonheur + thoughts on women in Akhmatova and Mizuguchi: The Centrifugue

Alfred

I thoroughly enjoy Aesthetica, one of my favorite releases of the year. I'm not near deep enough into black metal to get pissed about their differentiation and lack of trve kvlt practices. This shit slays.

__________________

hip hop bunny hop

You're missing the point about why people get pissed off about hipster black metal. People are pissed about it not because the bands are different, but because the bands (1) set out to make music that's first and foremost different (as opposed to good), and (2) the bands use the most obvious portions of black metal symbolism and sound to accomplish this.

Black metal for these bands is a means to being different.

__________________
Have mercy on the poor.

Zer0

So because something is different it means that it's not good? I can't get my head around that logic. Most of these so-called "hipster"(?) black metal bands don't even identify themselves as being black metal bands. Sure they take influence from it (why not?), but they take influences from a multitude of other musical styles as well. At the end of the day the bands are expressing themselves through music and not giving a fuck what anyone else thinks.

By the way was black metal not always a means to being different?

__________________

Alfred

The thing is, I don't give a shit about any of these things you just said. Liturgy make awesome music, I don't care what their motivations are for doing so.

__________________

hip hop bunny hop

Alfred, Liturgy are a quality band. However, I will continue to question bands motives and have no problem with playing the poser card.

In reply to the bolded; I was saying, or at least tried to say, that when bands put being "different" above being "good", the end result generally sucks and the people who are making it usually suck.

In regards to the underlined; Black Metal took the restrictive rules of the by then firmly established metal genre, and increased the restrictions. Of course it's easy to point out that the restrictive nature of the subgenre goes against the supposed anarchic spirit of the bands, but it is this contradiction upon which the subgenre is built.

__________________
Have mercy on the poor.

Alfred

Okay, it just seemed like you were attacking the band for straying from the black metal norm. I didn't realize you enjoyed Liturgy.

__________________

Unicr0n

The poser/hipster aspect of the group doesn't really affect me -- mostly because I have a hard time believing that MOST of the people involved in black metal and all the related subgenres don't ACTUALLY walk around in their tr00 and gr1m kvlt facepaint while grimacing and wearing bracers with six inch nails jutting from every surface (I mean really, how would you even say grace with those things?).

This statement excludes Gaahl from Gorgoroth. Because if I included him in this statement he would probably hunt me down, punch me in the mouth and drink my blood.

Anyways. Their music is alright. To me they sound like a more metal Lightning Bolt, which isn't a bad thing by any means, but at the same time, I hear so much similarity with artists like Lightning Bolt that I don't find it nearly as interesting as most seem to.

__________________
Go ahead, pick apart my tastes. I know you want to.

Metal Connoisseur

I've been listening through this album for a couple of days now on spotify and I enjoy it very much. I don't really care about whether or not they wear corpse paint or are trve kvlt but I will say there is an undercurrent of pretension present on the record. I can't really pinpoint where it comes from but that's the only slight I have against it. Amazing album.

Alfred

Knowing what the band looks like is pretty funny, since they look like the type of guys who would be playing Fleet Foxes/Okkervil River type stuff. The girly-looking one is the singer.

__________________