This poetic little nugget (sent in by Mark Erickson) comparing and contrasting the Burst Beat with the Blast Beat, may be the most expansively cosmic piece of music writing ever. Titled, “Transcendental Black Metal: A Vision of Apocalyptic Humanism,” this ponderous net-ifesto has ignited controversy wherever it has been read. The author, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, said to be a former Columbia philosophy student, leads a NY-based band called Liturgy.
JK Manlove, responding to this sentence by Hunt-Hendrix,
“And it is at the same time the constitution of an apocalyptic humanism to be termed Aesthetics,”
asks,
“Is that where the fancy-dress Satanism comes in? Or is that the Lacanian void where the “excess” of the Real should be? Or what we laypersons might term the lack of songwriting?”
Noted music critic and Pop Conference presenter Tom Kipp adds, “I was of course fascinated by its “Theory Whore” elements, not to mention (in a related matter) its inscrutability!”
http://www.lacan.com/lacinkXXXV7.html
Inscrutable or not, Theory Whorish or not, Eric Buhle has chosen to educate us on Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and his place in United States Black Metal:
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix – The Self-Syled Tempest in the Teapot of United States Black Metal, By Eric Buhle
Ah, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. Such a self-styled tempest — and a very successful one at that — in the teapot that is USBM. You may recall that in the months (knowing me, it was probably many months) following the NWFF screening of Until the Light Takes Us (the DVD of which, btw, is fantastic and highly recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in black metal), I mentioned this book, the proceedings from the “First Annual Black Metal Symposium” held in that legendary black-metal crucible, Brooklyn NY. At the time the Symposium was held, Liturgy had yet to release their first (well, first widely distributed) full-length and HH-H had not yet made himself the fish in a barrel that he is today, but I believe his essay “Transcendental Black Metal” was first published in that volume. Nice progression there. I admit I have only read excerpts from this volume, but I would be interested in a thorough review by someone who is a serious fan of the genre, and who has the stomach for this sort of thing. Have yet to meet that particular combination, though I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.
Liturgy’s actual music is a totally unremarkable exercise in the genre. More on this in a moment. The only reason anyone is talking about this band, however, is HH-H’s public persona, expressed via his writings and interviews. That persona, and his “philosophy”, is polarizing: some people think he is a visionary, one of the leading lights of USBM, while others think he is a complete phony and want to defenestrate him. As you have noticed, I am in the latter camp (though I would prefer to strangle and then defenestrate…anyway).
I’m sure this dude raises the hackles of many “tr00”, “kvlt” black-metallers who are simply opposed on principle to any intellectualization of the genre, but as an occasional humanities sympathizer and confirmed Theory Whore myself (granted, it’s a bit different in ecology: mainly I just love math), that isn’t my objection. My beef is that HH-H pretends to be a great many grandiose things, but as My Bloody Valentine would say (in their own best self-description), isn’t anything. What’s worse, by not-too-strenuous extension, he condescends to his predecessors and peers, many of whom I would frankly call his betters.
I don’t object to the description of black metal as “transcendental”, but Liturgy has no corner on this market. At its best, the genre has always had a narcotic, almost perversely languid quality. As much as Transilvanian Hunger and Filosofem are about romantic / nihilistic rage, directed out toward a world that has abandoned them, they are equally directed inward, filled with grief and resignation. This is perhaps the main respect in which black metal diverges from thrash and death metal, not just in terms of style but content. (As some wag — Peter Hook? — remarked, “Punk said ‘fuck you’. Joy Division said ‘I’m fucked.’) Relative to thrash’s outward, often politically motivated violence and death’s nihilistic wallowing in the ugliness of the flesh, black metal’s goals have always been mystical, lofty, spiritual, and yes, transcendental.
Likewise, this “burst beat”, which supposedly “innovates” on the hoary old blast beat by being “more true to life”, “more like systems in nature”, if you will — ya know, because “First, the tempo accelerates and decelerates; it expands and contracts, like breathing, or the economy, etc. Secondly, it abruptly crosses thresholds between different modes. Just as water goes from ice to liquid to gas, or a horse goes from walk to trot to canter . . .” (sorry, my clipboard buffer ran out). This here is an example of HH-H’s “burst beats”, it would seem (0:40-0:45). Basically, he is doubling (and maybe quadrupling, depending on the song and the part) the notes per meter — from, let’s say 16th notes (because I never understood how you defined a “note” anyway, which is probably related to the fact that I don’t play anymore) to 32nd notes, to possibly 64th notes — and then back down again, 32nd to 16th.
It’s a total gimmick, and I admit, kind of a cool one. Danny Carey of Tool used this trick to excellent effect on the song ‘The Grudge’. He does it twice — in the intro, and again in the sorta cathartic part where Maynard has just exorcised all his ex-wife’s demons and needs some ridiculous drum shit to send him on his way. Danny supplies it. I am fully aware of how unacceptable it is to love Tool. Also, I love Tool. And that is a great song. Danny’s weird-ass time-signature changes sound so much more natural, so much more emotional to me, than this thing in this band which is fronted by a boychik named Hunter Hunt-Hendrix.
Okay. “Pagan Dawn” is not a bad black metal song. Sounds very much like Krallice, a cool NYC band with my dear friend Kyla’s cousin Lev on drums. But from its deepest roots in the ’80s (Venom, anyone?), to the consolidating “second wave” in early-’90s Norway, black metal has always thrived on amateurism. As Fenriz of Darkthrone (who started out as a technical death metal band but quickly became one of the second-wave pioneers, and whose early works remain, to me, thee avatar of the genre) pointed out, “I’ve spent 20 years learning how to not play the drums.” The definitive black metal has always had a sort of seasick, swoony rhythm to its blast-beats, whether born of technical incompetence (early Burzum, the entire French Les Legiones Noires wave in the mid-’90s, recent North Americans like Akitsa or Bone Awl), sheer contrarianism (Darkthrone), or the sort of weird Moiré-vibration shifting beat center that happens when you play a repetitive drum pattern and a repetitive gtr pattern at the same super-fast tempo for a long-ass time (everyone good). The main difference I see with these “burst beats” is that they are more contrived — they try to simulate a sense of chaos, of being out of control, while actually being none of those things at all. (Isn’t anything.)
Lest I come across as a simple curmudgeon (which I am) who is mired in the past (which I’m not), I am just struck by the fact that there are so many wonderful US black metal bands out there right now, some of whom get plenty of ink, but many of whom are unknown, certainly by comparison to the media darling HH-H, and a handful of whom are at least as articulate and have just as much to contribute to the [cough] dialogue. The best example, and my favorite USBM band, is Olympia’s own Wolves In the Throne Room. A truly great band, and not obscure by any stretch. These guys get their share of ink, but they deserve it. They also draw their share of haters, many of whom have critiques that might sound not entirely unlike mine of Liturgy. Also, many critiques from the kind of knee-jerk tr00 kvlt metallers I mentioned earlier. Unlike HH-H, however, they are not motivated by theory, but by feeling; but they articulate the theory underlying their feelings in a way that has consistently impressed me. Basically — and I’m doing them an injustice here — they have reappropriated the sort of nationalistic tendencies of early black metal (the “ugly” elements that frighten indie kids away from Burzum and toward the likes of Liturgy) in the service of an entirely different agenda. Instead of racial purity nonsense, WitTR are about a sort of bioregional nativism, a deep ecological agenda. They draw the parallel b/w a clearcut on the Olympic Peninsula and a Xtian church in Bergen. B/w an ancient forest and “ancient Vikings”. I’ll just stop and let drummer Aaron Weaver speak, because this is one of the best interviews I’ve ever read.
All right! Enough about this.
I won’t be going to Bumbershoot this year. I have only been a couple of times in recent years — once, last year, to see Bob Dylan (because I felt obliged) and Neko Case (who was so hot to see Dylan, she basically upstaged him, which wasn’t hard…pun intended), and a few years before that to see Public Enemy (who were fucking awesome, and who got the entire crowd in Memorial Stadium pogo-ing and chanting “FUCK GEORGE BUSH! HE’S A SONOFA…BAD MAN!”). I looked at this year’s lineup and concluded immediately that there was just about nothing I’d want to see, much less pay the price of a BBSHT ticket for. Plus, I am kinda under the gun — got a big mtg next week, and a talk to give. Must admit, I had a tiny pang of regret when I saw that Pentagram is playing. Speaking of people who should not be alive by now… Please, someone, go see Pentagram and report back to me. I thank you in advance.
– Eric Buhle
