Event Title

Session 8: Metal to the Extreme

Location

Kennedy Union Ballroom

Start Date

7-11-2014 3:15 PM

End Date

7-11-2014 5:00 PM

Description

Imke von Helden: “'The Pagan Reunion Awaits': The Construction of Cultural Identity in Norwegian Metal Music"

The metal music scene as a glocal cultural phenomenon offers a way of dealing with globalisation and of finding, defining and reassuring oneself of one’s own cultural identity within the frame of an imagined global community. This particularly applies to metal genres with Viking- and Norse mythology-themed band concepts, especially from Scandinavian countries. However, apart from tourism and children’s books, these topics no longer occur to most people in Norwegian society. This, along with the presentation of metal aesthetics might be the cause for a scepticism towards Norse-themed metal music not only in Scandinavia. Especially in Germany, these topics are often associated with right-wing extremism and racism due to extensive use of mythology and runes and the ideal of a strong, blonde-haired, blue-eyed warrior in Nazi-Germany. The killings committed by Breivik in 2011 showed that there is still awareness for this topic in Norwegian society.

It is the aim of this presentation to delve into the Norwegian Viking metal genre and to identify the meaning and various functions attached to these topics in- and outside the scene. I will do so by looking at selected examples of band concepts in terms of the visual, lyrical as well as sonic levels and add information on the artists’ motivations that I gathered in interviews with Norwegian musicians and during field research. Additionally, I will provide a survey of the various literary and archaeological sources used in (re-)constructing the Viking Age in metal music.

Ross Hagen: "'Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the...:' Ritualism and Depersonalization in Underground Extreme Music"

This paper explores the use of ritualistic discourse and action in underground black metal and electronic noise music as a strategy for authentication. In particular, I focus on the tactic of depersonalization, in which the humanness of the performer is literally or metaphorically masked through costuming, "extended" performance techniques, or mediating technology. In black metal performance, the use of elaborate costumes, corpse-paint makeup, and pseudonyms mediates between the musician and the audience by creating a supernatural character for the musician to inhabit. Similarly, the musical style focuses on the limits of performance technique and human endurance. Electronic noise music takes a different path to a similar result. Noise musicians employ arrays of customized equipment that diminish any connection between the performer’s actions and the resulting sounds, essentially absorbing the performer’s persona into the identities of their equipment.

Rather than invoking falseness and artifice, masks and technological mediation serve here as a marker for the transcendence of mundane humanity. Through this transcendence, they become signs of authenticated, “timeless,” and unchanging ritual as opposed to the capriciousness of popular entertainment. Although black metal frequently references both pagan and Christian ritual, the past of black metal itself and its standard musical gestures are now additional, if not primary, founts of inspiration. Noise music likewise often uses a fairly narrow sonic palette, even as the methods of sound production are highly individualized. However, I argue that when viewed through the lens of ritualistic discourse, such consistency is not a mark of creative stagnation or commodification, but rather a desired property that provides authority, continuity, and a bulwark against commercialism.

Carl Sederholm: "Answering Cthulhu’s Call: Exploring Lovecraftian Cosmicism in Extreme Metal"

H. P. Lovecraft, the author of tales such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” and “The Colour Out of Space,” has never been so popular as he is now, in the early decades of the 21st Century. Adaptations and appropriations of his work may be found across various media, including television, movies, board games, internet memes, Youtube videos, toys, video games, fan fiction, graphic novels, and music. Though many people recognize, even champion, this influence, very few have discussed the way this influence has impacted heavy metal music, one of the most important genres for keeping his work and many of ideas alive. Over the years, several people have come to understand something of Lovecraft’s importance to the genre from once-popular songs like Metallica’s “Call of Ktulu” or “The Thing that Should Not Be.” Iron Maiden’s classic album Live After Death also included a passage taken from Lovecraft on the cover art, thereby connecting both the band and the creature known as Eddie to Lovecraft’s larger mythos. Since those days, Lovecraftian components have multiplied rapidly, especially in more extreme kinds of metal, becoming not only part of the music and lyrics, but also part of the iconography of album art (and sometimes even tattoos). Even though Lovecraft’s influence is fairly easy to recognize, its significance has yet to be explained adequately, particularly for the way it shapes heavy metal’s own brand of cosmicism. In my paper, I will discuss Lovecraft’s influence on the music, but, more importantly, I will also suggest ways in which Lovecraft’s work also connects to heavy metal’s own implied mythos. Put another way, I will suggest that certain strands of heavy metal music is—as Lovecraft called his own fiction—weird and that they share a common understanding of the tenuous nature of human existence, the mysterious qualities of the universe, and the simultaneous hope for—perhaps even a fear of—living forever.

Matthew Tote: "Sonic Transgression and Regression in the Norwegian Black Metal Tradition (1992-1997)"

No other variety of metal music during the first half of the 1990s placed more emphasis on lo-fidelity underproduction as a defining style trait than Norwegian second-wave black metal. Early Norwegian black metal artists cultivated a lo-fi noise aesthetic while other sub-genres of metal embraced and preferred advanced recording technologies in order to clearly translate their technical performances. The transparent expression of Judeo-Christian transgression, whether through aural, oral, or behavioral means, was also pervasive throughout the early-1990s Norwegian black metal scene, whose exponents shared a desire to revive and preserve their Norse heritage. Drawing in part from other historians’ theses that historically the forward motion of technology is in numerous ways the project of Christian transcendence and salvation, it is argued in my paper that the lo-fi aesthetic of early Norwegian black metal was a defining mode of transgression against, and regression from, technological progress, specifically that of advanced audio production techniques. Thus, two correlating modes of “transgressive regression” are characteristic of much early Norwegian black metal recordings: transgressive regression from Christianity—the most dominant religion in Norway since the turn of the twentieth century—and transgressive regression from modern studio recording practices. By consciously under-producing their recordings, forerunners of the Norwegian second wave released albums that aimed for a sense of primitivism, which at the same time critiqued modernity and evoked a Ludditic sonic impression of pre-Christian Norwegian society to accompany their pagan lyrics and imagery. Seminal early Norwegian black metal recordings are explored to illustrate their tendency to regress in sound fidelity rather than improve in quality over time, as heard in Darkthrone’s first four albums, Ulver’s black metal trilogy, and the early output of Burzum and Gorgoroth.

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Nov 7th, 3:15 PM Nov 7th, 5:00 PM

Session 8: Metal to the Extreme

Kennedy Union Ballroom

Imke von Helden: “'The Pagan Reunion Awaits': The Construction of Cultural Identity in Norwegian Metal Music"

The metal music scene as a glocal cultural phenomenon offers a way of dealing with globalisation and of finding, defining and reassuring oneself of one’s own cultural identity within the frame of an imagined global community. This particularly applies to metal genres with Viking- and Norse mythology-themed band concepts, especially from Scandinavian countries. However, apart from tourism and children’s books, these topics no longer occur to most people in Norwegian society. This, along with the presentation of metal aesthetics might be the cause for a scepticism towards Norse-themed metal music not only in Scandinavia. Especially in Germany, these topics are often associated with right-wing extremism and racism due to extensive use of mythology and runes and the ideal of a strong, blonde-haired, blue-eyed warrior in Nazi-Germany. The killings committed by Breivik in 2011 showed that there is still awareness for this topic in Norwegian society.

It is the aim of this presentation to delve into the Norwegian Viking metal genre and to identify the meaning and various functions attached to these topics in- and outside the scene. I will do so by looking at selected examples of band concepts in terms of the visual, lyrical as well as sonic levels and add information on the artists’ motivations that I gathered in interviews with Norwegian musicians and during field research. Additionally, I will provide a survey of the various literary and archaeological sources used in (re-)constructing the Viking Age in metal music.

Ross Hagen: "'Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the...:' Ritualism and Depersonalization in Underground Extreme Music"

This paper explores the use of ritualistic discourse and action in underground black metal and electronic noise music as a strategy for authentication. In particular, I focus on the tactic of depersonalization, in which the humanness of the performer is literally or metaphorically masked through costuming, "extended" performance techniques, or mediating technology. In black metal performance, the use of elaborate costumes, corpse-paint makeup, and pseudonyms mediates between the musician and the audience by creating a supernatural character for the musician to inhabit. Similarly, the musical style focuses on the limits of performance technique and human endurance. Electronic noise music takes a different path to a similar result. Noise musicians employ arrays of customized equipment that diminish any connection between the performer’s actions and the resulting sounds, essentially absorbing the performer’s persona into the identities of their equipment.

Rather than invoking falseness and artifice, masks and technological mediation serve here as a marker for the transcendence of mundane humanity. Through this transcendence, they become signs of authenticated, “timeless,” and unchanging ritual as opposed to the capriciousness of popular entertainment. Although black metal frequently references both pagan and Christian ritual, the past of black metal itself and its standard musical gestures are now additional, if not primary, founts of inspiration. Noise music likewise often uses a fairly narrow sonic palette, even as the methods of sound production are highly individualized. However, I argue that when viewed through the lens of ritualistic discourse, such consistency is not a mark of creative stagnation or commodification, but rather a desired property that provides authority, continuity, and a bulwark against commercialism.

Carl Sederholm: "Answering Cthulhu’s Call: Exploring Lovecraftian Cosmicism in Extreme Metal"

H. P. Lovecraft, the author of tales such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” and “The Colour Out of Space,” has never been so popular as he is now, in the early decades of the 21st Century. Adaptations and appropriations of his work may be found across various media, including television, movies, board games, internet memes, Youtube videos, toys, video games, fan fiction, graphic novels, and music. Though many people recognize, even champion, this influence, very few have discussed the way this influence has impacted heavy metal music, one of the most important genres for keeping his work and many of ideas alive. Over the years, several people have come to understand something of Lovecraft’s importance to the genre from once-popular songs like Metallica’s “Call of Ktulu” or “The Thing that Should Not Be.” Iron Maiden’s classic album Live After Death also included a passage taken from Lovecraft on the cover art, thereby connecting both the band and the creature known as Eddie to Lovecraft’s larger mythos. Since those days, Lovecraftian components have multiplied rapidly, especially in more extreme kinds of metal, becoming not only part of the music and lyrics, but also part of the iconography of album art (and sometimes even tattoos). Even though Lovecraft’s influence is fairly easy to recognize, its significance has yet to be explained adequately, particularly for the way it shapes heavy metal’s own brand of cosmicism. In my paper, I will discuss Lovecraft’s influence on the music, but, more importantly, I will also suggest ways in which Lovecraft’s work also connects to heavy metal’s own implied mythos. Put another way, I will suggest that certain strands of heavy metal music is—as Lovecraft called his own fiction—weird and that they share a common understanding of the tenuous nature of human existence, the mysterious qualities of the universe, and the simultaneous hope for—perhaps even a fear of—living forever.

Matthew Tote: "Sonic Transgression and Regression in the Norwegian Black Metal Tradition (1992-1997)"

No other variety of metal music during the first half of the 1990s placed more emphasis on lo-fidelity underproduction as a defining style trait than Norwegian second-wave black metal. Early Norwegian black metal artists cultivated a lo-fi noise aesthetic while other sub-genres of metal embraced and preferred advanced recording technologies in order to clearly translate their technical performances. The transparent expression of Judeo-Christian transgression, whether through aural, oral, or behavioral means, was also pervasive throughout the early-1990s Norwegian black metal scene, whose exponents shared a desire to revive and preserve their Norse heritage. Drawing in part from other historians’ theses that historically the forward motion of technology is in numerous ways the project of Christian transcendence and salvation, it is argued in my paper that the lo-fi aesthetic of early Norwegian black metal was a defining mode of transgression against, and regression from, technological progress, specifically that of advanced audio production techniques. Thus, two correlating modes of “transgressive regression” are characteristic of much early Norwegian black metal recordings: transgressive regression from Christianity—the most dominant religion in Norway since the turn of the twentieth century—and transgressive regression from modern studio recording practices. By consciously under-producing their recordings, forerunners of the Norwegian second wave released albums that aimed for a sense of primitivism, which at the same time critiqued modernity and evoked a Ludditic sonic impression of pre-Christian Norwegian society to accompany their pagan lyrics and imagery. Seminal early Norwegian black metal recordings are explored to illustrate their tendency to regress in sound fidelity rather than improve in quality over time, as heard in Darkthrone’s first four albums, Ulver’s black metal trilogy, and the early output of Burzum and Gorgoroth.