Burzumic Burial

“As far as I am concerned, I love everything that presents this dimension of mixing, everything mixed blood, from sarcophagi dating from Roman times with faces of splendidly made-up women painted in the most realistic way to Fuegeans wearing European pants found in shipwrecks, not forgetting Alexandrine philosophy and the unmatchable elegance of Harlem negroes along the way” - Michel Leiris.

In the 1990’s, I loved this very dimension of mixing in Mick Harris’s, Kevin Martin’s and Justin Broadrick’s many bands – Scorn, Godflesh, God, Ice, Techno Animal, The Bug, Curse of the Golden Vampire; and in the many compilations these artists made (Macro Dub Infection, Jazz Satellites, Isolationism; and not to forget the Electric Ladyland series), I loved the mixed blood of ‘white’ (grindcore, industrial, ambient) and ‘black’ (jazz, dub, drum & bass, techno) underground musics.

Of course, Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick are still quite active. Nonetheless, I’d very much like to see more miscegenation among current underground genres such as doom metal, dubstep, black metal and grime.

On one hand, for black metal, syncretism appears as yet to be far off, the genre sadly still being in the grips of racism and the ‘troo’, the ‘ kvlt’ and the ‘elite’. Yet in my minds ear I can already hear black metal’s ice-cold buzzing-bees-in-a-bucket guitars swarming around deep, warm, syrupy dubstep bass.

On the other hand, as far as doom metal is concerned, things seem to be on the move: on internet forums, many have pointed out similarities between doom metal and dubstep, qua slowness and use of sub-bass; both Kode9 and Sunn 0)))’s Stephen O’Malley have devoted blog entries to sound weaponry; and a very nice doom metal/hip hop mashup has appeared on the internet.

So: give me a Blood and Fire vs. Blood Fire Death soundclash, a Burzumic Burial, a Sunn-Skream, a Satanic Dubmaster, a Vex’d Xasthur, a Loefah Leviathan: the stars are right!