Friday, October 20, 2006

Christian black metal

In august, I wrote in this blog: "... I feel black metal could acknowledge the tragic dimension inherent in the myth of the crucified Christ - the bible's portrayal of the night of Golgotha is more blackened by far than the many black metal bands' music".

In this months Wire, from an interview with Jazkamers Lasse Marhaug: "... the black metal scene seems to have grown up, meaning that they don't burn churches and have started to behave nicely. So the rebellion factor within the genre is fairly low today. You even have christian black metal bands".

That there are now christian black metal bands makes it necessary to clarify the position taken in the august blog post. It was not a call for christian black metal. Nor was my post on christian imagery in Godflesh's music a call for christian grindcore. Such an idea would be repugnant to me.

The posts are readings of christianity along the lines suggested by Nietzsche, Sir James Frazer, Emile Durckheim and their progeny - thinkers that destabilized christianity. At the same time, the posts attempt to destabilize black metal - a genre that is both badly in need of deformation (in the Marhaug interview it is said that in Norway black metal bands are subsidized. Subsidized!) and yet still has immense potential for transgressive destabilization: at the moment, black metal haunts many music genres...

To deform christianity and satanistic black metal in one stroke - is that megalomania?

No comments: