Comment by aasasd
7 years ago
I'd like to see a study like this done on members of the Norwegian black metal scene from the early 90s. Because I still can't figure out what the burnings and stuff were about (aside from paganism, I guess), and “TROO” metalheads sound pretty crazy even compared to all the other ‘alternative’ culture aficionados.
But generally, of course, this experiment seems like just one bit of a proper comprehensive study.
The way I see it, metal bands in other countries and cultures had a lot of societal issues to channel into their music. Mostly repressive religion, and also political instability in South America, conservatism in the US, the end days and aftermath of the Cold War in Germany and Eastern Europe, just to name a few.
Norway didn't really have much of that. It was (and is) a really safe country, very stable, religion is mostly pretty bland non-offensive Protestantism, most people maintain very ordinary non-spectacular lifestyles.
The 2nd wave black metallers felt completely suffocated by this quiet peaceful existence, so they rebelled against the peace and quiet and tolerance, and took teenage rebellion to absolute extremes, doing whatever they could to frighten the ordinary people.
There were probably also other issues wrapped up in it, I think Dead (Mayhem's lead singer, who killed himself) was depressed or maybe had even deeper issues. These guys felt like outcasts in their own homes, so they acted out.
TROO or TRVE metalheads aren't just in black metal, although I think they are more prevalent there. We have them in every genre, from death to folk to power metal and beyond. There's a drive for some people to identify themselves by the things they like and even more by the things they don't like. Some people just get really wrapped up in something they care a lot about, and music affects us on a very primal level.
Here's a great Defcon talk from Neil Fallon (lead singer of Clutch) about how music tugs at our emotions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVx5Y1OE-KE
Burnings where the extreme outliers, maybe like there where some killings in the American hip-hop scene at the same time. Remember that the (black) metal scene in Norway was so large that in the late '90s a black metal band had a song in the national top 20 list for weeks (Satyricon, fuel for hatred). What a handful of persons taking it to the extreme, did do not define the scene
Edit: Don't underestimate the calming effect from death/black metal when writing code
> calming effect from death/black metal when writing code
For a looong time, I've been looking for techno or breakbeat with proper metal, i.e. more than some vague guitar buzz. No luck.
Filmmaker's ‘Crepuscular’ might be the closest thing yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XvB64VU3yw
For some reason, a steady rhythm vastly outperforms anything else as a soundtrack for coding.
You'd love Karma to Burn then, example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxGD45SK08o
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the norwegian scene was mainly just edgy teenagers making music as an affront to the overly commercialized nature of metal at that time, with more roots in punk/folk than what most people think of as "metal", and ofc hail satan/vandalizing bullshit is going to be the route you take if you live in nowhere norway
ironically now the 1st and 2nd wave bm bands are used as aesthetic pieces for edgy mainstream artists