The Dark Heart of Black Metal

I have always believed that Black Metal contains the highest potential for creative freedom and artistic innovation. For example, when comparing different bands in the death metal genre, the differences are certainly there to see for the initiated, but the formula is generally the same. The same applies to the thrash, grindcore, punk, glam, etc. genres. All of the acts within those styles are essentially the same ideas channeled through slightly different vessels.
With Black Metal, however, there is layer upon layer of understanding and experience that must be traveled through in order to comprehend the full scope of what has been done and can be done within it's broad confines. For example, no one with any knowledge of Black Metal would compare Venom to Secrets of the Moon, or Dissection to Ad Hominem or Lifelover.
I'm sure there are countless “metalheads” who would love to disagree and argue with me. To them I say Fuck You. I will open your throat and leave you to bleed out on the pavement like the insignificant insect you are. You are nothing, and that is all I will say about that.

Another important point of Black Metal – we are all insects, or worse. This is one of the fundamental lessons of the genre, which to many is also a philosophy or way of life. I'm not referring to the clothes one wears, or the slang one adopts into their vocabulary (though many such sheep are attracted to black metal, like anything else). I'm referring to the core beliefs and principles that are essential to understanding the true aim of Black Metal – and all true art, once you understand it.

There is an answer to all the questions that you used to ask, before you got old and became jaded or disillusioned with the journey for truth. The answer has always been there. You just never were able to put all the pieces together, and you gave up. You have yourself to blame for it, and you will wander the Earth and this plane of existence for eternity until you find the way.
Black Metal is a gateway to liberation – creatively, spiritually, and LITERALLY. It isn't just music. Some of it is “just music” though, just like people or spiritual teachings or art – just fodder, fashion, filler, or fucking useless distractions. But if you have an eye for it, and are at least awakened enough to recognize the truth or something real when you see/hear it, it is buried under all the rotting corpses of the unworthy, like the shining truth in our own history of “civilization”.

Therein lies another point I'd like to focus on. To the uninitiated, Black Metal appears as one of two things: either A) a sideshow act with themes of Halloween and ghouls and goblins (sometimes Scandinavian pagan stereotypes), set to symphonic circus music, thanks to more mainstream, theatrical bands that have perverted and sterilized the spirit of Black Metal, or B) an indistinguishable and vast array of identically face-painted and black-clad losers dabbling in Darkthrone-worshipping raw static noise, sometimes running around in the woods and calling out to Anton LaVey's distorted idea of Satan.

These two stereotypes are very real, unfortunately. The former primarily consists of people who will not grow out of it, because in their heart they are truly weak and long for the illusion of beauty. That will not change unless they are somehow traumatized by life events.
The latter is a trap that those who WERE on the right path can easily fall into, and often do.
The numbers of bands or musicians out there who focus their life around this kind of music and lifestyle are staggering. On the surface it seems like so much wasted potential, but really it is exactly as it should be, because these false representations of Black Metal serve a very important purpose. They act as a wall that keeps the dark heart of black metal obscured to the masses. People think they understand based on what they see, and at times this can be frustrating, but eventually one realizes that, just as in occult practices and the path of a Gnostic spiritual warrior, the truth is not for everyone. The truth does not come with a pretty t-shirt and does not have a sweet flavor. It is bitter and abominable, and so very beautiful, shining in it's own black light.
This is another aspect of Black Metal that I find very fascinating, the multi-tiered path one must traverse to ascend (or descend, if you will) into it's dark heart. It is so accessible to anyone with a musical instrument and a set of lungs, but it will naturally restrict and weed out the weak, and siphon through the true believers, and the true artists.

These are just a few of the reasons why I choose to create, destroy, exist, and die under the banner of Black Metal.

Until next time...