Last week, the New York Times ran a report from “Hideous Gnosis” which the Grey Lady described as “a six-hour theory symposium on black-metal music” at Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Public Assembly bar.
I’d heard about this on Invisible Oranges and was moderately intrigued. I don’t like the music, but it’s impossible as a metal fan to completely ignore the sub-genre’s impact, and I giggled at the thought of this “symposium.” I imagined a kvlt event like that would be held at a cold, concrete dungeon, adorned with candles and big tomes written in dead languages — kind of like the glimpse we got into Gaahl’s basement in A Headbanger’s Journey. A bar was probably a better setting–nothing better than a quick side-game of Golden Tee to keep you awake during a snoozer like this. (Ohhh snap!)
But the article in the Times (“Thank You, Professor, That Was Putrid”) genuinely piqued my interest in the event. Writer Ben Ratliff did a respectable job explaining the bare-bones-basic nuances of extreme metal in a way that the average non-metal Times reader could understand (one of my non-metal coworkers seemed to get the gist of it). He avoided getting ass-kissy or judgmental, and he clearly knows enough about black metal to write with (relative) authority. There were some groan-worthy moments — my eyes rolled back into my head reading Liturgy‘s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s thoughts on “burst beats” and the American spirit of transcendentalism in his band’s music — but it got my gears turning.
My first instinct was to write a sarcastic post here about how nerdy and unmetal the idea of studying metal is, but I’ve decided to give the “Hideous Gnosis” transcripts a read-through and try — God, I’ll try– to give the music a fair shake again. Pretentious opining to follow.
~ Liam
Hideous Gnosis volume now published.
http://blackmetaltheory.blogspot.com/2010/02/hideous-gnosis-is-here.html
Hideous Gnosis: Black Metal Theory Symposium 1. Edited by Nicola Masciandaro. 292 pages. $20.00. ISBN 1450572162. EAN-13 9781450572163.
Essays and documents related to Hideous Gnosis, a symposium on black metal theory, which took place on December 12, 2009 in Brooklyn, NY. Expanded and Revised.
“Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous” (Lovecraft)
“Poison yourself . . . with thought” (Arizmenda)
CONTENTS
Steven Shakespeare, “The Light that Illuminates Itself, the Dark that Soils Itself: Blackened Notes from Schelling’s Underground.”
Erik Butler, “The Counter-Reformation in Stone and Metal: Spiritual Substances.”
Scott Wilson, “BAsileus philosoPHOrum METaloricum.”
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, “Transcendental Black Metal.”
Nicola Masciandaro, “Anti-Cosmosis: Black Mahapralaya.”
Joseph Russo, “Perpetue Putesco – Perpetually I Putrefy.”
Benjamin Noys, “‘Remain True to the Earth!’: Remarks on the Politics of Black Metal.”
Evan Calder Williams, “The Headless Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
Brandon Stosuy, “Meaningful Leaning Mess.”
Aspasia Stephanou, “Playing Wolves and Red Riding Hoods in Black Metal.”
Anthony Sciscione, “‘Goatsteps Behind My Steps . . .’: Black Metal and Ritual Renewal.”
Eugene Thacker, “Three Questions on Demonology.”
Niall Scott, “Black Confessions and Absu-lution.”
DOCUMENTS: Lionel Maunz, Pineal Eye; Oyku Tekten, Symposium Photographs; Scott Wilson, “Pop Journalism and the Passion for Ignorance”; Karlynn Holland, Sin Eater I-V; Nicola Masciandaro and Reza Negarestani, Black Metal Commentary; Black Metal Theory Blog Comments; Letter from Andrew White; E.S.S.E, Murder Devour I.