When Atsuo, the single-named singer-drummer for the sludgy Japanese post-metal band Boris, was asked recently in the online magazine radcompany.net about the influence of Satan on the band's work, he gave a predictably high-minded answer, engaging the question's absurdity - heavy metal's Satanic influenceis one of the genre's great clichés - and then trumping it. "It's simple to talk about Satan as a symbol, but it's important to consider the deeper meaning of the symbol," he said in one of his rare interviews to be translated into English. "To me, the Devil is not a symbol, but a moment that touches on morals. The moment when a person changes - that is the Devil."Does that strike you as intellectual or ... I don't know ... something out of the "Spinal Tap" screenplay? But then, it doesn't matter so much what they say as how it sounds. I stop at the heavy metal stations on XM radio when I'm driving in my car and am often surprised at how good things by bands with strange names sound. I tell myself to remember the names. I don't know if the ones I've liked are the same art metal trend the Times is tracking. They do name a lot of bands in the article, but unfortunately I've forgotten all the names I meant to remember.
September 18, 2005
Art metal.
Heavy metal music has gotten rather intellectual. So says the NYT. I don't know. You decide. This is offered up as evidence:
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6 comments:
Not just the umlaut but the "S" in Boris would be a lightning rune -- (the Nazi SS "S") and there would be songs inspired by sword and sorcery fantasy.
Dave Mustaine from Megadeth is about the only metal guy I've heard who could actually have an intellectual conversation where he seemed to understand the words he used.
Most of the metal guys I hear talk (say on Headbanger's Ball, etc.) are on the level of Kanye West or Ludacris, et al. They
are inventive, but hardly ones to talk wth any knowledge on world issues.
Ah! Celtic Frost -- I almost forgot...
I think the closest metal got to being intellectual was back when Dream Theater were making interesting records 1989-1998. Sadly they've rather wandered off the reservation into mindless technical excercises and trite lyrics since '98, but they were brilliant while they lasted.
I enjoyed Some Kind of Monster for the peek inside Metallica's creative process. I'm not exactly a metal fan, but it's fun to observe self-absorbed creative types from a certain distance regardless of their creative medium.
It amazes me sometimes how far people can get confusing their feelings with their thoughts, like the two are interchangeable.
I loved "Some Kind of Monster." Here's my old post about it.
I never liked metal. It has no sense of humor. Everything's so SERIOUS.
To each his own.
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