BLACK METAL'S CURSE
Someone once said that when we are young, our opponent is the future, and as we get older, our opponent becomes the past. An interesting proposition. What lies ahead and what lies behind are completely different - one entices us, while the other haunts us. The two sensations mix from time to time to create nostalgia. Take a look at you high school graduation photos. Chances are you'll blush. You should have gotten a new hair cut, longer pants or maybe your face was too bumby. You can laugh about it now, but what if you weren't one of the hopelessly confused? What if your high school days were your glory days, and now those days are over. You probably won't laugh as easily, or just maybe, you may not laugh at all. Sometimes the past can be a big pain in the arse.
Black Metal knows that feeling all to well, Its past, its mysterious, glorified past, has become its most attractive trait. Take a look at some of the most (in)famous Black Metal images of the past - the 'true' Mayhem playing a loud-as-fuck gig in the former East Germany, the parties above Helvete, the Count running from the flames of another burning church. Those were the days. When a similar moment is attempted or provided nowadays by say, Limbonic Art or Arcturus, they immediately get compared, most unfavourably, to their predecessors. Maybe the music is too well-produced (?!?), maybe their lack of corpse paint is not 'true' enough or, popular of late, too much melody and to many keyboards. Nostalgia is Black Metal's lifeblood. We're intoxicated by it. It makes us raise old time heroes like Euronymous, Dead, and Bard Faust to godlike status. It makes us buy 2nd hand vinyls, now faded t-shirts, and limited editon reprints from overseas, all at exorbitant prices, that make us ask the eternal question, 'Remember when?'
As Black Metal struggles to reassert itself in today's crowded Metal soundscape, its past keeps us from fully enjoying its more than worthwhile present, although release from Ulver, Borknagar, Children of Bodom, and Sigh have met with good responses. Now the major publications are mulling over the question 'Is Black Metal back?' What a stupid question answers the thousands of fans who never doubted its staying power in the first place. Such a question has been asked repeatedly over the years, an answered by the aforementioned bands, and many others including Old Man's Child, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Covenant, ...In The Woods, Solefald, Agathadaimon, Nazxul, Golden Dawn, Keep of Kalessin, Dark Funeral, Ancient, and even some old hats like Emperor, Marduk, and the 'new' Mayhem. With such an impressive list, one could be forgiven for wondering not whether Black Metal is back, but if it ever left to begin with.