Scheduled dreariness: Xasthur
A further daily excerpt from Cold World…
It is significant that a common term of approbation in black metal circles is “true” (as in “true Norwegian black metal”). The early years of the genre were stimulated by a vigorous tape-trading scene, in which third- or fourth-generation copies of already low-quality recordings were circulated between devotees. Darkthrone’s seminal “Transylvanian Hunger” was recorded with such a raw, hissy, compressed sound that a first-generation copy might easily have been mistaken for a live performance captured by a fan waving a Dictaphone. This cadaverous “necro” sound, degraded and degenerate, was originally an artefact of the limited means of production and distribution available to black metal musicians (Varg Vikernes’s recordings as Burzum were largely funded by his mother). Almost from the beginning, however, it was established as a token of authenticity, a sign that the artist had sincerely broken away from what was regarded as a sterile and commercialised mainstream metal scene. Accordingly, low (or deliberately lowered) production values and primitive (by contemporary standards) recording techniques are one of the ways in which a black metal artist can demonstrate fidelity to the genre’s roots.
“Late” black metal artists such as Xasthur and Striborg takes this sonic degradation a step further, emphasising the dissonant, eerie elements within the original template. Striborg’s Sin Nanna reduces the guttural vocal rasp of black metal vocals from a menacing growl to a squawking death-rattle, the sound of some gnarled woodland spirit expectorating apoplectically in the darkness, while unmartialing the taut rumble of Darkthrone’s blast beats into a chaotic clatter of freeform drumming. The aura the music diffuses is one of confused, asphyxiating dread, like an attack of sleep paralysis (or the experience, common among those who believe they have been abducted by supernatural beings, of waking in the darkness and finding oneself immobilized and invaded by a hostile presence). Xasthur, meanwhile, builds on the atonal riffing of Burzum and the disfigured counterpoint of Manes and Mütiilation to construct a sound-world in which consonance is continually menaced by intrusions from another harmonic universe. Guitars and synths are deliberately detuned so that complex multi-tracked arrangements curdle and pulse with malign energy. If the hypnotic, tranquilising texture of the music suggests a return to the womb, the “disharmonic convergence” of Xasthur’s compositional approach evokes a fouled and toxic ante-natal environment.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:09 am
The sound of recordings from the early black metal scene was as much a choice of aesthetics as it was a result of limited resources [cf. The Third and the Mortal’s “Sorrow” and Gehenna’s “First Spell”, both released on Head Not Found Records (HNF02 and HNF03, respectively)]. The extremely distorted vocals on “Filosofem” were achieved after Varg Vikernes asked for the worst microphone in the studio.
On a related note, Chris Knox (of independent pop group The Tall Dwarves) once protested that his music was “hi-fi”; it was always his intention to have the best possible sound for his recordings, even if the physical constraints left him producing music that was branded “lo-fi”.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Yes, it isn’t just a matter of making a virtue of necessity, but almost of simulating necessity, the point where privation starts to bite. It’s a salvaged rawness rather than a primal rawness, as ECW very rightly points out. Dead’s habit of burying his stage clothes days before a performance, then digging them up again and wearing them on stage, exemplifies this kind of necro-monstration.