Well, we knew it was coming. With all of the social justice groups and hivemind mentality that drives them, it was only a matter of time before one of the most purposely offensive genres in heavy metal became wiped out of existence. Of course, I’m talking about black metal. For a genre that leaped out of England with pseudo-Satanic acts like Venom and spread itself into Norway where it was perfected into a hate-filled ball of ice, black metal has always had a very dark and offensive nature to it. But that’s the point. Black metal was a genre that celebrated some of the most horrific views in human existence and gave some extremely crazy and arguably unstable individuals a place to create, whether that was in or out of jail. Varg can attest to that much, and we can clearly see that he definitely isn’t the most stable of human beings to walk the planet earth. Mayhem of course had their fun as well, with several church burnings and the suicide incident, not to mention several other things that we all should know by now. In other words, none of this is new and it is all attributed to black metal.
Problem is, these guys have for many decades, used imagery that the new generation doesn’t find appropriate and I don’t feel that some of these bands will ever water this imagery down to appeal to the new culture. In fact, I think some will just realize that the early days of the genre are pretty much dead and that the fat lady has sung. Personally, I think she sang long ago. Not that there haven’t been any worthwhile albums to come out of the genre, but there has been a lot of road repaving due to the ridiculous influx of acts unleashed upon us over the last decade and among that influx have been a great deal of attacks on the old guard. Marduk, Inquisition, Watain and several other acts are just getting hammered by Metal Sucks lately and while I understand why people are responding the way that they did, I am surprised that they wouldn’t have expected any of this. As you know, Metal Sucks is the tabloid rag end of Ben Umanov’s Blast Beat Network of which I highly disdain and wish were gutted. Though this is not because of their whistleblowing, but because they don’t practice what they preach and are only doing these articles to spark outrage, which elicits clicks and views. It’s the Fox News formula and worked well in the nursing home that I worked in for several years. Fox News was great at sensationalism, which equaled out to high profits for the Murdoch family (which also own Vice by the way, just in case you were unaware). This sensationalism is in fact doing the same thing that roweled up the old folks, which in turn made them mouthpieces for everything that Fox said. However, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud and that is the defense of several black metal fans coming out of the woodwork to say that yes, this music is offensive and yes, people do hold some very extreme views. Though at the same time this is what they expect and enjoy from the music. They also added that those people who do not like the music can indeed find enjoyment elsewhere. This is literally the same argument that feminists will make about anime breasts, and the same fan response to boot – “if you don’t like large breasted anime women, you are free to look elsewhere.”
That being said, are those fans that listen to black metal or enjoy large breasted anime girls (like myself, though I’m staring to see Oppai anime as more comical now than anything else) misogynists, rapists and nazis? No, probably not. Though I’m sure there is more than one confused social justice type who has never heard the heavy metal genre in their life (and yes, I have had a young woman that I work with ask me “what kind of music is that?” when I was playing a Testament record from my mobile) and has such a low attention span that he or she believes this to be the case, but those are few and far between. And again, most of these people are not even fans. If they were born twenty years earlier, they’d be demonizing it over religious reasons. Which brings me to the whole comparison between social justice and the religious right. Both seek to ban or censor materials based on what they consider to be virtuous moral value. Whether it be the Bible or their very own set standards that they feel everyone should live by, that doesn’t stop these types of people from demonizing everything that they feel compromises their views. Instead of turning off the TV, they keep looking for something to degrade in a program or advertisement. Instead of turning off the music that they don’t like, they find reasons as to why it’s listeners might be evil. That evil could either be the age old “possessed by demons” or several new terms of degradation, like “misogynists, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, Nazis” you name it. If you can call someone a term and it dehumanizes them, then that’s what they’ll use. They want you to feel less than human, like one of Satan’s own. Unfortunately, there are people who live so much for this and feel that they are such heroes and such messiahs, that they literally get up every morning and find problems with media and how it can be fixed to suit their standards of immeasurable perfection. Eventually, ostracizing so much of this material will backfire in their faces however, as we had with the massive death and black metal scenes that came out of intolerance for the stupidity of the religious right at the time. One could say that acts like Slayer and Deicide might have their careers to thank for it. Certainly, Glen Benton. But I digress.
But we’re missing something. Yeah, that’s right. There was one band out there who wasn’t afraid to piss off anyone. They killed everyone that you could think of on the stage and defiled countless social pariahs over the years. Of course, I’m talking about GWAR. Even though the Scumdogs are still going, and arguably going strong under Bishop; I would love to hear Brockie’s thoughts on this age that we’ve walked into. What would GWAR do with these Social Justice types? Would it have been a sort of sequel to America Must Be Destroyed, where they took out the religious right? Would these people be the bastard spawn of the villains in that album? But honestly, GWAR have become such a product and less of a statement, that I think we need a new band with the same kind of edge. Honestly, I think a bunch of mutated Nazi’s that looked liked Toxic Avenger rip-offs would be great. They could go on stage with rebel flags that have Swastikas in the center of them, then pretend to fuck little plastic models of babies or something. Just something the would really offend folks in the way that the religious right became offended by GWAR in the nineties. It’s an idea that sounds so ridiculous that it would almost have to work. You’d have people scurrying en masse to come see these guys play for better or worse, songs with titles quite similar to that of goregrind and pornogrind. Because you have to put that unchecked misogyny in there somewhere. Even Anal Cunt would be a great resource for that, given their treasure trove of offensive lyrics.
But when I suggest all that, you think – is this guy crazy? Well, that’s debatable. I had my mental exam last year and other than an anxiety diagnosis, I was considered relatively normal; albeit with above average intelligence. But in all honesty, when we talk about someone like G.G. Allin and GWAR who still managed to amass a lot of fans regardless of what kind of messages they were putting forth, it says that there is definitely a place for an act like this in the scene. If an obscure act like BabyMetal can become as popular as they are today, then this hypothetical “most hated and offensive act” in the current scene would also gain some level of notoriety. Because more people would get the joke, then those who wouldn’t. The people who complained, “Why would these people talk about rape and misogyny and praise fascist ideologies that hold back progressive society?” would be the same people who would have said in the nineties, “Why would someone create such a hideous work of Satan that spits on a merciful, loving God?” In a sense, it would show that things have a way of coming back around, which has me hopeful for a full-on disco revival.
But before The Grim Lord rolls on into “Saturday Night Fever” and begins to look up old disco suits online (don’t forget the mustache and fro) let’s talk about something completely different, but heavily related, as well as the cultural impact it had in a completely different country. Grab your pocky and put on your weeaboo hats, because we’re going to the land of the rising Sun.
Detroit Metal City is a vulgar comedy Seinen manga series by Kiminori Wakasugi serialized in Young Animal from ’05-’10. An anime OVA series was produced by Studio 4°C with just twelve very tiny thirteen minute episodes in August of ’08. Surprisingly, a live film adaptation of the series directed by Toshio Lee was also created on August 23rd, just a few weeks after the anime had aired. The story begins with a young musician by the name of Soichi Negishi, who wants nothing more than to write the most saccharine dream pop you’ve ever heard in your life. Unfortunately, his music is essentially considered terrible by most people, so he takes up the job as lead vocalist for a blackened death (they’re not really blackened death, more like groove-thrash with slight death metal elements) act by the name of Detroit Metal City as Johannes Krauser II. Krauser is rumored to have done everything that would be a clickbait wet dream for Metal Sucks, which includes being a terrorist demon from hell who raped and murdered his parents and wields his giant death penis with complete abandon. One of the trademarks of Krauser’s stage show is his ninety rapes a minute, where he says “raperaperaperaperaperaperaperaperape…” with the same amount of force as an auctioneer. The series essentially revolves around Soicihi being a rageaholic, who brings out the Krauser persona more and more as he becomes frustrated with his failure to become a pop artist, and it is a bit comical watching the character’s antics, like the episode where he was forced to go back and forth from a signing as Krauser to a normal date as Soichi within the span of an hour. The live version adapted this scene very well, and it remains one of my personal favorites. I also have a copy of the record that released around the time of the live action film, which literally is Makai Yugi. As in, they assembled a team of musicians and were able to record a full album as would have been released from an actual Japanese metal band. The record is extremely offensive, telling fans to do all sorts of things like rape and murder. There’s even a song which translates to “Rape That Girl” that details the kind of imagery they had in mind for the act. Anyone who has watched the anime or the film knows what we’re dealing with here and Japan more or less recognized the parody nature of it. Makai Yugi couldn’t really be compared to any of the Dethalbums though, because these tracks were just a little more over the top in some cases, despite being completely sung in the band’s native. That being said, anime OP and band theme “Satsugai/Murder” does contain some English lyrics.
Now that you’ve read my pseudo-review of Makai Yugi, let’s go back just a few lines. You’ll remember that I said, “Anyone who has watched the anime or the film knows what we’re dealing with here and Japan more or less recognized the parody nature of it.” However, I don’t think that what I said there was quite right. Rather, what I meant to say was that Japan recognized the parody nature of it to such an extent that they had some of the most popular J-pop acts of the time gather to record their own songs in a heavy metal style. The disc is essentially titled Detroit Metal City: Tribute To Krauser II The Metal Mix, but the Japanese title is a bit longer and contains the word “Sacrifice” as part of it. In any case, this selection of various LPs and single releases also contains the songs that Soichi sang in the anime/film too, like “Sweet Lover” and “Raspberry Kiss” as well as singles from the fictional bands in the series, like the punk band Kintama Girls and the rapper MC Kiva. So at any rate, it was a big thing in Japan for a while and just sort of petered out after the film. All of this material was released here in the west, so go track it down. That being said, the songs were extremely offensive and the culture didn’t seem to mind. There weren’t any groups banning the anime series or the Toho produced film for misogyny, promotion of rape, murder, fascism or anything else, surprisingly. The Japanese just sort of went about their merry way with it. Though I guess this has a lot more to do with Asian culture than western American culture in general. As I’ve noticed, the number of social justice advocates in Japan and other places in Asia are quite small. I’ve also noticed that many game developers over there mock us. But come on, we’re talking about the place responsible for anime girls, oversized breasts and even that dangerous subject of lolicon (even though I’ll argue that traps have somehow become more popular – who knew that ladyboys would ever become a serious thing in anime culture?) which many people in the west feel is a dangerous door to pedophilia for youths. But that’s a completely different subject altogether and one of very little importance to me. That being noted, we should also note that Japan is a very odd country with used panties available in vending machines, people reading eroge at the bus station, love hotels and much more. Yet they are also a very traditional society that believes in proper morals, hard work and cleanliness. Some Japanese schools don’t even have any janitors, the students clean the school as a sign of respect for it. Japanese people have also been known to work off the clock for ridiculous amounts of time, which has resulted in overexertion and the death of several anime artists. It is a much different culture than our own.
But what can we learn from it? We can learn that first of all, bands of an extreme nature will utilize imagery that we do not feel is appropriate. They may sing about topics that we do not agree with, but we don’t have to. That’s what you aren’t understanding. Even I don’t have to agree with the kinds of topics that pro-social justice bands sing about, but I can still like the music. I’m not vegan, but I still enjoy the music of Deadlock. I don’t consider myself prejudiced at all and feel that most racial stereotypes are a bit humorous for all races, my own included. I used to like going into offensive humor groups (where I had actually found and talked to an awesome Asian IFBB) where I could read all of the silly memes and such for white, black, Latin and every other color. Yeah, some of those people were downright racist to the core. But I’ll say it again. that there were some non-prejudiced people who would answer what was meant to be an offensive statement in a very logical way. You could also get insight into other people’s backgrounds and discover why they think the way they do. It could either be cultural, religious, environmental – there are a lot of reasons as to why people feel a certain way about different topics and I see it often at my place of work. I’ve never agreed with all opinions nor language, but I do respect other people’s views and the reasons behind them. The truth is that some people have personal truths that are so engrained into them, no amount of social discourse will change them. It takes a lot of people and a lot of viewpoints to make a world, and as long as they aren’t acting upon any hatred that they have for one another, I’ll condone it to an extent. I’ll also add that I’ve never had disdain for any one culture as a whole, but people in those cultures can really grind my gears a bit. There are people that just rub me wrong and it doesn’t matter what color their skin is. I’ve noticed this working in the public. It doesn’t take a certain color to be an asshole, they come in several varieties. I might even be an asshole. You might be an asshole. We all might be assholes to someone. So the next time that someone calls someone else an asshole, tell them, “Well, you know – you might be an asshole to someone too.”
So, we’ve been everywhere with this one. Starting to feel like Johnny Cash a bit, eh? In any case, I hope that what I said makes some sense to you and I hope that you’ll see that some of the ideologies in black metal are to nihilism, misanthropy and fascism in the same way that goregrind and pornogrind are to rape, murder and misogyny. Even death metal had it’s share of these topics, so there’s no real getting out of that bubble in this extreme underground portion of the scene. If you don’t like anime girls with big breasts, just don’t look at them. No one is forcing you to do so. Same with black metal. If you don’t care for the themes of some of it’s bands, then you don’t have to listen to or support them. If you don’t approve of what a member did, but still enjoy the band; then you have to learn how to separate the artist from the artistic medium. I like Jeepers Creepers, for example. But I don’t care for what Victor Salva did. Same with Ren & Stimpy, which my mother and I have loved for decades. I don’t know if you are aware of the allegations towards it’s creator John Kricfalusi, but things are not looking good for him right now. It’s only a matter of time before more people are called out from out of the woodwork and you’ll be tested with even more situations in which you’ll have to separate the art from the artist. But if you can’t do that, you don’t have to. Rather, you can just skip over it so that someone else who can respect the medium for what it is still has a chance to enjoy it. That I think, is the biggest takeaway out of all this.
– The Grim Lord
UPDATE (5/15/2023)
Years after this rant, it has become more than apparent to me that black metal today just completely fucking sucks. It’s like all the hard edge got sanded down. You have a lot of these bands lately who just aren’t doing anything I haven’t heard before and done better in the heyday of the genre. Gallowbraid? He’s nothing special either. The guy’s making the same kind of Native American black metal that similar acts have covered and can be unearthed with a simple Google search. It’s nothing incredible. There are a handful of bands that still have that raw energy and power, but they often get buried amongst the acts who want to pretend it’s 1996 again and go fucking nowhere. And I’m sick of hearing about Satan too, because no one these days seems to be able to make ominous and evil enough riffs to justify that. I want to hear fucking funereal death dirges and I’m not. Everyone either wants to get folky, or they’re playing around in hipster Americana. That’s not black metal. That’s the sound of black metal meeting an excruciatingly painful death. You know what’s funny? I’m hearing more edge and aggression from Nu-Metal these days than I’ve been hearing from black metal. Offend someone! Piss people off! Say a vulgar word or two! What the hell was this genre formed for if not that? The whole black movement was a rebellion against not only oppressive religion, but against very safe rock music. Black metal was essentially the GNR equivalent to hair metal if you will. Say what you want about Axl today, but it’s the kind of attitude that he had, that Phile Anelsmo had with Pantera that made this kind of music what it is. A lot of black metal has it’s direct roots in punk. A punk music so fierce and unrelenting that the only logical answer was something like black metal. You have no idea how many black metal records I’ve put on lately and have bored me to tears. If your goal was to take all of the piss and vinegar out of black metal so we don’t offend anyone, then congratulations. You’ve done it. A fucking Japanese satire cartoon has more balls than actual fucking black metal bands these days. Gwar had more balls when Brockie was behind them too, but that’s a different conversation.