Detox from mainstream?

[Thamuz]

Detox? As in isolation?

It certainly takes a whole lot more thought and intellect to face one's self and become comfortable with an environment as presented before you such as modern society and live in it without submitting to careless desire than to just run away for a while and expect to be cured. The former is certainly more noble.

[1337Dude]

There's too much "To like metal you have to be like x" in this thread. I disagree completely that you have to be rebellious and aggressive to enjoy metal. You don't have to agree with all the ideas behind the music either. It's just not how things work. Not everyone trying to examine black metal, the ideas, and the composition behind it are long-haired society-hating hessians.

You can't just start listening to extreme metal either. If that's how it worked, extreme metal would be much more popular. You have to be curious and willing to try listening to more things. Most people are blind to society's issues, unimportant morals, the corruption of Christianity, and several other ideas presented in metal - but chances they won't listen to the music unless they are already unhappy with their society.

No television isn't going to change anything either. I don't even get this idea. Obviously television is unimportant and wrong, but by taking it away you aren't going to make someone's philisophies change.

[oscar the cat]

There's too much "To like metal you have to be like x" in this thread. I disagree completely that you have to be rebellious and aggressive to enjoy metal. You don't have to agree with all the ideas behind the music either.
...
You can't just start listening to extreme metal either. If that's how it worked, extreme metal would be much more popular.

You're confusing understanding the ideas with being able to articulate them. People aren't equal. A visual artist isn't gonna see metal the same way as a philosopher would, but they'd both grasp something of its ideology.

[Raise_the_Dead]

I did this once.  I didn't talk to friends, did not work, stayed far away from all media (including metal, although I did listen to a little classical), stayed abstinent, etc. for a period of a couple weeks.  I fasted for some time as well.  All I can say is that life (reality) was a LOT clearer after doing this, and I recommend a "detox" period (a month or more) to anyone who wants to clear their mind (aka nihilism) of the bullshit and false dogma of our society.

[kontinual]

Sounds interesting.  One question:

stayed far away from all media

Does this mean all books as well?

Two weeks spent simply in the act of avoiding these things is virtually the trial in itself.

[Dionysius]

No television isn't going to change anything either. I don't even get this idea. Obviously television is unimportant and wrong, but by taking it away you aren't going to make someone's philisophies change.

I wouldn't expect peoples philosophies to change either but it can certainly change someones perception of the world if that person stays away from television for a while. I also think the way we see ourselves and treat others is influenced by television. Perhaps this is more obvious in Europe than in the USA since the whole process of distraction is partly related to Americanization here. But it can be boiled down to the same reason why most "old fashioned" people don't want to have the television on while they're eating: they want to keep their own culture and spend time being together instead of just being in the same room.

Two weeks spent simply in the act of avoiding these things is virtually the trial in itself.

Agreed, but I think the way Raise the Dead puts it it's no longer about just being a metalhead but about being a better person. I fully agree with him, to get a better overview of your life you need to distance yourself from it sometimes. Otherwise you simply get stuck somewhere.


To appreciate loud guitars with blast beats and grunted vocals one doesn't need to do anything special. But ignoring all forms of society's entertainment is a good way to start to be able to fully connect to the beauty of what extreme metal signifies in it's essence (darkness, alienation, repudiation of christian values and acceptance of all aspects of nature as being reality)

[Raise_the_Dead]

Does this mean all books as well?

No, that does not include books.  I should have said 'electronic devices' - computer, TV, phone - instead of 'media.'

[born for banning]

Does this mean all books as well?

Do you mean literature/scientific writing, or mainstream entertainment books? The two don't overlap.

[kontinual]

Do you mean literature/scientific writing, or mainstream entertainment books? The two don't overlap.

Of course they don't.  I didn't mean either since I wasn't making the statement; he said "media" so I was curious what he meant by it, which is why I asked if it included "all" books.

[born for banning]

Fair enough. It seems like literature is like death metal, in that it had this great blooming and now is filled with people imitating the past, but injecting their "progressive" attitudes.

[antithetikal]

Staying away from modernity, hmm, I tried that during the past, in fact, I wanted to be away from Metal since 1999 approximately, which had the effect of re-enforcing in what I previously believed.
Nowadays, everything is merely a copy of the past, and no one is really trying to innovate. All I see is angry Gothic kids and macho gangta* rappers.
Most of them are egocentric 'beings' in search for popularity and a meaningless reason to live until they become adults and be the stay immature or be they 'grow up' and form a family, still nothing, not deep valors or beliefs. Most of them are barely empty beings walking towards their own end.
In my case, I never did like 'head bangers', never really participate to live shows, (I don't see the purpose of it), I dislike the rock imagery many metals bands give and this is why in the latest years I've been making abstraction  of the bands and just care about the content or what inspires on me, (except for people like Varg or Gaahl which still inspires me a lot of respect).

I asked myself many times the same question, did I dream that this 'style' was what I thought it was? am I the only one to expect this style/s of music to become what I want it to? am I the only one to want it to give a message?
I think there's no point in making metal in the future available for everyone, there MUST be a separation between those who really believe on it and those that are here for the trip.
Metal in the future will have to re-examine its own values and aesthetic and change/evolve.

Death metal despised civilization, and Black metal embraced the darkness of nature. But everything cannot be over yet, because imagination, creativity, and desire still burning in many of us and as long as  it is that way, we'll be able to push the boundaries further.