Black metal as art

[death metal black metal]

From another thread:

Most of the original romanticist writers referenced occultism and fantasy as much as anything else. The most recent generations in Europe have tended toward naturalism, but as that becomes hackneyed, different permutations are emerging.

Arguably, Tolkien is a romanticist, although it's hard to pick out the literature from the (poorly edited) fantasy writing.

Good generalized link resource:

http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/patten/romanpage.html

Philosophers associated with Romantic period:

http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/phil/filosofer/philosophers.html

Occultism, Hinduism, and Aryanism - William Blake:

http://www.blakearchive.org/

Romantic poetry resources, in English:

http://www.academicinfo.net/englitromatic.html

[pandoraspain]

I was gonna bring up Goya his work has allways been such a powerfull influence on me another amazing artist is Francis Bacon His imagry has brought many black metal songs to my head

[adioshombre]

I've always thought some genres should be treated as art, and not others. Like hip-hop - it's entertainment. Same with rock and punk, with maybe a few exceptions. Most metal is no different, except for those raw moments of clarity and greatness that happen once a generation. In the 1970s, it was probably Iron Maiden. In death metal, in the early 1990s, there were a few great bands like Morbid Angel or Amorphis. Black metal hit its stride about the same time, and we got greats like Enslaved, Gorgoroth, Emperor, Burzum, Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Master's Hammer... that's art. That is metallic art. And all of those bands, in each generation, have some things in common that they sing about and use in their imagery:

1) Morbidity/lack of fear of death
2) Warlike/aggressive
3) No love songs
4) Ambivalent or outright hateful to Christ
5) Ambivalent or outright hateful to Jews
6) Distrust of modern society
7) Love of ancient things
Distrust of herd
9) Like isolation
10) Hedonic

Anyone else notice this? Iron Maiden, Morbid Angel and Immortal are great examples of this.