Montaigne and Death Metal

[Tancred Hauteville]

"There is no place where death cannot find us"- Montaigne

 recently started writing an essay concerning Montaigne and Death Metal,looking for parallels between the two philosophies, this is the very beggining (a rough draft):

In the essay entitled “To learn to philosophize is to learn how to die”, Montaigne like good death metal confronts death and reality and thus comes to express certain essential truths regarding both. Montaigne begins his Essay by asserting first that all philosophy teaches us how to die, that the inevitability of death is such that it is essential to all existence and is thus the truly pre-emptive concern of philosophy. Although reason and virtue, things usually and justly associated with the practice and outcome of philosophy, impart upon their practitioner the highest degree of pleasure, the excersise of both leads to “a contempt for death”. The result of this contempt for death? A “means of furnishing our life with easy tranquility, of giving us a pure and friendly taste for it”. -

In order to round out the article i was hoping to accumulate some opionions here concerning the philosophy of death metal that i could reproduce in the article when it has been completed.

Two questions for Hessians:

1. What is the philosophy of death metal?
2. Why do you listen to death metal?

Thanks for your time

[we hope you die]

1. Only death is real. Death Metal is the total rejection of modern western values of individualism and liberalism which carries with it a fear and avoidance of death. Rather than building a new value system to replace it, DM simply obsesses itself with the end of life as the only thing one can be certain of. It is not something not be feared, but something which defines life.

2. Philosophically speaking, I listen to death metal for these reasons. It is a reminder that one day you will die, and rather than fearing it, you should gain a grander perspective beyond the self. It accepts the traditionally ugly as beautiful, and in that sense is completely nihilistic and amoral. Death is beautiful, and a defining aspect of life.

[Vanguard]

1) To stare into the abyss and understand the meaning, purpose, and function of death and its related elements, as well to understand their places in the World-Nature. Having a healthy understanding of these elements increases the quality of ones life and makes one more enlightened. One can either live life in fear of the inevitable final blow of death, or live life with a healthy view of it and be in line with the World-Nature.

2) Listening to quality Metal enlightens, liberates me, and affirms my belief in a truth beyond the dualism of modern science and religion. It also reconnects me with ancient values, including those of my ancestors.