There was hope then

The DVD release of “Until the Light Takes Us” showed up in the mail, so I went over to a friend’s place and popped it in the DVD tray. It was an intense couple hours of watching.

Key plot points:

  • Trend versus meaning that is always true
  • “You are bombarded by thousands of lies, every day”
  • People like to play dress up
  • The montage of modern society: TGIF, Coca-Cola, McDonalds

Black metal is right-wing, surely, but it doesn’t just boil down to that. The right wing is so corrupted now (not corrupt, necessarily, but probably that too). This is universal: do we want a society ruled by corporations and a nanny state government, or a society based around culture? When we do what we are told is morally right, we create a chaotic society that wrecks itself; when we favor the competent above others, and let them rule, we build a society that is organically self-sustaining.

This film shows us how the black metal kids of yesteryear (the ones who created the music at least) are lost in a modern world, but how this modern world is at a loss to even comprehend what they’re saying. What they’re saying is in brief thus: we think backward. We think about what other people want to hear, see or do, and make that our reality. We don’t think about the consequences, only the “false consequences” of how many people like it.

Black metal was designed to rape the ears and repulse most people. It became a trend because people like to dress up and pretend they’re something more, but they really just want to “get ahead” by being popular or sounding cool on the schoolyard. This is why modernity is a cancerous force: it eats out the soul of all things, turns them into a Halloween costume, and passes them along as a product.

Both communism/socialism and capitalism do this. What does it mean? To my mind, that we need a return to the age of kings. We need leaders who can be semi-arbitrary, but can think ahead of what’s convenient/profitable and say, “No, no McDonald’s in my woods” or “we have enough people.”

We’re about to commit fucking ecocide as a species. I feel like Fenriz and Varg know what a tragedy this is; most (99%) humans cannot conceptualize it, don’t care, have no idea, and are too distracted by karmic delights like what they’re eating, Twittering, fucking, shitting, buying, shooting, rubbing, consuming. We need people who do have the sensitivity to get beyond the karmic in charge. These people care about meaning, not discovering it in what the trend is, but creating it. Finding reasons to revere an ancient forest or the melancholic and scary side of life.

All of metal has been a quest to find meaning in madness, death, destruction and horror. The point is that life is short and precious and we should take it seriously, meaning stop screwing up as a species. We waste so much time every day pandering to what the moron public wants, and destroying things of true value, that we no longer have time for our own lives. And so we’ve gotten afraid of anything deep, cannot face our own mortality or even the joyful meaning in actions beyond the individual in life. We quest for nothing but comfort and convenience.

This movie is cursed because every idiot out there will assume it’s for black metal fans. No, you don’t get it — if you’re a black metal fan now, and weren’t in 1992, this movie isn’t for you unless you’re one of the few (like 4/10 of a percent) who actually get it as spirit, idea and moods. The black metal fans now are all about black metal as entertainment and a shopping list. Back then for us, it was a momentary hope that we could express the dread we’d felt our whole lives, and indulge in designing an alternate world we’d prefer — a more realistic world, but also, one built on imagination joined with logic, a creative exploration of reality instead of a retreat in fear and denial of death.

0 thoughts on “There was hope then”

  1. internatio says:

    True communism is not a mirror image of capitalism, but appart from that one point which I’ll keep stressing until my death, I can only agree with all that.

    (TC is what happened during short outbursts where the masses started to live to the full and drop bad habits inherited from centuries of rule by a tiny corrupt "elite", like the Paris commune or the first few years of the russian revolution, the reason why it couldn’t go on longer is more complex than just "masses are hopeless", it involves the levels of technology and of education at the time, details of the perspectives of their leaders, etc)

  2. Adrian McCoy says:

    I agree with Prozak, even though he’s a closed minded as fuck…

    Treat black metal as an legitimate artform, not a trend…

    The only thing we disagree on is death metal, but I definitely think black metal has to have more meaning in it than death metal…

    And can we please stop arguing, lets be friends okay?

  3. Adrian McCoy says:

    MOTHERFUCKING COCKS

  4. Adrian McCocks IV says:

    The real Adrian here. Fuck elitist and purists black metal. So what if my African father took a white concubine, I’m still fucking royalty and I can appreciate beautiful Black Metal like Deathspell Omega.

  5. McCocks IV says:

    And fuck this guy who keeps trolling here pretending to be me.

    I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU IF YOU CHARGE ME WITH SUCKING COCKS AGAIN.

  6. Bx says:

    Ironically, Fenriz is a massive myspace kiddo and happily participates in all the modern trends.

  7. Mike Gainer Reigns Here says:

    Most people have TRASHED this movie but I will still watch it. Unfortunately most black metal and metal in general is useless. Only Graveland, Ildjarn, Burzum, Beherit, and old Mayhem are real. Round it off with the first wave of Norwegian and Polish black metal bands and a few from Greece and that’s all you need.

  8. Adrian Conservationist McCoy says:

    I really get it now, you don’t want Black People to listen to black metal, so you make insane demands like high IQs, comprehension of musicology and conforming to the Nordic bias of what art is.

    I disregard that, being a genuine fan having a brain to parse the archive called the internet which documented the sublime saga that is black metal, and can therefore appreciate this DVD, regardless that in 1992 I was still in diapers sucking cocks… err dummies.

    Drudkh is more epic than Graveland can ever be, CUNTS.

  9. Gayhilde says:

    I’m watching you, McCoy.

    Spanish clap!

  10. Pritt Stevens says:

    It’s just not funny anymore, really

  11. Alexis McCoy says:

    Oh wait, disregard that

    COCKTHROATLOL!!1!!

  12. fuck says:

    im high

  13. Fuck You... says:

    How about you post your address you coward?

    Oh wait, I forgot, you’re a pussy, just like the members of Korn….

    FUCK WIGGER METAL!!!!!

  14. fuck says:

    Korn is heavy as fuck, nigger. Not like the lameass bands who dumbed down Korn’s top-notch neoclassical stylings.

  15. yes i am anon coward, will post my adr anon, just as soon as i dislodge myself from dis big cock den mayb i disable dis comments sexion cause u fools just cant stop but i need u all da same cause without u my propaganda is stale derp der durrrrrrrrr

  16. Britney Stevenson says:

    unfunny happy horseshit time wasting tweesters

    fuck tea party metal

  17. Prince McCoy says:

    not funny, not reducible to discursive thought, not accessible to the common man; superrational black metal

    fuck religious metal

  18. Brett Stephanie says:

    You still don’t get it “huhuh”?

    The more you write to a wall on myANUS, the more time wasted with inaction and not getting it.

    Think about it. If you’re not in my 99.996th percentile (not necessarily, and not only, intelligence, stupid) you probably don’t get it. This includes post whores, twee ironists, utility idiots, and happy sheepshit.

    All of you can this way > http://pitchfork.com < to indie cock AIDS. Come back when you’re closer to the Mark. I’m not going away, cause I’m right.

  19. Vijay Prozak says:

    I want Adrian’s cock in my anus and mouth for a week, he is a beautiful man.

  20. Thomas says:

    Great review. Always appreciate your insight and comments. It would be nice to change everyone’s minds, but it seems the greats have always written to the few.

    In the holiday spirit, Zombie movies have some great ANALogies.

  21. Adrian McCoy says:

    All html tags except and will be removed from your comment. You can make links by just typing the url or mail-address.

  22. Adrian says fuck you... says:

    Who you calling a nigger you white fuck?

    Fuck this website!!! You’ll be hearing from my lawyer soon…

  23. You've been warned... says:

    Either you quit cyberbullying me or I will take legal action…

    http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html

    You’ve been harassing me for long enough, and I have had it…

    I don’t like rap or nu-metal, but that does’nt give you the right to call me racial slurs or homophobic insults…

    And you have no case in court, I have never said anything directly or specifically at you, and you are just causing trouble…

    Keep it up, like I know you will, you’ll be hearing from my attorney real soon…

  24. Adrian McCoy says:

    Disregard my “hurr durr I gon’ get the white man back for dem opreshins” attitude, I just realized how amazing and neoclassical Korn is and that I am on the internet.

  25. Adrian McCoy says:

    Just logging on to ‘lovethecock.com’ with 50 Cent’s debut album playing in the background – oh my, the things he could do to my tight white anus with his big black cock!!

  26. RT says:

    This movie sounds like aspie porn, feeding an expectant audience the same tired cliches and stereotypes. Black metal is garbage made by a bunch of social dropouts, nothing more. If you want real quality music and activism, seek it somewhere else.

  27. botobot says:

    I miss Brunhilde. He certainly was no idiot.

    spanish clap got you lol!

  28. McCock McCocks says:

    Piss off lesbohildo, suck my you know what, Black Metal rules

  29. monsterclan says:

    I love in the movie how every time Fenriz starts bitching about trends it cuts right to Frost being a fag butt. I liked how subtle it was.

  30. Rhys says:

    fuck! my balls just landed in your soup!

    and drudkh is siiiiiick!

  31. 1349 says:

    internatio,

    “TC is what happened during short outbursts where the masses started to live to the full and drop bad habits inherited from centuries of rule by a tiny corrupt “elite”, like […] the first few years of the russian revolution”

    you gotta be kidding

  32. internatio says:

    1349 : not even kidding, that’s more fun to stay serious among trolls than to join the fray. And that’s a better life to make a bloody revolution rather than getting slowly (or fast) turned into cannon fodder.

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