Ladies & Germs
Ultra Silvam — A Skull Full of Stars (2017 / Swedish Black Metal)
Hello internet pals of music. Today we’re going to blast away the matter of the universe with this early demo by the trio from Mälmo.
I’m placing a bet with myself that this recommendation will be followed by a few ‘unsubscribes’.
But I consider something like this in the same way I consider the wildly chaotic music of someone like free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, except with a lot more aggression and blood. It’s actually probably easier to listen to, honestly. It has recognizable structure and melody—I can even hum it.
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Extreme Metal gets a bum rap. Yeah, it’s an anti-social. Even hateful at times. I get it. So is hardcore punk (I don’t like using those terms together because for me it comes off the same as when people use vinyl in the plural, but hardcore as a singular descriptor is no longer efficient in the days of extreeeeeeeme lifestyles and energy drinks).
There’s also an image problem. I can’t rattle off many instances of classical composers who drench themselves in stinking rotten blood before conducting a satanic symphony about biblical Armageddon, or plunging a knife into Satan’s enemies.
It is what it is, as Dr. Phil might say.
But “A Skull Full of Stars” is amazing imagery. And in acknowledging that, maybe it can become easier to appreciate that Extreme Metal actually might be something more than a bunch of knuckle draggers bashing at their instruments. Sometimes it’s not. Death Metal can get particularly stupid, as in the case of a band like Torture Rack, who stick to the absolute basics of short, filthy sounding, dumb, head banging riffs and I L O V E them for it (swoon, love you guys for real and can’t wait to see you live in April). Sometimes I want to be that knuckle dragger, bashing at a society around me that I’ve never bought in to, by playing loud ugly music that most people will never find attractive or good or smart or anything that might make it popular or make me look like an adult with responsibilities and a professional career, who has nephews that he waits in the after school car line to pick up just like “they” do. Maybe I should stop talking…
Black Metal is ugly music by tradition. And the notion of provenance is a major issue, hence the term TRVE KVLT (which now has lost valid meaning and signals a lack of provenance). Like Rap and Country music, Black Metal is very, very focused on authenticity and that brings a particular luggage set that can get pretty troubling. Any casual knowledge of the genre usually includes burning churches, sketchy politics and some prison sentences for murder.
But so does casual knowledge of Rap and Country—except for the burning churches.
All of this is just me trying to get to something about why I’m hesitant to make these recommendations, like there has to be some caveat now that this thing, this dumb little clicky-clacky exercise of making music recommendations, has grown beyond a handful of people I know that trust my ear. It was never intended to be a wrought out blog.
I blame Ted Gioia’s recent piece 13 Observations on Ritual which is way more thought provoking and interesting to read than the above, and I only wrote this because in the new content-world, I felt I had to somehow justify with a bunch of words simply posting a song that I love and was immediately reminded of because:
a) I wore this shirt yesterday to a fake icehouse in suburban Texas and I got a lot of stink-eye and no one appreciated my small talk and general good nature, aka I got judged.
b) Ted’s piece on ritual made me think of how cliché it has become for Black Metal (and some Death Metal) bands to call their performances live rituals and I how made a joke the other day on Twitter (get bent, Elon) that Ain't no one performing a "ritual" just because you have candles and burning incense.
Did I mention I’m on Twitter?
Is this thing on?
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