Deviation of Paths

The last number of years have seen me concentrate on extreme metal (chiefly, Black Metal and its subtypes) to a level I never thought I would.

What began in my early days of the mid-late 80's with New Wave of British Heavy Metal, onwards through to Thrash Metal and briefly Death Metal, I can say with a level of "security" that as far as Metal goes, I have found my home in Black Metal - I percieve it as the most extreme, versatile, superior and intelligent subtype, and also as yet the most uncharted of metal territorities.

I feel can safely say that I feel I have reached a point where my exploration of Black Metal will slow: in terms of its history, politics, extremism and trajactory I have learned probably more than many people would care to (but by no means have I explored everything). Nevertheless, I feel I have hit my ceiling with Black Metal - I have probably analysed it further than most and will now patiently keep one eye open for the important releases, but my appetite for new bands has definitely ground to a slower pace: for the time being, I feel comfortable.

My journey in Black Metal has somewhat ended (or should I say paused) at its beginnings: with Darkthrone. It is through them that I have finally realised Black Metal's aural and philosophical scope. Ironically, Darkthrone (and also Agalloch) has led me outside of Metal again by way of their rockier influences (Darkthrone) and also their non-conventional influences (Agalloch).

With enthusiasm I have not felt since the mid-90s, I've started to explore Indie from where I left off sometime back in 1997 or so, and have come to realise that while the world (and I) mourned over Cobain and grunge's death with him, a new form of music began to emerge by 1999: Post Rock.

Post Rock, along with Drone (while not related to Post Rock) and also Indie (Punk influenced) are three forms which are currently holding my interest strongly, although with the latter it is more familiar territory for me.

Post Rock and Drone explore aural structure without structure. They create convention by destroying convention. Both musical subtypes construct by process of deconstruct. It's funny how my taste can be - these characteristics are exactly what drew me to Techno (Detriot/Chicago/UK styles) back in the early 90s as well. I seem to have a thing for minimalism (not only with aural art, but also with architecture for example), but "aurally speaking" this is the first time that I have found anything post-techno to draw my attention to it again: I guess the resonance of sound is an ever ongoing study.

A close friend in Norway would probably bang his head on the table if I finally told him that SunnO))) had finally kicked in after him trying to get me to see the fuss for the last few years. Yes Alex - it's finally making sense ;)

Similarly, a good colleague Tom has been trying to drill Post Rock into me for a good year or so now, and it's taken his own band, sleepmakeswaves to make the realisation occur for me.

And so begins what I feel could be another new phase in music: tomorrow night sees me heading over to Newtown to see arguably one of the most prolific Post Rock bands in history - Mono, and as seems to be a pattern these days, this will be yet another gig which will not see me concentrate on Metal, but instead on extremism without power or aggression instead.