Some excursions into Industrial Black Metal

No gesture of artistic expression can be completely detached from its context, this being the reason why considerable importance is often attributed to the cultural climate when analyzing any given work of art. Thus, as mankind saw its surroundings rapidly overtaken by digital screens, computerized communication, organization and workplaces, bottomless cyberspace, looming prospects of transhumanism and the all encompassing logic of information technology extending to all spheres of life – proving Lyotard’s prediction that “data banks (…) are ‘nature’ for postmodern men and women” – the artistic zeitgeist simply couldn’t remain indifferent to this overwhelming process that quickly became ingrained in the fabric of contemporary existence. A surge of popularity in cyberpunk, cybergoth, techno-dystopias, digital purgatories and mazes of hyperreality made its way into underground metal, sometimes crossbreeding with the genre’s innate inclinations to produce curious results.

It is for this reason that we think albums like the monumental “Streetcleaner” by Godflesh possess value not only artistically but also as documents; artifacts that future historians might perhaps take into account when examining our times, if, that is, such cultural expressions are indeed deemed relevant indicators of hummanity’s collective unconscious.

Within black metal, the norwegian bands were among the first to be seduced by the new world opened by industrial music techniques – such as electronic percussion, increased attention to production, digital manipulation and effects and an overall fascination with futuristic and sci-fi aesthetics – while many others from different countries were quick to try their way in these promising avenues as well. The added brutality of black metal, with blast-beats and discordant riffing, makes for a particularly vicious representation of the post-human labyrinths of data and machinized existence, finding its literary equivalent in Nick Land’s surreal and hallucinatory descriptions of cyber-hell.

Axis of Perdition – Ichneumon Method (and less welcome techniques) (2003)

Aiming to surgically excise all vestigial traces of human warmth still present in extreme metal, Axis of Perdition go determinedly far in the imitation of machinality by founding their music on loops of vicious programmed drums, on top of which they lay their accomplished cacophony of dissonant guitars and synthesizers. Constantly tempted as it is to fully embrace the sound experimentation mode, the album’s controlled chaos never cedes completely to the promise of collapsing, even when the experimental electronics rise to greater prominence; instead, a mechanical sense of structure is maintained by tight rhythms and repetition. Although the machinally precise percussion and sound effects play a central role in the creation of an immersive atmosphere, the guitars shouldn’t be overlooked, producing creative dissonant riffs with interesting developments, in perfect attunement with the album’s goals. Such an approach grants “Ichneumon Method” a cohesion that succeeds at the primary goal of drawing us to its infernal landscapes.

Aborym – With No Human Intervention (2003)

Italian band Aborym delivers with orgiastic vigour one of the genre’s major achievements with their third full-length release. The album pulsates with a maniac energy that runs through its entirety like an electric current; settling for high tempos for the most part, the fluidity with which the band articulates the often seemingly disparate elements and abrupt transitions of their sonic massacre is particularly satisfying; thunderous chugging (always integrated into a melodic idea) will give way to blast-beat mayhem, while the ever present electronics complement the images of a machinal danse macabre, where demonic powers and frantic machines are joined in the celebration of the final human decay and the apogee of the Kali Yuga. As the cherry on top of the cake, vocalist Attila Csihar lends his theatrics and versatility to heighten the album’s apocalyptic furore. Both structurally and texturally, the album’s density makes repeated listenings obligatory for a proper absorption of its contents.

Blut Aus Nord – The Work Which Transforms God (2003)

Contrasting with Aborym’s hyperactive assault, Blut Aus Nord regularly opt for ponderous riffs that preserve the contemplative disposition of traditional black metal, giving some of the longer tracks (such as the aptly titled closer “Procession of the Dead Clowns”) a ritualistic character. This meditative quality naturally compels the listener to focus on the music, as if the repetition of a given riff were an evocatory practice aimed at triggering a transformation of consciousness or bringing about otherwordly presences – “Metamorphosis” serving as a good example, with its insistent main riff eventually mutating into an harshly dissonant coda. For such purposes, song structures are mostly sparse, tipically introducing a riff and drum pattern that set the tone only to be later overtaken by industrial atmospherics bent on evoking a sinister aura. The overall sensation is that of futuristic technologies conjuring abyssal entities that until then had been kept out of the human field of awareness. We can thus see how Blut Aus Nord have only appropriated some novel techniques of expression in order to articulate a vision that retains many of the band’s older thematic inclinations.