
Re: Black metal documentary
Chinese Whispers wrote:
Also, I will never understand when documentaries like this enlist contemporary/modern artists (whichever field they may be in - installations, performance art, etc.). I watched one with Mick Harris recently detailing the early years of Napalm Death and the recording of 'Scum', and they had an annoying modern artist talk about Napalm and how they inspired his high art. It always comes across as a concerted effort to legitimise metal as art, but is so engulfed in self-parody and pretension. And it's not as if metal needed legitimising in the first place.
I've raised this issue on here before. I totally agree.There has been an increasing trend to intellectualise extreme metal since the 90s, but it didn't really crossover into the art scene or academia until sometime in the 00's.
It just seems forced and reeks of insecurity. It reminds me of Argento and Fulci fans who try to read all of these lofty ideas into their work rather than just confess that they enjoy the morbid atmosphere, the often psychadelic use of colour, and the outrageously stylized gory deaths.
That isn't suggest that there is nothing to analyse in metal, far from it, but the high minded tone taken by many of these types is pompous and completely unconvincing.