#Black Metal Rainbows

[sheydgarden]

Minerva Metalhead, 2019 (for Black Metal Rainbows, available for pre-order)

i keep meaning to do more in this vein of collage-with-pen! i was invited to contribute to this anthology & remembered that i had saved the head & arms of a vintage doll ad (“Minerva” was the company, the new metal head was the selling point). it turned into a piece about feminist & specifically anti-fascist black metal, playing on Minerva as the goddess of wisdom, the arts & war. the book the owls are holding is open to images from the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, attributed to a foundational woman alchemist from 3rd or 4th century Greece.

also, sometimes you're out doing errands & you run into a neo-Nazi with an SS bolt facial tattoo, so you come home & draw that on a head on a pike.

[cavedwellermusic]

NEW CDM PODCAST EPISODE OUT NOW!!!

James sits down with editors Daniel Lukes and Stanimir Panayotov, as well as designer Jaci Raia, of Black Metal Rainbows. They discuss the project's book by the same name, published by PM Press, as well as its accompanying compilation. They have an in-depth discussion about black metal's culture, aesthetic and sonic evolution. They also discuss why the scene is a space for free expression from the LGBTQI+ community, ethnic minorities, anarchists, antifascists and other groups often viewed as 'other'.

Spotify:

YouTube:

Listen on over 25 other platforms:

[ghnosis]

hey so they’re going to pay for me (!!!!!!) to go speak with some kick ass sweethearts about black metal at Indiana University Bloomington in a month?????

[carnivore-voyeur]

I started reading Black Metal Rainbows which is a compilation of essays and art exploring the inherent queerness of the Black Metal genre as well as its controversial history. I cannot say I’m a huge fan of the genre, but I am fascinated by it in a sociocultural sense. Growing up, I heard all the gruesome stories about Norwegian Black Metal bands murdering their own band mates and delighting in church burnings. Of course, this strengthened the Satanic Panic at the time that continues on today. However, this book argues that Black Metal doesn’t just belong to misanthropic middle class teenage white boys and that it would be absurd for a subversive genre to not include those who are marginalized.

Additionally, Black Metal doesn’t have to be about hate or the power fantasies involved in glorifying murder. Rather, it is about exploring negativity as a whole amongst other things that do not have to be built upon destruction. It also discusses how right wing fascists have flocked to the genre because they view it as “counter-culture” and they want to portray themselves as “counter-culture” to appeal to conservatives who, well, can’t accept that their aesthetic isn’t cool or interesting. I think about this in light of Kanye West’s descent into right wing extremism and his recent donning of a Burzum sweater. Instead of denying this aspect of Black Metal history, they argue, we need to expand on Black Metal’s inclusiveness and tell Nazis to fuck off.

I listened to very few Black Metal bands growing up. I think the only band I really listened to within the genre was Cradle of Filth. I heard a little bit of Dimmu Borgir as well. One of my major gripes with the genre and with many different sub genres of metal is the commitment to sounding like shit. Metal elitists will bag on any metal band with clean vocals and melody, claiming that the cacophonous bullshit they like to listen to is inherently better. You can’t tell them that the music they like is bullshit, though, because then they’ll act like “you just don’t get it” and maybe in this case I don’t, but whenever a Black Metal band does make music that is well constructed, elitists will attempt to eject it from the genre like making noise that sounds good is a crime.

I think the reason why so many metal bands from the era sounded like a chaotic amalgam of noise is simple: A lot of pioneers within the genre were young men and teenage boys who couldn’t play for shit. For the more successful bands, this became polished over time. I can’t tell you how many times in the Katatonia documentary that either Jonas or Anders claims that one or the other sounded horrible while they were renting out spaces to play, and I think even Tobias Forge wrote about them negatively in a zine he made back in the 90s. Not that Katatonia is Black Metal, because it’s not, but the bands trajectory kind of proves my point about the metal scene at the time compared to now - teenagers saturating the market in garbage until they fizzle out or emerge making diamonds.

Anyways, I’ll periodically post my thoughts on this book as I read it.

[acid-lich]

I’m in a book!!

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Black Metal Rainbows

Edited by Daniel Lukes and Stanimir Panayotov

Designed by Jaci Raia.

[rottingangelwings]

we don’t dial 911😱

[indelicateink]

(x)

@iamrebeccasblog HE DOES. or rather, he mentioned his reading list to the press lol, i got excited: Heroin Diaries, Nikki Sixx Mötley Crüe's The Dirt The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx Black Metal Rainbows The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties ETA correction: Set the Night on Fire by by Robbie Krieger -- hat tip to @la-femme-au-collier-vert Bonus, to watch or rewatch: Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Rocky Horror Picture Show

SUMMER READING LIST!

(in the past the writers used to be on twitter and mentioned books they were reading/references they were influenced by) ETA: @la-femme-au-collier-vert assembled this kickass list of s1 references last year

[vancruejovi]

Ronnie James Dio 🤘

[metalcultbrigade]

Ronnie James Dio 10/07/1942 - 16/05/2010

[ghnosis]

more Black Metal is for Everyone spam, thank the Nine Divines *someone* took pictures

[sugarpopparty]

Sour Sweets 🌈⭐💖

[weheartstims]

may i please have a board full of uh. yknow that thing titanium does when you burn it? that metallic rainbow effect? lots of that! just shiny rainbows and pigment slime yknow. please. i can provide examples if you lije

A stimboard with metallic holographic rainbows!

🌈|🩶|🌈 🩶|🌈|🩶 🌈|🩶|🌈

[gummi-stims]

⚫✨Soot Sprite Snacks✨⚫

From snoopslimesofficial's Ghibli collection!

[fromaliminalspace]