Black Metal has steadly been gaining respect in the indie community, which I have a hard time believing is a good thing, only because black metal garners so much of its power by existing well beyond the pale of palatbility. How do you incorporate an extremist nihilistic genre into even the fringes of fairly respectable indie rock? Furthermore how the fuck do you incorporate it into indie folk? Phil Elverum not only proves it can be done, but proves it can done in an intensely moving manner. Tapping into the emotionality of both genres and turning the combination into an overwhelming audiol whirlwind, Elverum has produced one of the most intense and serious pieces of music of this year. Imagine Will Oldham fronting Mayhem and you might have an idea of how much this fucking rules. Studio first, and once you digest that you can appreciate this live clip. I want to hear more of this kind of thing more than any other thing in the world.
3 comments:
WTF!?!?!? I had no idea he went into this direction! Who's his fucking band?!?!?!
I downloaded this album based on your description and man, it's blowing my mind. Been listening to it constantly today. I had my doubts about his stylistic skeeching off of the Black-Metal bandwagon but this is very original and completely sincere. I need to track down a vinyl copy.
You do need to track down the vinyl, it is super sweet. Nice packaging and vinyl. Beautiful album altogether, dark, but comforting, which oddly is what I get out of black metal. Apparently Phil went over to Norway and really delved into the scene for sometime, so I think he is pretty sincere about it. What I like is that rather than start a BM side project, he is incorporating it into what he does now. I hope he keeps going in this direction because it really is original.
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