Born of the Cauldron: About this blog

 

The subject

The subject of this blog is the analysis of heavy metal. The first question, then, is: what does this analysis involve? The primary interest of this blog is the exploration of the themes and emotions explored in metal, as it were its ethos, and of how these are explored. This is not simply a matter of saying that a ballad is sad (most ballads are sad, although not necessarily in the sense which they intend), but rather seeing songs in the context of the overall album or discography and charting the overall connections expressed. We are hence attempting to discover what the actual albums themselves explore, that is, what their subject matter is, and seeing how they explore it, both in the sense of their perspective and in terms of the technique used to express this perspective.

In doing this, we shall look not only at what albums ‘mean,’ but at how they ‘mean:’ why they are presented in the form that they are, and how their style reflects their ethos. This isn’t all necessarily going to be a conscious decision by the artist, and, indeed, it generally isn’t; however, the author is nonetheless the first person who reads their text, and if they find it powerful enough when written, they clearly feel that whatever they’re doing expresses strongly what they want it to. The question is merely: why?

Along with looking at how works of arts express what they do, we must also look, of course, at what they express. If a meaning is expressed in music or poetry rather than in non-fiction prose, then it may well be that it’s because it couldn’t be expressed otherwise, except perhaps by a looser paraphrase; as such, the closest that we can get to depicting its meaning in text must be through looking at it as a piece of art and seeing how its artistic form allows it to express aspects of its subject-matter which a mere paraphrase could not.

That heavy metal is not immune to such understanding is quite clear not only in progressive bands such as Psychotic Waltz and Fates Warning, but also in technothrash, atmospheric music like doom and black metal, and even the works of Black Sabbath themselves; indeed, almost every subgenre probably has the potential for music appropriate to it, and capable of thoughtful appreciation. As Descartes once put it, setting a limit to universal doubt, ‘I think, therefore I \m/.’ While this site may tend to focus on some subgenres more than others, this is more due to my own listening habits than due to any lack of depth in other subgenres. Indeed, given that the number of subgenres seem to expand at a roughly exponential rate, it is inevitable that a few shall have to miss out; nonetheless, fans of any neglected Viking or Chess metal bands need not despair, for it is doubtless the case that bands capable of inventing subgenres with such relative ease must have a great amount of depth to their writing to possess such powers of innovation.

In that case, this site is not a review site per se, although it may include occasional overviews of musical genres and styles which contain descriptions of bands akin to those in reviews, in other words describing their style and such. It will generally be easier to follow for people who have heard the bands, although even people who have not heard a band may be able to understand the discussion of their themes, and indeed possibly be interested enough to listen to them (well, we hope). For lesser-known bands, we may include a brief stylistic description to aid people in deciding whether to listen to them, unless we are primarily focusing on stylistic elements of their music in any case.

Name some metal albums which you rate highly.

Just as a brief overview, to help figure out the kind of music which shall be covered here, a relatively short list shall be provided.

In the first place, I’m to a large degree a proghead, having been brought up on bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis. In the metal realm of prog, I like music such as Fates Warning, especially the two last Arch albums, and, from the Alder era, ‘Perfect Symmetry’ and ‘A Pleasant Shade of Grey’; OSI’s three albums; Queensryche’s ‘Promised Land’; and Psychotic Waltz’s ‘A Social Grace’ . Among less well-known bands, I enjoy bands like Seer’s Tear, with their album ‘Precious’, and Secrecy’s two albums. A band which I find myself listening to often is the Scottish Holocaust, from ‘The Sound of Souls’ onwards, who are unique enough to not really be classifiable with other bands easily, and, while they could be described as progressive metal, they’re quite different from what is generally associated with the genre. One could also perhaps include Voivod’s earlier albums within this fold, although nobody really knows what the hell Voivod are.

I am also quite a fan of technothrash, such as Watchtower’s ‘Control and Resistance’ (which could also be counted as progressive metal, but, well, genres), Omnitron’s ‘Masterpeace’ and Depressive Age’s ‘First Depression’. Sider are something of an anomaly, a technothrash band with sensibilities more akin to a progressive metal band, and I like their album ‘Labyrinth’ a fair bit.

Finally, I also listen to doom metal such as 'Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’, Black Hole’s ‘Land of Mystery’, The Obsessed’s self-titled album, and so on, as well as US power metal such as Crimson Glory’s first two albums, Tyrant’s s ‘Too Late to Pray’, and Omen’s first few albums, especially ‘Battle Cry’. I also listen to Slauter Xstroyes, who are essentially metal incarnate and hence defy all further specifications. There’s also fairly well-known bands such as Black Sabbath, early Judas Priest and so on which could be included, but they won’t be necessary to list here. My tastes do span most subgenres of heavy metal, such as black metal and sludge metal, though not really much Gothic metal, but the list here will be kept to the bands above so as to keep it brief, and because the bands previously mentioned are probably of the kinds which shall be focused on most here.

So yes, hopefully that should be a sufficient summary for now.

Why are you using the royal ‘we’ occasionally?

Because I come from the Kingdom of the Kings.

(also I’ve read too many old Bordigist pamphlets.)

A mission statement of sorts.

“I believe that the justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. Through the ministrations of radio and the phonograph, we are rapidly and quite properly learning to appreciate the elements of aesthetic narcissism -- and I use that word in its best sense -- and are awakening to the challenge that each man contemplatively create his own divinity.”

- Glenn Gould.

That is all.

You may ask any questions about this blog in the comments.

- Zero.

 

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