rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

MORTALITY AS A WAY OF LIFE: NOW I KNOW WHAT DEATH METAL'S FOR

      Not to be too overdramatic about it (who me? nooooooo), but I've been down with some kinda superflu for about 2 weeks now and let me tell ya, it's been wearing me down. I'm not the most stable of mables on a good day and being this sick has worn the nerves down to their last nubs. As an extra added attraction, the apartment next to mine has recently been rented out to what sounds like 17 twentysomethings who all get off work at like 10 pm and celebrate this fact by drinking large amounts of beer every night while blasting what sounds like Cannibal Corpse CDs until like 2, 3 in the morning. Now, apart from the lack of sleep this type of adventure entails, there's also the new thrill of being the 'old guy next door' who keeps pounding on the wall and, failing that, actually knocking on their door to ask them to 'turn that shit down.'

     I've always tried to keep an open mind about Death Metal (and it's various, vaporous offshoots: grindcore, deathcore, hardcore etc) and the best I can come up with is that it's a scream for those who (feel they) have no voices. So, theoretically, I can see the attraction.  Just not when I'm trying to sleep. I remember and understand the attraction of such an antisocial music. I'm pretty antisocial myself and have a pretty high tolerance for non-melodic music. Hell, I still love Metal Machine Music and we all know how I feel about Sonic Youth, but - and this is probably informed just a little by my recent sickness and lack of sleep - could this supposedly 'rebellious' music be any more regimented?

     Heavy metal begats Death Metal and it seems like the same 6 bands keep changing members and names and basically releasing the same damn album year after year. It's a given, at least here at prb, that life basically sucks. It's also come to my attention recently that life's also what you make of it, and I can't help but think that submerging one's self in this style of banging, thudding music w/it's lyrical themes of death, death and more death - not to mention necrophilia, rotting corpses and juvenile anti Christian rhetoric (and yes, I know I'm anti-Christian myself. Actually I'm anti-Religion, even anti-god because I think these concepts are so divisive as to lead to Holy World War III. But that's hardly juvenile and another post entirely.) would tend to stunt any growth, either personal or spiritual.

     Hate is a powerful emotion, one that deserves it's time in the light, so to speak. Negativity exists and should be explored, but this music seems to me to be a celebration of all that is dark. Hate, anger, hostility: all part of the human condition, but Death Metal trivializes it by reducing these complex emotions into a by-the-numbers cartoon of rebellion, and let's not forget that all these bands 'exposing the lies of life' etc. are doing so in order to seperate you from yr cash, just like any other rock band (or insurance salesman or Amway clone) in the first place.

     Teenagers, as well as people, have moments when they feel powerless. In a very real sense, the 'cards' are stacked against them and us old folks. The State, the Church, the Law all have final say over us whether we like it or not. I've stated before and will again, to me, rage is a perfectly normal reaction to the way of the world. But rage alone, rage without some kind of plan to change what enrages you, is just as impotent as the scent of Nihilism that crippled the first wave of Punk. When anger becomes an end to itself then nothing changes and, in that wallowing, it would appear that one really is happy with the way things are. I understand the cathartic value of screaming in a dark, dark tunnel but what value is there, beyond catharsis?

     Simply put, if yr not going to kill yrself, then stop glorifying death because in glorifying death all yr doing is wasting whatever time you have left. And let the old man next door get some sleep. His misery doesn't want yr company.

Posted by: timbyrnes at 19:53 | link | comments

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