We
managed to extract some specimen of this new element called
bergmetal. It seemd to "grow" in the mountains. At least we found
it some few meters under the ground. It was practically new and so
Olsdal and his fellows fetched some grams into their bags. Our man
Nick was still with the doc and we tried to get some connection to
the helicopter rescue yet haven't been successful so far. We keep
trying. We keep holding contact to the injured and the doc.
As
far as I can remember, I was fascinated at landscapes. How they fill
horizons with a multitude of features. If we go back a few centuries,
we come across the whole movement of Romanticism where the concept of
elegy entered poetry and then later novel-writing too. Sublimity is
the keyword in this context.
In
metal music landscape is often understood as background for generic
stories. You can go check these postings here and find your own
theory. However, now with the discovery of the new element bergmetal,
there arises the question if black metal and some pagan metal can
only exist by the material they feed on. If a musical style goes
under the title of black metal, maybe the reason is not only because
black relates to satanic and primeval evil but because the matter
black metal thrives on, is utterly black. Maybe even some space
explorers among the music groups can simulate a black hole effect.
Just in case ... I mean, it's all about speculation. Pondering over a
music that I've been listening to for years now. Curiously enough, my
taste is not strictly limited to these black metal eruptions. Maybe
after all those decades of tradition it is time to venture to new
territories? Don't you agree?
A
breath-taking vantage point invites to new perspectives. Ever been to
a mountain peak? Then enjoy the view and start to think the valley
conditions over. To stand on a mountain and feeling like ... Emperor
sending guitar hooks to the night sky. A blaze in the Northern sky.
Ablaze flames growing higher. Sitting on the bergthron. The metaphors
abound and by the course of time they will lose their grip. Grinning
mouths lacking in teeth. Grown old and then the bodies just crumble
and fall down to a hole six feet under. Earth claims her creatures
again. Curtains closed. Thank you. Party's over.
So
bergmetal as a new element to metal circuits can open our eyes for
the materiality of the music. The melodies and the high-pitched
guitars always seem so aetherial, only hard to grasp, flipping
through our fingers. Yet without a body to inhabit, we cannot produce
any music. We need bodies to receive and resonate to sound.
So,
a repeating pattern helps to stabilize the black metal stereotype. A
sub-genre to be easily recognized and labelled. Consumers will show
grateful support. You won't be disappointed. Even more, you can be
deadly sure about the results, if you want to spend your money. For
proper accord with scene regulations, any metal release owns a
rebellious touch to it and by being perceived as belonging to metal
community, this music practices opposition to no-matter-what. This
perception is rather incorrect as any music release appears in a
certain context. By repeating patterns a sense of community can be
sustained. Social groups with a definite set of values guarantee
safety to a certain degree. Apart from those metal scene structures,
if the explorer team we're following in this report decides to map
new territory, we can easily guess that their mission might differ
from the gros of metal scene activists. Following their trip to the
mountains entails a degree of turbulence we should become accustomed
to. It's not only for the thrill. You can limit your interest to new
releases and gossip talk. You will certainly miss some underground
movements in the material of metal music.
Now
return to the exploration.
Is
there a binding relation between scaling mountains and collecting
grams of bergmetal?
The
question is: at what places can we find bergmetal? In mountains? Most
probably.
Yet,
have you ever heard about a studio located on rocks? Mostly, we find
them in cities and some in Sweden's countryside. So when Immortal
stand high above valleys, they use their guitar-axes without any
wires to electricity. Imagining, their guitars are fed by the
atmosphere. Bergmetal appeals to a thematic approach: it is the
lyrics that build up the phenomenon of bergmetal. If we experience
sound on a mountain slope, sound can escape in any direction as there
is apparently no "close room" where sound could be geborgen
(past participle of German verb bergen
which owns berg of
bergmetal yet means to hold sth. or to recover respectively to
rescue). There is no room to hold the sound. It can evade and fall
down or rise up what- and where-ever it likes to.
My
argumentation holds the fact that there is a material aspect to
music, too. I presented this approach at the Second BM Theory
Symposium in London in January 2011 – so metal follows rock, in
history of popular music and there is a material transformation
process involved in this development. A country abundant with
mountains might produce a high percentage of qualified black metal,
doesn't it? I followed this question in another article (to be
published sometime in 2012, keep you posted).
Bergmetal
could also be a sort of black metal emulating the geological
phenomenon of berge (read: mountains). How can mountains –
accumulations of rock, ice, earth and grass – be put to sound?
Tough question that needs some digression. Answering to that needs
time, some detour.
"The
fact that the universe is fundamentally alive, spontaneously
self-ordering at all levels – from the very small to the very big –
is a shock to those who thought it was based on a matter that was
boring, determined and fundamentally dead." (Charles Jenks, 'The
Post Modern Agenda', in The Post Modern Reader. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1992. 35)
Readers
are fond of receiving shocking breaking-news from mountain trips:
there were accidents, incidents or even casualties. Any serious
explorer won't deliver that, only dime novelists find their pleasure
in coming up to the expectations. The explorers won't deliver such
items of news as they are naturally interested in the success of
their endeavours. That's that. This exploration in search of the new
element bergmetal proved to have been planned quite carefully. It saw
years of advanced research before the actual start of the mountain
conquest. That was due to the mission's delicacy. We effected several
explosions in the mountainside and had only a half-hearted permission
from the local authorities. Normally, they asked for a decision in
parliament yet we directly addressed this concern to the Ministry of
Energy and Resources and by sharing the exploits with the Ministry
we could avoid a debate. They don't possess the capacities to exploit
this new element themselves so they bought in our mission. Ph.D.
Olsdal was not really fond of this peculiar loss of independence yet
for the greater cause, he accepted. Without explosives we would
haven't been able to discover the element as it needs a second glance
beneath the surface to discover bergmetal. Putting it into the right
angle and then still having enough time to take cover always verged
on the brink of disaster. Fortunately, our specialist was able to put
the explosives in safe places and the exploit of bergmetal was
satisfying enough.
First
explosion brought ---
again
a disturbance of transmission. Excuses. We depend on some prototype
wireless connections in high altitudes. Sometimes there is too much
noise and distracting signals. In such cases we only receive
fragmented texts, filled up with strangest characters. We're trying
to fix that situation until next time.
Dominik Irtenkauf
