If you have any interest in underground metal, black or otherwise, you’re aware of the uproar created by Brooklyn quartet Liturgy. Much of the disdain’s focused on frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and what people view as his “pretentious” reading of black metal (American and otherwise). I did the first large-scale interview with Liturgy a couple of years ago as part of my (then) Show No Mercy column: Hendrix discussed black metal in the same terms in ’09, but it was a more recent Scion video Q+A, coupled with the “crossover” coverage of the band’s newest offering Aesthethica that’s rankled and riled folks. For instance, a couple week’s ago Chris Grigg, the Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist behind HTC regulars Woe, wrote an open letter to Hendrix as an installment of his “decidedly irregular” Metal Review column at Metal Review. (In 2009 I organized a show with Krieg, Woe, Liturgy, and Malkuth; everyone got along.) It was an interesting text, as to be expected from someone as thoughtful as Grigg, though I found myself disagreeing with it. In my opinion, most of the criticism thrust upon Liturgy (and Hendrix) — usually reactionary, only occasionally interesting — hasn’t warranted a reply. This one, however, did. Grigg and Hunt-Hendrix are young multi-instrumentalists and the central forces behind their non-traditional East Coast black metal projects: They both experiment ambitiously, albeit differently, with black metal structures/tropes and don’t present themselves as cookie-cutter BM frontmen. With that (etc.) in mind, I asked Hendrix if he’d be into writing a response, not just to Grigg, but to the black metal “blogsophere” at large re: the Great Liturgy Wars Of 2011. He was. This is it:
There has been a firestorm of criticism in the metal blogosphere about Liturgy and about me personally (ad hominem) and my ideas. I don’t know how to respond directly to it because I don’t recognize the object of attack — it is a phantasm, a caricature, something different from the reality of our band and the reality of my personality, beliefs, aims, vision and so on. All I know is that I am not the arch-enemy of the black metal community, and that the internet is a crazy thing. And yet I’m not totally surprised by the reaction. And, though sometimes it makes me feel bad, at other times it fascinates me … a chord has been struck somewhere.
So here I offer a few loosely related thoughts on black metal and counterculture: black metal is really profound as a culture and as a musical style — more so than many people realize. I am very interested in an ethics concerned with ecstasy, the transcendental, and affirmation. Liturgy comes from the intersection of these two ideas. For me, black metal’s virtue is that it can, using a combination of history, sound, and audacity, activate a connection to a sort of transcendental field, the perennial occult, the Absolute … that it touches the spiritual and poetic channels of impossibility that are closed up most of the time. Or, at least, this is a potential within black metal. It can be isolated from other aspects of black metal and enhanced by means of cross-fertilization with other resonant forms of music. The task of Transcendental Black Metal is this isolation and enhancement.
Black metal is both an index of the death of the counterculture tradition and a way to to resurrect it. What right do I have to say that? I have none — but this business of doing things one has no right to do is crucial to my outlook. I think counterculture lost its way when it turned its back on the revolutionary-spiritual-psychosexual-utopian ambition that gave birth to it and settled for a general attitude of “No.” Impotent gestures of resistance to a system which will obviously always easily digest and extract exchange value from those gestures, the formation of little subcultures where people escape reality by congratulating each other for resembling one another – that is a dead, or at least very sick counterculture, one that the system has contained. Today the gestures themselves have almost died out. Mostly I just see cynical tribalism and people wanting to seem cool. That goes for almost every subculture, metal or otherwise. The term “Hyperborean Black Metal” refers explicitly to the explicit nihilism in black metal – but its real referent is the implicit nihilism in all rock; it refers to subculture identification as such, which in my view is ultimately a social neurosis, a blockage, something bad.
An American black metal that uses some BM techniques but combines them with the usual Anglo-American punk attitude is maybe inevitably coming into existence, but that’s not what Liturgy is, it’s not what I’m interested in. I think music should be global, Universal, not anti-anything or -anyone. It should be anti-anti, if anything. And it should be directed towards the universal goodness at the core of every human being, and it should address each person alone, as an individual. Our music is neither aimed at any particular niche audience, like the “metal community”, nor the widest possible audience – it is simply the product of an intense urge, and it is directed in principle to anyone, generically.
Part of what drew me to black metal is the courage of members of the second wave. Something in their attitude allowed them to burst through the counterculture’s carcass. That attitude is: grandiosity. I grew up more or less in the orbit of punk, but never really fit into it. It’s because I’ve always had an almost unbearably intense sort of Wagnerian ambition … the urge to create a system glowing with ethical power … there’s just no place for that in punk. But in black metal there is in fact a place for this ambition. I have a sense of pregnancy, in the sense that Henry Miller or Nietzsche talk about pregnancy. I feel pulled by an urge to create, to give birth to the greatest work of art I can possibly produce, with black metal as a starting point and always as a frame of reference. To generate a cultural product that doesn’t just express the despicable state of affairs in the world, but something that, on the contrary, is a spark. Something that triggers a higher state, opens up a possibility. And this amounts to a kind of primordial, cosmic, excruciating “Yes.” Aesthethica isn’t necessarily product, but it is a step on the way. Maybe the whole thing will ultimately fail and the haters will rejoice. Whatever.
A lot of people don’t take metal seriously as art, and a lot of people don’t take art seriously as ethics. That’s fine, I guess — but as for myself, I do both. These days, when people detect ambition in someone they leap on that person like hyenas. The label “pretentious” is unquestioned as categorically damning. But I think musical culture could use a whole lot more pretension, if anything. It suffers from false, dishonest humility, and from a lack of ambition to be more than either entertainment or a badge of identification with a group. I think the haters have blinders on, and that they are misdirecting their aggressive energy. Somehow, they are hiding.
I’m interested in the act of declaring something and daring others to disagree; there’s something magical about it. So maybe the caricature I mentioned above is exactly what I want. It’s like planting a little sprout that gets watered from the frothing mouths of those who are enraged by its existence. It is a part of the child-rearing. My word for this is: “The Arkwork.” Liturgy is an Arkwork. It’s not just the songs, albums, shows — it’s also the reactions, the suffering, the stigma, the misrecognitions, the resoluteness, the unexpected detours. To be “pretentious,” grandiose, to remain faithful to an impossible goal, to stay in contact with one’s own desire and follow through with its consequences, unsure of what they will be … to be real. That’s what it is to live, I think, and to spread life. I hardly know why I’m writing this and have doubts that it’s a “good idea,” but the act is consistent I think with the ethic I’m trying to describe.
– Hunter Hunt-Hendrix
[Photo by Mike Vorassi]
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The BM Svenonius has spoken.
In my opinion this doesn’t answer any of Chris Grigg’s (mostly reasonable) criticisms. He answers an accusation of immaturity and arrogance with a complete refusal to give any ground and attributing to himself an “unbearably intense sort of Wagnerian ambition”. I think his music has some merit, but he really doesn’t do himself any favors talking like this. I think he might consider letting his music speak for itself, rather than trying to dictate how people approach it.
“If you read this, you’ll probably just dismiss it as coming from some bitter black metal guy who doesn’t get what you’re doing. That’s what people who consider themselves intellectually and artistically superior to those around them do: they are so sure of their positions that anyone who disagrees with their methods must be wrong or ignorant.”
This is the second time you have talked about pretension, without actually knowing what it means. Being pretentious doesn’t mean being overly intellectual, its defined as “behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth”. Is that really what you think the scene needs more of? Because it seems like everything you’ve said so far, runs directly oposite to that.
Consider what you say before you post all over the internet.
That’s one meaning of pretentious. The other is pretty much “ambitious”. I think he’s trying to say there’s nothing wrong with more ambition.
And that’s fine. There’s a difference between ambition and arrogance though. Wagner? Rolling my eyes here.
In the last paragraph he seems to be saying that the point of life is this kind of silly genre disagreement added on top of the usual pile of shit that is life. Maybe it’s just weirdly written and I’m misinterpreting.
Who the hell cares about all this, let’s create some music and shut up!
He’s more coherent now that he can actually type and not speak. Christ, that interview was a fucking embarrassment in more ways than one. I’d be interested in counting how many “like, uh, kinda like, you know”s this guy can spew out in a minute.
I actually like a lot of what Hunt-Hendrix has to say here, and he expresses an idealistic, if heavy-handedly written faith in the magic that black metal music can be capable of that I find kind of endearing, and he certainly seems to be a guy who does what he wants and loves what he does, without much regard for anything but the vision he wants to produce through his music.
Unfortunately, I just can’t get into Liturgy, and I really have tried. I really love a lot of the bands more “true” black metallers seem to revile…Wolves in the Throne Room, Alcest, the last Drudkh album, and to a lesser extent Krallice. Liturgy just doesn’t hit me the right way. I may not agree with everything the guy from Woe said, but I’d rather listen to his music than Liturgy’s any time.
To briefly mention a recent column Brandon, I really think that last Peste Noire album is in the running for extreme metal release of the year right now; its so damn good. However, Profound Lore currently has the new Morne on the way to me; I have a feeling about that one…
Hey Matt. You know, I ran into Akitsa at the Iceage show and he mentioned he’s putting out the Peste Noire on vinyl via Tour de Garde. Such an excellent album, agreed. Ditto Morne. I’ve been listening to that one quite a bit.
I like what he says here and I get it. I wish more artists sort of thought along his lines.
That being said, can we drop it now? I really don’t even care about what anyone thinks about this guy and I can’t believe it’s blown up like this. I like Liturgy for their music. If you don’t, don’t listen to it. The freedom of choice is pretty amazing. I don’t like Finntroll and Blind Guardian. I don’t listen to them. I don’t whine about them. I don’t carry on about how their hair is stupid and how can you sing about fantasy all the time and all that. I just don’t give them my attention and they seem to be doing just fine. I recommend everyone who does not like Liturgy do the same. Not liking the man has nothing to do with the music he makes with his band.
AND, there’s no way he’s making American Black Metal look bad ’cause if you don’t listen to American Black Metal then chances are you don’t even know what it is. There is no name to be tarnished. Trying telling your friends that Hunter Hunt-Hendrix from Liturgy is ruining American Black Metal. Their expression will be a giant question mark.
I wonder if the guy who was commenting as Hunter on Metalsucks was actually Hunter… He sounded like a seven year old… Brandon, do you know if it was actually him getting all riled up over there?
Hey Aaron. Nah, that wasn’t him. Hunter’s a mellow guy … quiet and shy, really.
Thank God, it’s hard enough defending Liturgy from stupid People who call them “hipster Metal,” without that little tirade. He doesn’t seem like the kind of dude, to me at least, that would leave comments like that. Good to know, and for the record, Aesthethica is FANTASTIC, and probably one of only a couple albums this year that have truly blown me away.
This is fantastic.
So he’s accused of being pretentious, and in defense of himself writes the most pretentious screed he can muster?
Aesthetica’s a good album. Not life-altering or transformative or whatever-the-fuck, but good. I like it a lot. Dude’s a massive knob though.
tl;dr
The rumors are true, I’m a pretentious hippie making lame black metal.
—-
That being said, I agree with Jeremy up there. If you don’t like it, don’t give him more attention. I don’t really like it myself, but I don’t go commenting everywhere about how much I dislike his music or how stupid I think his opinions are. Save here of course. XD
Live and let live. Now, lets get back to the MUSIC!
The guy from Woe at times sounds reasonable. But his willingness to be a functioning adult and still criticize someone for “using a combo amp” is exactly why people are still giving Liturgy the time of day. If I have to choose between a dude who thinks he’s writing a metaphysical treatise when writes a metal album and a dude who gets in a huff because some other artist equipment he doesn’t like, I’ll take the former. At least it’s interesting vs. sounding like a 14 yr old with a modem. It’s like a rerun of the people who threw a fit when Bob Dylan used an electric guitar. You can call yourself open minded all damn day but saying things like that just belies it.
Oh and this: “I refuse to acknowledge the burst beat as anything other than a very inconsistent hyper-blast.”
Translation: “Hey, I know you were, like, trying to do this new motif but instead, I’m going to turn it into a dick contest and assume that your attempt at a new sound is a result of your un-TRVE weak arms.”
Refuse to acknowledge? And this is the guy who just criticized the Liturgy dude for being the BM police? Whatever.
my best song was sex on fair
He’s completely right when he talks about how he thinks that “the haters have blinders on”. Everyone I’ve come in contact with that doesn’t like Liturgy just says that it’s not real black metal. Well, it IS different. It’s a step in a new direction almost. I don’t see what the big fucking problem is. The songs are great. Sure, they aren’t wearing corpse paint or making pacts with the devil or anything, but why should that even matter?