Tragedy in the Trilogy: A “Moonlover” Review
Black metal places a strong emphasis on its origins, which has led to the maintenance of a clear and distinct identity for the genre. Black Metal can engage in critiques of dominant metaphysics—the all-encompassing epistemic subject relating to technology and modernity—all while facing the struggle to be accepted by more popular forms of music. Despite its anti-establishment tradition, it also maintains certain purifying approaches to understanding the world. Nevertheless, Black metal is part of a larger network of art that I know and love very deeply. Hence, my desire to bring forth my identity in the world through its presence.
I see Black metal as an inherently political genre, navigating a complex landscape of authenticity and ideological purity, often implicitly critiquing the mechanization and materialism of modernity while yearning for a bygone authenticity amid environmental degradation. This quest for a lost sense of purity and innocence can be reflected in some forms of black metal’s references to the idea of “radical environmentalism.”Radical environmentalism refers to an extreme form of environmental advocacy that seeks to fundamentally change the relationship between humans and the natural world, often advocating for drastic measures to protect and preserve the environment. This can include a rejection of industrialization and modern technology, as well as a call for a return to more primitive or natural ways of living. For example, bands like BlackBraid and Panopticon use their lyrics and imagery to emphasize the importance of a balanced ecosystem and thriving wilderness, while critiquing capitalism's environmental exploitation. There's a struggle amongst the community with its potential for exclusion, particularly through sub-genres like NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal). The history of black metal that I was taught originated in Europe in two different waves. The 'first wave' of black metal, included bands like Venom and Mercyful Fate, and was characterized by traditional speed and thrash metal sounds with anti-Christian and Satanic themes. The 'second wave' in Norway brought more drama, with notorious events like church burnings and the adoption of corpse paint directly correlating to the rise of the genre. Corpse paint is a makeup style featuring white, black, and sometimes red colors, worn by performers on stage to symbolize themes of death, demons, and the afterlife. Eventually, big name record labels started to take notice like Osmose Productions and Nuclear Blast; many of the fans found this moment particularly disappointing, fearing that the bands widely representing the genre were “selling out.”
One of my favorite black metal bands, Ghost Bath, isn’t purely black metal, as they also intermix post-metal influences. Originating from Minot, North Dakota,Ghost Bath released their debut album Funeral in 2014 through Pest Productions in China, leading to a mistaken belief that they were a Chinese band. Funeral is recognized as a unique record in their discography. Beginning with Moonlover in 2015, the band launched their thematic trilogy of albums. This series progressed with Starmourner in 2017 and concluded with "Self-Loather" in 2021. Each album reflects a significant theme, tragedy in Moonlover, ecstasy in Starmourner, and doom in Self-Loather. Speaking to magazine Metal Hammer for the release of their album Moonlover, the vocalist Nameless notes that the band is interested in breaking dichotomies by “taking a really dark and depressive sound and juxtaposing that with a joyous, uplifting, and hopeful sounding lead line.” I read this ‘juxtaposition’ between happiness and sadness as playing with contradiction,which is something very unique that Ghost Bath brings to the extreme music genre.
Their perspective on impurity within the genre will become more relevant as we discuss the way they use ambiguous language alongside contradictory emotive instrumentals later on.
The depictions of contradiction, meaning, and identity within Ghost Bath’s catalog, reminds of the works of philosopher Mariana Ortega. I view her insights and contributions as engaging with contradictions, challenging the notion of an objective viewpoint from which to describe the world. She takes into account the lived-experiences and the place of contradiction and ambiguity among our personal interpretation of ourselves. Ortega posits that the multiplicitous self encompasses various social identities, possibilities, and contradictions as a being in the world. For Ortega all identities are multifaceted, he reminds us that some who identify as having an intersectional identity (e.g. multicultural, queer, immigrant, border dwellers) experience the impact of the variety in their identity more sharply and violently. Despite experiencing contradictions or ambiguities, there is still a continuous sense of self-experience. In other words, even when faced with conflicting or unclear situations, a person's sense of being an "I" and their awareness of their different positions or roles in life remain intact and unbroken. Ortega notes that these selves are constitutive of various worlds inhabited by people (real or imaginary) which are each differently organized by culture, power, and the varying constructions of life that produce gender, race, sexuality, class, and ability. Worlds do not encompass the total being, but rather are found in communities of meaning and languages, and are always open to interpretation.
Just as Ortega posits that identities and selves are not singular, but rather composed of multiple facets and influenced by various worlds, Ghost Bath's music plays with multiplicity through its exploration of seemingly conflicting emotions and themes. Their work does not confine itself to a single genre or message, but traverses a spectrum of experiences, thereby challenging the listener to engage with the music on multiple levels of interpretation. For example, speaking to Metal Hammer on their album Moonlover, the vocalist, Nameless, notes that while lyrics can enhance music, they can also detract from its abstractness. Ghost Bath prefers to let listeners interpret their music freely. In their song “Golden Number” lyrics are shrieked and have no written counterparts. There is no legible meaning in the lyrics as you hear them, you’re only left to interpret their outcry—a new form of complex language that holds multiple and contradictory meanings, contingent on those hearing the cries on stage or through their speakers. Furthermore, the music is strengthened through its use of traditionally happy-sounding leads amongst anguished cries of the vocalist and instrumentals. Through the varied cries, listeners are invited to interpret their own ambiguous, multifaceted identities, by experiencing them all at once or by witnessing their changes over time. Since worlds are "always open to interpretation" Ghost Bath's intentional use of ambiguous lyrics and mixed instrumentals defy pure in-moment interpretation and thus not subject to the unified meaning, and identification, imposed on us by the structured language we are taught to communicate exclusively with.
The music of Ghost Bath, whether experienced live or through speakers in solitude, pierces and throbs with an intensity while allowing for dancing on the edge of discomfort and release. The music finds a way to release at the apex of a tug, akin to finally scratching an itch you didn’t realize was there. It’s an act of movement from one experience of the self to another. The experiences of discomfort and relief in Ghost Bath's music are interconnected, akin to the universal sensation of an itch and its relief through scratching. However, each occurrence is distinct, shaped by the unique circumstances of that particular moment.
In another interview for the same album, the band's “vocalist” complicates the utilization of the term describing his role in the group. 'Vocalist' becomes complicated when considering the concept of multiplicity, both with Nameless’s understanding of vocals and the multiplicitous self, each instrument is assigned a meaningful role, and the vocalist's lyrics are not necessarily the primary focus in their music. Nameless has expressed a need for a new, different term for ‘vocalist’ that reflects the equal importance of all instruments in carrying the piece in its multiplicity. Nameless explains how they “experience anxieties from the world and our environment as well as inner anxieties. The ultimate way to rid ourselves of these pressures is to reach death—the ultimate release. There are many ways to deal with these pressures, but, by far, the healthiest is by sublimation. Sublimation is basically taking all the negative energy and using it towards something creative or acceptable.” In other words, sublimation involves transforming the nature of the object that was originally the target of desire. In Ghost Bath’s music, the positionality of identity need not be fixed in a particular location. The self shifts, or travels to various worlds wherein the conditions of one’s internal contradictions are understood as multiplicity. As I sit and listen to Moonlover, its meanings shift like pullson an elastic string that finds the momentum to travel to the various worlds that constitute the self. This acknowledges the presence of the worlds we are within and also provides a space for creative imaginings of new possibilities. Perhaps Ghost Bath is trying to state that the only way for one to find and be satisfied with a pure, authentic identity is to no longer be in a perpetual state of movement. Only death can provide
The question I have as I continue to find solace, comfort, and exercises in my own multiplicity is how these music’s can bring forth understandings, ways of thinking, and lived-experiences that have been rendered invisible under modern paradigms of knowledge. I want to theorize and disturb black metal through impurity. Not only because the genre itself is impure owing to its multiple identities, but also because its origins, while having been made pure through a plasticization of history, made an attempt to shatter the fragmentary lines of music and culture.