Climbing a mountain is a noble struggle and it is metal as hell. It contains ebb and flow, within and without; without, one finds conflict and peace in nature, in the rocks, in the animal kingdom, everywhere. Within, one has to battle against oneself, tiredness, thoughts, injury, and disease; yet all those things make the achievement of reaching the summit real and worthy. They fill life with meaning.
When one reaches the summit by risking his life in a snowstorm, nature rewards him with humility. Humility, because man realizes his insignificance in nature. This humility leads to self-knowledge and power.
Metal is in many ways like mountain climbing and sportsmanship, because it is the music of life. And life is celebrated by the glorification of death, in the same way that Phrygian and chromatic melodies meld into a heavier resolution, or a harmonious lead. People mislead the heavy motifs as emissaries of extreme metal, yet without context, they would have no point, no impact and would provide no inspiration.
Some say that metal is dead. That even art is dead and that we have killed her. This can only mean one thing. We must make art out of our lives.
After all, songs cοme out of the person who lives in tune with nature; for she puts words into him.
Tags: art, ildjarn, metal, mountain climbing, mountains
Being among the humanity, that circle jerk of insignificance, sure fills one’s head with thoughts of destroying them. It is nice to take a break once in a while.
Call them cheesy if you want – they are to some extent and obviously had a sense of humor – but Windham Hell definitely cornered the market in the mountain climbing genre of metal :)
It was a surprise to learn that Leland is much better known for his contributions to mountain climbing than he is for his music project, which I have mixed feelings about because WH was really cool. Industrial metal is rife with failures, but I feel that he and Eric did an excellent job of incorporating elements of it into their music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gg2ZTd5bTE&t=1429s
Being secluded, really secluded, for the first time in a true wilderness is an incredible experience. To know that you are completely dependent on and limited by your own instincts and aquired skills, and that your mastery of them defines your ability to survive, stimulates real growth and self-actualization. It is uncomfortable at first, but you quickly adapt and accept your lowly but appropriate position in nature. Nothing in the civilized world, at least that I have experienced, comes close to that feeling.
Neat. Mountains are very Death Metal indeed. It’d be something unoriginal to tell which things are Death Metal because they’d be the same as the things that are Romantic.
Anyway let’s say something. Late painter Montserrat Gudiol is quite Death Metal for me. Do you remember God Macabre’s record cover? That.