Filtering the Flood of Music I Like

A while ago, I read a blog post about the album “Woe Betide You” by Lice. The author talked about the “love him or hate him” frontman Niklas Kvarforth in a way that it wasn’t his musicianship that was divisive. I had to look him up to find out what the issue was. It seemed like a generic case of generalized assholery; nothing that would make me boycott a band. The album was fine, but also nothing that would compel me to listen if the artist was abominable. It made me think about the question of separating the artist from the art and where I stand.

Artist vs. Artwork

Basically, I do separate the artist from the art. I think most people are jerks, and the proportion is probably higher among artists, who almost by necessity have to be a little selfish. It’s definitely higher among musicians in the genres I like, because they skew white and male. So if I only listened to music created by wholesome people I could respect and look up to, I’d be humming to myself. One of the beautiful, miraculous things about art is that flawed human beings are able to transcend their limitations to create something better than themselves.

At the same time, art is a direct expression of the artist. If you’re a wife-beating white supremacist, the odds are pretty good that your music will reflect that. I probably won’t like it anyway.

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There’s Enough Good Music

That said, truly terrible people have written really good music – the original trve Norwegian black metal bands come to mind. I can’t get behind that. I can acknowledge that they were good, but since there’s more good black metal in the world than I have time to consume, I find I never get around to the albums made by people whose I genuinely have a problem with.

Filtering the Flood

Evil

I don’t go out of my way to screen bands by lyrical content. I’m not like a musical clean reader. Sometimes I like a band’s music without any backstory, and later find out that they suck – it’s a hazard in genres where lyrics are incomprehensible. I didn’t know anything about Marduk when I saw them live at Eistnaflug and enjoyed their set. I only found out later they have songs celebrating Nazi military units. So fuck them.

I do not listen to bands that kill people, bands that encourage others to kill people, and bands that are so wrapped in their own privilege that they think refusing to distance themselves from killers is an artistic choice.

Fortunately, evil is not actually that common, and even avoiding bands that take the “evil” aesthetic too far, there’s still more music than I can listen to. So I have a few other filters that may have less merit, but still help me manage overwhelm.

Satan

No, Satanism does not belong in the previous category, although there may be some bands that belong in both. Satan is a post-Christian medieval religious construct. You can’t believe in Satan without believing in Jesus and the Christian god. And if you do believe in those things, then you know that by definition Satan is the loser. To me, taking Satanism seriously belies ignorance of both history and religious dogma as well as a juvenile relationship to the concept of obedience/disobedience. I’m not offended by it, I’m just constitutionally incapable of taking it seriously, which means your Satanic riffs have got to be killer to win me over from the side-eye.

Album Art

I’m so fucking sick of looking at pictures of women’s dead bodies. Piles of skulls? Looks good. Fetid zombies? Sure, whatever. Grotesque monsters? Bring it on. But skeletons with breasts? No. Just no. Scenes depicting or implying violence against women? I don’t have time for that shit. I don’t care how good your band is, if you are too lazy to do better than “corpses and tits” fuck off.

Directing the Flow

Besides avoiding music by garbage people, I also do the opposite. When I hear about a band that actively pursues values I care about, I make a point of listening to them at least once. If I’m bored by the music, shared political values won’t make me give it a second spin. But if there are three equally enjoyable bands I’ve listened to once, I’m more likely to return to the one whose actions beyond music make me happy. Here is some music I like that I can also get behind.

Venom Prison

I probably would have landed on Venom Prison anyway, because Samsara is, as they say, my jam. Chunky riffs, noodly leads, vocals like a rusty knife. Add a mixed gender line-up, a classy response to rape accusations against tour-mates, general outspokenness about misogyny in metal, and song titles like “Matriphagy” and “Uterine Industrialization” (which just read differently when a woman is singing) and you’ve got some music I like.

Frank Turner

Until recently, I wasn’t familiar with Frank Turner, the folk-rocker known as much for his politics as his music. So I’m still not sure what is politics is all about. But I do think his latest album is a great idea. No Man’s Land is a collection of songs about badass women in history that most people haven’t heard of before. Since it’s folky, biographical storytelling, it’s not my favorite listening experience. But it’s still music I like.

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Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze

Colorado/Washington black metallers Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze would have drawn my attention with their connection to my home state and with the pagan imagery of their name. Since black metal isn’t my first choice genre, I might not have bothered to stick around for the music. But their debut album, Offerings of Flesh and Gold

… stands as a testament to the power of extreme music, hoping to channel that energy into creating tangible change. They are aggressively antifascist, antihierarchy, and anticapitalist. They are for the downtrodden and the disenfranchised.

Who am I kidding, though? I probably would have stuck around for the excellent, atmospheric, cultish Cascadian black metal anyway. I’m just glad to know they’re the good guys.

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Surya

T-shirt-worthy black and white album cover? Check.

Lengthy post-blackened-sludge-doom instrumental sections reminiscent of Russian Circles and vocals evocative of Neurosis? Check.

Personal message quietly posted at the bottom of their Bandcamp page supporting a vegan lifestyle and the ideas of human, animal and earth liberation while proclaiming knowledge is power? It’s like finding out the guy you already thought was hot also calls his mother on Sundays and volunteers at an animal shelter. I’m so there for Surya‘s Solastalgia.

Vulgar Display of Purring

Speaking of animal shelters.

Heavy Metal & Cats: The only two things that really matter in this cold, bleak world.

So says the Bandcamp page of Vulgar Display of Purring, and they may very well be right. They also claim to

… offer compilations of the heaviest, cat-loving bands in every State to benefit a local animal organization in each region. 100% of proceeds go to charity.

So far, all I could find was New York. But pair a good cause with a purr puns and I’m on board. As with any compilation album, Vulgar Display of Purring: New York is a mixed bag [of cats], but I will check out anything they release.

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