Sorrow In The Metal Soul
This is not a subject to be taken lightly. The vast and suffocating plain of existence known as sorrow is not unknown to souls like us...or many of us; if you want to count those brave and strong enough to admit such things.
From the classical and the blues that influenced the oft sadness-steeped rock that crafted our beloved refuge - sorrow, grief, despondency, and heartache has fueled the exploited anger that METAL is known for. It is a driving force behind much of the metal that doesn't deny, but couldn't care less, about said anger. Some of us draw upon darkness and the inevitable seizure of sorrow as the purest of our metallic inspiration; taking it, twisting it, bending it into a power of our own. We (or at least I) use the unwanted visitor as a victim unto itself. It's a blood offering to The Gods that we have raised our horns to many times. Sorrow lays upon the altar, not as an innocent virgin, but a tainted and worthy enemy. Oftentimes, it succumbs willingly - admitting defeat at the hands of it's strongest prey. Sorrow knows that it will resurrect with the drop of any new visitation of horrific feelings in which it's killers find themselves a victim. Sorrow and mankind are one.
It has been philosophized countless times that the grandest fuel for these engulfing emotions is the realization of childhood's end. Youth is a time of enchantment and wonder, where a human being frolics through a (supposedly) unknown world, unaware of the strife and struggle, the loss and betrayal, the slaughter of dreams as we knew them. It is the strong that build the altars of sacrifice that we learn to build to dispel such disquiet and mourning. But we immortalize our struggle through the ritual. The deeply artistic need no devil-worship to make such things live eternally. We were built to retain all pains as a way to survive through process of correction. The body and spirit of what happens during the lessons never fully disappear. We survivors are paying tribute to our worthy, devastating, and sometimes deadly adversaries through their immortalization - bleeding out the poison as we do so.
I make such declarations as a melancholic metal musician. A "fiction" writer (by this time, if you have no clue as to why the parenthesis have been included...stop reading and go play outside)...an artistic martyr to a recurring foe. Stifling such bloodletting builds a core within so ardent, so hellish, that Barker's representation through the "puzzlebox" and cenobites fails to represent the true explosion of an earthen hell that oneself (and the victims of witness) will eventually face. Dark song and representation are angels to those that know how to use the catharsis.
Demons to others...yes.
Our cult needs screams of fear to remind us how strong we've become.
Go forth, Disciples Of Suffering...make your sacrifices. Smile knowing that you are still - in many ways - fighting the good fight.
9-1-13 TTSNSN
From the classical and the blues that influenced the oft sadness-steeped rock that crafted our beloved refuge - sorrow, grief, despondency, and heartache has fueled the exploited anger that METAL is known for. It is a driving force behind much of the metal that doesn't deny, but couldn't care less, about said anger. Some of us draw upon darkness and the inevitable seizure of sorrow as the purest of our metallic inspiration; taking it, twisting it, bending it into a power of our own. We (or at least I) use the unwanted visitor as a victim unto itself. It's a blood offering to The Gods that we have raised our horns to many times. Sorrow lays upon the altar, not as an innocent virgin, but a tainted and worthy enemy. Oftentimes, it succumbs willingly - admitting defeat at the hands of it's strongest prey. Sorrow knows that it will resurrect with the drop of any new visitation of horrific feelings in which it's killers find themselves a victim. Sorrow and mankind are one.
It has been philosophized countless times that the grandest fuel for these engulfing emotions is the realization of childhood's end. Youth is a time of enchantment and wonder, where a human being frolics through a (supposedly) unknown world, unaware of the strife and struggle, the loss and betrayal, the slaughter of dreams as we knew them. It is the strong that build the altars of sacrifice that we learn to build to dispel such disquiet and mourning. But we immortalize our struggle through the ritual. The deeply artistic need no devil-worship to make such things live eternally. We were built to retain all pains as a way to survive through process of correction. The body and spirit of what happens during the lessons never fully disappear. We survivors are paying tribute to our worthy, devastating, and sometimes deadly adversaries through their immortalization - bleeding out the poison as we do so.
I make such declarations as a melancholic metal musician. A "fiction" writer (by this time, if you have no clue as to why the parenthesis have been included...stop reading and go play outside)...an artistic martyr to a recurring foe. Stifling such bloodletting builds a core within so ardent, so hellish, that Barker's representation through the "puzzlebox" and cenobites fails to represent the true explosion of an earthen hell that oneself (and the victims of witness) will eventually face. Dark song and representation are angels to those that know how to use the catharsis.
Demons to others...yes.
Our cult needs screams of fear to remind us how strong we've become.
Go forth, Disciples Of Suffering...make your sacrifices. Smile knowing that you are still - in many ways - fighting the good fight.
9-1-13 TTSNSN