Friday, June 01, 2007

How Nice. What Does Someone Have to Do to be "Ugly?"


I read a concert review of the band Emperor in the Trib today. The opening paragraph notes, "In black metal, a genre where evil and mayhem are prerequisites for success, Emperor is the blackest of the black." According to the reviewer, the concert led him to realize "... it became clear that beauty is sometimes found in darkness."

Hmmm... is luring a man into the woods and murdering him because he is (was) homosexual "beautiful?" Burning down ancient churches is "beautiful?"

The vocals were described as "alternat[ing] between strangled shrieks and demonic gurgles." Sounds nice.

Advocated hatred and violence should never be declared "beautiful," and I don't care if it spews forth from some Nordic asshole with a twisted view of history, or a jingoistic cowboy with a warped view of current events who wants to stick a boot in someone's ass.