It’s okay for Christians and Muslims to be mainstream poseurs because they’ll have to go underground eventually.
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Posts Tagged ‘poseurs
06
Jul
12
The Quoted Tongue #10
Those who’ve been complaining about the dearth of screams on Belus will perhaps be satisfied with Fallen. Varg Vikernes is not only screaming here; if his clean singing on Belus came as a surprise, the humming on Fallen may prove too shocking for some.
Compared to Belus (everything in black metal shall henceforth be compared to Belus), Fallen sounds far less intense and closer to early Burzum. The guitar tone is thinner and raw, and the drumming, for a change, isn’t minimal. The songs aren’t as woven into themselves as they are on Belus, and they aren’t trance-inducing either. Fallen is for those who liked/loved Burzum‘s early work, mainly because it has that kind of rawness and the typically chunky riffs and the excited black metal drumming.
But really, the humming makes Varg sound like a guy in love smelling a colourful flower thinking about his girl. Maybe Count Grishnackh composed it while taking a merry stroll in his favourite forest. Your first reaction to it may be ‘what-the-fuck-is-he-doing’, but later when you’re in the loo, that tune comes back to haunt you and doesn’t allow you to shit properly.
Before I turn into an asshole and tell you how the whole damned world can learn from Burzum about honour and integrity, let me play safe by merely stating that this man can single-handedly slap you all with several lessons in black metal aesthetics while having a lot of fun making albums like Fallen.
There will always be poseur bands making music for poseurs, and there will always be great bands creating true black metal art. And then there will always be one man who, by the very nature of his existence, keeps the fire burning.
11
Dec
09
Suck On
Dec 20, 2008
India has an enviable underground music scene. Still in foetal stage, yet developing slowly. Rock music has been in India for a couple of decades now, and the heavy metal scene is inflating as we speak, preparing itself to explode in the face of a nation that doesn’t have an inkling about the abundance of musical talent it contains.
Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar made a comment on something he clearly doesn’t know much about. In an interview on a website, the celebrity said “In India, rock music is a very shallow and superficial genre. They dress and style themselves like American rockers but the words and lyrics are archaic and obsolete. The words in an average Indi-Rock number revert to trite filmy clichés like balma, baliye and mahiya.”
I find it ridiculous that an established personality from the film industry should put his ignorance up on display by making such a careless remark.
First of all, the idea of rock music (or anything to do with it) being used as a theme of a Hindi movie is blasphemous, especially an out-and-out commercial Bollywood flick. Those who listen to ‘lesser’ music might not be aware that rock/metal is a lot more than just music. There is a pretty good reason why it has such a loyal following, and a lot of rock/metal fanatics don’t call it music, they call it ‘religion’ and know it as a way of life.
Rock culture in India is an underground movement, and most of us metalheads want it to stay that way. As if Hindi rock isn’t a genre pathetic, pretentious and embarrassing enough, Rock On had to come along. Now, I love talking (and occasionally swearing) in Hindi, and I worship heavy metal, but Hindi rock is just not happening. It is never deep enough (even when it really needs to be) and the spirit of rock n’ roll doesn’t ever come across. Bad luck, folks.
On top of all this, a songwriter (whose work I find average, unexciting and overrated) makes an attempt at working on a concept which will remain alien to him for a very long time to come. The least he could do is not make a fool of himself by commenting on a genre he can’t contribute to.
What the man doesn’t know is rock bands don’t use clichéd Hindi words. If they do, it’s not rock music. If Rock On had a pop group doing whatever in the movie, I would’ve thought of the soundtrack as pretty decent pop music, because that’s what it is. While it is definitely advanced for Bollywood, rock bands in the Stone Age made music that was more rock ‘n’ roll, so boys and girls…
If the movie is as successful as is claimed, and if it has led to many youngsters picking up a guitar thinking they’ve discovered rock music, I’d say Rock On! has given birth to an entire generation of poseurs. Congrats to you all.
One should be very careful when one speaks of things as sacred as rock/metal music. Especially when one hasn’t heard even one rock album in his entire life. And by ‘rock album’, I don’t mean the soundtrack of Rock On!
A buffoon who writes lyrics like an eight-year-old Bryan Adams should take special precautions to ensure he doesn’t come across as an imbecile.
Rigid as my views are and narrow-minded as I sound, I’m not one to let my hang-ups prevent me from enjoying a script/movie that’s supposed to be good. Think I’ll borrow a pirated DVD of Rock On! from a friend next week. Buzz off!
Coming soon…If You Don’t Like Metal, You’re Not My Friend
Posted by Aditya Mehta | { 18 } Comments
[From my Buzz18 blog “Lashkar-E-Shaitan”]
Mehta Kya Kehta? 