bathsabbath:

Luzialowe‘s Guide to Avoiding Problematic Black Metal:



Sooooo as someone who is both a WOC, deeply invested in social justice, AND first and foremost in music an avid member of the BM “community” (most of us are crabby, antisocial fucks, especially ones like me who are into the depressive subgenre), I’ve spent a lot of years dealing with the frustrating issue of finding BM bands that aren’t racist as hell. Luckily, in my experience I’ve found it to be the minority of music, but that’s because I’ve learned how to see them coming and avoid when necessary. Let me show you my kvlt tips on how to listen to BM without supporting racist shitbags!



Step one: Do they identify as NSBM?

If you’re entirely new to black metal, you may not know what NSBM is, but man, some bands just make it too easy to see where they’re coming from. “NSBM” stands for National Socialist Black Metal, and those bands that identify as NS bands you can count on to be white pride as all fuck.



How do I know if a band is NS?



Generally, when I find a new band I’m looking at their album artwork, band photos, etc as I listen to a couple tracks. My immediate red flags that indicate a band may identify as NS are primarily iconography on their band materials- SS runes, black sun wheels, and other occult symbols that were popular in the Third Reich. My radar is beeping, but how do I know for sure????

When I suspect a band may be NS, I take a peek at one of my favorite sites ever- Encyclopaedia Metallum.

There are an INCREDIBLE amount of bands hosted on here, and excellently curated. I’ve found underground bands listed on here with at least the bare bones amount of information, sometimes more, that I thought would literally never see the light of day because they existed for two years, with one member, and only did half a demo or whatever. So when I think a band may have NS leanings, I take a look at the genre listing on the bands entry in the Encyclopaedia. If it’s listed as NS, I fuck right off into the sunset.



Step two: Check the content.



What happens when a band isn’t listed as explicitly being in the NS genre, but you have a feeling they have some gross racist shit going on?

Encyclopaedia Metallum has the solution for that too. Right under the genre listing on a band page, there is a listing for lyrical content. Over time, I have learned what descriptive buzzwords to look out for in that section. Words like “folk” or “volk”, “nationalism” (man that’s a big one), “elitism”, “pride”, sometimes “war” and others are common lyrical themes in NSBM, and with bands that don’t wanna come right out and say they’re racist, those buzzwords are the next best way to tell if they’re gonna be singing about white pride. Sometimes, you will get lucky, and instead of having to guess, “NS” will be listed under their lyrical themes rather than their genre. This is equally gross. Avoid.



Step three: So how do I find bands that aren’t racist shitbags?



My friend, there is a whole WORLD of black metal that has nothing to do with NS or problematic content. If you’re only interested in True Norwegian style kvlt BM, unfortunately you are going to have to follow these steps to wade through problematic bands. But if you are open to other subgenres, there are many that won’t require you to be semi-regularly disappointed! I am a fan of Cascadian BM, which is pretty much entirely devoid of any sort of racial or political content. We like to sing about trees, really. And black magick rituals in the forest. We have zero interest in pushing a racial agenda, we just want to go for somber walks in the woods and take grainy black and white photos of tree stumps. I personally recommend Cascadian as a great place to start where you can rest assured that you won’t be stumbling onto racist bands in your quest to find new music, but we are definitely not the only genre out there that avoids racial affiliation. There are so many options for you, and the lyrical content listing of the Encyclopaedia will serve you well, I promise.



And a bonus: I’m also a fan of Black Twilight Circle, a collective of near-militant brown and indigenous pride black metal bands. If you wanna listen to BM and know you’re supporting bands who would knock the teeth out of a racist, BTC and bands in their collective such as Volahn and Blue Hummingbird On The Left are a good bet. They sing about their indigenous heritage and the historical suffering of their people at the hands of racist white dudes.

So, in conclusion, I wish you luck on your journey into the cold wasteland of black metal! I hope this helps you to identify bands you don’t want to be associated with, and gives you at least a little help in finding bands you can get behind and enjoy.