The point of a mosh pit is to dissolve all barriers between the Self and the Other…
Nyx’ new post, “Whiplash: The Trauma of Acceleration“, might be my favourite chunk of recent blogosphere. I’ve read it three times now. Extremely blessed content.
The whole premise of Whiplash, and of thrash metal, heavy metal, or rock n’ roll in general, is really that there is no future. The response to this varies depending on who is approaching the idea, from pure hedonism in the case of much of early rock and 80s glam metal, to the increasingly hate-filled and/or despairing death metal and black metal.
Thrash, however, sits somewhere right in the middle. “Whiplash” says it all in the name: Thrash metal was about pure intensity, where the nihilism of the 80s reached its most pure form of burning oneself up gloriously in the moment.
I feel like Nyx is articulating some unknown feeling I’ve been having recently, getting more and more into various metal subgenres (and extreme guitar music more generally) after spending most of the year gorging myself on Autechre.
That’s enough of a shift for whiplash in itself.
This week I’ve been in a Slayer mood and I haven’t been able to get the song “Piece By Piece” out of my head — something I’m blaming Nyx for entirely.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’m on this kick whilst so much time online in these spaces I really care about feels like it’s orbiting around a lot more drama than usual, just as Nyx says.
Her advice on what to do couldn’t be more pertinent:
Affirm the headbanger, “the Dionysus of our time.”
In a vortex of pure intensity, the headbanger affirms life and moves in rhythm to the storm.