My purpose in researching/writing for this project is to understand my feelings about the deeper, personal contexts of black metal and it's social & historical relevance. The following quote is by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix from his essay titled Transcendental Black Metal.
"The historical development of extreme metal is not a chance series of stylistic shifts. It is teleological - governed by a dimly understood but acutely felt Ideal, or a final cause."
This is exactly how I feel about black metal; as I listen to the music of the genre, a strong gut feeling grows inside of me like a mushroom cloud. I don't quite understand why I feel this way, but I know there is a definite call to action. The goal is to determine what that action is.
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"This final cause is named the Haptic Void.
The Haptic Void is a hypothetical total or maximal level of intensity. It is the horizon of the history of metal.
Orientation towards the Haptic Void is expressed as feeling. The feeling is a unity, but as a thought we can break it down into four elements:
There is first of all a certain muscular clenching, a constriction of the jaws, fists, arms and chest.
Secondarily there is an affect: a certain aggression or brutality, a paradoxical sense of power, destruction, fullness and emptiness.
Thirdly it features a primordial satisfaction relating to the affect which acts normative. Good metal produces a satisfying bouquet of clenching, constriction and brutal affect.
Finally, there is a barely discernible je ne sais quoi that says 'not enough'. A complementary dissatisfaction - as though no brutal breakdown can be quite brutal enough. It is a fissure, a crack, a lack of being. An insufficiency compared to the promised plenitude. Maybe it's the inability of any concrete song to measure up to the inspiration that gave birth to it. Paradoxically this dissatisfaction is felt in direct proportion to the level of it's complement."
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