Sharing a house with another human being means making compromises and, sadly, in most households this translates to not blaring death metal at 3:00 in the morning. Fortunately, I have the house to myself most days, however on the weekends Deicide is usually not an option. As a result, I've searched far and wide to find classical music that evokes a mood roughly analogous to that of the best death metal available. One of the first pieces I found was Beethoven's 9th symphony, which is easily the stormiest of his numbered symphonies. Others, such as the 5th and 2nd, contain movements that would qualify but these are interspersed with lengthy passages more pastoral than thunderous. These latter symphonies are masterpieces all the same but they don't always work quite as well as the 9th for my apparently crude sensibilities, desensitized as they must have been through decades of gratuitous American media. Below is the opening passage of the 9th followed by a track off of one of the most majestic black metal albums of all time, In the Nightside Eclipse by Emperor.
By the way, the beliefs of that particular band are not supported here but hopefully that goes without saying. In my opinion, one of the main reasons why famous artists are so often really pathetic people is because they typically come from backgrounds of enormous privilege, and this means that they are also usually lacking the capacity to empathize with anyone from different backgrounds which results in them ending up developmentally stunted and stuck at an adolescent stage of self involvement that is left behind by most adults. Instead of idolizing the greats while glossing over their shortcomings, a more practical approach would be to level the playing field in order to cultivate talents from all corners of life, a strategy that ultimately benefits anyone who doesn't want their cultural options chosen for them by marketing departments. Over the past couple months I've been scouring metalarchives' lists of Latin American death metal and have been shocked by the number of extremely talented musicians who have gone all but completely unrecognized. People like to think that quality music is dying out but I think what is really occurring is that, one, music has been increasingly more and more commodified by multinational corporations that have little interest in any concern besides increasing their own revenue and, two, it is simply becoming too expensive to make ends meet as a musician due to skyrocketing gas prices that prohibit touring, as well as other economic factors such as widespread unemployment, etc. Does this indicate a lack of talent? Not from what I've seen. Anyways, I've also included a track by the Chasm, a Mexican death metal band whose compositional ability puts the overwhelming majority of U.S. bands to shame. But that's more than enough yammering.
