A friend from New York told me the other day that he "could never hear a new black metal song in my life" and have no complaints. I figure there are just two acceptable justifications for that statement - either he's listening to too much black metal (he isn't) or he's listening to the wrong black metal. And if he's trying to use the first excuse, then I'm just going to direct him to the second excuse. Of course, an advantage to not delving too terribly deep into a particular subgenre is that you avoid being jaded by the sometimes derivative trappings that are endemic in anything that could even be classified as a "subgenre." I remember someone scoffing when I was blasting KVIST because they were supposedly generic. When I was 18, a coworker noted that I shouldn't dig on CANNONBALL ADDERLEY until I studied up on JAZZ MESSENGERS and COLTRANE. What about the crust youth who discovered TRAGEDY through FALL OF EFRAFA? Or discovered WOLFPACK through TRAGEDY? My point (poorly made) is...if it's good, then who gives a fuck? And if you like it, then really who gives a fuck?! Enter LAMENTATION OF THE ASHEN. New Mexico bl/e/ak metal filtered through atmospheric doomcrust, possibly derivative but absolutely unique...and definitely awesome. I suppose my friend from New York might not be bothered - I also suppose that's his loss.
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