Rock of Ages

Today in Stacks,  a guest post from Jared.

In the last few years I’ve become a fan of Swedish death metal. There, I said it. However, because Heidi is a bit worried that Doves and Serpents’ readers won’t “get” or like Swedish death metal and my credibility as a fan of the genre was called into question, I regret to inform the readers that they were ” nannied”   and won’t have an opportunity to decide for themselves if they like Swedish death metal. Generally speaking, the editors of Doves and Serpents are very tolerant and have a big tent policy of inclusion and want to encourage their readers to live more adventurously, but I was overruled.

So, instead of the greatly anticipated Swedish death metal review, I would like to put before you a trend which combines my two great loves — the music video and The History Channel. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Jared, that’s just a clever way around the censorship of Swedish death metal. Tip of the hat to you dear reader, for knowing that History Channel-themed rock videos are almost always made by Swedish death metal bands, but did you know it’s also the preferred rock video format for folk metal as well?

For example, Heidevolk tell a sad tale of a girl seeing her lover “go a Viking” in the melancholic song Nehalnennia. Here we see a masterful re-imaginactment of how a band of youths face the perils of coming of age in Viking times. The every-man gives votive offerings to the sea in a pious act of worship, a symbol of how he must seek divine knowledge.

In Alestorm’s Keelhauled, we see a swashbuckling tale. Though I wouldn’t recommend salt-water around any electronic equipment, I do enjoy a good old sea yarn.

Not to be outdone, Amon Amarth tell the tale of Thor the thunder god, in a broader sense the death of ancient Nordic religions as popular religions of the people. We stand in solemnity too with the ancestors of Thor, the protector of man and his foreordained fate.

 Our next band TYR feels compelled to warn us about the perils of combat in medieval times. I might call it “All Quiet on the Western Front, 1066.”

And we can’t forget the role women have played in history and music. Arkona have this take on the History Channel/metal video hybrid,Is she lamenting a long lost love or is she cursing man’s inhumanity to man, or is she just cold? I’ll let the viewer discover.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that many black metal bands are co-opting the History Channel rock video hybrid. For example, this video by Enslaved shows what one might see as a practitioner of a primitive shamanistic religion or, caveman-type primitive, struggling with metal illness or having a rapturous experience with the divine.   But I suspect Enslaved are commenting on some kind of lost Nordic noble savage idea, now a proxy for man’s feeling of alienation in the modern age.  

Of course, not all History Channel rock video hybrids are metal- based. For example, we have Kasabians’ Empire which is a Charge of the Light Brigade influenced comment on the war in Iraq. Or Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon, really a trailblazer of the history-themed video.   But the true godfather of the historical rock video has to be Adam Ant, one of my personal muses, for his collection of pirate videos.

The history-themed video is not a new idea, but instead of the campy and historically inaccurate videos of the 80’s we are now seeing a re-flowering of the historical video in the metal scene of Europe, which focuses on historical accuracy and rocking at the same time. Without the trailblazing efforts of those very dissimilar artists of the 80’s, folk/death/black metal might not have found a visual medium to convey its Viking sensibility, ability to play really fast or their deadly seriousness. Can anyone really question my love of the genre?