Black metal is not an easy listen. I find it hard to believe that any person unfamiliar with music would be able to pick up this #leviathan album "massive conspiracy against all life" and enjoy it from the get go. Some art requires prerequisites to appreciation. I have been a massive music fan for as long as I can remember. I've always pursued music to ends that tend to be obsessive. That meandering but purposeful path has led me through pop to metal, punk, country and soul to the fringe sub genres of each style of music. I feel it's like an archeological passion to unearth the unknown, to find music few have heard and even fewer create. My appreciation of black metal started as aesthetic, I loved the extremity, the absolutes of its theologies and performances. It took me a long time to get there and I slowly gained appreciation by exposing myself and becoming vulnerable to it's hate filled sounds. This shit rules. When I discovered this Leviathan album I felt like I had found black metal's vacuum center. It's an album that takes time to hear, like one of those magic eye paintings from the '90s. You have to unfocus and stare into its oblivious maw and allow the songs to reveal themselves. This album is the sonic embodiment of misanthropy. It's an earned punishment for appreciating it. I'm sitting here trying to think of an apt description using reference points and I can't even do that. This album has to be heard, and even then I fear without the proper ear training and appreciation for this sort of art you will probably just dismiss it as a cacophony. I know my wife does, but to those who appreciate this dark spectrum of music you will love the experience.
I love this damn cd.
The baby overslept so I didn't play this for him, he's not ready anyway. I'll listen to it again in headphones on my walk to work. If you see me I'll be wearing a satisfied grimace.
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