Is It REALLY Veganism That’s Changing The Face of Extreme Music?

Recently, an article on CVLT Nation titled “Is Veganism Changing the Face of Extreme Music?” caught my attention. It took me a few reads to try and decipher this enigmatic piece, and I’m still not quite sure if I got it right.

The piece seems to be concerned with the relationship between black metal and veganism. The writer, Tom, claims that an influx of vegan musicians might change the face of black metal.

But is changing the face of extreme music a good or bad thing? The text doesn’t provide a clear answer. However, there are a few points to consider when discussing the “face of black metal.”

What does black metal actually represent?

Firstly, black metal was a musical movement started by a group of very young men in a very specific time and place. In the fascinating book “Blod Eld Död” (Blood Fire Death) by Ika Johannesson and Jon Klingberg (which, I believe, hasn’t yet been translated into English), we gain an in-depth understanding of the early days of black metal.

What struck me most about this story is how young these boys were when they created the foundation of what we now call black metal. The really wild events we associate with this music scene were isolated to a specific time and place—namely, Norway in the early nineties—and were primarily carried out by these very young men. It was during this period that we witnessed Pelle Ohlins’ (a.k.a. Dead) suicide, Øystein Aarseth’s (aka Euronymous) murder, and numerous church burnings. The black metal scene changed dramatically after Varg Vikernes (Burzum) was imprisoned.

The image of opposition has been maintained through Satanic lyrics, corpse paint, and spectacular stage shows. However, offstage, the black metal scene has largely been a peaceful yet eccentric group of musicians dedicated to creating the most extreme forms of metal music known to man. (One exception might be Kristian Eivind Espedal, a.k.a. Ghaal, of Gorgoroth, who has a somewhat violent past despite his vegetarianism and love of nature. And then there were some problematic NSBM folks in Germany, but apart from that, not much.)

Compared to what came later, early black metal was not very musically extreme. Instead, it aroused curiosity through its tone, imagery, and message. For example, you can compare Mayhem’s first record Deathcrush from 1987 to Napalm Death’s Scum, released in the same year. The music of Bathory and Venom is also significantly outdone by contemporary bands in terms of musical extremism. This is why it’s essential to distinguish between any music with blast beats and tremolo picking and black metal. The allure of black metal lies primarily in its message.

It’s this message that we need to examine more closely if we want to understand black metal and why it might attract vegans (characterized by their anti-speciesist, anti-anthropocentric ideology).

The essential lyrical message of early black metal is anti-humanism, misanthropy, or anti-anthropocentrism. The lyrics paint a picture of a world where the human experience is peripheral or insignificant compared to the vital work of greater and older powers. Even though the black metal world is vast and hard to generalize, I would argue that this core ethos has persisted into today’s black metal scene. With currently active bands such as Watain, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Mayhem, we still see this basic theme of misanthropy and anti-anthropocentrism, albeit in different ways.

In Watain, we see this through the lens of anti-cosmic Satanism, a religious system where our human forms are mere illusions and chaos constantly challenges our perceived reality. Wolves in the Throne Room bring us an almost Pagan interpretation of anti-anthropocentrism with their beautiful hymns to nature. And Mayhem, well, they continue to be Mayhem. (Note: This column was written in 2015 before the Mayhem NSBM controversy broke out.) Is Atilla still vegan, by the way?

Given this anti-anthropocentric heritage, incorporating the ethics of animal liberation or environmental protection into the music isn’t far-fetched. These ideas might even be more compelling reasons to despise mankind in the 21st century than any others. Bands such as Cattle Decapitation have brilliantly demonstrated how metal artwork and lyrics can convey a message of hatred towards humans for their actions against animals.

But to return to the initial question: Is veganism changing the face of black metal?

No. Maybe I’m being ignorant, but I don’t share CVLT Nation’s assessment. Where are all these vegan black metal bands? The CVLT article doesn’t mention even one. The question might instead be, should vegans change the face of black metal? Could we erode the “trve” forms of black metal with “political correctness”? Is there a risk of black metal becoming a mainstream phenomenon due to veganism?

Here, I might agree that there’s a risk of black metal becoming more diluted and meaningless, as has already happened in some cases. However, I wouldn’t agree that the main threat comes from vegan musicians. The real threat would be if black metal were absorbed further into popular culture and diluted to make records that sell rather than to create extreme music and express anti-humanistic values. When black metal is all about selling shirts, drinking beer, and doing huge shows, the foundation of the black metal scene is more at risk than when someone chooses to eat their veggies.