Wrnlrd - Pentagon
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Pentagon, by one-man band Wrnlrd, is one of the most intriguing packages I've encountered in a while. The translucent papers and gray/silver tones of the CD jewel case suggest IDM. A single eye peers out from behind the back traycard. Lifting the tray reveals the number "21" written twice, as well as the the number "51090942171709440000," which is 21 factorial; the CD has 21 tracks. (Wrnlrd's website has a similar obsession with numbers.)
Sun Wheel: Eye of HornsMay Day: Dance of Vines
The liner notes include an antique map of Washington, DC, as well as a foreboding photo of the Washington Monument (see above), which recalls Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker; Wrnlrd lists Dischord among his influences. They also contain an aerial view of The Pentagon, located in Wrnlrd's native Arlington, VA. (The front cover is a Photoshop filtered image of The Pentagon burning on 9/11.) Finally, the liner notes include a dedication to an officer of a local Masonic Lodge. This leads back to the eye on the traycard - is it the All-Seeing Eye?
Perhaps surveillance is a theme here, an inverse of Isis' Panopticon. The photo of The Pentagon: watching the watchers? It's tough to tell if this record has a political subtext, as it's mostly instrumental. Black metal is the starting point from which it departs in a hurry. The guitar tone is the sonic equivalent of spilling beer on an old rug. Tempos hover around soggy, mid-paced trudges. Creaky banjo adds a woozy, back porch feel, while fuzz runs rampant like weeds. The record feels like a soundtrack, with lots of brief sonic vignettes.
It's all quite strange and a little paranoid - or perhaps I'm inferring that from the artwork. Even if one can't fully grasp the aesthetic, it's still thought-provoking. Pitchfork has a good interview with Wrnlrd in which he talks about his background in bluegrass and country blues: "I see ghosts of American music everywhere. I hear Dock Boggs in black metal, the droning banjo, voice like an earthquake. I hear Blind Lemon [Jefferson] pounding his feet on the floor, and I know he is my cousin... I think the essence of black metal is something that goes beyond geography and stylistic tradition, even beyond music."
Labels: black metal, clee, usa
2 Comments:
Maybe or maybe not interesting: I used to go to a bluegrass night on Sunday nights at a local dive. It was very much the "casual live playing" that Wrnlrd talks about in that Pitchfork interview. It turned out, however, that a lot of the guys getting up and playing week after week were ex-metal guys who had basically gotten out of metal entirely and were now playing bluegrass. At the very least, the virtuosity of bluegrass playing (have you ever watched a bluegrass mandolin player shredding?) translates well from metal. As far as aesthetic/ideological influences go, that's anybody's guess. You could perhaps make a point about blues and bluegrass in American music being roughly analogous to Viking folk songs for the Norse, but I don't know how far you can run with that.
Graeme, that is indeed interesting. When Americans play black metal, they're playing with another culture's traditions. Usually it's the other way around (other countries take on American pop, blues, jazz, etc.). Now USBM has started to achieved some semblance of its own identity - yet the depth and darkness of America's historical music lies mostly unplumbed in metal. And, yes, bluegrass shreds ridiculously.
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