15

Gods amongst Us/Gods within:

The Black Metal Aesthetic
Aleks Michalewicz

I am a servant of the War Lord

and of the Muses, knowing their desirable gi�.
(Archilochus, Fragment 1)1

In a 2005 interview, Sir Bob Geldof suggested that the lingua franca of the
modern world is pop music.2 Such a statement raises many questions, and
one of these is how we might approach music that vehemently strives to
locate itself far beyond the reaches of popular culture. Black Metal (BM),
a music genre that evolved in Scandinavia in the late 1980s, is character-
ized by “nihilism and a heroic anti-social assertion of the self” (American
Underground Nihilist Association).3 It first exhibited a strong ideological
concern with Satanism, and this later developed into a preoccupation with
native pagan mythologies: a natural progression in the anxiety regarding
Christian influence over traditional Scandinavian cultures. I will argue
that, as a text, BM may be understood as creating a radically unique aes-
thetic, and that the stylistic conventions of this narrative create a space in
which the ‘heroic’ is both developed and embodied.
I participate in BM as a spectator, musician, consumer, woman; my
perspective is both academic and that of a fan. As a Classicist, I am contin-
uously struck by the ways in which BM not only explores and negotiates
various mythologies, but actively creates a mythology about itself. It is my
argument that this self-conscious and simultaneously self-reflexive pro-
cess of mythmaking allows for its proponents to become a part of some-
thing that transcends the everyday, and allows those on stage–through the
ritual of performance–to become ‘heroes’. Further, those that participate
as an audience partake in a discourse that allows for a heroic existence,
and the opportunity for elevation into this heroic realm. This chapter will
contextualize BM and address the metaphysical concerns of the subculture
through an analysis of lyrics, song/album titles, as well as band and stage
names. Theory emerging from Bakhtin’s work on the carnivalesque will
212 Aleks Michalewicz

then be utilized in order to explore the ways in which the ‘everyday’ is sus-
pended through the propagation of the scene’s aesthetic qualities, which
in the process creates an alternative narrative in which to situate one-self.4

Black Metal For Beginners

It would be easy to view BM performers simply as paradigmatic counter-

cultural ‘super-villains’ or ‘anti-heroes’. The genre is highly theatrical, both
on and off stage: it is characterized by costume, almost without exception
in the color black, as well as leather, PVC, spikes and long hair. The light
shows at (especially) larger concerts is extreme, with darkness punctuated
by intense brightness. The musicians o�en wear what is known as ‘corpse-
paint’, which consists of white face paint with black embellishments
around the eyes and mouth. Perhaps predictably, the BM scene is, in many
ways, hyper-masculine. But it also appears to be (almost paradoxically)
devoid of preoccupations regarding gender. There are many women in-
terested in BM, and their involvement is not unusual. Indeed, BM is much
more concerned with exploring the concept of the individual, and each
person is judged on his or her own merit: how they actively construct their
identity and what philosophies they align themselves with. Nonetheless,
the competitive nature of such a hyper-masculine scene promotes intense
deconstruction of performance, musicianship and thematic content. This
is especially evident at live performances, where one witnesses mainly
men performing to and for other men. In such a context, how one appears
on the outside truly reflects just who one is within. Jean-Pierre Vernant
wrote the following about the Gorgon’s mask, but these remarks apply
just as pertinently here:

In this face-to-face encounter with frontality, man puts himself in

a position of symmetry with respect to the god, always remaining
centered on his own axis. This reciprocity implies both duality
(man and god face each other) and inseparability, even identifica-
tion… In Gorgo’s face a kind of doubling process is at work… [T]o
wear a mask means to cease being oneself and for the duration
of the masquerade to embody the Power from beyond who has
seized on you… The act of doubling the face with a mask, super-
imposing the la�er on the former so as to make it unrecognizable,
presupposes a self-alienation… As a result, man and god share a
contiguity, an exchange of status that can even turn into confusion
and identification. But in this very closeness, a violent separation
from the self is also initiated, a projection into radical alterity, a
 GODS AMONGST US/GODS WITHIN 213

distancing of the furthest degree, and an u�er disorientation in

the midst of intimacy and contact. (Vernant 1991, 137-8)

The notions of ‘masking’ and altered identity are, of course, recur-

ring themes in the discussion of heroes generally and superheroes in par-
ticular. BM is characterized most of all by its ‘negative’ thematic concerns
as expressed through both the lyrical content and the sonic textures of
the music itself. Like the hero, musicians are expected to reveal specialist
abilities; to be able to play with a prowess rarely found in rock’n’roll and
even many other sub-genres of metal. BM is widely criticised throughout
the metal scene for its perceived exclusivity, and perhaps this is the case:
like Thor, Achilles, Batman and other grand, epic-scale heroes, the BM
scene aspires “to the highest realms of human conception and behavior,
embracing intellectual élitism and the honorable warrior mentality of the
medieval era” (American Nihilist Underground Network). Thus despite
protagonists superficially embodying traits of the villain, BM creates an
alternative existence and adopts a hero narrative. What then is BM? Mi-
chael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind explain it thus:

The principal elements of Black Metal… reside as much in belief

and outlook as they do in the music itself. There is a considerable
berth given toward sonic experimentation as long as certain at-
titudes are prominently displayed by the musicians. At the same
time… the boundaries of the ideology shi� as time passes (Moyni-
han and Soderlind 2003, 33).

This is a particularly apt description. Emerging first in Scandinavia,

BM has also been described as “ragnarok and roll” (Baddeley 1999, 189).
Norway was, in particular, the center for BM’s development, with Swe-
den and other European countries soon to follow. Baddeley refers to the
relative inexperience of musicians involved at its inception, and writes
that instead, they focused on “producing unearthly, crazed, ugly sounds
with guitars, drums, the human voice and keyboards” (1999, 189). Bands
such as the Misfits, Venom5, Mercyful Fate, Witchfinder General, Bathory,
the earlier New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Hardcore and
Punk were all influential in the genesis of Black Metal. Indeed, it is a “genre
[which] includes all of the technique and rhythmic intensity of… [death
metal but] with more emotive and comprehensible poetic communication
within the music” (American Nihilist Underground Society). The recur-
ring parody of Christian values, as well as those of western capitalism,
further allows musicians to project themselves into a heroic realm. This
emphasis on poetic and artistic vision is a crucial element of the scene.
214 Aleks Michalewicz

And when in 1986, the Norwegian band Mayhem released Pure Fucking
Armageddon, BM may be said to have been formally unleashed.
An interesting aspect of BM is that most of those who listen to the
music are themselves active within the metal scene. This includes, for both
men and women, playing in bands and music generally, promotion and
distribution, hosting specialist radio programs, and working for metal
labels and within the broader music industry. This creates an intimately
organic and interactive scene, and one that relies less on album sales than
loyal fan participation. BM originally developed via tape trading and fan-
zines, and this has now progressed to CD burning and the Internet. In-
deed, new technologies are warmly embraced, as is reflected in the high
production values of later recordings. The scene has since dispersed inter-
nationally, with a number of Australian bands touring overseas, amongst
these Destroyer 666, The Berzerker and Virgin Black (who could, ironi-
cally, be perceived as a Christian metal band).6 But despite appearing on
a global stage, BM remains highly resistant to its features being located in
the present, modern world.
If we accept, as John Fiske suggests, that “[p]ostmodernism refuses
categories and the judgements they contain: it denies distinctions between
fine art, the mass media, vernacular subcultures, and it harnesses the new
technologies to sha�er these boundaries” (1987, 254) then BM is decidedly
not a part of postmodernity, even if part of a postmodern world. Boundar-
ies are strictly enforced and reinforced, both in terms of what even quali-
fies as BM and who may take part in the scene. Technology is used to
capture more keenly, the sound a band is a�er, but there is li�le doubt that
the music and its performance are generally regarded as a very distinct
form of high-art. In what is probably the most renowned academic study
of heavy metal music, Robert Walser highlights the debt metal owes to
blues, classical music of 18th and 19th century European composers (1993,
57 ff). In this regard, BM is no exception. Due to its extreme nature, BM
will never be part of more mainstream culture, and this is consciously per-
petuated through se�ing harder, faster and darker parameters.7 There are,
certainly, progressive, avant-garde and atmospheric BM bands. However,
such music–for the most part–still falls distinctly into the conceptual ide-
als of the scene. Keith Booker suggests that “[t]ransgression and creativity
have been inextricably linked throughout the history of Western culture”
(1991, 3) and this is something repeatedly explored and pushed in the cre-
ation of the BM aesthetic. Indeed, through the interlinking of a very spe-
cific art form and corresponding philosophy, BM successfully creates the
possibility of positioning oneself within a grand heroic landscape. This
allows BM to celebrate its exclusivity through a dialogue with popular
culture (negotiating a focus of cultural resistance in a similar manner to
 GODS AMONGST US/GODS WITHIN 215

other underground subcultures) even whilst utilizing the tools postmo-

dernity has to offer.

Aesthetics and Metaphysics

Kant and Nietchze are two philosophers influential in the construction of

BM ideology.
BM contains an anti-social and anti-establishment vision antithetical
to the hero’s traditional obsession with maintaining social order, travers-
ing into the realm more generally associated with villains. However, the
outsider qualities of BM allow for the potential of every individual to ex-
tend themselves beyond everyday norms, approaching the world on sepa-
rate and distinct terms in order to fulfill a perceived heroic potential and
destiny – even if there may be dire consequences to and from mainstream
society. It is not unique that a music genre would align itself with a par-
ticular world view (compare punk and anarchy, reggae and Rastafarian-
ism, etc.). What makes such marriages of expression and belief interesting
is the ways in which they are explored and developed within a particular
art form. In the case of BM, the process of internalization appears very
strongly. Everything a band does, what it represents, and how it behaves
is answerable to a specific code of behavior. In April 1991, Dead of May-
hem shot himself in the head, and his bandmate Euronymous took photos
of the corpse prior to police being contacted (Moynihan and Soderlind
2003, 49).8 On June 1992, Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh of the band
Burzum, allegedly burnt down Fanto� Stavkirke, a 12th century church
in Bergen, Norway. And in August 1993, Euronymous of Mayhem was
stabbed 23 times by Vikernes, who is currently serving out a sentence for
both this crime and a number of church burnings. These are just some of
the more extreme examples of behavior exhibited by protagonists within
the BM scene, especially in its early days. We should not, however, doubt
the impact of such actions: thirteen years later, in May 2005, Novak Ma-
jstorovic, a fan of Burzum, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court
to plead guilty to arson and burglary, having had drunken visions of the
Church as the source of society’s problems with law, ethics and morality.
In August of 2004, he had burnt Ascot Vale Uniting Church, built 1898, in
Melbourne, Australia. Clearly then, the influence of BM has not dimin-
ished over time.
The way in which BM performers present themselves to the world at
large is of fundamental importance to a band’s credibility. Many band and
stage names are taken from Classical, Mesopotamian and Norse mytholo-
gy as well as Biblical tradition, and indeed there is even the appropriation
216 Aleks Michalewicz

of artificially constructed mythic traditions such as Tolkien’s Lord of the

Rings trilogy.9 Stage names taken by musicians reflects this interest in lit-
erature, mythology and philosophy: Faust, Mortiis, Samoth, Hellhammer,
Necrobutcher, Blackthorn, Occultus, Maniac, Blasphemer, Quorthon,10
Fenriz, Abbath, Demonaz, Armagedda and Grim are just some examples
from more prominent bands. Like both ancient and current heroes, the
name appropriated by an individual connotes power, and is instrumental
in the creation of a suitable and corresponding image. It again allows for
the masking process to occur, resulting in heroic elements of identity be-
ing re-emphasized. In album and track titles we similarly witness a preoc-
cupation with darkness, night, Nordic nationalism, nature, fire and ice,
evil, death and the transcendental: Satyricon’s Dark Medieval Times (1994)
and The Forest is My Throne (1996), Darkthrone’s Under a Funeral Moon
(1993)11 and Transylvanian Hunger (1994), Immortal’s Diabolical Fullmoon
Mysticism (1992)12, Ulver Na�ens Madrigal: The Madrigal of the Night – The
Night Hymns to the Wolf in Man (1997), Ulver’s Themes From William Blake’s
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1999). Thus through the referencing of
existing mythologies, and using imagery normally associated with an op-
position to popular culture, BM creates its own mythological discourse in
which the protagonists are heroes.13
This is, perhaps, most evident in the lyrics. Of course, these are o�en-
times impossible to discern due to the manner in which they are performed,
but if anything, this merely serves to reinforce their power. Because this
o�en necessitates recourse to liner notes, fans are forced to interact with
the artwork presented to them by the band, painstakingly put together in
an artistic package designed to further emphasize the momentum of the
music. Upon analysis, BM lyrics exhibit concerns shared by those indi-
viduals who find themselves trapped in a heroic predicament. Examine
Ved Buens Ende’s “Carrier of Wounds”:

I slumber throughout my years,

like the desert moves with the wind…
A wanderer I am indeed...
… the son of the moon...
and I will carry mountains soon.
A burden I was for those who woke the sun.
I threw their masks away,
lit my torches and burned their eyes.
Forgiven I never was…14

Or Burzum’s “Lost Wisdom”: “While we may believe / Our world –

our reality / To be that is – is but one / Manifestation of the essence / Other
 GODS AMONGST US/GODS WITHIN 217

planes lie beyond the reach / of normal sense and common roads / But
they are no less real / Than what we see or touch or feel…” This thematic
return to the cosmos and transcending that which surrounds us lies at the
very crux of BM, and why it is possible for the scene–in ideological terms–
to touch upon both Satanic and pagan themes, to identify with historical
events and figures (and hence why Viking Metal is so popular), to investi-
gate world mythologies, and to generally take a spiritual and interpretive
approach to its subject ma�er. Satyricon’s “Woods to Eternity” demon-
strates this exploration regarding the mystical, natural, and divine:

In grey depressive autumn times I wander the woods to eternity

searching for
Him trying to remember while the same sky still rules the night
We knew then. That these were the children of god.
The ones who betrayed me and my desire.

This must be the desolate land. This is the kingdom of the

shadowthrone.
Centuries have gone beyond time, and we in the land beyond the
forest,
We burnt them in the purgatory, them the children of god. Barely
forgo�en these
Times are but not for a soul whose rest has not been found.15

Of course, it could be argued that for those living in first-world West-

ern countries, it is a simple ma�er to indulge in this type of subculture.
In 2004, Vice magazine profiled an Iraqi band, A.Crassicauda, and the
conditions under which they pursue their form of expression; emphasiz-
ing the far-reaching a�raction that BM holds world-wide. The article, by
Andy Moore, claims that Slayer, Dimmu Borgir and Mayhem are the three
most popular bands in the Iraqi BM scene. Until the overthrow of the Iraqi
regime, music was heavily censored, including “all genres of punk and
metal (death, gore, speed, black metal, and power electronics were par-
ticularly frowned upon)” (2004, 57). Moore refers to the difficulties faced
by the band’s four members (who, he informs us, work as journalists and
translators), not simply as Iraqis currently living in Baghdad, but as strug-
gling artists, who must carry guns simply in order to a�end rehearsals. He
writes that “[t]his is why they are more ‘metal’ than anyone you will ever
know… The music they played me was so ugly and doomed it made all
those face-painted Norwegian black-metal fags who burn down old ladies’
churches seem scary as warm chocolate milk” (2004, 57). A.Crassicauda
“plugged traditional Iraqi instruments into distortion pedals and used
218 Aleks Michalewicz

broken-down TVs as pre-amps… It sounds like hell. Just like proper metal
should, right?” (2004, 57). Regardless of their relative musicality, the con-
tinued pursuit by A.Crassicauda of their music in a situation such as this
truly makes their quest heroic. If their music sounds like hell, we can only
imagine what their everyday existence must be like.

B[l]a[c]khtinian Metal and The Carnivalesque

I turn now to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories regarding the carnivalesque.

Although, at first glance, the application of a literary theory to a musi-
cal aesthetic may seem odd, Berrong rightly indicates that “[t]he success
of Bakhtin’s book with students of Rabelais, though significant, pales in
comparison with the extent of its favourable reception and influence in
realms outside that of Rabelais studies” (1986, 3). BM performance is the
site of carnival behavior. Bakhtin wrote that carnival “celebrated tempo-
rary liberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order;
it marked the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms and
prohibitions” (1984, 10). This, both in performance and at the very crux of
its intent, is what BM represents. Further, following a disconnection with
folk culture, Bakhtin elaborates on the carnival-grotesque, which acts

to consecrate inventive freedom… to liberate from the prevail-

ing point of view of the world, from conventions and established
truths, from clichés, from all that is humdrum and universally ac-
cepted. This carnival spirit offers the chance to have a new out-
look on the world, to realize the relative nature of all that exists,
and to enter a completely new order of things. (Bakhtin 1984, 34)

BM’s aims, when viewed through this lens of the carnival-grotesque,

seeks to evoke precisely what Bakhtin is describing. And in creating an
otherworldly atmosphere, it is not merely performers who become heroic,
for their music has the potential power to elevate all those exposed to a
similar plane. Bauman refers to the tendency of performers to be both
admired and feared, “admired for their artistic skill and power and for
the enhancement of experience they provide, feared because of the poten-
tial they represent for subverting and transforming the status quo” (2001,
1833). It is this ability to subvert standard tropes, and by the creation of
new ones (which, inevitably, also become stereotypical) that allows for
BM to become carnivalesque. Thus in acting as a conduit to an Other, ide-
alized, realm, the music is able to move its protagonists into a “completely
new order of things.” This is evident in the ways in which BM presents
 GODS AMONGST US/GODS WITHIN 219

itself to its audience. For example, on Emperor’s album In the Nightside

Eclipse,16 we see this demonstrated through the track titles alone: “Into the
Infinity of Thoughts,” “The Burning Shadows of Silence,” “Cosmic Keys
to My Creations and Times,” “Beyond the Great Vast Forest,” “Towards
the Pantheon,” “The Majesty of the Night Sky,” “I am the Black Wizard,”
“Inno a Satana.” Such themes, as found in the artwork, lyrics and stage/
band names are repeated continuously.
Bakhtin argued that “[e]xaggeration, hyperbolism, excessiveness are
generally considered fundamental a�ributes of the grotesque style” (1984,
303). Such a�ributes are exactly what the BM aesthetic is built upon. It
is through the development of imagery and sound on these terms that
allows for the genre to have so much impact when compared to many
music styles (and stylizations) available to audiences and consumers.
Of course, this is not to suggest that other genres do not convey simi-
lar carnivalesque a�ributes, but BM in particular seems to embody the
carnival-grotesque. Performances are of special interest because it is here
that the role of the marketplace–or in our instance, the stage and audi-
ence standing area–figures inherently as a principal feature of the carni-
valesque. The stage (actual and figurative) becomes a (transient) reality
that the audience faces, existing on an epic scale and containing a grand
vision. Hence the “text and its readership are in a relationship of mutu-
al activation: a text strives to make its readers conform to itself, to force
on them its own system of codes, and the readers respond in the same
way” (Lotman 1990, 63).17 As with the performance of most live music,
what occurs on stage is in direct relation to the reaction of what is hap-
pening offstage: how the audience responds, what they bring with them
to the event and what it is that they expect to witness. Thus it is not only
the musicians-as-performers who are masked and embody a frontal-
ity and symmetry to the god, as suggested by Vernant. The audience is
similarly masked (by the darkness, through its anonymity), in a position
of frontality in relation to the band as well as in a symmetrical relation-
ship of ‘performance’ to those on stage. By together exploring themes of
otherworldliness, the two unite to create a different whole. Clearly this
is not what the band Marduk is describing in their track ‘Infernal Eter-
nal’, but their lyrics might be extended to the process just referred to:

As I looked into the mirror, and saw the creation which was fad-
ing, I sailed the darkened waters of my soul on the ship of flam-
ing hate towards the land of the damned… A thousand voices
are screaming in pain from beyond. A number of faceless shapes
march forth from the darkness within. Life is slowly passing away,
poisoned by guilt and sin…18
220 Aleks Michalewicz

David Danow reflects on narrative as “a mode of human communica-

tion and an artistic form for reflecting one world (the actual) in another
(which is fictional)” (1995, 5). What I am arguing is that the reflection of
this fictional world becomes a reality, however transient, for those who
partake in its configuration. For the merrymakers of carnival, the people
of the marketplace and, the acknowledgement of (and in Bakhtin’s case,
movement away from) ‘dark’ themes reflects the “collective consciousness
of their eternity, of their earthly, historic immortality as a people, and of
their continual renewal and growth” (Bakhtin 1984, 250). Actively dealing
with death allows for it to be “transformed into a celebration of life… such
transformations, reversals, or inversions typify the carnivalesque in their
relentless shi�ing from life to death and back again” (Danow 1995, 20).
Thus in dealing with themes that many would find either difficult or dis-
tasteful, BM practitioners and fans are actively able to negotiate for them-
selves a temporal and theoretical space where it is possible for them to
create an idealized reality. Further, this reality is predicated on the notion
that within the individual there exists the heroic.

Creating An Alternative Narrative

BM actively embraces and then inverts the concept of arch-villain. The

protagonists of BM may appear to be super-villains, but what they oppose
is the idea (and indeed–one could argue–the reality) of a society that is
‘good’ (in the Christian sense), yet corrupt. It cannot be denied that there is
an element within the BM scene that is, or has been, involved with activi-
ties that many people would find highly objectionable. This includes per-
petration of violent acts against others, destruction of sacred property, and
the taking of neo-Nazi and fascistic ideological stances, which inevitably
feeds into action. If we accept that “[t]he potential for violence and death
represents the dark side of the carnivalesque” (Danow 1995, 15), then we
must similarly acknowledge that in terms of a heroic trope, both the rec-
ognition of the human capacity for violence, as well as an acceptance of
the potential of darkness of the soul, remain standard features. This is,
without fail, also found to reside similarly in the BM aesthetic. Hence BM,
it may be argued in the words of Mary Russo, functions as “a site of insur-
gency, and not merely withdrawal” (1986, 218).
This is what makes BM of particular importance as an oppositional
movement. As Danny Fingeroth argues, “somehow, the superhero… has
to represent the values of the society that produces him” (2004, 17). Thus,
although the BM scene may appear overtly dystopian and misanthrop-
ic to outsiders, from within the subculture these meanings take on new
 GODS AMONGST US/GODS WITHIN 221

subtleties. This allows participants to become part of something that is

both an individual and collective conceptual ideal: identity is renegotiated
not only through an overall aesthetic, but likewise through a philosophy
that actively pursues metaphysical concerns. Natalie Purcell suggests that
metal is “a philosophical response, whether conscious or subconscious, to
terrifying questions about nebulous human nature” (2003, 13). For this rea-
son, the reinterpretation of mythology is o�en used to create an alternate
reality in which all are potentially elevated to heroism. This is achieved
by explicitly dealing with themes such as im/mortality, death, the divine
and the Other;19 and is further emphasized by exploring particular codes
of honor.20 Keith Booker writes that “[o]ne of the most important effects
of transgressive literature [read music] is simply the indication of alterna-
tives, the suggestion that things need not necessarily be as they are” (1991,
244). So how then, might BM performers be interpreted as ‘heroic’, as em-
bodying the divine? They do so in ways more complex than simply via a
process of mythologizing, and the preoccupation with the dark and gro-
tesque, the mythical and otherworldly. Partakers of BM are heroic in that
they perceive the possibility of one’s behavior according to a much older
tradition of ‘hero’. There is a very particular code of honor, one that is
concerned with courage, honesty (for surely artistic expression can come
to nothing if it is not honest), and a grander vision of the surrounding cos-
mos. BM is not for everybody and it was never meant be, just as not every-
one can become a hero. BM participants model themselves on warriors of
the past, and conceive of themselves as such in the present. They create a
philosophical ideal of their surroundings and identity to fit conceptions of
how the world ought to be. Behaving in such a manner, in being true to this
elevated notion of behavior, of being loyal to both an artistic and cosmic
interpretation of the surrounding world, it ultimately ceases to be about a
particular genre of music. Rather, the BM aesthetic sensibility highlights a
potential to embody heroic ideals as well as to transcend the everyday.
Obviously, fans of any music genre are passionate about what they
listen to. They choose to identify with specific types of music because,
in some way, it speaks to them. Even in writing on this subject, I am
conscious of the fact that I am further taking part in this process of my-
thologizing the music that fascinates and which moves me. I must state
that in uniting personal musical tastes with my academic work, this has
been a challenging process; and I admit to occasionally suffering what I
term ‘BM fatigue’. It is intense music, and it is meant to be intense. BM is
about pushing the envelope of what we are comfortable in dealing with.
It is about going above and beyond the expected, the anticipated and the
predictable. Although certain elements may have become subsumed into
popular culture, BM is not now, nor will it ever be, a lingua franca such
222 Aleks Michalewicz

as Sir Bob Geldof perceives modern pop music to be. But it is a means by
which musicians and fans can reflect on grander, heroic themes by com-
municating to themselves and one another their perceptions of the world
around them, and reflect upon their place within it. In such a manner, BM
successfully evokes a different kind of reality: one that is darker, superior,
harsher—and perhaps more beautiful than we might expect.