Icelandic E-Journal of Nordic and Mediterranean Studies
Attempting a definition of black metal is no simple task. According to Keith KahnHarris, author of a remarkable essay on the genre, black metal is traditionally „characterized by screamed, high-pitched vocals, extremely rapid tempos, „tremolo‟ riffs, a „trebly‟ guitar sound, and simple production values.‟[1] As far as the aesthetics of the genre are concerned, Kahn-Harris mentions a „discursive transgression‟ which embraces misanthropy, occultism, Satanism and paganism.[2] Especially in Scandinavian countries, the interest in paganism has led to a rediscovery and massive use of Norse mythical material; a new term („Viking metal‟) was also coined to group those bands interested in Scandinavian pre-Christian religion, history and culture.[3] Writer and musician Cornelius Jakhelln started his career in 1995, when together with Lars Nedland he founded a black metal band named Solefald. As the band states on its official website, Solefald („sunset‟) was „stolen‟ from the homonymous painting by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen. In this painting as Nedland explains, Kittelsen portrays the cycle of being, which was found a very fitting idea for the band.[4] Drawings representing the cycle of end/beginning — perfection — decline are to be found in many Solefald albums.
Author Affiliation
Research Fellow
University of Oslo
Oslo, Østlandet, Norway
Solefald‟s debut album is dated 1997 and is entitled The Linear Scaffold (the picture to the left is taken from the inner sleeve and represents the cycle of being).[5] This album was quite unusual for the Norwegian black metal scene and signed Jakhelln‟s first experiment in blending black metal and literature. Norwegian black metal bands were still recovering from the negative media campaign of the mid-1990s. Most church burnings had taken place in 1992, the murder of Øystein Aarseth in 1993, and the incarceration of his murderer, Varg Vikernes, in 1994. Then Solefald entered the scene with a rather unexpected move. They elaborated a musical style „ranging from rage and desperation to calm and atmospheric music. The band incorporated strange and nearly taboo techniques in the black metal scene of that time as well, using hand claps along with choruses […], jazzy clean guitar passages, and intense shrieks over lush and peaceful piano pieces.‟[6] Lyrically speaking, the band rejected the Satanic and antichristian attitude of most other bands and portrayed a sort of inner, imaginary journey from sunrise to sunset. In the booklet of the 2007 reprint of the album, the band made the following statement: „From the actual moment of Sunrise — Lever du soleil — Sonnenaufgang — Soloppgang — navigation becomes possible and at the same time necessary for the voyager, as the world is slowly unveiled. There are many ways to express this latent will to explore: one is through the medium of poetry and its metaphors, another is through the use of music with its movement and its organisation of sounds.‟[7] The album is an experimental artwork in which poetry and music meet. Although this may sound banal, it is quite rare to find such an
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- ↑ Ibid., p. 4.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 34-43.
- ↑ Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, Lords of Chaos, Feral House, Venice (CA), 1998, pp. 171- 190.
- ↑ Steve Wiener/Solefald, “Biography‟, in www.solefald.no (site last visited on 10th January 2009)
- ↑ The picture is reproduced by kind permission of Kim Sølve (www.trineogkim.no).
- ↑ Wiener/Solefald, op. cit.
- ↑ Solefald, The Linear Scaffold, Avantgarde Music, Milan 1997 (quoted from the 2007 reissue).
