If You Could Only Have One Clan, Which Would It Be?

I'm not sure if we've done this one before, but I was thinking this morning that if I could only have one clan which would it be. Now I'm guessing most of you would expect me to go for The Fallen but, in truth, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find new stuff that interests me sufficiently within it's confines. The Doom scene seems to be full of bands retreading the same steps as their predecessors without a huge amount of variety. I am getting quite bored of listening to an endless procession of Windhand, My Dying Bride or Electric Wizard wannnabes who are nothing like as good as the originals and just all end up sounding the same.

So I think if I could only have one clan then it would have to be The North. Firstly it's probably the clan that most fits in with my character - I am a bit of a misanthrope to be honest and I'm never happier than being out in nature and the wilderness alone (well usually accompanied by my mutt, but I can tolerate that - she doesn't talk crap all day!). A lot of shit in the modern world baffles me and I have a massive interest in history, which is a subject well-served by black metal. Don't get me wrong, there are things I detest in the BM world - I abhor violence, have no religious affiliation (including satanist - utter bullshit) and I absolutely have no right-wing leanings, but there is something in the black metal aesthetic that strikes a chord with me. Rebelliousness and a love of nature, that's where we fit I think.

Secondly, I find that The North is still the one clan that can consistently produce interesting and varied releases that can still manage to stun my brain. Sure, there are plenty of carbon copy outfits who want to be the next Wolves in the Throne Room or Mayhem or Burzum or whatever, but there are also loads of interesting artists out there who produce genuinely exciting and original stuff. There just feels like so much scope and freedom within black metal that I think it is a genre that is still a long way from being burnt out.

So for me it's The North. What's yours and why?

The North.  Hands down.

A lot like Sonny's experience of doom metal, I feel I am confined increasingly to the classics in The Pit and The Horde and I do believe that I am over most of what The Guardians can offer me after nearly 30 years of listening to metal.

Black metal was in fact the latter of the four genres that I am affiliated with that I in fact discovered.  This was in no small part down to me not being able to tolerate the minimalist sound of the genre for a number of years.  However, now that I have established roots in the genre I find that there's not only a plethora of older stuff to still get acquainted with but that the crop of new and upcoming material is just as enticing and interesting as well.

Yes the misanthropic element appeals massively (I work in a very corporate, people-focused environment and Mon-Fri is fucking agonising let me tell you), but also there's increasingly much more of a connection with the pagan elements of black metal for me.  I live somewhere reasonably rural and can soon enough find myself surrounded by nature within just a ten minute walk from my house.  I will admit to spending a few mornings just taking a few precious minutes sat in the woods across from where I live just enjoying being surrounded by nature and this is where my developing passion for folk/pagan/atmospheric/cascadian black metal but it has also pushed me towards a lot of non-metal music with similar relevance such as Wardruna.  Oddly, I can see that if ever there's a genre of metal that is ever going to aid me exiting the scene altogether then it is probably black metal as a result of the combination for me to be closer to nature and also as probably the last great unknown of the metal world I will exhaust.

Like Sonny (I am saying that a lot in this post but he makes good points), I am not religious personally but I do actually find a high degree of interest in folklore and mythology - only touching on elements of true history by way of comparison to Sonny - and bm is dripping with this in terms of themes and storytelling.  I have learned lots from Naas Alcameth and his fascination with sleep and dreams.  Even though I am in no way affiliated with any political view or ideology I do acknowledge that bm is littered with such tricky and unpleasant opinions perhaps more than most other genres which is also part of its appeal because like it or not there's an allure to the forbidden which for me is sometimes just trying to get to the bottom of why people invest themselves in such ludicrous ideas and views in the first place.

Parting shot on what is perhaps one of my most reflective MA posts.  Even though I know lots of people listen to BM, somehow I have the sub-conscious notion that the genre is mine, personal to me and some safe-place to hide from the world that I am forced to wade through whilst being someone else entirely each day.

Parting shot on what is perhaps one of my most reflective MA posts.  Even though I know lots of people listen to BM, somehow I have the sub-conscious notion that the genre is mine, personal to me and some safe-place to hide from the world that I am forced to wade through whilst being someone else entirely each day.

I think this is true for many black metal adherents. It is a genre that very much speaks to that which is inside us (conscious or sub-conscious) and as such feels more personal than virtually any other genre of metal. Personally, I know very few people who like black metal in my day-to-day life and so it does feel like a genre that is more exclusively my own. That said, it is great to be able to talk about it with like-minded individuals here at the Metal Academy.

For me it would likely be The Horde which is probably not much of a surprise to most of you given my past involvement with the death metal scene. I'm not into the few more niche subgenres it draws together (death 'n' roll, cybergrind, gorenoise) but the rest of the clan is right up my alley, particularly as I'm probably the only regularly contributing member that has much time for grindcore. Melodeath is certainly a little hit & miss for me but there's enough quality out there to keep me interested if Ben's playlist submissions are anything to go by.

I do find that I also have a very strong affiliation with The Fallen given that my taste profile encompasses the majority of the subgenres it contains. I'm probably more heavily into the drone metal & conventional sludge metal sounds than the rest of the group as well as having a life-long love of all brands of doom so that clan suits me really well. The Pit is also a strong clan for me however I have to admit that I'm never going to be a huge fan of speed metal, groove metal or crossover thrash. They're all more of a passing interest than anything else.

Interestingly, since voluntarily dropping The North some time ago my love of dark, blasphemic black metal has never subsided & I find myself consistently grappling with the idea of returning to the clan given that I regard some of its subgenres as the most dear to my heart (who says that about black metal?). The conventional & atmospheric black metal sounds sit amongst my all-time favourites while I also love my blasting war metal but I struggle with most of the other subgenres contained within The North which I often find tending to dilute the things I love about black metal. Perhaps I should just get over it & rejoin as the two more senior subgenres are by far the most dominant & the more informed contributing members we have in each clan the better.

Perhaps I should just get over it & rejoin as the two more senior subgenres are by far the most dominant & the more informed contributing members we have in each clan the better.

Yes, you absolutely should.

This is an easy question for me, as probably 80% of my metal listening is Black Metal these days. I just have The North running through my blood I guess, feeling so much more affiliated to it than any other clan. I actually made my graphic artist redo the North icon three times (at great cost), as it needed to be 100% right, which I didn't do for any of the others. I'm stoked with how it ended up if you're wondering.

I think about why I have such an affinity with the genre sometimes. I give plenty of Death Metal and Doom Metal releases 4.5 to 5 stars, and genuinely love them, but when I open up Spotify and decide what I'm going to listen to, rarely do any of those releases come to mind. I consistently turn to Black Metal (both old and new), and I'm currently working my way through every Black Metal release from the 80s and 90s, filling in all the gaps I had the first time around.

As for my inclusion in The Pit, I honestly don't think I've listened to more than a handful of albums released in the past 15 years, so I couldn't even tell you how I feel about modern thrash metal. I just know that 80s thrash metal will always be super important to my development, and it will never fail to capture me when I finally get around to revisiting it.

As for my inclusion in The Pit, I honestly don't think I've listened to more than a handful of albums released in the past 15 years, so I couldn't even tell you how I feel about modern thrash metal. I just know that 80s thrash metal will always be super important to my development, and it will never fail to capture me when I finally get around to revisiting it.

Despite my affinity for The North, like you Ben I could never give up listening to 1980's thrash. That stuff was just so important to me and still to this day a huge proportion of my all-time favourite albums come from that era. The problem with thrash is that it is a very narrow genre and was perfected very early on in it's development and so is a style that wil never really be able to say much new anymore.

Similarly I couldn't envision a life without doom metal either. The thought of no longer being able to lose myself in an Esoteric album would be unbearable.

A great plus with The North is that black metal can lend itself to a number of other genres too. Kanonenfieber's blackened death metal, Ruins of Beverast and Yith's black doom and Nekromantheon's blackened thrash have all produced fantastic albums released this year. 

(The North has definitely got the coolest and most apt logo by the way!)

Hey Vinny have you listened to either of Wardruna's Einar Selvik's collaborations with Enslaved's Ivar Bjornson. They are both very good and span several genres, not just nordic folk (although that is the primary focus). Skuggsjá: A Piece for Mind & Mirror was written as a contribution to the 200-year celebration of the founding of the Norwegian constitution.

  I will admit to spending a few mornings just taking a few precious minutes sat in the woods across from where I live just enjoying being surrounded by nature and this is where my developing passion for folk/pagan/atmospheric/cascadian black metal but it has also pushed me towards a lot of non-metal music with similar relevance such as Wardruna. 

Hey Vinny have you listened to either of Wardruna's Einar Selvik's collaborations with Enslaved's Ivar Bjornson. They are both very good and span several genres, not just nordic folk (although that is the primary focus). Skuggsjá: A Piece for Mind & Mirror was written as a contribution to the 200-year celebration of the founding of the Norwegian constitution.

I am aware of but haven't taken in too much of this collaboration's stuff.  It is on my "to do" list though (that endless, ever-growing list we all have).

Oof, come on man, it was hard enough to narrow it down to three!

If I really had to...probably The Pit. Thrash just speaks to me in a way little else does, when it's done right it ignites that fire in me that made me fall in love with metal in the first place.

Guardians would be a damn close second though.