Black Metal? God damn you, Emrecan!
I realized I haven't written anything for this blog in quite a while because I didn't have time and couldn't find content to write about. How should I put it... I'm hesitant as if something would be missing unless I write something with a world-saving theme, and my mind works that way anyway. I said to myself, this won't do—I did a ton of programming back in the day for the blog and I must write something. Then... I thought of writing something about albums I like. Actually, I had something like this in mind when I was programming the blog.
I have what Westerners call a "guilty pleasure"—Black Metal. Let me first translate "guilty pleasure"; it can't stay like that. One of Tureng's suggestions is "mahcup zevk" (bashful pleasure), which I think is quite nice. Maybe I should think about pointing to the word differently rather than directly.
Even though my wardrobe is quite filled with Black Metal clothing—don't tell anyone, I only have three or four pieces with Rotting Christ and Moonspell logos—I don't love Black Metal that much. Because it's as stupid as it is repulsive at first glance. One person roars, another violates the drums, the other stirs up something with the guitar... The makeup is a whole spectacle anyway. Moreover, the lyrics of the songs make one's heart sink. That's why I don't count myself as a Black Metal listener, and I'm not someone who listens to Metal excessively anyway. Still, such interesting works come out in Black Metal that they captivate my interest and make me want to listen repeatedly. For instance, Dissection's albums are masterpieces for me, Melechesh is one of the most interesting groups in this style.
Darkthrone unfortunately couldn't capture my interest for a long time. I mean, generally, since Darkthrone isn't a melodic group, I thought it wouldn't appeal to my expectations. In the group's essential albums like "Transilvanian Hunger" and "Under a Funeral Moon," their early period albums, I can't catch anything that appeals to me. However, recently, when I discovered that Darkthrone is no longer one of those Black Metal groups that seem like parodies to people, I was almost ashamed of myself for discovering this so late.
The album that gives the title its name is almost an album close to the style of groups like Hawkwind. Black Metal themes and Black Metal's general stylistic approach are used in this album too, but in a much more creative and original way. For the year 2024, when many Metal groups I know have lost their creativity in my opinion, and newly emerging copycat groups can only iron heads with "drum machines" and fill them with riffs that even I could easily throw together, this sounds very pleasant to my ears.
By the way, "Beckon" means to point with a finger or to call. Its meaning in the album is "to call." We can translate the album name as "It calls us....." According to etymonline.com, its Old English equivalent was "gebecnian," and in Middle English, which is the precursor to today's English, it was "bekenen." "Gebecnian" in Old English apparently meant something like "making a silence sign." By the way, Old English and today's German are quite similar, and in today's German, "ge-" is added to the beginning of verbs to add a past tense emphasis.
lesen (German) - to read gelesen (German) - to have read
Naturally, if beckon comes from the root "gebecnian," then the emphasis of the calling here is reinforced as "not at that moment, but having been called before."
Since the album caught my interest, I decided I could at least add it to my blog. Maybe from now on, instead of leaving the blog completely empty, I can write short, simple pieces about things that interest me.