Death as Negation: Black Metal's Disturbing Apophatic Insight

Abstract

While the theme of death in the popular music subgenre of black metal has been written about descriptively, it is less frequent to find conceptual philosophical or theological analyses of death. In this piece, I aim to show how black metal's presentation of death lies in line with death as negation, instilled with strong links to Christianity's mystical apophatic theology. I will argue that this view on death shows it cannot be properly expressed in terms of affirmative language. Even where death is treated as a physical death, rather than metaphorical, it is a celebrated expression of negation. However, unlike the Christian apophatic tradition, black metal's death is not a renunciation of the physical; rather it is a complement to it. In a complex sense, even negating negations, black metal's expression of death is disturbing precisely because of its dual acceptance of death as metaphor and as physically fully realised.

Citation

Scott, N. (2022), "Death as Negation: Black Metal's Disturbing Apophatic Insight", Bennett, M.J., Shadrack, J.H. and Levy, G. (Ed.) Embodying the Music and Death Nexus (Emerald Interdisciplinary Connexions), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-766-520221004