Do You Party? Drew Daniel a.k.a. The Soft Pink Truth a.k.a. one half of Matmos asked in 2003, followed closely by Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth? in 2004. For 10 years we waited patiently for Daniel’s next question as he focused on other projects, including, of course, Matmos. In June, Daniel will return to ask, Why Do The Heathen Rage?. He’s also implicitly asking, “Do you want to have the chance to get into as many fights as possible about authenticity and probably queer theory with metal fans on the internet?” because this new album consists of house and rave covers of classic black metal tracks by the likes of Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Sarcofago. I honestly don’t know what sort of person would say “yes” to that last question, but the album sounds pretty interesting, so it’s cool.
The album, which will feature guests such as Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and Terence Hannum from Locrian, is described as an attempt at a simultaneous celebration, critique, mockery, and profanation of the genre’s “ideological morass.” And the integration of black metal sounds into those of house and rave is not merely incidental. Because both genres had certain peaks during the early 90s but were nevertheless “mutually incongruous,” the idea is that the album will complicate conceptions of each of the subcultures. Complication or no, Why Do The Heathen Rage? arrives with a pretty direct disclaimer.
Mixed emotions about a murky, diverse and self-differential scene are all very well, but, as Barack Obama is so fond of saying at press conferences just before legitimizing drone warfare, let’s be clear: No apologies, no excuses, and no escape clauses are hereby offered. Murderers are murderers. No safe space for fascist garbage. The Soft Pink Truth hereby abjures black metal homophobes, racists, and Nazis categorically and absolutely: MAY THIS CURSE BIND! Remember Magne Andreassen!
Magne Adnreasssen was the gay man murdered in 1992 by Bård “Faust” Eithun of the black metal band Emperor.
The album, whose artwork is currently redacted after getting the release banned from a German distributor for graphic content, is out June 17 from Thrill Jockey. You can pre-order the album on both CD and LP here. The first 666 LP pre-orders will be pressed on pink vinyl, which is another element of this whole process of “an extremist scene undergoing a long overdue queerification, coming out rich and strange, shiny and pink.” Listen to “Black Metal” from the album below; it’s a re-working of Venom’s 1982 original.
Why Do The Heathen Rage? tracklist:
01. Invocation for Strength
02. Black Metal (Venom)
03. Sadomatic Rites (Beherit)
04. Ready to Fuck (Sarcofago)
05. Stanic Black Devotion (Sargeist)
06. Beholding the Throne of Might (Darkthrone)
07. Let There Be Ebola Frost (AN)
08. Buried by Time and Dust (Mayhem)
09. Maniac (Hellhammer)
10. Grim and Frostbitten Gay Bar (Impaled Northern Moonforest)
• The Soft Pink Truth: http://www.brainwashed.com/spt
• Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com
More about: Matmos, The Soft Pink Truth
