Hi-End for Black Metal?

Maril555,
The function of music is not to satisfy intellectual needs. It is a form of Art, its purpose is to appeal to your senses or emotions. Transcend the Reality. The meaning of Art is aesthetic, not intellectual. Black Metal does it. It's the music of the North. When I listen to it, I think of its grim gray landscapes covered with ice and snow, dark silent woods and immense cold spaces undisturbed by man, people who lived there in the past, the Norse mythology they believed, the dramatic life they led, the code of life they followed. The beauty of it all takes my breath away.

Ironmine- what you described in your last post is a perfect description of the band Agolloch. If you have not heard them, you owe it to yourself to do so.

By the way- without the intellect, there can be no aesthetic appreciation. They are not contradictory things, but synergistic. Leave to a Black Metal thread to evolve into a philospohical discussion- but one that has been covered very nicely by Aristotle, Kant and well...just about every philosopher since we first made marks on caves.

Parasound63,

I have Agalloch albums. It's great.

Ironmine,
I agree with you on the function of music, but the means of evoking the emotions are different for different people, and that's where listeners intellect comes into play, or it doesn't. It's just a conduit to our emotions.
I couldn't have said it better, than Parasound63
I don't think you would argue, that experiencing positive emotions from listening to Britney Spears vs. Mozart involves very different types of personality, hence intellect.
I'm happy, that Black metal helps you to have your emotional experiences. I cannot possibly claim the same- I experience nothing, but a repulsion. You sound like a very reasonable and well educated individual, and your affection with the genre double puzzles me.
As a side note- I respect complexity, talent and musicianship of Yes, and I've been to their concert (with Rick Wakeman), but I could never connect emotionally to their music neither.
Black Metal, though is a whole different story... But let me stop here.

" I respect complexity, talent and musicianship of Yes, and I've been to their concert (with Rick Wakeman), but I could never connect emotionally to their music neither."

Yeah, Yes' lyrics are not the most accessible and easy to relate to in general, though their musicianship is outstanding. And you'll see very few chicks at a Yes concert these days.

"Gates of Delirium" from Relayer is one exception to this for me though, especially at the transition to the "Soon" final segment. That transition from musical chaos and tribal warfare mode to the spiritual calm after the storm in Jon Anderson's voice here is powerful enough to instinctively register with many apparently from what I have read of listener reaction to it. One of the "classic" and most instinctivly accessible moments in all of progressive rock IMHO, at least for guys.

Towards the more modern metal camp, Porcupine Tree and Stephen Wilson in particular is a group/artist that in particular knows how to regularly run the gamut from metal extremes to the soothing calm afterwards. That's much of what I like about PT.

I don't find perpetual ongoing anger and chaos to be appealing, personally, but that's just me. I love it though when an artist knows how to run the gamut though. Its a ying and yang, dark and light, kind of thing that just registers with me personally.