Je viens de lire un numéro intéressant de Lamentations of the Flame Princess, un zine consacré au heavy metal, paru en juillet 2005.
Il m’a fallu fournir un certain effort, car je n’aime pas lire à l’écran et la bête, dans sa version *.pdf, mesure presque trente pages écrites petit sur deux colonnes sans la moindre illustration, mais ça en valait la peine…
Dans ces presque trente pages, l’auteur tente de définir ce qu’est pour lui le metal, et en particulier, ce qu’est l’esprit metal. Je ne suis pas toujours d’accord avec ce qu’il écrit, loin de là même, mais son argumentation est intéressante, et certains passages méritaient d’être relevés.
Voici tout d’abord sa définition du genre :
Heavy metal is a declaration of individuality in the face of dominant conformity. It is not (necessarily) a statement of rebellion, not even a state of rebellion. It is simply an expression of being something else. It is a desire to rise above and be separate from the world according to that otherness. It is harsh authenticity in an environment of watered down presentation. Heavy metal is nihilistic in that the fight is more important, and nobler, than the victory.
Un commentaire sur le recours à des thèmes en rapport avec le JdR :
There is always lots of talk about Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing games in the context of heavy metal fantasy lyrics. Perhaps some of the people writing this crap had a casual encounter with it, but it’s safe to say there are very few fantasy lyric writing heavy metal musicians who have a functional understanding of how role-playing games actually work. They’ve probably just played some computer and video game RPGs and think that is all that RPGs are. Believe me, if they had a real clue, the state of heavy metal fantasy lyric writing would not be as vacuous as it is.
Une réflexion très bien sentie sur les pistes bonus qu’on colle souvent sur les rééditions d’albums ou les éditions spéciales, et qui vaut pour toute la musique, et pas seulement le metal (c’est moi qui souligne, le texte ne comportait pas de gras) :
Bonus tracks are a pure marketing ploy with absolutely no positive aspects at all. The Japanese record company wants a bonus track because they can’t figure out a way to make it less expensive to sell a Japanese album in Japan than it is to sell an American album in Japan. The US record company wants a bonus track because the album was released there eight months after it was released everywhere else and they want the fans to either wait for that domestic release or buy it again because it has an extra song. The record company wants a bonus track because they’re re-releasing a twenty year old classic album again and they think nobody will buy this classic album yet again if all they’re selling is this classic album. Or, my favorite, the record company wants a bonus track to stick in the Deluxe Limited Edition which is packaged in a more expensive configuration of plastic and cardboard.
Vous vous êtes toujours demandé quelle était la définition du punk ? Moi aussi. Mais c’est pourtant simple :
Punk rock and hardcore are nothing more than marketing labels and do not exist as distinct musical genres for this same reason. Punk rock is merely a subset of rock. Hardcore is supposedly a meeting of punk rock and heavy metal, but it has no unique characteristics of its own. Anything labeled « hardcore » is either punk rock, and therefore rock and roll, or it is heavy metal.
Enfin, un commentaire sur la critique (qui vaut là encore, non seulement pour le metal, mais pour toute la musique, pour les livres, JdR, films, séries télé, etc…) :
The decision to review an album should be made carefully. Editors the world over will have a heart attack about this, and website owners will have a quaking bowel movement worrying about keeping their hits consistent without daily content. The truth is a reviewer shouldn’t feel his job is to write about however many albums are piled up next to the stereo. That leads to shoddy writing and heavy metal fatigue. Not every album should be written about. An album that does not stand up to the kind of scrutiny a proper review requires does not deserve the wasted space of a dismissive review. It deserves to be ignored. Chances are five hundred other writers got the same album in their mailbox, so let the burden of writing about it fall upon someone who cares.
Sur ce dernier point, je reconnais avoir de moins en moins tendance à appliquer ce principe dans mes kros, à part peut-être en musique pour les parutions plus vraiment très récentes…