Metal Jew

Orphaned Land slay London

I went to see Orphaned Land live in London last night. Although I've written about them loads over the year, I'd never actually seen them perform before. Given that it was a v hot day and the gig started crazily early, plus the fact that their version of metal isn't that popular in the UK, the attendance wasn't at all bad - probably about 300. As someone who respects rather than loves there most recent album (it's a bit proggy for my tastes) I was totally knocked out by what a great live act they are. They've been touring a lot and it shows. They know how to work a crowd and Kobi isn't just a great vocalist, he's a charismatic frontman who holds the crowd in the palm of his hands. Despite the often lengthy and involved songs, there was a real buzz about the gig: Orphaned Land's fans really love the band. In particular, the oriental elements of their music - which are completely integrated into their metal sound -  are wildly appreciated.

The best thing of all? I saw a woman with a hijab in the audience, going wild for the band. I've never seen that at a metal show and how many Israeli bands attract observant Muslims. I was moved...

Best song? 'El Norra El Norra':

Patrick Aleph Nails It

There's a nice little post on Jewcy from Patrick Aleph of Punk Torah (whose site appears to have been hijacked) and the Jew-Punk band Can!!Can
Aleph explains what makes his music Jewish and how he feels alienated from most conceptions of Jewish music:

They don't know what to say to me. Jewish music falls under four categories for them: Debbie Friedman, their parents Klezmer records, the Carlebach family, and the soundtracks to Yenta and Fiddler on the Roof. Maybe a fifth category too, the one that takes contemporary music, pours Mel Brooks love-shmaltz all over it, and becomes a Jewish self parody of the cool music.

The truth is, I've never liked that stuff. It's not authentic to me.

The things in the Jewish tradition that are dark and weird...that's my area. While everyone is celebrating the victory of Hanukah, I'm thinking about all the Hellenistic Jews that got murdered. My favorite midrashim (Jewish legends) are about Aaron's sons being burned to death and Abraham smashing his father's idols, then giving him a "fuck you" answer when asked about it.

Shout out to Boom Pam and Koby Israelite

I feel hugely guilty about not giving a name check to the excellent Koby Israelite album King Papaya which came out a few months ago - I got a promo copy but never mentioned the album. More recently, the same publicist sent me a copy of the new Boom Pam album Puerto Rican Nights. The latter represent an intriguing fusion of klezmer, surf guitar and punkish attitude. The album's quite fun but I have to say that one of the band's most distinctive features - the use of tuba rather than bass -  just doesn't work for me. The only place for the tuba is on the Curb Your Enthusiasm soundtrack (and btw what are the semiotic implications for Seinfeld's soundtrack being the bass guitar and CYE being the tuba?).

Research on queer metal fans

Amber Clifford, an American academic, is conducting research on queer metal fans. For those who fall into that category, there's an online questionnaire to fill out here.

Iron Menorah

So I heard simultaneously about Iron Menorah from a couple of places, including Jack at Teruah. They're a Jewish Iron Maiden tribute band, who play dressed as ultra-orthodox Jews. Other than that the Jewish context is pretty minimal, give or take the odd burst of Hava Nagila. My first reaction when I heard about them was to groan inwardly: it's not that this sort of shtick isn't moderately amusing, it's that we Jews deserve so much better. Let me explain. There is a long history of Jewish novelty acts that draw on the presumed humorousness of Jews contributing to popular music and popular culture. It's based on the premise that Jews are so nerdy and uncool that to see them rock or whatever is intrinsically ridiculous. And for a long time this was fair comment and novelty acts provided a valid way of Jews dealing with such anxieties. But the thing is - we've moved on. There's too much interesting and vital Jewish popular music around now to see it as only ever a novelty. In metal itself, after Orphaned Land there can be no doubt that a Jewish metal hybrid is viable and interesting.

It's not that Iron Menorah aren't fun. It's just that they themselves seem anachronistic: a parody of a self-parody.

All that said, as an Iron Maiden cover band they're not at all bad. The vocalist especially channels Bruce pretty well. Here's the two videos of them from you tube so you can judge for yourself:

New article on metal in Africa

I had a short piece published on metal in Africa for a new UK free music magazine called Juke

The article can't be read online and I'm not sure where you can get the magazine, but you can  download a pdf of it here.

Orphaned Land to play London!

What happens when a metal act plays on a Jewish festival?

There's an interesting post on Metal Israel, consisting of an open letter to Ozzy Osbourne, asking him not to play in Israel on 28 September, which is Hoshanah Rabbah:

    I beg you, switch the concert date. It’s good for you. It’s good for Israel. Don’t disrespect G-d on His     own turf. Please, Ozzy. And I want to come see you. I love you. Don’t play on chag.

Aviva, the author of the letter and of the blog is an orthodox Jew who loves metal. Now I don't for a second think that the letter will be effective. And I don't think that it's necessarily appropriate to send such a letter. That said, I can identify with the letter up to a point. I'm not an orthodox Jew but I virtually never go out on Friday nights and at least some of the festivals. Consequentially, I've missed a lot of my favourite acts (for example, I'll miss Converge and Kylesa in July). That's what it is to be Jewish I guess. I suppose that Aviva's point is that if you play in Israel you need to respect Jewish law. I don't accept this myself but I can certainly see how it can be pretty galling to live in a Jewish state and still be faced with the kinds of dillemas that diaspora Jews are faced with. Still, the separation between religion and state is to me much more important. And in any case, it's good to be reminded that you're Jewish once in a while by making a sacrifice - even in Israel.

More ambiguous black metal

The black metal that attracts me most is ambiguous black metal - black metal where you are never sure where you stand with regard to the transgressive fantasies of its creators. So I have always been drawn to the Meads of Asphodel who play around with the twisted interconnections between jihad, early Christianity and the occult. I just found out that there next release will be called 'The Murder of Jesus the Jew' which will take the band ever closer to some truly dangerous and antisemitic fantasies. They aren't NSBM - like most other smart black metal bands, they prefer to revel in voluptuous fantasies of hatred rather than permanently fixing their sites on any one category of persons - but you can easily see how they might be construed as one. Their record label has the following statement from Metatron from the Meads:

‘NSBM, has obvious grievances towards the Jews, hence its fascist Nazi imagery and stark one dimensional theology. Most NSBM owes much to cultural independence rather than blatant anti Semitism, but this very real and for most, disturbing genre is not necessarily [although by nature] aligned directly to the all consuming aura of Hitler.

Anti-Semitism at its root form is rooted to the early Roman Church, itself an extension of the Roman Empire, both subversive institutions of conversion by persuasion. The Romans levelled Jerusalem in 70BC, killing around a million Jews from a population of three million. With the Roman Empire in decline, its transformation into the Holy Roman Empire through the adopted Judaic cult of Jesus [eventually stripped of all its Judaism] was the next crucial factor in our perceptions of anti-Semitism today. The growth of early Christianity depended on its sellable nature to a Pagan Roman Audience; hence the blame for their Gods death [Jesus] could not be pointed towards a Roman [Pontius Pilate]. The blame was therefore placed firmly on the Jews, and Anti-Semitism was truly born. The Christian religion, already based on debatable foundations grew at an astonishing rate, consuming half the globe, and dragging its dark anti-Semitic guilt with it. The Jews were bundled in groups and ghettos throughout Europe, their main source of survival money lending and their drive to succeed gained wealth and business attributes worldwide. This was the bane of German Fascism, a twisted excuse to drag a nation into the bowels of war.

The whole Jewish question during Hitler's reign is one of the Holocaust, indiscriminate extermination, and calculated cruelty. The systematic destruction of a race had no name at the time, so one was invented for it, Genocide. Whether you accept History's stark truth of gas chambers and deliberate mass murder, or take the revisionist view, [that it never occurred] is neither there nor there. What is important is the freedom to discus without prejudice individual views, and NSBM is a medium for a minority to express those views. It is your choice whether to listen ,but to silence this view is to become the very beast you attempt to muzzle.

This is a classic example of ambiguous black metal discourse: on the one hand it scorns antisemitism as a lunatic Christian invention, on the other hand it rejects suppression of NSBM in the name of free speach. This is where black metal's frisson lies, in never turnin away from evil but never wholeheartedly embracing it either. I can live with this - sometimes only just - but you can see how in the wrong hands this is mighty dangerous stuff.

Feminist metal blog

Check out this excellent feminist metal blog. There should be more of them...