Hi-End for Black Metal?

Shadorne,
Black Metal is much more extreme than AC/DC. I guess you have to be a certain kind of guy to like this music.

Mwilson,
It's good to know that there are people like you who use their hi-end equipment to play heavy music.

I am not into heavy metal only, it's only 50% of what I listen to. But I cannot really understand people who listen to, for example, jazz or blues only. It seems to me boring to always demand from music one type of emotion only. To me, music is like a rainbow and there are many colors (emotions) in it. I need them all - from anger and aggression to love and sadness. One or two colors do not satisfy me.

Most of all, I like complex, dark, symphonic, multi-layered, mysterious, emotionally inhomogeneous Black Metal. Bands like Lunar Aurora, Limbonic Art, Arckanum, Graveworm, etc. Right now I am listening to Watain. This music is like a fog, it comes out of your speakers, engulfs you. It's a touch of the Dark.

And what about Viking Metal? How is it possible not to appreciate the poetics of war, battle fury and nostalgia for ancient times? I cannot understand how you can be a man and not to respond to the message this Music brings...

Gawdbless,
The link to YouTube is not a typical example of black metal.

Waltwalden,
Thanks for recommending Metsatöll, I'll check them out. I liked how they were reviewed on metal-archives.com

Shadorne,
I will try to find Maceo Parker Roots and Grooves Live and listen to them.

Stevecham,
When you wrote "listening into the depths of what are usually highly compressed recordings of that genre", you rubbed salt into my wounded ears, because you cannot imagine my frustration over the fact that more and more metal bands fall victims to Loudness Wars. Some metal albums are plain unlistenable on hi-fi rigs. It's even more grievous that most metal fans simply do not understand you when you start complaining about the narrow dynamic range of metal releases. Here's an example: www.panzerbattalion.se/showthread.php?t=1133 I started that thread to voice my dissatisfation with the sound recording quality of otherwise great band - Sabaton. And just look what happened...

Chashmal,
I didn't say that "Axis of perdition" was not *radical*. They might be radical, for sure they are, but will you agree that this band can hardly be called a *typical* representative of BM?

I wonder what my neighbors think when I listen first to Insomnium "2002 - In The Halls Of Awaiting" followed by Eva Cassidy "1998 - Songbird"? But what can I do? I like all emotions in music, as long as they are expressed in a talented and sincere manner...

Gawdbless,

I have the following equipment:
DAC: April Music Stello DA100
Pre-amp: April Music Stello HP100
Amp: NAD C320BEE (I use the power section only)
Speakers: Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo Three

I understand that it's far from being super hi-end, but I do not belong to the category of "New Russians" (nouveau riche). I live 6000 kms away from Moscow in the place where - ok, where it's hard to be an audiophile.

You ask me what caused my angst. Well, don't you find it exasperating when you get an album by one of your favorite bands only to find it to be just another totally unlistenable victim of Loudness Wars, you log in to the band's forum hoping that other fans of this band share your indignation at how your favorite music was mutilated by sound producers. But instead of the collective support you find either the absolute incomprehension, or attempts to defend the squashed dynamics.

When I listen to some heavy metal albums (BM included), which have fallen prey to Loudness Wars, I feel robbed of something very important which the musicians tried to bring to me, but it never made its way to me, because of the interference of studio men. They stole it. Threw it away. It wasn't considered important by them. Arghhh!!! I almost visualize the strangled sine waveforms, which, as they oscillate in a ridiculously narrow range left to them, choke and strive for BREATHING, throbbing against the zero dB ceiling. Like a fish dying under the ice of the lack of oxygen...

Maril555,
I also don't like crowds which attend rock shows. Even though I like rock music, I would like to distance myself from people who typically visit such events. Rock is all about girls, beer, having fun, love, etc. But Black Metal is different. Guys who play black metal for non-commercial reasons are also different. BM is more than music. Listen to the best examples of BM has to offer: for example, Immortal "Sons of Northern Darkness" (2002) or Darkthrone "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" (1992) or Satyricon "Nemesis Divina" (1996) or Emperor "In the Nightside Eclipse" (1994). If something does not click in your soul, then I give up on you :)

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.

Parasound63,

I have Agalloch albums. It's great.

Maril555,

I would like to continue probing the depth of your repulsion of heavy music :)

Do you like Savatage? It's progressive rock, heavy but complex and very dynamic. Lyrics are not stupid, either.