#gustav thomas

GF010: Gustav Thomas, The Eternal Fire of Darkness: Black Metal, Gnosticism & the Body

≈ NOW SOLD OUT ≈

In the latest Good Food zine Gustav Thomas presents his own intuitive response to/understanding of the cultural phenomenon of Norwegian Black Metal. In doing so he incorporates seemingly disparate points of inquiry  - Dada, Fluxus, COUM Transmissions and Georges Bataille’s Solar Anus - weaving them together to create a narrative that hones in on the potential of the body (and one’s understanding of it) as a site for cultural resistance.

To launch the zine we hosted a night of Black Metal at NewBridge Books featuring a talk by Gustav and a screening of the Finnish Black Metal documentary ‘The Eternal Flame of Gehenna’. The zine quickly sold out on the night but another run is now available via the Good Food online shop here.

Black Metal, Gnosticism and the Body - a talk by Gustav Thomas

NewBridge Books, Newcastle 23/09/15

Good Food tapes & zines and NewBridge Books presents:

Black Metal, Gnosticism & the Body - a talk by Gustav Thomas

Despite its occasional bursts into mainstream pop and a long association with stadium-show pomp, Heavy Metal, along with its various subgenres, remains enigmatic. The extent to which it has influenced musicians and artists working well beyond its relatively narrow aesthetic boundaries is yet to be bothered with in terms of any serious writing. Black Metal probably represents the most extreme example of this, its fortified underground status making it a long-standing haven for alienated adolescents seeking to make visible their outsider identity. The ways in which its sound, stance, image, theatre and contradictory politics of resistance have influenced (and continue to influence) artists and musicians is interesting enough on its own; however, its traceable continuities and parallels with the more extreme moments in 20th century art, and then its deep resonance with Gnostic theosophies, make it a fascinatingly multilayered cultural phenomenon.

This talk by Gustav Thomas (aka William Edmondes, lecturer in music at Newcastle University) seeks to present some of the many strands of aesthetic and critical continuities that emerge from Black Metal, a youth movement and cultural resistance that emerged from the otherwise seemingly untroubled society of 1980s Norway.

Following the talk there will be a screening of a short film selected by Gustav.

This event coincides with the release of a new essay on Black Metal written by Gustav, published in a small run of hand-bound zines by Good Food, which will be available on the night.