APOTHELEMA #17 PART ONE RANTING REVIEW & AUTOPSY OF "EXTREMITY RETAINED"

by Kyle Nonneman

[Note: this was composed in prison where proof-reading facilities are notoriously bad. Please don't hold that against the author. You can contact Kyle through the address listed at the end of this entry.]

RANTING REVIEW AND AUTOPSY OF THE BOOK

EXTREMITY RETAINED: NOTES ON THE DEATH METAL UNDERGROUND 

BY JASON NETHERTON

H.p. Lovecraft was a preeminent misanthrope and an unrepentant nihilist He scorned face to face communication and instead relied on written correspondence to keep in contact with fellow authors and like minded individuals within his field. The correlations between the Lovecraft circle and the metal underground are obvious.

The sections on recording and mastering techniques included a lot of polemic edged diatribes on the necessity for originality and innovation within the field of extreme music. That's what killed Scott Burns. Imitators seeking him out to assist in pastiche worship clone records. Instead of utilizing Scott Burns talents to actualize and flesh out their own unique aesthetic visions.

There's a noticeable loudness and raw element to Skogsberg's work you just don't hear on a Scott Burns record. Old school metal bands trash the glut of laptop handicapped modern acts using convenient digital tools to create quantize and sampled to the hilt soulless assembly line records. The only difference goes back to something i think Anton Lavey repeated about Self Censorship. 

Lavey said that when you give someone limited tools to work with you end up with vastly more creative works of art because it forces an artist to improvise and be more creative. That's how the human brain is motivated into certain modes of expression. Watch any 1980s splatter/body horror film like Evil Dead or The Thing and then watch a contemporary cgi remake. The body count's higher and the fx are more glossy and realistic. Despite that, the old school 16mm improv gore fests are still more powerful in terms of atmosphere, creativity, innovation and horror. 

The same applies to metal. It's easier to obtain a lot of releases now. What should have been left buried is now unearthed for the general populace to seek out. There's a certain beauty and feeling of hunger you get when you see a really rare cassette or vinyl. I remember seeing a photo of the Burzum - Kill Em all Demo. Alternate mixes/rehearsals of early Burzum recorded over an old dub of Metallica's Kill Em All. With Burzum scribbled over Metallica. Thats a very symbolic act of desecration and beautiful. 

I hunted down black metal and grind records on vinyl when i was in middle school and high school. I grew up on traditional hard rock, heavy metal and thrash. I saw the new metal movement as false and just an extension of the grunge i never identified with either. I got into grind, hardcore, and black metal before i got heavy into death. I used to buy a lot of the old Bovine, Slap A Ham, Deep Six, and Power Ground vinyl. That old Power Ground vinyl especially Default and Manyerisum's 7" ruled. 

I could never find that shit online. Nobody ever ripped it. That shit's just mediocre crust/hardcore to most people for sure. But dropping the needle on that and the Suppression and Cripple Bastards split lp when i was like 14 brought back the same rush and thrill i got from moving on from Ac/Dc, Priest, Maiden to Ride The Lightning.

My perspective on a lot of shit is fucked up,out of context and incongruous to older members of the scene and i remain uncompromisingly militant in my attitudes. A lot of this book is a nostalgia trip and a time capsule glimpse into dead eras of forgotten glory within extreme metal. It's not some tired cliché politically correct analysis of misogynist themes and negativity within the subculture like Purcell's book on Death Metal and the false sections on Arch Enemy in Choosing Death. 

Extremity Retained was written by an insider and a true member of the underground who interviewed people actually involved within the subculture. So you don't have the Adam Parfrey/Joel Mcivers/ sponsored politically correct atrocity exhibition exploitation of the underground into a novelty for the masses to laugh at. 

A lot of the shit about metal being dead comes from the mouths of drop outs within the underground looking for a way out that puts them in a good light.Fuck em. I don't get any support from this blog. You motherfuckers don't even write me back. I type this shit in prison and smuggle it out. I don't have fucking internet access . I buy all my music from pirate prison companies for a 1.75 a song.... I got a Schecter Omen 6 and a pocket rockit and i shred all the time . I live in a cell 23 hours a day , listening to metal, reading, and shredding. I got nothing else. That's my existence. So i live and breath metal. I don't have access to a fucking xerox machine. So i do a blog. What's your fucking excuse?

Anyway Extremity Retained is a great fucking book. Highly recommended. 

LONG LIVE THE DEATH CULT

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You can contact Kyle at:

 Kyle Nonneman

 #16534211

Osci

3405 Deerpark Dr SE

Salem OR 97310

And here's some more art from Kyle:

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http://www.writeaprisoner.com/Template.aspx?i=z-16534211

And a new contact: https://prisoninmates.com/profile/KyleNonneman16534211

I'm Mykel Board, and I post for Kyle because no one else will. If you're interested in my own ideas, you can read me at: mykelsblog.blogspot.com

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