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Mapping out the details of a broken soul.

PART THREE…
“further manifestations of the dark side as reflected in industrial music today”
It is difficult to say where sound ‘evolved’ from. “Evil” is everywhere, but so is dichotomy, with an adequate amount of “good” to evoke a balanced state. As we derive more and more influence from what we read or hear, it changes the culture to help the intellect move forward, and the body inevitably follows closely. If it loses pace with the rest of it, the soul withers and dies, and leaving only the flesh to rot. A head filled with junk will soon penetrate into the heart, and a soul is easily flooded by relatively simple actions that become repetitive or habitual. You can speak of habits all you want, “bad” habits and “less better” habits, but that fact will not change the one whose visions are cluttered with blocks. Mental blocks and emotional one as well are the sources of many creative outlets being shutdown, and we take for granted the precious gift to change the world as we wish it.

Many artists have been snuffed away from their magickal and musickal visions by hard drugs, and their personal beliefs in what the spirit requires to function “properly”, interacting with others is what I meant by properly. Society makes it proper to interact with each other under these certain standards, views that sometimes aren’t shared with the right people, and so we continue to fuck ourselves over. However, lessons can be learned over lifetimes as we learn from certain voices of advice, and these are the musical pioneers of a spirit world that is the true reality. Artisans in the “land of the dark son” are those with the emphasis solely in saviors being antithetical with the saved, viewing the darkness that many others would prefer to shy away from idealistically, and this rejection, I think, contributes greatly to understanding the dark side to this condition we live in.

The musical works in this modern day are constantly in flux, making trend-setting a difficult thing for all but those who fall into it, but to make a work of art takes a stroke of genius. Hints of it line the walls of our bedrooms, a commercial sellout these days, but always more than a fancy hook. More as hooks that are barbed and vicious and waiting to descend deeply into the gray matter, these are the artists that I look up to, and their views occur to be more and more prevalent as time twists and turns. Some of these beings pop up to the surface, splashing themselves in the “waters” of the mainstream, but never long enough for some. Soon, the intellectualizing of feelings in music became a mode which was later made “goth”, and the poets of this dying time arose from the forsaken sediment. Artists such as Bauhaus and Joy Division lurched their way from the late Seventies, and today revered by “grandfather goths”, their music has always been much more than posturing and minimalism. All these advances have lead into the melding of post-punk, no wave and alternate genres. The intermingling has bred out some interesting culminations.

Unlike punk, which jumped from America to England and back again, gothic and industrial musics practically evolved in England first, and then rose up from the far western side of the States. Groups like Christian Death and 45 Grave were still punks at heart as much as the Birthday Party and Siouxsie and the Banshees across the pond, and they have all contributed much in further defining this dark side that has arisen to absorb many souls in depressing and harshly monotonous ways, repeating the habits that will destroy us without harnessing our dreams. Throbbing Gristle is to industrial music in England what Skinny Puppy perfected in Canada, the term ‘pioneer’ is far to loose to use here, but both groups have contributed much material respectively. Both groups, though, play upon two different sides of the same coin. TG was borne out of a time when digital was a minor convenience at best, and Nny Ppy is so deeply rooted in the digital landscape that every sound is affected, there is where the dichotomy resides. Sandwiched in between these two ‘innovators’ are a whole slew of imitators and originals that eke out a creative existence thanks to their work. After Ministry and Trent Reznor both put out pointless pop albums, they set about creating a new world order, but also grew up in a time where influences were also bandmates and collaborators equally. It stuns me at times to know how extensively some artists have worked with each other. After sharing viewpoints, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails both had albums that broke the surface of the heavy water that weighs the mainstream down, but gravity of ignorance was no barrier for these roving bands of menace. Reznor is fond of an introverted finger-pointing exercise while Al Jourgensen and company more frequently scream that finger outward, and rage does burn.

…continued in pt.4; “Ripping out the shards”