Blasphemy

Drauglin of Tsjuder
11" x 8.5"
acrylic on paper, 2009

Blasphemy by the Norwegian band Tsjuder is the next song to enter into the Top 100 2010. It will be its third consecutive year. I have not made a new painting yet but plan on using the same image as for the one above I did last year. I also used the same photographic source for my 2008 painting. The following text is a shortened version of a lengthy statement I wrote in 2008 explaining my sudden jump in the murky waters of Norwegian Black Metal. The text will be used to accompany Tsjuder in the forthcoming book The Top 100 2009 available through Country Club Projects in Cincinnati in a month or so. I'll keep you posted.

Burning churches, murder, Satanism, Nazi ideology, Viking mythology, testosterone unbound, very loud music, names like Trelldom, Taake, Tsjuder, and Nattefrost: I became intrigued with the story of Norwegian Black Metal. As a teenager I would have eaten-up this story, and realize—minus the Nazi ideology, the testosterone, the church burnings, the murder, and Satanism—that I’m still that same person. I haven’t listened to metal much since I was 16 or so, but last year I suddenly got into Norwegian Black Metal. It may have been teen angst back then that originally got me into heavy metal, now, I guess, it is my midlife crisis.