The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: #63, Tsjuder

Re: Blasphemy

Nag (Jan-Erik Romøren) of Tsjuder
8.75" x 9"
oil on wood, 2010

The upside down cross is the most recognized emblem used by black metal musicians. The meaning of it is simply an inversion of the Latin cross, it signifies Satan in stead of Jesus. A simple Wikipedia search learns that the historical meaning, a symbol of St. Peter signifying humility, is quite different but that's not to the point.  The point is that when Nag would raise his arm to make the sign of the devil with his hand he would inadvertently invert the inverted cross again, making it read as the Latin cross once more. Kidding aside I do truly get into this music. When I play it loud enough it gets an escapist function for me, similar as what alcohol does. The thing is that every time I write about the music it seems like I need to joke about it as to undermine the seriousness of it and to play down my own involvement. In my third year as a black metal fan I have to come to terms with it and accept that I like an unpopular -inferior in the eyes of the connoisseur- style. The song Blasphemy by the Norwegian black metal band Tsjuder is listed for the third straight year. I'd announced in April (see Blasphemy entry)  that I would use the very same iconic picture I used in 2008 and 2009 but I went a different route with this painting of Nag sporting the inverted cross. The finished painting features about ten more of those inverted crosses coming down from the sky as in an famous image of a Christian revelation in which it rains crosses.

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.