Review Summary: On the basis of optimizing hypocrisy.
In the world of musical criticism, there is a constant and necessary dialogue about subjectivity vs. objectivity. Without this dialogue, there is no doubt that even the most objective outlooks would eventually unravel and collapse into the realms of subjective classification and categorical thinking. It's vital that the people who analyze music try to criticize it in it's most relevant context, by having as little bias as possible. Of course, bias is human nature. Not only is it natural, but our brains are specifically designed to sort through information to give ourselves a very one sided perspective on things. No matter how objective someone claims to be, there is an asymptote between human thought, and the physics of our natural world. It is for this reason, that perhaps attempting to be objective undermines objectivity in itself. By saying "This is an honest attempt at objectivity," we assume that any bias we may hold is negligible, which should never be the case. Perhaps the way to be most truly objective is by acknowledging our outright subjectivity from the beginning. Something which I (personal pronouns included) will attempt to do.
With great apprehension, I must clearly state that
The Light That Dwells In Rotten Wood is by far the most moving collection of songs I have ever heard. There are few albums in the years that I have been listening to music that have caused such an impact on the way I think. This was clear to me within the first listen of the album. It was several years ago, as I was lying in bed, more or less intoxicated on THC. Not a single light was on, my head was clear and I remember thinking afterwards that I had never had an experience like that before. I had never completely absorbed an album in it's first listen. I was able to completely satisfy my thoughts on what I had just heard. I had no context or conscious preconceived notions. It was just sounds emitted from darkness. Looking back, my thoughts have barely changed. That feeling of purity, and clearness still resides with me every time I listen to the album. The whole situation left me with a question though. The fact I had engineered a setting in which I could forget about the identity of the music at hand. If I had first heard the album in a busy train station, or waiting in a doctors office would my outlook be the same? The question was interesting and I had to find an answer.
I recreated my experience with several friends, testing to see what affected their opinions on the album (as well as several other albums.) The outcome was not at all surprising. Those that had a more intimate interaction with the music, had a higher opinion of what they had heard than those who had there day interrupted the be shown "some band." A pretty predictable relationship if you ask me. This leaves me to believe that the objectivity of music is just based on how well you can acknowledge the subjective. Those who enjoyed the music were put in a position to will themselves to like it. It wasn't whether it was good or bad, but it was their direct willingness to like it that determined what they thought. Looking back, I hardly needed an experiment to be able to realize this. The human brain shows the same trend for almost every other action we perform on a daily basis. We sense a stimulus, and that stimulus is generalized for easy storage as a memory. When we think, or experience new stimuli, we relate the thoughts and stimuli to memories we already know. More specifically, when we listen to music, we reference music we have heard in the past, as well as sight, smell, touch, taste and even our level of fatigue. This is an existing concept known of relativism. I don't claim to have invented this concept, it's not new to the world of music, but it's important to consider. From my point of view,
The Light That Dwells In Rotten Wood was heard within a near perfect world. Our memories and experiences and general knowledge are what determine our subjectivity, and in the human mind, it's really the only thing we'll ever have.
It is with that, I renounce my objectivity for this review. It is very obvious I have incriminated my standpoint of this album, and by those same principles, every album I have ever listened to. That said, as reviewers we are still responsible to use musical relativism for people to create their own set of criteria. So by these standards, the album is not a breakthrough by any means. It's textbook atmospheric black metal, but more than that. It's a genuine piece of music. Six songs that flow effortlessly into each other, making the song divisions obsolete. The production is perfect, allowing a lot of wiggle room for haunting melodies and satisfying fuzz. Each note and chord repetition is completely justified, and there is nothing out of place. It is the kind of music that I have experienced in a profound way. Just the knowledge that someone out there, can perceive this album in that way, creates the hope that in the right conditions, so can anyone. I gave this album a classic rating, merely because I have no choice. If I put anything lower, I would be lying on behalf of objectivity, rather than expressing my true feelings on the album.
After all in the end, it's not what you hear. It's what you want to hear. It's this alone that makes me question the necessity of objectivity in music. If we are honest about the bias that we know we have, we can be clear to people what we think. We don't have to lie about that portion of bias that taints our supposed outlook. So I'll leave you with this question. Is it more important what our thought is? Or is it why we have that thought in the first place that really matters? These are questions I don't intend to answer for you. If we reference these questions, instead of the superficial senses we absorb on a given day, perhaps we can acknowledge the relativism that is bound to exist. The line where good and bad blur was first introduced to me while listening to this album. It is my hope that with this in mind, others may be able to listen to it and see it too. To most, it won't be the greatest thing ever made, but it could be. If you want.
