Album Rating: 3.5

>You're a naive asshole or a dishonest one when you do that. No in-between.



Hello vocal minority. I'm impressed you can work up so much anger over this.



Be careful to save some for actual problems.

Album Rating: 3.5

They're above earthly politics, you guys are wasting your time. They have the moral high grounds, not you mister staff & contrib. Its easy to criticize things that you don't understand isn't it. Go read some Bataille's works, scrubs.

Album Rating: 3.5

Have you ever fired your gun up in the air and gone 'ahhh'?

Album Rating: 3.5

Ad Arma is so unusually catchy.

Album Rating: 4.0

"Paralectus slapped" Aaaand still does Jhonny! Check Fas Ite m/

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah what's with the past tense. If it ruled 9 years ago it still rules now

Meant on first (past tense) listen guys dw! Can confirm it still rules as of last night

Egarran hun don't take this as a personal accusation (or a return to the pre-interview witch hunt) but if dismissing the justified concerns of a vocal minority out of irrelevance to a disinterested majority doesn't carry a whiff of fascism, I'll need to adjust my paranoia radar ;]

Gameofmetal when did they ever say there were apolitical ? I think if anything they openly want this record to be as political as possible.

I really feel like you are trying to bury and discard what is said in this interview as much as possible. How do you feel about that idea ?

Also :
Guys many of the writers and thinkers they quote are actually quite well known in France and in Europe. I do come from the hexagon contry but I'm not particularly a litterature nerd and was able to get what they were talking about as well as gain a further understanding of the people behind the music and the music itself through having these references.
People just lolling about this interview being stupid bullshit are very cringy and pretentious to me if anything.

most of the references weren't even about music, just to criticize certain ppl and fans. just name dropping for the sake of it

@TheBarber Gameofmetal is one of the few people here engaging with the interview, so I think it's somewhat unfair to accusing him of trying to bury it. Since his engagement is insufficient for you, I hope this seems more satisfactory.

Everyone already bored, feel free to ignore

"The French core of the collective – which, incidentally, is the creative core and source of music and lyrics – is Bataillian by definition and therefore completely immune to mundane politics, having deconstructed them a long time ago."

They claim an apolitical relation to the rest of the world, which isn't identical to general apoliticism, but Gameofmetal's use of the term works expediently. I think you're right in a more nuanced sense about their wanting the record to be actively political. All they're saying here is that they don't give two shits about about ephemeral factionalism, virtue signalling and partisan allegiances; Bataille's own ongoing engagement with politics should be proof enough of this. The only takeaway from this is that they'd like to put themselves above what they perceive as sensationalist outcry, and that sentiment has already been appropriately satirised by PunchforPunch.

"If you make art ‘safe’, no matter your concerns – moral, aesthetic or otherwise – you sterilise it and, in the long run, with utmost certainty, kill it. If, on the contrary, you allow and even invite conflict and chaos at the core of the matrix, you enhance the possibilities infinitely."

This is the key bit for me and it's pretty disappointing. This is partially because they're painting in broad strokes and not engaging with the specific issue here, partially because it epitomises the band's 100% production/0% consumption focus* (hence why I think they're embarrassingly self-absorbed), partially because it's a fairly tired argument (it has very little substantially dissimilar to a whiny schoolkid complaining about censored cusswords in a script they submitted to drama club, say), but mainly because they place transgressive and chaotic elements as essential to their art without differentiating between their essential and performative valences in the process of consumption. Chaos and 'not safe' art are full of a novelty which does have a certain artistic value if crafted right but is ultimately far cheaper than DsO's pitch here. This is not to stay that DsO are a novelty act, but in failing to address the possibility of being received as such and to explain what elevates their (unconvincing) supposed preference for a politically polarised production environment from gimmick value, it's hard to not view this in cheap terms and as a thinly-veiled personnel defence.

*granted, they give us this: "the main protagonist is, at the core of things, the reader...It was actually a sign of respect for the potential reader to present certain established events or processes, spiritual and theological, historical or psychological [akin to a rather traditional agitating political pamphlet] – eventually leaving him free to experiment and explore them based on his personality, knowledge, preferences and biases, or downright prejudices."

Problem here is that the band have already attempted to pontificate the facets of value and encourage a process of engagement based on prescribed criteria. You cannot open your work to audience interpretation while pretending to transcend criticism of aspects of your production ethic or definition or artistic value, I'm afraid.

This accounts for the quote's role as a not particularly subtle smokescreen, but I haven't taken their broader attitude towards transgression in very good faith, so here's a little more focused on this and less on the political context:

"As an artist, you ought to be obsessed by cruelty. Cruelty towards yourself, as you ruthlessly discard works which don’t live up to your standards...Cruelty in the implacable execution of your art."

Pretty overblown outlining of perfectionism, but a fairly accurate sentiment nonetheless.

"[Bataille's] thoughts shed a crucial light on the notion of transgression and how this may be a key element of self-discovery."

As someone dubiously fortunate enough to have discovered Bataille (and then Sade) through The Story of the Eye when his ex had a brief(ish) phase with them, I'm gonna have to agree with the DsO boys again on this one. Yikes.

This goes some way to accounting for the prominence of transgression in DsO's creative process, but I'm not getting a sense of the specific beyond lyrical scope and the intense production environment, and I'm still not sold on the relevance of the latter. Would appreciate a good counter-argument here.

Album Rating: 3.5

this is a great album... who agrees?

Album Rating: 2.5

No, it's not.

Album Rating: 3.5

that's an omega bummer, man

Album Rating: 3.5

>if dismissing the justified concerns of a vocal minority out of irrelevance to a disinterested majority doesn't carry a whiff of fascism



What in this wretched society doesn't carry a whiff of fascism? An obscure satanic band has to come way down on the list of priorities. Use your energy on injustices that matter.

This is how they keep their power you know: Get the rabble to focus on nothings.



But sure, their views and attitudes are horrible (and between us I've never got this band's music).

Album Rating: 4.0

"Use your energy on injustices that matter."



What a stupid fucking roundabout way to fence-sit the discussion lmao.



The issue with the way you're interpreting it is that we're not even able to reach any potential discussion of how to address it (whether you should even) because you can't even get around the hump of acknowledging it. People will throw up walls against the most obvious dogwhistles and warning signs because it makes them uncomfortable, which becomes interchangeable with the actual fascists that are willfully dishonest about these signs.



Saying "there are bigger issues so go get triggered by those instead of something like this" reeks of cowardice. No even said anything about doing anything other than acknowledging that they're probably a lot closer to neo-nazi's than just being affiliated with one, but you're already doing your very best to avoid doing absolutely fucking anything. Fuck that trashcan bullshit.

Album Rating: 3.0

“Would appreciate a good counter-argument here.”



I’m not quite sure what you’re arguing to begin with, so it’s difficult to launch a counter argument. In general, I found the interview pretty fascinating; you got a look in to their creative processes, specific equipment used, influences (Portishead!), the amount of work which is required to pull this off (Absolutist Regeneration was recorded in one take...), a love of hiking/mountain climbing(!), and he even touched on the implications of post industrialisation and the sixth mass extinction, which shows a ‘practical’ engagement rather than just theological ruminations. I’m looking forward to the second part.

“This is how they keep their power you know: Get the rabble to focus on nothings.”

Yep. Nice one bro.

Album Rating: 3.5

Nothing screams nobility and bravery like posting on Sputnik threads