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Blaz Erzetic
In last 30 years there has been great evolving of genres like hard rock, heavy metal, modern instrumental, dark, Gothic, black and their combinations. Let's see first characteristics of this genres.
Dark: musically very melodic with simple rhythms, not necessary slow, conceptually talking about love and death, heart suffering, described in non pathetic and very poetic way.
Gothic: in some ways very similar to dark, but more intense. Singing about heavy pains, musically very contrasting (gentle female vocal with rough guitars background or vice versa: rough male vocal with symphonic background. Sometimes duets with female lyric vocal and grunting male voice) that means relation between pain/hope, dark/light, hate/love, death/life, etc.
Black: in this concept has nothing to do with Afro music, but with satanism, death and anti church concepts.
Artists regarding to this genres like acting and dressing in vampire like way. Vampires in poetry and art are considered as probably most romantic creatures. What makes them so fascinating is probably their malediction, creatures that can't die, can't see the sun, creatures that have to drink human blood to survive and most of all, their loneliness and enigma that makes them in certain way even sexually attractive.
The beginners of demonic look were probably Kiss, later also I Vampire, King Diamond, Cradle of Filth, etc. With grotesque white painted faces with black and red ornaments. The style is still in use, but it didn't have many imitations and clones, probably because it was a bit pathetic and it had the inverse effect - it wasn't scary, but funny.
In the late eighties, nineties and even now, still talking about visual part of artists, it is very popular long black hair (sometimes even bald-headed (Nosferatu type)), dressed in black, with certain 19th century style combined with contemporary fashion, sometimes using black eyes contour and black lipstick (Type O Negative, Vasaria, My Dying Bride, Tiamat, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), etc). This look is intriguing, eccentric, enigmatic, but still not extreme like Kiss painted faces.
The meaning of the music is a bit weird thing to analyze, because it's about myths, non human feelings, another worlds and so on. Some of them compare their broken heart or evil society suffering with vampire malediction - the extreme pain and sadness with no exit.
Only by seeing the song titles it can make us dream and appreciate those noble thoughts and feelings: Burnt Flowers Falling, The Songless Bird, The Snow In My Hand, The Sleeping Beauty,...
Religious based Gothic music like Elend can have although their unreal lyrics (talking about evil forces preparing to blacken the world) very scary and suggestive effect.
Seeing the music in this way, we can find out that the point of it, is not in direct message, but only creating a virtual and unreal atmosphere.
With this article I just wanted to make you notice the use of vampire figure and its myth in art (especially music), but I also suggest you to find out some CDs and listen to it for a while. Who knows - maybe you'll like it.
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