Kindertotenlieder is a play that shares its name with a song cycle by Gustave Mahler, music for voice and orchestra that attempts to channel the emotions that are stirred following the death of a child. The cycle's five movements have titles like 'In This Weather, In This Windy Storm' and 'Now The Sun Will Rise As Brightly', an emphasis on the role of awe in untamed nature that is also to be found in the lyrical imagery of the black metal groups that first emerged from Norway in the early Nineties. Take this example from the song 'The Majesty of the Night Sky' by Emperor: "Like the tide, shadows flow towards the shore of light/The night comes whirling like a maelstrom..."
The play, directed by Giselle Vienne with Dennis Cooper credited for text and dramaturgy, bleeds black metal culture to a point that takes it far beyond notions of 'kvlt' (the term used to describe an adherence to aspects of said culture). Onstage, a group of static figures stand, or are seated, mostly with their backs to their audience, upon a thick carpet of pure white snow. Dwelling in the far corner are Stephen O'Malley and Peter 'Pita' Rehberg, supplying a live soundtrack; working acoustically as the snow does optically- an opaque coating, with details only emerging through deep concentration of the senses.
Together with a silent woman vocalist wrapped in tight black clothing and a bullet belt, they provide a background concert for the characters, uniformly clad in black hoodies that name bands such as Burzum and Von. (O'Malley chose these from his personal collection, specifically for their 'kvlt' value.)
Dennis Cooper has used extreme music and featured teenage metal fans as characters in his novels before. Slayer lyrics are frequently quoted in Try, while Period features a group called The Omen, who sacrifice their fans to Satan. It is Cooper's voice that the performers of Kindertotenlieder mime along to at points, where the story of a teenager murdering his best friend is given an occassional pale lucidity by sparse, tight dialogue.
The iconography of death among heavy metal teens is crucial, although not exclusive, to an understanding of the early black metal period. The much publicised deaths by murder or suicide in the Norwegian scene provide a sensationalist entry point for those in search of darker matter to feast on, tired of pretenders like Marilyn Manson who promise much but deliver little.
There is a constant tension in black metal philosophy between the Romanticism in the lyrics and sleeve design, and the bands' espousal of an icy and misanthropic take on anti-Christian morality, and belief in the supremacy of man. Many voices in the scene have expressed their admiration for animals in the wild, claiming a particular affinity with the wolf (Ulver created Nattens Madigal, a concept album about lycanthropy). This godless existence, with a reliance on actions of instinct, is echoed in Kindertotenlieder's delivery of meaning through movement in the snow, sometimes belly-crawling through it, other times dragging their feet across, creating small piles. A key scene involves one of the performers repeatedly bending over backwards, his outstretched arms leading him into a remarkably slow contortion of the human body. The focus here is on the power of man over the elements, over his own emotions- replacing the control of the mind on the body with something more primal.
That a number of people were moved to tears by this scene perhaps helps to reveal the ultimate attraction of black metal, and by association Kindertotenlieder. After all, we are not wolves. The snow is fake, wax shavings. The boy onstage isn't dead, and most of the figures are actually dolls. What's real, or truly 'kvlt', is an emotional experience, desolate and cold.
Now who's being romantic?
The play, directed by Giselle Vienne with Dennis Cooper credited for text and dramaturgy, bleeds black metal culture to a point that takes it far beyond notions of 'kvlt' (the term used to describe an adherence to aspects of said culture). Onstage, a group of static figures stand, or are seated, mostly with their backs to their audience, upon a thick carpet of pure white snow. Dwelling in the far corner are Stephen O'Malley and Peter 'Pita' Rehberg, supplying a live soundtrack; working acoustically as the snow does optically- an opaque coating, with details only emerging through deep concentration of the senses.
Together with a silent woman vocalist wrapped in tight black clothing and a bullet belt, they provide a background concert for the characters, uniformly clad in black hoodies that name bands such as Burzum and Von. (O'Malley chose these from his personal collection, specifically for their 'kvlt' value.)
Dennis Cooper has used extreme music and featured teenage metal fans as characters in his novels before. Slayer lyrics are frequently quoted in Try, while Period features a group called The Omen, who sacrifice their fans to Satan. It is Cooper's voice that the performers of Kindertotenlieder mime along to at points, where the story of a teenager murdering his best friend is given an occassional pale lucidity by sparse, tight dialogue.
The iconography of death among heavy metal teens is crucial, although not exclusive, to an understanding of the early black metal period. The much publicised deaths by murder or suicide in the Norwegian scene provide a sensationalist entry point for those in search of darker matter to feast on, tired of pretenders like Marilyn Manson who promise much but deliver little.
There is a constant tension in black metal philosophy between the Romanticism in the lyrics and sleeve design, and the bands' espousal of an icy and misanthropic take on anti-Christian morality, and belief in the supremacy of man. Many voices in the scene have expressed their admiration for animals in the wild, claiming a particular affinity with the wolf (Ulver created Nattens Madigal, a concept album about lycanthropy). This godless existence, with a reliance on actions of instinct, is echoed in Kindertotenlieder's delivery of meaning through movement in the snow, sometimes belly-crawling through it, other times dragging their feet across, creating small piles. A key scene involves one of the performers repeatedly bending over backwards, his outstretched arms leading him into a remarkably slow contortion of the human body. The focus here is on the power of man over the elements, over his own emotions- replacing the control of the mind on the body with something more primal.
That a number of people were moved to tears by this scene perhaps helps to reveal the ultimate attraction of black metal, and by association Kindertotenlieder. After all, we are not wolves. The snow is fake, wax shavings. The boy onstage isn't dead, and most of the figures are actually dolls. What's real, or truly 'kvlt', is an emotional experience, desolate and cold.
Now who's being romantic?
