Lingua Ignota, darkwave/industrial
Lingua Ignota AKA Kristin Hayter, is a survivor of abuse who calls her hybrids of folk, spiritual, industrial and metal music “survivor anthems”. Extreme music is overdue a reckoning with misogyny and violence – Hayter says one of her abusers was “a very powerful noise musician in the Providence community” – making her use of heavy music as a tool for catharsis even more remarkable. “A lot of my work comes out of extreme music and heavy music that’s in a misogynist context,” she says. “I’m trying to re-contextualise that phallocentric format for people who need it.”
Hayter adds that Lingua Ignota is not just about catharsis, but also transformation and retribution. “Because I don’t get to enact violence or murder my abusers; I get to make music instead, and this has been fantastic revenge,” she says. “If everything ends tomorrow, I already won.”
Spoiler
Silencer, black metal
Silencer is a black metal band from Sweden, which despite never performing live and only releasing one album managed to reach a cult status within the black metal scene. The main persona behind the project is a mysterious guy known as Nattramn. Very little is know about the man and it's quite difficult to differentiate between urban legends surrounding him and reality. What is most likely true is that he has been institutionalized to a mental asylum after recording the album and that his signature Silencer vocals has been recorded while performing severe self harm in real time, to give the screeching vocals authenticity. The legend goes that Natramn managed to get both of his hands chopped off and get pig hooves sewn (which is almost certainly just a legend). There aren't many public photos of the guy, but the most notorious one is depicting him with pig hooves indeed, allegedly on the scene where his brother comited suicide (warning, huge nswf). Another rumor says he has been repeatedly institutionalized for attacking a five years old with an axe.
Spoiler
Stalaggh was allegedly the result of a nihilistic collaboration between several unnamed Dutch and Belgian musicians who desired to spit out the most oppressive, unlistenable noise possible. They capped it all off with a barrage of hideous, inhumanly shrieking voices that supposedly belonged to criminally insane mental patients. Some of these screams allegedly belong to a man who murdered his mother by stabbing her 30 times and another belonged to a man who committed suicide soon after the recording. A somewhat recent interview with the band sheds some light on their peculiar recording process, turning up the quote: “One of our members works in a mental institution in Holland, so this is how we got access and permission to record. All patients who have worked with us gave their full written permission. One of the patients who suffers from schizophrenia even made the cover drawing of the Pure Misanthropia CD.”
Spoiler
“There will never be anyone like GG Allin again,” says Fat Mike, frontman of Cali punk legends NOFX. “Ever. Ever.” In some ways, Fat Mike’s approach to punk rock — as a sport of raw attitude, where survival is difficult but worth every second — echoes that of GG Allin. That said, Fat Mike was also present at what he describes at GG’s “most hardcore show,” and he’s quick to point out that even he could never reach GG levels of horrific-ness.
“Apparently, GG prepared by drinking whiskey and taking Ex-Lax the entire day,” says Mike. “The band started playing, and as soon as G.G. took the stage, he took this shit that came out like water, and it hit the floor and pulled out in a circle. He got down on his knees, sucked it up, and spit it onto the crowd. I was behind Jello Biafra, so I grabbed onto him and used him as a human shield to guard myself from this. I would say at least half of the crowd left right then. Ten people threw up and went into the other room. So now, G.G. and his band were playing, and everyone was at least ten feet back. That was the first song!
“Now there was more room, so he threw a bunch of glass on the floor and began to roll in it,” Mike continues. “He grabbed this blonde girl from the audience, and was just on top of her. She was just screaming. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t consensual, but nobody wanted to touch him. Eventually, people were trying to pull him off her, but, y’know, there was blood, shit, and glass everywhere! So they finally got him off…and then he went around the audience and started hitting people with the base of the mic stand. Then, a girl who was into it came on stage, and he just kicked her in the fucking face, right in the jaw. She went home with him that night, after he went to the hospital. One of his knees that night was so cut, that everytime he took a step, blood would continually squirt out. It was absolutely terrifying.”
