Tell me something.
How do you think change happens ?
Really ?
“Suggesting new ideas” ? Come on. As if all we have to do is ask for progress to naturally happen. “Progress” is but an ill-defined, hollow shell of a word. One that morons love to cling on to justify mindlessly following a canon, imposed by much smarter and more dangerous people than themselves. A one-size-fits-all pseudo-idea that allows for overlooking everything – and everyone – we leave to rot on the side of the road, as we larp on stuff that hasn’t been relevantly new since half a century at best.
Take Progressive Rock ; the fact that this term is still applied to contemporary music reproducing what was done on its official inception 50 years ago is fucking hysterical. Do you think Fripp and his whacko troop walked in the studio some day back in ‘69 saying “Okeydokey pals, let’s take a bit of this, a bit of that, twist it here and there and we’ll call it Progressive Rock’” ? Get out of town. King Crimson emerged out of the unstable swell, it was moulded from the clash of several young musicians ; all very talented for sure, but most importantly fucking dinguses with no limits.
What’s it then ? What does bring change in this world ?
Transgression ? Transgression stinks of insincerity and individualism. It’s a disposable anecdote, a mock rebellion supposedly “breaking codes” while sitted on the comfortable side of the room. A mock rebellion whose only reward – and only goal – is the ephemeral mall bad boy clout.
How many “transgressive” or “rebellious” idiots ended up as moneyed old farts, fattened by the very “system” they were supposed to rebel against, unable to even put two correct notes together ? Mötley Crüe, Abbath, that full-of-shit fat sack Axl Rose ? What new did they bring, what did they do but take up and relay techniques and gimmicks from actual innovators – Stooges, New York Dolls, Judas Priest, Celtic Frost – obviously missing the point on what made these revolutionary in the first place ?
“Transgression” is a cheap trick, doomed to wither in senility and incontinence sooner than later.
So what then ?
How do you think Jay Hawkins became Screamin’ Jay ? How do you reckon King Crimson, Aphex Twin, Miles Davis, Napalm Death always kept on riding ahead of the curve ? Why do you think no one is able to accurately describe Non Serviam’s music style with any sort of concision or coherence ?
How do species evolve and adapt ?
How are social changes attained ?
Chaos.
Real change emerges from chaos. Be it the genetic, organic, innately intertwined chaos in which living species thrive, or the immense, unstable, spontaneous chaos collapsing into stars and worlds. Emergence phenomena are tied to chaos ; they are massive, swarming and complex processes resulting from unfathomable interactions, and as such, fundamentally indifferent to individualistic considerations. This is what the theory of evolution truly taught us, regardless of how many shitbags would like it to say otherwise.
New stars, new species, new ideas are born in chaos.
Non Serviam are, willingly or not, agents of chaos in the very active yet strangely self-emulating world of extreme metal. They either refuse or entirely disregard this common practice of self-enrolling in the grand org chart of genres and influences, picking a well-established basis, throwing some minor modulations on top of it, then go and sit gently on the shoulder of past giants, shelved in the appropriate corner and duly tagged for the smart consumer to pick up.
Non Serviam are materially doing what they want to do, ignoring any gentrified injunction about what extreme music should be, nor how it should be “transgressed”. Death Ataraxia is pure autonomous, self-goverened music ; a permanent sonic, aesthetic and emotional confrontation. It is a love letter, burning in the fires of our relationship to art and emancipation.
When some respected plumigeres will write pompous retrospectives about this genius duo somewhere between five and fifteen years from now, let them at least acknowledge the one and only lesson they could take from Non Serviam to make up for their short-sighted tardiness : there is no winning move in playing a game whose rules are dictated by bearers of the canon. To abide to “discussion” and “dialogue” with those whose prime interest is to maintain order and stability, is being played, and doomed to fail.
You want to have the slightest chance of seeing or acting on change in this world ? Do not enter peacefully into the process. Do not try to be progressive, or transgressive.
Be. Fucking. Chaos.