Mortualia – Blood Of The Hermit

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Picture yourself in a stone cell.  It is not much of a cell, but then it doesn't have to be.  Your body has been tortured, broken, is beyond repair.  As bad as your physical body is, your mind is even worse.  You don't remember your name.  You don't remember why you are here.  You have no memories of anything but your time here, of pain, of unrelenting psychological abuse.  You cling to one thing, the knowledge that at some point, it will all be over.  You long to leave this world, to take your last breath, so that this will all be over.  Death is beauty.

Or dig, if you will, this picture.  You are in a room.  It could be the nicest room that ever existed, or the most dingy, decrepit pit.  It doesn't matter to you.  You are a slave to a substance.  You had a reason to start using it, but its been a long time since you've even thought about that.  It owns you.  You do anything for it, for that bliss, that nod, that high, that has become all you live for.  The beauty in your world is that brown in the syringe, that prick of the skin, that lets you know that its time to ride.  You hope that you won't over do it, that you'll be able to do this again, and again, and again, but sometimes you don't pay as much attention as you should.  But its so beautiful that it pulls you under.

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and this is some of the most beautiful music I've heard in a while.  Unrelentingly bleak, it is trance-like.  This is black metal at its absolute very best.  Its got the droning, repetitive riffs that make you just nod your head along to it. You close your eyes and drift away, ever downward.  Blackness never felt so good.  I've listened to this album many times now and there is something almost hypnotic about it.  The music draws you in and makes you feel.  It makes you feel the desolation of life, the utter, overwhelming futility of it all.  It is almost something physical that you breathe in with this music.  Put it on, drift off and fully experience what it brings you.

Keep your flowers, your sunsets, the laugh of a child, the smile of a loved one, or whatever else you find beautiful.  Blackness is beautiful, darkness is welcoming.  I will take this beauty and I will enjoy music that brings about these emotions.  All emotion is good, and music that you can make you feel, can take you on a journey, can open you up to feelings, is sublime.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  This is what I find beautiful.

- ODIN