Aural Aggravation

Prophecy Productions – 6th August 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

I tend to give releases a wide berth if there’s anything that could be construed as iffy about them or the artist or anyone else involved, not because I’m fearful of controversy, but simply feel it better not to provide a platform. Of course, some will argue that silence is tantamount to complicity – and I’m painfully aware of the extent to which that it’s true that many bad things happen while no-one speaks out. But I like to think that overall, my positions on matters of politics and beyond are fairly obvious on account of what I do cover, and some of the discussions around them, and I’m not about to virtue-signal with a list of releases by abusers and shady shits which have landed in my inbox to be immediately deleted.

But this one stood out. I sift through emails and divide them into ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘maybe’ for review, and have a separate flow for those that I’ll likely not have time or energy to review, but might be posting as a stream.

I’d never heard of Nachtmystium, but was intrigued to learn that they were back, although the tone of the press release struck me as a little different, more muted, perhaps: ‘…after all that was said and done, mastermind Blake Judd aka Azentrius is still standing. Not only that, but Judd has clawed himself back from the abyss of a most extreme life imaginable to a much more quiet, observant, and matured artist and person… His return will not be met with universal applause – even from the black metal scene. For anybody following the tumultuous career of Blake Judd and his pioneering band that has pushed the borders of their genre into new territories, this comes hardly as a surprise.’

But the video… on first play, I figured it was perhaps a Day Today or Brasseye type spoof, or that Nachtmystium was the Bad News or Spinal Tap of Black Metal. But no. Comparatively cursory research reveals Blake Judd’s long history of junkiedom, thieving, scamming, fraud, and unpaid bills, not to mention connections to the National Socialist Black Metal scene – something Judd is on record as renouncing and denying direct involvement with, but saying ‘We don’t oppose people’s right to be ‘NS’ or whatever… Even though I personally, my band(s) and my label have absolutely no interest in being a part of that scene, I will ALWAYS take their side when it comes to their freedom of speech being imposed upon.”

Freedom of speech has become a battle ground like no other in recent years , and thanks to social media, it’s a debate that’s taken the ugliest, most divisive of shapes, largely splitting along lines of left and right, with the left calling out fascists and twats, with the right calling the left fascists and twats for wanting to suppress their right to be fascists and twats. But, just as opposing Antifa is, effectively to align oneself as being Profa, to say ‘hey, free speech, it’s their right to be nazis’ is not only spineless, but a tacit statement in support of the nazis, even if it’s one born out of ignorance of just how much harm their ‘free speech’ can cause – and I find it hard to believe any adult could truly be that ignorant nowadays.

So, to return to the video… it contains some stills of the man himself, treated with grainy effects overlayed, with some lyrics flashed up, flickering, as the main focus of the visuals to what is, in real terms, some pretty standard black metal. But throughout, presented as ‘cuttings’, snippets of comments from social media and various other sources, essentially decrying what a deplorable scumbag he is.

It seems perverse that while he’s growling about ‘the return of a rightful might’, there are comments to the effect of ‘fuck this guy’ and ‘he owes me so much money’ to ‘good luck, Prophecy’. And against snippets reporting on his jail time and drug addiction, he snarls ‘No remorse, no remorse’.

Prophecy is a label which has released countless fantastic acts, and continues to do so, but I can’t help but feel that this is something of a mis-step – not even releasing new work by Nachtmystium, necessarily, but the pitch may be rather misjudged. These aren’t a few ‘oops’ moments – which should be approached apologetically even if they were – but to market the release in a way which celebrates all of this? Even if intended humorously – which there’s nothing to indicate that it is – it’s not very funny for the victims of his wrongdoings. And yes, they are victims, however desperate his drug plight or whatever at the time.

Musically, ‘Predator Phoenix’ is fine, and although the title seems both dubious and self-aggrandising, it’s par for the course in black metal. But the way this comeback is being heralded… not cool, man, not cool.

AA