Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 12

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Scott Wilson, Melancology: Black Metal Theory and Ecology (Zero Books, 2014)
Kevin Hoffin
(PhD Criminology, Keele University)
In Scott Wilson’s latest edited collection he, along with the other assembled writers
familiar to those who have already forged a relationship with the oeuvre of black
metal theory, convincingly justify their case for introducing and adopting the term
'Melancology'. This new term combines the previously disparate concepts of black
metal and ecology to not only form a new concept, but to demonstrate that each is
affected by the other in a multitude of ways. The world conjured inside this text
paints ecology with a nigredo (in alchemy: putrefaction, in analytical psychology: the
dark night of the soul, blackness), that can only be attributed to black metal.
Melancology looks at black metal from a new perspective, revealing it to be a twisted
form on environmentally-conscious writing. The contributions held within offer a
continuous series of arguments that apply to any ecological debate, popular or
intellectual. The pages comprise of polemics encompassing both geo-philosophical
and cosmic thought and spaces in-between, all envisaged through the kaleidoscope
of the music-genre-that-is-far-more-than-just-a-genre; black metal.
The first recorded (although hushed) utterances of Melancology occurred in
2011- the subtitle of the second Black Metal Theory Symposium.1 This 11-hour
event took place on 13th January, closing with a live performance by Italian-English
black metal band Abgott, and interspersed with opportunities for the assembl