Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 15

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far off places or historical events both real and mythical) coupled with a hyperracialized over-the-top depiction of (not even living, but dead) whiteness.8 The
minstrelsy comparison is especially adept, as this form of entertainment has evolved
through travelling entertainers to the buskers and street musicians of today.
Essentially, this type of performance has advanced outside of the confines of social
class, similar to the culture of black metal. This essay can be taken as a companion
piece to the author's latest musical exploit. Drew Daniel performs as one half of the
electronic duo Maltmos, but more importantly (for the purpose of this work) as the
musical project The Soft Pink Truth. The latter recently released an album of black
metal covers entitled: "Why Do the Heathen Rage?", presented in a hyperbolic
dance style to a surprisingly rapturous audience.9 The album is a subversion of black
metal standards, twisted to emphasise the queer nature of the genre. Daniel explains
that by treating black metal with what he describes as a 'profane' eye, he takes the
sacredness of the genre and plays with it.10

He believes that this is the most

appropriate way to treat a genre that originally did the same to mainstream Christian
culture, more homage than parody. Thus one can visualise an inversion of an
inversion of an inversion.
As previously mentioned, one can begin to understand the depth of the
concept of melancology by the sheer range of scope of thought present in this
collection. Masciandaro's essay "WormSign" endeavours to ontologically analyse
the presence of worms in both the real and the metaphysical.11 Worms as both
discontinuous and continuous beings, humans as worms, worms as the scavengers
benefitting from rot and decay, worms that will consume and digest matter
regardless of its nature: animal or vegetable. Melancology here presents us with a
writhing world that functions without us, as Kant would term it, a noumenon or thingfor-itself.12 Masciandaro interprets worms as simple creatures that collectively imply
a terrifying complexity, 'poisoning the thoughts of men' just by the advent of their

8

Drew Daniel, "Corpsepaint as Necro-Minstrelry, Or Towards the Re-Occultation of Black Blood," in
Melancology: Black Metal Theory and Ecology, ed. Scott Wilson (Alresford: Zero Books, 2014) 41.
9
The Soft Pink Truth, Why Do The Heathen Rage? 2014, Thrill Jockey.
10
Brad Cohan, (2014), "The Soft Pink Truth: Not The Weird Satanic Al Yankovic," Noisey,[online]
Available at: http://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/blog/the-soft-pink-truth-interview-why-do-the-heathen-ragecover-art. Accessed 05/11/14.
11
Nicola Masciandaro, "WormSign," in Melancology: Black metal Theory and Ecology, ed. Scott
Wilson (Alresford: Zero Books, 2014).
12
Immanuel Kant, "On External Objects," in I. Kant Critique of Pure Reason (Excerpts) (1781),
th
accessed 5 November 2014, http://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil1020/Kant.pdf.