HYLI Vol. XCVII - 1960s Folk and 1990s Black Metal

Andy requested a Bob Dylan-era folk playlist so I tried to request something similar so Andy gave me (Patrick) an old-school black metal deep dive

Hey Ya’ll. Andy here. 2024 shaped up to be a really sick year for film? Nosferatu, Anora, The Substance all slapped (Patrick: one of them sure did!). The fucking Brutalist has an actual masterpiece first half. All that was cool but the year really goes to Timothée Chalamet with two absolute bangers in Dune 2 and A Complete Unknown. Patrick’s playlist this week is inspired by Chalamet’s performance as Bob Dylan (Patrick: actually it is inspired by Andy telling me he was listening to the actual albums of Bob Dylan a lot and not because a music biopic lol) and mine is inspired by Rory Culkin’s performance as Euronymous (yeah fucking right lol!). It is a folk and black metal playlist week. Enjoy it or don’t who gives a shit.

1960s Folk For Andy

Patrick: Andy texted me that he wanted me to get him into folk from Bob Dylan’s era. I was skeptical. I have been burned before by this dude (Andy: and you will be again). But he was repeatedly texting me like daily about how much he couldn’t get over A Complete Unknown so I opened myself up to my friend potentially growing.

I didn’t want to just give him other Bob songs not from the movie or a playlist of names that simply shared the stage at the Newport Folk Fest (that scene in the movie rocks) so I kind of did my own thing here but I think he’ll appreciate my reasoning. We’re bookended by two Bob songs but songs that aren’t on studio albums and just on compilations or were stand-alone singles in the era. “Positively 4th Street” might be my favorite Dylan song and it really captures the Bob Dylan is A Dickhead energy (Andy: this is his best energy) of the Chalamet performance and “When I Paint My Masterpiece” is a personal fave, especially because the cover from Bob-associates The Band.

Other inclusions here are either songs written about Bob, songs written by Bob associates in New York, people considered to be the Next Dylan or the ____ Dylan, and other general folk stars from the era. Joan Baez obviously features in the movie and (IMO) kind of steals the movie, so a song from Joan about her relationship with Bob a decade after it ended seems obvious in “Diamonds and Rust.” Dave Van Ronk is also in the movie even though they don’t name him (??) and act like he’s Just Some Guy. Does Inside Llewyn Davis mean nothing to you?? Anyways, “Dink’s Song” was performed by Bob but I prefer Dave’s version. I’m not gonna go over everyone here but we also got Townes Van Zandt (Dylan from the South) and Donovan (Dylan but Scottish) with two incredible songs as well as some other great female folk musicians who either a) are either on the same tier as Dylan of acclaim (Joni Mitchell) or b) much deserving of more attention (Judee Sill). There’s a lot here and I love all of it.

I hope he finds something he enjoys. Folk fucking rules and all of these songs rule. I did such a good job lol.

Andy: So this whole thing kicked off because I have a Timothée Chalamet season pass, so I was seated for A Complete Unknown despite not generally caring for Bob Dylan. I guess I really needed Tim and director James Mangold to hold my hand because I simply could not get Bob Dylan out of my head after seeing that movie. So I asked Patrick to help me explore a bit more of that specific era of folk music.

And you know what? I think maybe I’m just a big Timothée guy and not really a folk / Bob Dylan guy (Patrick: why are you phrasing this as a question, this is not surprising lol)? While I’ve listened to Highway 61 Revisited a handful of times, I’ve spun the A Complete Unknown Soundtrack countless times more (Patrick: unreasonably disgusting statement). The Chalamet versions of the songs are so much better than the Dylan versions (Patrick: fuck you). It just is what it is, I guess? Even the Joan Baez songs are better by Monica Barbaro (Patrick: fuck youuuuu). Maybe I need Timmée to cover Dylan albums in full because I am decidedly not a Dylan or Folk guy but very much a Chalamet guy. His versions were simply better.

Fucking SIKE. Oh, how I wished I could have seen Patrick’s face reading that paragraph. I was tapping my feet like a little kid on Christmas and giggling while I wrote it (Patrick: *sigh* fuck you).

Tim and Mangold definitely deserve a lot of credit. I’m thankful for them helping me realize I should be — or that they sufficiently tricked me into — enjoying Dylan. I have actually spun Highway 61 Revisited an annoying number of times. Sorry, we all need help at some point.

With all that out of the way, I’m confident in saying… I think I kinda might be into folk now (Patrick: why deliberately tick me off like you did above why not just make me happy and say this in the first place you little fuck) (Andy: it was simply more fun)? At least this era of folk? “Diamonds and Rust” is a sick track. It is some heavy stuff. Joan has a crazy fun voice. Her “House of the Rising Sun” cover is awesome. “High Flyin’ Bird” stood out with its jazz inspiration, which I absolutely loved. The fusion of folk and jazz elements really hooked me. “Crayon Angels” impressed me with its sick flute solo and stunning vocals. Judee Sill’s performance really elevated the track and made it a highlight of the playlist. The Jackson C. Frank song is fantastic. I loved everything about it. It was easily my favorite song on this playlist (Patrick: let’s gooo). His voice, the guitar, the production - all perfect. “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” and “Turquoise” go hard. This is the most I’ve ever liked an acoustic guitar? It has to be…

I didn’t love all these songs (obviously! Come on! I’m still me!). “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” is dumb. The Tim Buckley song did nothing for me. As much as I like the harmonica (a truly dumb instrument), I think I dislike the tambourine the same amount. I think the Bob Dylan songs are in the top half of this playlist, but they don’t truly reach me like songs from Highway and Freewheelin’ do.

I don’t believe I’m a fully converted Folk Boy™ but I am much more open and interested in exploring the genre. Even within Dylan, it seems like I’m much more interested in his ’63-’65 stuff. I didn’t enjoy Blonde on Blonde when we first covered it, and I haven’t revisited it since then. Maybe it’s time?

Thanks Patrick, I liked this playlist (Patrick: a pleasure as always kind of).

2nd Wave of Black Metal Intro for Patrick

Andy: I know we’ve covered iconic black metal albums previously. Our literal first post was Live in Leipzig from Mayhem. Patrick has suffered through Burzum, Darkthrone, Emperor, Bathory, and Ulver so he is no stranger to this era. This playlist is just meant to give him and our dear readers a more focused look into the early-to-mid-’90s era.

I’ve talked ad nauseam about how insane the second wave of black metal was. The early '90s in Norway were absolutely feral. Equal parts shock value, rejection of societal norms, opposition to organized religion, and hatred for the commercialization of metal. Read a book on it (Patrick: welcome to Hope You Like It. Subscribe!). At the forefront of this chaos was Mayhem. Their legacy is lunacy: Euronymous, Dead, Varg, murder, suicide, pig heads, skull necklaces, church burnings, and the pioneering of one of the most interesting genres of music.

Deathcrush is where it all begins, but Freezing Moon (Live in Leipzig, 1990) is the standout. It’s the only recorded release with Dead on vocals before he killed himself. The intro to that song is outrageous. It’s haunting in the best way. Then there’s Burzum, with (the murderous, racist piece of shit) Varg Vikernes creating (annoyingly good) lo-fi, atmospheric black metal. Brother, that first riff on “Dunkeleit” is something other-worldly.

Darkthrone dropped A Blaze in the Northern Sky, which is a classic and basically wrote the blueprint for that grim, lo-fi black metal sound. Emperor took things up a notch by making black metal sound almost…majestic? Symphonic, complex, but still inaccessible to the normies. Emperor started playing with synths and orchestral elements (paving the way for Dimmu Borgir to commercialize it). Satyricon threw in some medieval and folk influences because why not? Dissection blended melodic death metal with black metal. It all fucking rules.

What really makes this era stand out is how raw it all is. The production was intentionally lo-fi, gross, and inaccessible. Anti-religion, anti-society, anti-commercialism (though debatable), and full misanthropy mode. Complementing this with an intentional visual aesthetic—corpse paint, spiked bracelets, blood, and inverted crosses—shows a commitment to subversion and discomfort. Also, it looks sick as hell.

The second wave of black metal is cold. It’s dark, it’s raw, and it hopes you don’t like it. I hope you do, though!

Patrick: I tried to find a historical metal equivalent to ‘60s folk for Andy to send me that wouldn’t be, like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple lol. Early black metal is what came to mind. Outside of high school post-metal dabbling, black metal is the first metal genre I really latched onto (discrediting thrash here since a lot of that feels more like Hard Rock). Right around the time I met Andy, but absent of any influence of his, I got into black metal because Deafheaven released Roads to Judah and Wolves in the Throne Room released Celestial Lineage, two albums I still love. I have kept up with the sub-genre since but haven’t done a ton of diving backward into black metal because I’ve found the production of more recent releases is a big part of the reason I love newer records and the classics sound like they were recorded in a soup can (Andy: this is a positive you slug).

I was happy to check this out though. Some of these were revisits from earlier HYLI for me. Production aside (woof), I totally get the appeal of Mayhem. This shit is fucked but in a great way. I won’t be saying anything nice about Burzum on this internet. You literally could not pay me. Darkthrone rules and I love Transilvanian Hunger - what an album.

The songs that were new to me were fun too. Emperor is a name I’ve heard for what seems like forever but never checked out mainly because Ryan Adams rode for them and that always seemed irredeemably corny to me. Joke is on me! This shit rules and sounds incredible! I could and should have been listening to In the Nightside Eclipse for a decade now! Gorgoroth and Immortal were also cool and kind of more of what I come to expect from this era. Satyricon blew me away. So many cool changes in “Dark Medieval Times,” which lives up to the name with the flute and acoustic portions. Dissection also blew me away in a similar way to Emperor - just feels like they really threw their weight into production in a way not a ton of their peers of the time seemed to and also seemed to pave the way for future generations like Deafheaven. I love this shit. Black metal is sooo corny but it can be so cool too. I like it.