The Metal is a self-sufficient drone machine constructed by Roar Sletteland, feeding on itself, transforming vibrations to electricity to magnetism and back into vibration again, making sound along the way – a sound that was already there, in the strings, in the shape of tiny vibrations.
The metal is for killing. Knives and guns, shrapnel and projectiles, hard matter intruding into bodies, causing harm and death. The relationship between the metal and soft human tissue is a violent one. In most peoples’ ears, the music genre called metal is perceived as aggressive, loud and intrusive, even though it can be enjoyable. It kind of lurks on the threshold between danger and bliss, making its impact through the pummeling of guitars, drums, and screaming.
And then there is the sub genre called drone metal, where everything but the loud feedback of distorted guitars is stripped away, submerging the listener in a vast ocean of sound without coordinates or direction. When the violence is taken out of the metal, what is left is a state of being, of permanence. Drone metal isn’t aggressive, it is just there, filling up the space, producing a feeling of comfort or security, or maybe some trancelike state. A primal, bodily experience. No wonder musicians working with drones often focus on the basic aspects of music, like vibrations, acoustics, and resonances rather than traditional musical parameters like melody and rhythm.
At the same time more abstract and more immediate, since it deals with the physics of sound, its distribution in space and effect on the body. Which is a bit peculiar these days, since the term «drone» has assumed a new and more widespread meaning than it's somewhat technical musicological usage. Those buzzing things in the sky, advanced instruments of the weapons industry and warmongering governments, apparently have little in common with the loud noises of the metal heads.
Instruments of power, providing safety for the population, or destruction and death, depending on who you are, and where. Still, their intrusive presence can be felt, the way they fill up the space, like a silent and never ending pressure. It sits in the body.
The Metal is curated by Julie Lillelien Porter and developed in collaboration with Bernt Isak Wærstad. Supported by Bergen City Council and Arts Council Norway and produced at Wrap and Gyldenpris Kunsthall.