‘Sans compassion nor will to answer whoever asketh the why’: Personal sovereignty within black metal

Abstract

The importance of personal sovereignty in black metal cannot be overstated. After all, we are the ‘wolves amongst sheep’. Presented here are the results of a documentary analysis (consisting of subcultural output and various studies) research project intended to analyse the wolf imagery in black metal wherever it may appear and regurgitate and reform these depictions in terms of their representations of personal sovereignty. For those who embrace the lycanthropic and colour their interactions with the world around them with hues of such dark, lupine tenets, this project will peruse these values through the philosophical kaleidoscopes. It will posit, hopefully convincingly, that the black metal subculture is rife with complications and contradictions – a paradoxical slant into a personal sovereignty that can never be attained, remaining frustratingly out of reach.