Becoming the Forest - #2 Treading the arboreal pathway through the backwoods of Black Metal

Becoming the Forest is an arts and music publication which looks at our relationship to our surroundings. It is part of a long running arts project by Una Hamilton Helle which is inspired by how the Northern hemisphere’s dense spruce forests defined the aesthetic and philosophy of the musical subculture of black metal. Since its inception, the genre has become entangled with this topography and forms the starting point for the many point of Becoming the Forest is a publication which looks at our relationship to our surroundings, with a specific focus on the Northern hemisphere’s abundance of dense spruce forests, and how the aesthetic and philosophy of the musical subculture of black metal has become entangled with this topography, countering the anthropocentric interpretation of the world. Becoming the Forest is a wider and ongoing arts project by artist Una Hamilton Helle, of which this publication is the latest instalment. The publication includes specially commissioned essays, interviews, illustration and photography and brings together multiple international voices from literature, the visual arts, science, art history and the musical realms. These include contributions about the molecular memory of spruce trees, musings on the animistic worldview, an introduction to folkloric painter Theodor Kittelsen and interviews with black metal-inspired bands that touch upon everything from eco-dystopian outlooks to the celebration of the mundanity of nature.