1349 - Revelation of the Black Flame

When you are confronted with the aural equivalent to walking up to the Gates of Hell itself, there is always going to be problems when deciding what Hell itself should sound like. This is the problem I believe 1349 have come across with their new album. Most BM bands have their own perspective , their own take in what the darkest depths of humanity should sound like. Some bands make us stare into the fog of low production values to really evaluate the parts that emerge from the mist (Kaaletod). Some bands confront us with an assault so intense its hard to sit through; but some bands bridge these different perspectives well, mixing mystery with revelation (Mayhem).

This is what I think 1349 have tried to do with “Revelation of the Black Flame”. Track 1 situates us within the gloom and despair of agony, then building up with track 2 to the first moment of intense blast, which ends the first movement of the album. So far so good, but a pattern soon starts to emerge. Long ambient drone, sometimes interspersed with annoying out-of-place piano, followed by a slow doom-like build up to a song that barely starts to get going before it ends, to be replaced by another slow drone etc etc.

Thoroughly disappointing. But I suppose my expectations were too high. I wanted them to top their previous albums AND the intensity of Gorgoroth’s “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam” (one of my favourite albums). I guess this was too much of a burden to place on a band. Of course they are under no obligation to make my ultimate BM album of all time, but I guess that’s what I’m searching for, and 1349 have misled me in my thinking that they were going to give me what I wanted.

So I guess the moral is that BM bands are unpredictable; one minute they can throw you into the depths of hellish noise but the next they wallow in the sewage of humanity. At least the new Vomitory album is ok.

Bend it like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham presents white and Indian monocultural societies and proceeds to show how gender and cultural boundaries can be shifted by moving through multiculturalism and interculturalism, and finally the possibilities of transculturalism 

Jess’ family represent a strict monocultural Indian family, who openly and repeatedly  voice their unhappiness with relationships which are not between a male and female of Indian background. Initially her parents are against her playing football because they believe her behaviour is not appropriate for how an Indian woman should behave. As a young girl she is trying to move beyond the strict gender boundaries that are passed on from generation to generation and controlled by their religious beliefs. Nothing the children of the family do must upset or hurt the lives of the parents, no matter what sacrifices the children must make, everything seems to be for the happiness of the parents and older generations.

Her parents exclaim that they let her play football all she wanted when she was younger but no she must grow up and go to university, despite her own passion for football. She seems to have no authority in the matter. Her parents also object to her playing football because they see it as a male dominated sport and also a futile pursuit, as people from an Indian background have no history of success in the sport. Her fathers own failure to pursue a career in cricket because of racial separation is cited as an example of this.

Despite her parents warnings, she continues to play football, not just at the park with her Indian friends, but in a professional woman’s team. This shows a break from her monocultural beginnings to a multicultural group, where white, black and Indian girls from different ethnic backgrounds all meet to play in a unified football team. The initiation into the football team also brings about a new awareness of Jess’ own body and sexuality, as the other girls walk around the changing rooms in their underwear, with no sign of inhibition. Coming from a strict Indian family, this is clearly a new experience for Jess, and she proceeds to undress after first putting on her football shirt. This initially seems to be mere bashfulness, but soon after we discover that she has a burn on her leg, which she is uncomfortable about showing. The burn was caused at home while cooking, and as the film has clearly highlighted the importance of family and the importance of the ability to cook, her eventual return to the pitch can be seen as a small victory in personal accomplishment, acknowledging the restrictions of her monocultural past but actively entering into this multicultural group. 

While this is a positive cultural move for Jess, it also proceeds to break down the gender distinctions which are so heavily inscribed in their society. Her mother exclaims that she shouldn’t be showing her legs in front of boys, and playing football appears to be a disgrace to her family, putting her parents to shame. 

Jess’ struggle between her personal and her parents happiness, her movement between monoculturalism and multiculturalism, appears to be the main issue for most of the film, but later on these boundaries are transgressed further. 

The character of Jules also has pressure put on her by her family. While her father encourages her football career, commenting that he would rather she play football than go around sleeping with boys, her mother wishes she would be more feminine and play up to the traditional gender roles that she sees as ‘normal’. She encourages Jules to dress more sexily and to try and get a boyfriend, much to Jules’ frustration. Clearly, it is not only strict religious Indian families that put expectations on their children. The film highlights the similarities between white and Indian cultures which may not be initially obvious because of the striking differences in their dress codes, wedding ceremonies and customary practices. The enormous difference between a bride walking up the aisle in a white dress and the colourful chaotic dancing of Indian weddings may blind viewers to the similarities in expectations put upon the children in different cultures. 

Jess’ and Jules’ relationship is an example of interculturalism taking place. They become friends because of their love for football and they begin to spend a lot of time together. While their interculturalism helps Jess to affirm her desires in life (her passion for football), it also leads to her antagonising her family even more, and they become even more unsupportive of her playing football. Despite there being no overt racism towards their friendship, it appears to be the cultural activities that their friendship encourages that are the problem. This interculturalism also leads to problems with Jules’ parents. Later on in the film, they see them kiss during a celebration at a football match. This is clearly just a display of happiness between the two girls, as they both explain, but Jules’ parents see this display of affection and take it to its extreme: Jules is a lesbian. This shocks her parents who appear initially unable to comprehend , but later on her mother confronts Jules during Jess’ sisters wedding. From Jules’ mothers perspective being a lesbian is one of the worst things she could do, but bystanders at the Indian wedding to not even appear to know what the word means. This shows how some sex/gender transgressions can be perceived differently by different social groups, and leads us to see how both families are being unreasonable in their expectations and demands on their children.

Later on in the film, the football team go to play a game in Hamburg, showing the transnational nature of football, and Jess, despite lying to her parents about where she is going, realises the potential that the game has for her. While in Hamburg, she also makes an attempt to kiss Joe (who is white), the team coach. This is another instance of an intercultural relationship in the film, but one that has negative connotations. Jules also likes Joe, and when she sees them kissing she storms out and exclaims she doesn’t want to see Jess again. Despite the film creating a ‘love triangle’ narrative device, it could be seen as demonstrating how sexual intercultural relationships clearly put much more at stake than intercultural friendship. Earlier on in the film Jess explains how she would not be allowed to marry anyone from another ethnic background,  highlighting the taboo nature of intercultural relationships in Indian society. This implies that transculturality has both positive and negative effects; allowing the girls to compete professionally but also bringing about the temporary end to the friendship that allowed Jess to begin her journey out of monoculturalism. 

At the end of the film, the positive effects of transculturality prevail, and Jess’ father allows her to travel to America to take up a scholarship in a football academy, so that she does not follow in his footsteps of having to give up something he loved because of pressure from family and society. The transnational nature of football has allowed Jess and Jules to break with traditional gender roles and also with the varying societal expectations put on children from different social backgrounds.