Black metal and queerness are two things that don’t often go together, but for Rosa Faenskap, their very existence and queerness is both an ode to, and a declaration of war against, black metal— sentiments that in the black metal lexicon can definitely exist together.
Their debut album, Skjør, is not afraid to push the boundaries of what black metal can be, and how it can incorporate queerness, as well as elements of post-rock, shoegaze, hardcore, and more.
“In elementary school, I was really into noise rock, bands like Sonic Youth and Boris,” says guitarist and backing vocalist Emil Vestre of his history with metal. “In 7th grade, my dad introduced me to Black Sabbath, which was when I first started listening to metal. When it came to extreme metal, the ride was kind of bumpy. Taake was playing at the Øya-festival in Oslo, so I decided to check them out. I’d never been into black metal or music with harsh vocals before then, but with Taake, something just clicked, and I immediately fell in love with their music. Shortly thereafter, I found out about Taake’s racist and Islamophobic views, which made me lose interest completely and boycott them. Still, something had forever changed about the way I heard extreme music, since the music itself really resonated with me.
Drummer Anders Jansvik says he got into metal “from stealing my brother’s CDs when I was young and burning them onto new CDs. It started off with Guns ‘N’ Roses and Aerosmith and evolved into a fascination for how raw and powerful the guitars and drums in bands like Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer were.”
“My dad introduced me to Iron Maiden when I was young, and later in elementary school, I started listening to bands like Slipknot,” says bassist and vocalist Håvard Solli. “A couple of years later, I discovered black metal and almost exclusively listened to that genre for about a year. In high school, I also got into punk music and discovered hardcore punk and bands like Converge soon after.”
The band initially formed when the three met in school at the University of Oslo. Vestre wanted to create a post-black metal project and recruit the other two.
“We all come from pretty different musical backgrounds, but I think the sound of our band is mostly inspired by bands like Deafheaven, Converge, and some of the early Norwegian black metal bands such as Mayhem and Emperor,” explains Solli. “My vocals probably have a sound more like hardcore punk, and I don’t really try to emulate someone else’s sound, but I’m a big fan of vocalists such as Jacob Bannon, Travis Ryan, and Gaahl.”
When it comes to acceptance of queer folks in black metal, Jansvik feels there is room in black metal, although some unfortunate figures get the spotlight.
“In a lot of ways, I feel that black metal, like a lot of genres, opens up for more diverse musicians because it is a more accessible genre in the 21st century,” he says. “Unfortunately, with a lot of different aspects of modern life, things have become more polarized, and more extreme and louder shouting voices take room.
“I think there are still problems lurking under the surface,” agrees Vestre. “While most people I’ve encountered in extreme metal communities have openly claimed to support queer folks, some have simultaneously been using ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ as insults—and made weird comments about my feminine gender expression. And when it comes to trans rights, I’ve heard some pretty grotesquely transphobic things from a lot of metalheads.”
However, Rosa Faenskap strive to push against this with the themes in their music.
“I think we made a pretty clear statement by making our first-ever single, “Aldri,” a 10-minute anti-fascist anthem,” he adds. “Pretty much all our songs directly oppose fascist views, with lyrics advocating for queer rights, socialist views, drug policy reforms, etc. I also think the very existence of a queer black metal band pisses fascist black metal bands off, which makes us very happy.”
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