Dean Blunt - Black Metal

_{2014 | Art Pop, Hynagogic Pop}

I’ve been tired recently. More tired than I usually am during the winter, which I understand is a common feeling for most everyone around now; days are shorter, sunlight is scarce - it doesn’t help that my sleep schedule allows me 4 hours of sunlight on a good day. I was never one for naps, but, understandably, this hasn’t been the case as of late.

I forget when this happened specifically - it could’ve been a couple days ago, a couple weeks, time seems to blend together the more I try to stay present these days - but some uncertain amount of time ago, I was listening to Black Metal. This by itself is nothing notable; it’s a great record, an incredible one even, one that I’ve listened to many, many times - but this time was different. I was doing some work at my desk when I felt myself becoming drowsy. It must’ve been a day where I got significantly less sleep than normal, as I found myself dozing off in my office chair: I usually only fall asleep while laying down. Despite this, I forwent my previous napping habits, albeit unintentionally, and fell asleep.

When I sat up in my chair again, I immediately noticed a change. Firstly, my computer monitor was blank - it was on, but there was nothing on the screen; rather it was filled entirely with a beige-like color (or was it gray? The details are spotty, but just imagine it as some undetermined grayscale color between the two). This by itself wasn’t too odd, until I looked down at my keyboard. The keycaps were still intact, but there was no lettering - they were all blank as well. I turned around to see that my entire room had undergone similar changes - everything had turned, for lack of a better word, blank. Previously colored furniture, pillows, wooden floors, doors, door handles, even records I had lined up on shelves (the now-blank shelves, rather) were all blank with the same color that had invaded my computer screen. I ventured outside of my newly-blank room to find the rest of my house in a similar state - no one else was home, adding an eerie silence to the already-unsettling events (silence besides Black Metal, which I was continuing to listen to throughout this endeavor, by the way).

The outside of my house was in a much more salvageable state than indoors. The sky was still blue (phew), yet there were still some odd occurrences. Firstly, there was no wind - I live by the bay, so a lack of any ocean breeze is incredibly rare. But it was more than this; it was as if everything (trees, plants, flowers, grass, even the loose stones from my neighbor’s gravel driveway) was frozen in place. Frozen in time. I feel like I even remember an acorn being suspended in the air (though, that could’ve been my imagination). I also had no shadow; or, rather, nothing had a shadow. Despite it still being light out, the sun was nowhere to be found. There were no clouds either, making it an ideal day to spend outdoors - ignoring the cold, and everything else, of course.

And yes, Black Metal was accompanying me through all of this. Things did eventually go back to normal - I don’t remember exactly when, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t listening to Black Metal anymore when it did. All of this must’ve been a coincidence, though. Just a coincidence.