Both Kate Bush and Metallica are having a moment, thanks to Stranger Things—a show that makes old flowers bloom whenever it waves its nostalgic magic wand. But neither Bush’s sumptuous weirdness nor Metallica’s crunchy fretboard dance are quite as foreboding as the corpse-painted crew hammering their gauntleted fists on the back door. Which is to say, Jamie Campbell Bower1, the face behind the show’s arch-villain, recently revealed Vecna’s playlist. Has the hour finally arrived for bands like Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Carpathian Forest to quit breathing fire in forgotten Norwegian caves and start dominating the US charts?
Click play on Darkthrone’s “Where Cold Winds Blow,” and a very reasonable question might be, “Why?” The same thing will happen if you check out Mayhem’s “hit” song “Freezing Moon.” “Why would anyone listen to this?” “Why would anyone go to the trouble of recording it, for that matter?” “Does it even qualify as music?”…
