I tend to think a few people, perhaps besides myself may in some way feel similar but it sometimes is hard to let go to experiences and sounds, music and feelings, from the era of romanticized substance abuse, serious self digging and inner exploration and attempt to relate personally from a young age to the aesthetic and vibes of the somewhat goth but universally well read psyche’s of artists I found integral to growing up, understanding and recognizing people in pain and my own pain, and to mention a few swiftly, I mean: NIN, Tool, Type O Negative, The Crow Soundtrack altogether, the Crow movie, Adam Jones claymation, The overall feeling and experience of the Fragile two cd set from NIN, encapsulates what I’m trying to detail here best, but Aenima, The Perfect Drug music video, The Crow film and mystical insights of Vertigo comics, mostly based around ritual magick, nature based magic, demonology, psychedelic experiences, mythology, dreams, vampires, elves, the universal parables availible from Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Jamie Delaino, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and not a Vertigo project; but Hellboy and the Maxx, even the animated Aeon Flux, and MTV’s animated series’ would prophecy the later world changing, adult swim aesthetic. The art of these aspects of the feelings and ideas running loose through the 90’s provided a interesting emotional backdrop for a kid who felt like Pete and Pete, Alex Mack, and the X-Men felt more real than class at school, news about Desert Storm, tragedies in Cosovo, or what I could peiece together as a very small child about Jean Benee Ramsey.
Today it’s clear some of these energies survive in the minds of those who were there to experience all this, Chelsea Wolfe, the backrooms, and 80’s aesthetic are all elements that seem like they simply persevered after these 90’s elements receded and PC horror point and click game aesthetic would be immortalized in the memory of gamers and fans of popular media as some music videos will survive in the memory of many who had no distracting phone apps and only a passion for the friendly mind virus that was MTV. One of the only sources for watching a prolific Maynard James Keenan interview or a moment of Trent discussing his process. Later Much Music channel would ccontinue this with Tool, Type-O and other acts. One of the other great bands to transcend that era and revolutionize their corner of sound deemed no wave, Michael Gira and Jarboe collaborate in haunting the listener for life, in the Swans. This was a kind of bottom of the barrel cherished extreme for me, allowing me to fill out a mental musical chart with Swans on one side, PJ Harvey, Prodigy, Primus, and Tricky all taking their place somewhere on a spectrum which expanded greatly as I took a deep interest in the Mars Volta, Zepp, Radiohead, and random classic music such as Fleetwood Mac, allowing for a filing process of many bands in between and a better understanding of the contrast between all these. Eventually this would amoung a backdrop of countless metal acts, the depths of hip hop, rap and R and B, ambient masterpieces and the masterminds who engineer such, make that group of 90’s moody bands seem that much more on a shelf of their own, somehow closely following the rules of what 90’s music and emotions actually felt like. I don’t think their will ever be another NIN or Type O, and this is a great thing. Step back into the time capsule of this very specific aesthetic once again and experience it for yourself again. Too much to ask? At least try the new Wolfe and see how you FEEL. How much inner work does modern music ask of us? Do we go somewhere mentally from hearing such? Can we relate more to deep personal emotional frequencies or disposable marketable popular “everyone party” “everyone is supposedly having so much fun” “buy more now stupid” themed songs? https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?
si=aKD33ESpm6NHizDv&list=PLxzSZG7g8c8yD9cChhhsVEbWp_sQJsq60
“I did this full-on ritual where I set up a circle of pedals, stayed inside of it and wrote a bunch of demos”
and now Chelsea Wolfe and their emotional impact and inspirations in modern art
https://fznotes.blogspot.com/2024/02/how-nine-inch-nails-taught-me-of-love.html : Dark Passenger : 90’s Vibes, The Crow, Tool band philosophy/Music Videos, NIN, HBO’s Spawn, Liquid TV: Aeon Flux and the Maxx, VERTIGO comics, Dark Animation, Imagination and Will, Reptilians, Anime, Sci-Fi Channel, X-Files, Hellboy, Dark City,
Above I get into the kind of mood available to 90’s music and culture fans. Around the time Nine Inch Nails and Tool is making these darker and highly creative (when things things were initially released not years later as everything seems singularly influenced by such. In these same years as I mention MTV leading with Liquid TV hits like The Maxx and Aeon Flux animated series, shortly after HBO would take a massive and brave leap, dependent still on the aesthetic of the Crow and Batman for years before, SPAWN would have an adapted cartoon series. This did for animation, in the U.S. what Sopranos did for television. Moving into a much darker, quite literally Crow looking aesthetic and embracing the dark feel that 90’s anime ruled with (only showcased to cable TV watchers on Sci Fi Channel’s: Anime Invasion Saturday Mornings), Spawn would push restrictions with regard to violence and mature content in the same way anime did at the time as well, perhaps reminding viewers of Demon City, Ninja Scroll, Ghost In The Shell or even the mood and lighting of Akira as far as any anime comparison might reach. Together the Crow, Spawn cartoon, The Maxx series, would be massively influential in the way the Crow comics, Tim Bradstreet’s Vampire Masquerade Manual and comic art, and later be the foundation for more contemporary artists such Alex Maleev’s ultrastylish take on Daredevil, but back to the Crow and Spawn on HBO, these would all run concurrently with the first Hellboy comics, as well as the future of Batman’s style in the comics. The 90’s animated Batman series was very dark and also can’t be forgotten as a major cultural influence on kids at the time, with the 90’s X-Men show, Maxx, Flux, and the Tick paving the way for more adult ideas and atmosphere in kid’s shows, and slightly predate the 90’s horror wave of Goosebumps, slasher sequels, Scream, Blair Witch and other films at the time. At the theaters we’d also be drawn to Tim Burton films, for me all manner of alien or comic book themed movies and games, and all this wouldn’t be so far from Tool’s dark Claymation stop motion music videos or Dave Mckean and many other artists working on Vertigo, a DC imprint focused on the psychedelic, paranormal, (vampires, aliens, ghost and more) psychological, and magickal aspects, in their stories and characters altogether. It seemed to all go the way of The Perfect Drug NIN video, mentioned in the NIN blog.
The theme of the paranormal research was the main plot device of B.P.R.D or the Hellboy comics, very similar to the weekly pursuits of Mulder and Scully. Tool only reinforced in me, the importance of these subjects setting the stage for a lifetime of curiosity.
Another film that embraced its darkness from some of the same minds that created the Crow film, utilizing some of the same movie sets from the Crow and the Matrix was Dark City. The most influential movie on my worldview and experience throughout my entire life, its themes transcended the social and psychological, while still keeping the story nestled in this dark atmospheric and extremely brooding environment.
I think one of the last films to do this successfully was actually the Matrix with it’s natural prequel Terminator holding a similar charge for me in different ways. Simulation and A.I. theories can be outlined from the two films (if you engage the series true original author) just as the tree of life or sephiroth of the Kabbalah system can be literally outlined in both Promethea the graphic novel and Tool’s Lateralus as well as the Final Fantasy game series. As all these influences poured in at different times in my life but return to the psychedelic literature and experiences, the archetypal psychology, UFO phenomenon, our relationships to tuning or changing reality via our will and how reality works and glitches, as well as transcends levels in video games, enough life experience showed me the worth of art and meaning in art, and only having so much mortal time to express and experience to learn and to grow in a given incarnation or physical form. It is because I grew up surrounded by artists who were interested only in meaning, purpose, the unseen realms, and spiritual psychospiritual development and systems which aid in such endeavors regardless of global and cultural origin and understandings of history always more concise and unveiled compared to the generations before us. This era of art taught me it’s okay and necessary to dig into oneself to confront ones shadow and sins in all seriousness and to express what pain and anger have collected through our experiences and make things that invite others to tap into at least their imagination, and possibly their higher mind or vent lower pangs to turn that lead and worthless weight we tend to carry for inordinate amounts of time and transmute it into gold, or some alchemical process which results in the shedding of unneeded skin or patterns that habitually fail to serve you in any way, and in such a process personally growing while inspiring others to expression of any kind.
To be cautious, prepared and aware we can keep others on our radar and field of vision, it would be only wise to review such data, but it serves us in the moment only to experience the here and now or consciously confront ourselves, heal ourselves, find our peace, make it our mission to understand we coexist with others but have the power to prioritize time and space to work on the turmoil our modern psyches find themselves in, to secure the peace, to secure the inner spiritual furnishings to grow and evolve until our place and purpose as will, are fully understood and the pursuit of such a path is as clear as can be before us any other effort is a waste of our privileged time as beings with minds and souls in any reality. But I also play video games, so understand what I mean about discipline. I find the same artistic and informational value I find in all other art in games and artists are collaborating to create lush interactive worlds and to me that’s art without question.
It should be noted that the very real trauma of Trent Reznor, Maynard’s childhood, Bruce Wayne and his parents, Spawn and losing his life, Jack Kirby at war and childhood illness or mystical proportions, brought us this art. And this is what I mean by inner mythology. In the 90’s there was lots of art made showing a path from trauma and trouble darkness and our dark passengers or Jungian shadows and how to recognize inner turmoil, define its origins and tentacles within the mind, and then constructively work through, work on art to express, that energy, and successfully vent such and invite us to relate to these paths and emotions forming instructions to both heal and create more great art based on our personal paths and experiences. I grow concerned about younger generations having less and less truly meaningful experiences and experiences with types of art and expression which are all disposable sacrifices to money absorption and not so much deep meaningful analysis or self analysis or will to work through or even recognize those internal fissures which can be molded into masterpieces and an artist healed and moving toward worthwhile internal reinvention and evolution into a better artist or perhaps other mediums or pursuits.
Tool had an integral part in the author’s path as a human, artist, occultist, and researcher, along with ideas I had always felt strongly drawn toward; partly due to more 90’s gloom vibes, this time, those of the X-Files and the show’s wide ranging subject matter, most of which I’d research on for a lifetime.
Tool would end up gifting me the suggestions of more art, more highbrow spiritual thinkers and other art, more interest in ritual magick and Freemasonry, random tie ins to my closest interests such as clips of Art Bell, Tim Leary, and Bill Hicks, and just more of a drive to check out the weekly limit of library books for years on end about everything I could find about the mystical, paranormal, esoteric, mythological, spiritual, secret, philosophy, psychology, ancient cultures, ley lines, magick, ghosts, UFOs, psychic powers, and they led me to listen to many other bands that would seriously impact my art such as the Swans, Led Zeppellin, Pink Floyd, Melvins, Behemoth, Mars Volta, etc… and approaching music seriously as a lyricist and vocalist for many bands in many genres throughout my high school and college years.
They would continue in me a search and confrontation with the shadow in general but they also have a song for that, Aenima’s 46 and 2. The music video art direction was something that greatly influenced me in seperate ways, expanding my rather comic book centered perspective and reverance for ancient art and mythology as well as that 90’s vibe and combining all of them into little narratives that felt exactly the way NIN sounded or art about the Jungian shadow should in one stylized fashion.
Adam Jones did stop motion and make up sculpting work for Predator, Jurassic Park, Beetlejuice, Terminator, and other films, and his professional yet art school evident style showed, Danny Carey was the best and largest drummer in the world ever in my somewhat well educated percussion history tells me and his father was a Mason and I tracked his adventures through Europe or Area 51 with the bands blog writer author and occultist Blair Mckenzie on half their website and traveled through the bizarre experience that was the left brain, literally of their website the right being where these adventures were journaled weekly, Maynard went to West Point, did pet store Feng Shui and restored sales to their country wide stores before jumping years later to the business of wine, he knew Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he went into cool trances while singing and was a deep and interesting and terribly wise soul in interviews often flying so far over the interviewers head it was a running bit, Justin made astrally traveled landscapes into bass riffs with his wife in meditations (I still to this day think, he does what exactly?) and at that very young age these guys were like my comic book mythologies, well they seemed quite like, superheroes actually.
These years of NIN albums, and music videos, as well as Tool and Smashing Pumpkins music videos paints a perfect picture of the vibe I’ve been describing throughout this 90’s bit. This vibe in various ways can be felt throughout grunge, the fashion of that time, and goth as a subculture. Though goth music started years before these years being visited in the 90’s, goth adapted to the times and the two converge during this period.
One of the original reasons I got into Synchromysticism, leading to my chapter in Sync Book 2 called Saturday Morning Vision Quest, besides the work of Jake Kotze and Steve Wilner, which inspired me to look for the language of secret societies, ancient civilizations, and predictive programming in animated series and films. This language merged with all the other subjects I was interested in and got me rewathing shows I adored as a kid but with new symbolic lenses.
As the fight for our attention spans grows more ridiculous, I get the feeling younger generations are getting more and more of an experience of tailored entertainment where even having access to thousands of souls a day on tik tok results in redundant dance routines and memes, reality game level one observations and harsh opinions and out takes now taking a new conspiratorial flavor in the post Kat Williams media apocalypse landscape we find ourselves in. I grow concerned the constant apetite and three course meals of attention seeking, drama seeking, and redundant thoughts structures have the potential to doom the future to only more evolved versions of this, trust me our masters wouldn’t mind at all. The reason for my concern stems from the double edged sword of losing individual creative and independent thought, and also the death of that inner narrative, that rich inner and undestanding of past humans’ mythology, the rich inner furnishings we require to in game reality find a worthwhile quest and legit path for the will to accomplish that which is most vital for both oneself and the tribe or civilization, as individuals and units within such social structures. I hear of people with no inner voice or visual world, though I struggle to even comprehend such a detrimental condition in any way, we can basically understand throughout most our culture, what a NPC is. I feel I do have to clarify to any readers that I use this term not to belittle, dangerously dehumanize, or insult any individuals of low intellectual esteem or attempting to herd some generalizations around a type or group of people I’m not fond with, but rather a mere extension of terms used in the wordlview model of simulation theory, and my own comparisons between video games and aspects of experiencable reality like glitchs, synchronicities, and coincidences in some cases. I do mean people that arent entirely home but visually and mentally redundant to a creepy degree. People that make you wonder what culmination of life experiences justify this persons age and the content of their language, chosen conversation subject matter and obvious limitation, human glitching, or simply unable to contribute or provide constructive commentary, analysis, or the creation of anything paramount to actually being alive and being familiar with any experiences via the moment and not a screen or rigid belief limiting all intellectual elasticity or proof of years of life experiences regardless of how mundane, sheltered, or automatic a person finds their circumstances. But, I digress, I just wish to vouch for the Joseph Campbell’s, the Alan Moore’s and Neil Gaimans. Hopefully our inspiration and love for mythology is also not squezed dry by the endless lines of unfortunately Marvel films, which can be fun, funny, and even fully entertaining but rob us of those ancient eperiences of reading and seeing Jack Kirby, David Mack, and Dave Mckean and all manner of pre A.I. art, naturally shamanic mythology makers, the new culture robs us of our art preferring throw back aesthetics of one of two decades before reality felt like it ended, to me anyway. At least one type or layer of reality ended or shifted.
As our vast and swiftly moving perceptions and aspects of culture change it seems only reasonable to try and plot out a vision of the larger future being sold to us so very adamantly. Conspiracy rhetoric left long behind, it’s clear we have a disgusting culture of pedophilia and younger people enslavement and or trafficking, sexual abuse, blackmail at levels of celebrity, politician, banker, musician, military leader and tech enthusiast, and honey traps, programmed people and agents of secret societies functioning through networks of villanous satanist and child harming specialists and hide these practices and beliefs behind the reprecussions available at the disposal of these demons, toward anyone vigilante enough to simply question or inform themselves of any related data in any form, and have used these restraints and failsafes for their criminal lifestyles and practices, claiming those who have a problem with abusing, traumatizing, raping, or the mental preperation and grooming towards these crimes as either an antisemite who must be publicly torn to shreds for their hatred towards Jews by ultra militant Zionist, or they must themselves be a closet pedophile to be publicly shamed and outed at the expense of his friends, family, acquaintances and hope for a public future or progression in their given field, or they are seen as going against the mutilation and forced consent of children to participate in sick transexual rites often egged on only by extremist liberally brainwashed parents, or going aginst the lgbtq family, persecuted for assumed homophobia rather than antisemitic models often tossed at their protractors in any form. If one were too quick in comprehension and then efforts made were made to jump the gun entirely analyzing my views they could fall victim to the awful assumption, that would of course be deadly incorrect, which assumes at this juncture in reading, that I would stand for antisemitic or homophobic expression and behavior in any context with any justification. I have always held to the understanding that the top is the Rockefellers and Rothschild, Nazis and Zionist, WEF futurist and NWO cheerleaders all together, with race and creed, ethnicity and ancestry being left behind long ago in the global scheme of empire building. Do Zionists just want Jews to come out on top? Do black Israelites wish only for black evolution and dominance? Do Nazis see room for anyone but the Aryans and Aldabaraans and so forth? Of course not. But their will to tolerance and cooperation for the sake of ultimate power and mass control is a seemingly forced friend of my enemy kind of approach. Whereas the author sees individuality and differences and pros to cons to all cultures and systems of worldview or spiritual hierarchy as having equal and intertwining value and purpose, personally.
The upcoming light that will be shined on both Epstein via the Octopus Danny Casolaro Spider’s Web Documentary about the Agency and promis software, Maxwell’s father’s project which gifts the worlds intelligence agencies with software that has a universal backdoor for Israeli Intelligence, will hold more attention on these subjects. If interested the reader can check out this Netflix Documentary on Wednesday when it premiers. Another giant fissure in the elite party circuit in a post Katt Williams interview world, is the proof arising from the music industry that Sean P Diddles boys Puffy Combs probably killed Biggie and Tupac and started East Coast vs West Coast gang beef, Puffy, was running an Epstein like child sex program complete with cameras in every room and blackmail and rape of countless R and B and rap artists throughout the past decades including Mace, Will Smith, etc and a separate system like this regarding Cash Money artist in New Orleans, as well as many other New York artists. At the same time Wendy Williams an obvious Project Monarch victim has left the tv shows and claims to now be diagnosed with dementia as Britney Spears never appears as a nonfilter real version of herself as all her Insta stories are deep fakes. After Katt Williams revealed more of the Epstein like Hollywood machine on Shay Shay, he just joined Joe Rogan for an even better show about UFOs, Bob Lazaar, mysteries of the universe, and more secrets of our pop culture and the elite.
ZeroKnight 
Leave a comment