TQ’s John Doran is traveling a long way to make the claim that heavy metal is the last true form of mass modernism. Half way around the world to be precise. A one person version of the show What Is This That Stands Before Me: Heavy Metal And Modernism that he co-developed with Sapphire Goss is scheduled for Saturday 12 April at The Salon of the Theatre Royal Nipaluna/Hobart.
Using a mix of spoken word, film and music, he will trace some of its many revolutionary stages in half a century of cultural invention and reinvention. His “live documentary performance” charts the unstoppable rise of a genre that began with Black Sabbath in Aston, Birmingham in 1970 before spreading to every corner of the globe, taking in Mayhem, Napalm Death and SunnO))) along the way.
In this one man show he utilises the custom created work of artist-filmmaker Sapphire Goss who has created a visual accompaniment collaged from archive, 8mm and VHS footage to form enigmatic and haunted imagery. The soundtrack is a unique mix of music specially created for the evening by Norwegian art rock group Årabrot, Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press & electronic artist Ghost Writer, with everything combining to make a unique live cinema experience.
