I was thinking today how many really EXCELLENT publications there are available that explore and celebrate black metal. Evolution Of The Cult, Beyond The Darkness, Becoming The Forest, Metalion:The Slayer Diaries to name but a few. The most recent one to come into my life is Becoming The Forest.
When I first heard about Becoming The Forest created by Una Hamilton Helle, I was in a really dark space. I didn’t see the point of life, but I felt compelled to buy this publication. So I went ahead and bought issue 2 and 3 before they inevitably sold out.
I can remember being home alone the day they arrived. I can remember being plagued with suicidal thoughts when I sat down with issue 2 in my hands. I can remember the struggle I had to try and focus on what I could feel was something extremely special.
“Becoming the Forest is a publication which looks at our relationship to our surroundings, with a specific focus on the Northern hemisphere’s abundance of dense spruce forests, and how the aesthetic and philosophy of the musical subculture of black metal has become entangled with this topography, countering the anthropocentric interpretation of the world.” – Una Hamiliton Helle
My concentration was so poor, it took me about a week to read both issues, and while I didn’t take everything in, Becoming The Forest held me when I needed holding and kept me distracted enough that I didn’t do something stupid. I’m re-reading them now that my concentration is a little bit better and each page is a gift.
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 
I admire your narrative on the texts as they approached and what they have meant for you since. I like the title; the idea of becoming the forest sounds dreamlike and desirous. I look forward to finding them, the texts and, I guess, the dreams.