When you think of Nicolas Cage, you likely think of films such as Con Air, National Treasure, Gone in 60 Seconds and a few others, but not black metal. However, he's declared his appreciation for the extreme genre, and gave a good explanation as to why.
It's no secret that Cage has always been a rock 'n' roll fan, and he's good friends with a lot of musicians. According to an interview he did in 2018 with Metal Hammer, he was part of a clique of musicians who also loved horror films, including Johnny Ramone, Rob Zombie, Tom Waits, Metallica's Kirk Hammett and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. The group would hang out and talk about movies and music, make jokes, play songs and so forth.
We want in.
So although Cage has a good track record for rock music, it definitely came as a bit of a surprise that he defended black metal, because the two music styles have pretty much nothing in common except for some instruments and their roots. It was his son, Weston, who introduced him to black metal, and he got into it on his own from there.
“Weston got me into the black metal music that is so popular in Norway. Black metal is something that gets a pretty bad rap, because of the church burnings and so on, but the music itself came from classical music!" Cage said, noting that Dimmu Borgir was among the bands his son played for him.
"I thought the singers were outstanding, and the music was classically influenced – I think that’s the root of metal, which is interesting enough in itself as it springs from Bach, Wagner and Beethoven. You can’t say that about so many forms of music, as so much of it came from gospel and African music. I think there’s something to be said for that.”
So, the next time someone asks you why you like black metal, just read them Cage's response. If they can't respect his opinion, they're probably not worth the conversation.
