The debate about how our data is used is a valuable one, but a more substantial one can only be had once we stop seeing the internet as an immaterial flow of information and begin to see it as a vast material infrastructure, with equally vast resources demands and its own environmental impacts. We need to understand the construction of smart technology and the Internet of Things as coming from mines running on slave labour, lakes of toxic sludge, data centres with militarised security, and will possibly result in a second scramble for Africa.

The question, then, is how to deterritorialise black metal? How do black metal fans and artists open potential lines of flight that can break out of such limitations? Hval offers an escape through art’s occult potential; its ability to alter reality.