American Nihilist Underground Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The American Nihilist Underground Society is a website promoting nihilism and neoclassical culture. Its hypothesis is that if we accept nihilism as a philosophical value, we can overcome the conditioning of modern society. This is not to be mistaken for fatalism, which believes that nothing has any value and therefore one should give up on taking any action. While the site's main focus is philosophy and weekly editorials, it is also well-known for the promotion of metal music, constantly defending the genre's originality and exposing artists like Burzum and Demilich_(band) to a wider audience, and for being one of the first sites to espouse higher ideas for the genre than "beer and bullet belts".
Because of this it is best known for housing a large collection of album reviews and articles on Metal music, including "The Philosophy of Heavy Metal" and "The History of Heavy Metal," both of which are popular among academics and serious fans of this small but vital genre. Of more recent note are Neoclassical music reviews, which link together diverse acts such as Dead Can Dance, Kraftwerk and Immortal by their common origin in the Romantic and naturalistic music of Europe.
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Origins
The American Nihilist Underground Society has existed since 1987 (according to their website (http://anus.com/zine/about/) - Web Archive (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.anus.com) lists them from Apr 03, 1997 onwards, although the website existed before that) with the intention of changing the philosophical attitudes of Western Culture towards nihilist ideas of thought. The site has been around at anus.com since early 1995; before that, it was a directory on the old paranoia.com, the net's first free speech host. Previous to that, it was represented by an FTP space for the undiscovered country ezine, one of the first ezines and arguably the first in literature. Even further back, in the 1987 and before territory, ANUS was a hacker organization that published text files (http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/ANUS/) on various dial-up bulletin boards including The Metal AE (http://www.anus.com/etc/metal_ae/).
Written & Artistic Material
Written material published on the website's written articles (http://anus.com/zine/articles/) section is often of a very philosophical nature and critical of contemporary social attitudes and practices.
ANUS is demonized by most people for its name and taboo-breaking attitude, but it is also shunned for suggesting that the globalist new world order consists of modern society replacing our traditional values, including ethnic separation. One of the most highly discussed (and controversial to many) topics is the role of race in society. Many articles found on the group's website decry racial mixing and miscegenation in society. However, any existence of bigotry is vehemetly disclaimed.
There is also a smattering of original literary and artistic work published by the group in their Esoterica (http://www.anus.com/etc/) section, and the longstanding The Undiscovered Country (http://www.anus.com/tuc) ezine.
It is the oldest reference on the net for death metal and black metal music, and the only one to take an ethnomusicological approach separate from that used for heavy metal and heavy rock music. Further, it is the origin of the "Heavy Metal FAQ" and the "Death FAQ" of USENET fame, as well as the source of creation for the newsgroups alt.rock-n-roll.metal.death and alt.music.black-metal, as well as some sillier little ones like alt.fan.goat.
Of late, the site has been mostly ignored thanks to the use of web filters which ban anything with the word "anus" in them (many people, such as Alliance of Sodomy Supporters (http://www.sodomy.org/) like to stick things in them), but its prominence among the death metal and black metal sites of the underground is unquestioned. Without pause, ANUS.com has surged ahead with a Metal and Neoclassical Culture ezine, Heidenlarm (http://www.anus.com/metal/zine) and its successor, exponentiation (http://www.anus.com/zine), both of which succeed the undiscovered country (http://www.anus.com/tuc).
Metal Music
ANUS.com is home the oldest page regarding underground metal on the Internet, and continues a tradition dating back to 1987 and before of writing about metal music. Furthermore, it is home to The Heavy Metal FAQ (http://www.anus.com/metal/about/faq/) and The Philosophy of Heavy Metal (http://www.anus.com/metal/about/philosophy) and The History of Heavy Metal (http://www.anus.com/metal/about/history.html), in addition to numerous reviews (http://www.anus.com/metal/about/alphabetical.html) and opinions (http://www.anus.com/metal/about/metal/index.html) that are the only ones of their kind and date back to the era in which this music was created, and influenced through a radio show in Los Angeles by the site's metal writer.
Philosophical Contributions
ANUS.com espouses a mixture of Integralist (http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy) and Nihilist (http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/nihilism) philosophies, although it emphasizes that nihilism is a gateway (http://www.anus.com/zine/nihilism) and not a destination. Through participation in numerous Internet philosophy forums, and USENET participation dating back to 1993, ANUS.com has been the premiere advocate of nihilism as a system of thought on the Internet.
Weekly columns detail philosophical thought and fear no taboo; it is for this reason, as well as ANUS.com's criticism of modern society on structural grounds, that the site considers itself to be "post-alienist," or alienated but able to contribute to the future of society as a whole.
Trolling Activities
Member(s) of the group have published separate websites such as "Osama bin Laden, Messenger of Peace, Prophet of Change" (http://www.amerika.org/) (see the Osama bin Laden entry also) and the Scott Peterson Fan Club (http://www.scottpetersonfanclub.com/) (see the Scott Peterson entry also). Part of the group's self-stated goals is internet trolling so it is likely these websites were designed to provoke outrage and garner attention from the general public rather than being tacit endorsements of terrorism or the alleged acts of Scott Peterson.
In recent time, many members of the group have befriended members of the Gay Nigger Association of America, an internet trolling group, and joined in at least partly in the GNAA's activities such as the writing of press releases for the GNAA's self-promoting activities. Members of the group have also recently formed an IRC channel on the same network as the GNAA which can be found on irc.anus.com or irc.gnaa.us and joining the #ANUS channel.
Criticisms
Because of the organization's acronym and URL that gives them many visits to their website by people simply entering in "anus.com" into their web browser out of simple curiosity to see what is there, they have been perceived as Internet trolls by the comical URL of the website and the often unpopular views expressed in their written material.
Further, the refusal of site members to play the usual games at popular internet indexes, including sycophantic behavior, has resulted in it having few friends except those who like it for content alone.
External Links
American Nihilist Underground Society
- Homepage (http://www.anus.com/)
- About page (http://www.anus.com/zine/about/)
- Philosophy Page (http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy/) -- Nihilistic and Integralistic philosophies of the American Nihilist Underground Society
Music Reviews
- Neoclassical (http://www.anus.com/zine/music/)
- Metal (http://www.anus.com/metal/)
Discussion
- #ANUS IRC channel (irc://irc.anus.com/anus)
- Message boards (http://bbs.anus.com/)
- Metal hall message boards (http://www.anus.com/metal/hall)
Affiliated
- Gay Nigger Association of America (http://www.gnaa.us)
- The Judeo-Christian Holocaust (http://www.fuckchrist.com)
- The Scott Peterson Fan Club (http://www.scottpetersonfanclub.com)
- Osama bin Laden: Messenger of Peace, Prophet of Change (http://www.amerika.org)
Published
- Textfiles.com (http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/ANUS/)
- Vanguard News Network (http://www.vanguardnewsnetwork.com/2005/Prozak010405Fascism.htm)
- Wired.com (http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50820,00.html)
