A couple of weeks ago, an article in Body + Soul introduced me to a range of new yoga styles. This included aerial and horseback yoga. The most interesting and appealing, though, was Black Yoga. What began as vinyasa yoga set to drone, noise, stoner metal, ambient, industrial and "space doom" meditation music in 2012 has made its way out of Pittsburgh and into the international sphere via the first Black Yoga DVD, Asanas Ritual: Volume 1.
This, as Black Yoga would say, is some #zenshit. I have listened to the soundtrack several times now and practiced to it while awaiting my DVD to arrive. It is ideal music to contemplate life, yoga and the universe to - there's no screaming, no thrashing, nothing Rammstein about this. It's the surprisingly peaceful creation of metallic hippies and doomlords.
It may, initially, seem like a juxtaposition. The ferocity of metal and doom combined with the all-embracing, loving nature of yoga?
In fact, yoga is more complex than that. It asks us to be fully present, right now. Black Yoga does that. It asks us to bring passion, curiosity and intensity to our bodies, minds and practice. Black Yoga does that. It asks us to meditate and to follow some universal truths and values for our own benefit and that of others, and to detach from the actual results of doing so.

So I'd ask you to shrug off those sceptical thoughts, question your preconceived ideas and expectations about yoga and about Black Yoga, and start with the soundtrack. If you dig it, like I do, then venture forth and give the Asanas DVD a whirl. You don't have to be a stoner rock loving hippie peace unicorn. You just need a body that breathes and a readiness to confront your darkness in order to appreciate the light. Check out the trailer for the DVD below. Enjoy.