Music that makes you work for it

I'm listening to "The Work Which Transforms God" (album) by Blut Aus Nord. This is seriously heavy shit. The thing is, once in a while, there will be a riff or (in one song) one single piercing, dissonant guitar note that cuts through all the grey muck and sludge (i.e., turgid bass and guitar chords, rapid-fire double-bass-drum action, and undermixed vocals not unlike the distant cries of torture victims floating up through grates of the dungeon ceiling) that just opens up the song and clears the wax out of your ears. It's like a single ray of white sunshine cutting through some inky toxic fog of fumes, guiding you across the swirling throng to safety. And the thing is, too, that this moment of clarity usually occurs around minute three of a five-minute song, so you're forced to work for your pleasure. Very cool. I can't really say I'm a fan of death metal in general, but I recommend this band to the curious. What I am a fan of is music that makes you work for it. Sometimes you'll have a song that is either dissonant and ugly or even just monotonous and irritating for several minutes, and then suddenly (for example) the drums kick in, or some shimmery guitar shows up, and it's like stumbling into a clearing after slogging your way through a thick brambly forest for hours. AHHH. Your delight wouldn't be nearly as great if the entire song were that pretty, either -- you have to suffer through the monotony to really appreciate it. Even otherwise pretty music does this once in a while. There's a Frames song called "True" which is just sort of mellow and floaty for a while (acoustic guitar, feedback, morose vocals). And then a piano kicks in, and then more guitars, and pressure starts to build...then, ooh, fake out! Back to quiet again...quiet for a while.... Then at 3:20 the drums kick in, Glen Hansard's vocals awaken, the guitars show up in earnest, and then at 4:10 everything starts soaring. For the last minute he's just howling and then the song cuts off on his, "WAIT!" Love that! Interpol's "Specialist" does the same thing -- it bores you for three minutes, fakes you out at 3:15, bores you again, and then builds and builds to the great riff that hits you at 5:26. I love music, art, even food that makes you work for it. Spare ribs, corn on the cob, you know...you feel like you've earned your food somehow. Plus, somehow the discomfort of having sticky hands makes the food taste better. There must be some sort of cognitive dissonance effect in play.