Slayer and psychoanalysis

Using Freud and Lacan, this article proposes a psychoanalytic approach to the thrash metal band Slayer. It particularly focuses on the band’s engagement with violence and perversion. The article starts by analysing Slayer in Freudian terms, as a symptom of the discontent existing in western civilization and it advances further to using Lacan, taking into account concepts like expression, conceptualization, repression and signifying chains, among others, in order to reach the conclusion that Slayer’s revolt against present-day society is not so much a revolt as an unconscious expression of its symbolic order.