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- Volume 7, Issue 1, 2020
Metal Music Studies - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2020
Volume 7, Issue 1, 2020
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Heavy metal music as communal intervention: Experiences and challenges in the context of the metal-academia dyad in Jaén, Spain
Authors: Susana González Martínez and Nelson Varas-DíazIn this article we aim to address the complex interrelation between metal music and academia through a case study design and analysis. The case study examined is an academic conference held during the past seven years at the University of Jaén, located in Jaén, a province in the south of Spain. This sociocultural project, entitled the ‘Rock and Metal Encounter’ (RME), has taken place in a context of frequent out-migration, with a precarious rural economy, and poor communication networks. There a small metal scene has resisted a precarious setting characterized by restrictive public policies towards music and culture. The RME has combined two lines of action; a purely academic one, through the diffusion of studies on metal music; and a social one, in which community intervention components have been interspersed with the aim of promoting social cohesion and cultural development among Jaén’s metal scene. In light of this experience, we discuss the potential use of metal music as a form of community intervention to foster the cultural development of small music scenes in disadvantaged settings, and the university’s role in this process. We also explore resistance and tensions faced by the incursion of metal music as a community intervention practice in this particular academic setting.
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Burzum shirts, paramilitarism and National Socialist Black Metal in the twenty-first century
More LessOver the last ten years, the radical right has proliferated at an alarming rate in the United States. National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) has become an important feature of neo-Nazi, White supremacist and militant racist groups as the radical right as a whole has gained traction in American political life. Although rooted in underground music-based subculture, NSBM has become an important crypto-signifier for the radical right in the twenty-first century providing both symbolic value and ideological inspiration. The anti-racist and apolitical elements of the North American metal scene have responded in a variety of different ways, sometimes challenging racist elements directly, at other times providing ambivalent acceptance of the far right within the scene. While fans, musicians, journalists and record labels struggle to come to terms with the meaning of NSBM and how it should be addressed, NSBM-affiliated political and paramilitary groups have formed and started making their violent fantasies a reality. As many elements within the American metal scene continue to perceive NSBM as a purely artistic movement of no concern to the world outside of the metal scene, proponents of NSBM are marching in the streets of Charlottesville, burning African American churches, murdering LGBTQ people and plotting acts of domestic terrorism.
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Right hand up, left hand down: The New Satanists of rock n’ roll, evil and the underground war on the abject
More LessSatan has long served as the ultimate evil, the world’s primary scapegoat. The Devil’s role in music, especially extreme music and heavy metal, has been to shock, terrify and enrage. But what if the imagery and ideology of Satan is used to combat an immoral societal evil? Is it then possible that the radical evil could itself become a force for good? This article intends to examine the music and philosophy of three modern bands, dubbed The New Satanists: Ghost, Twin Temple and Zeal & Ardor. Each band uses varying degrees of satanic influence to raise awareness of their perceived objectionable and abject issues in society: a harsh and unjust patriarchy, the Christian conversions and role of religion during the era of American slavery and suppression of individuality from the Catholic Church. Through the examination of these bands, social issues and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of symbolic evil, this article will examine theories of traditional evil potentially becoming a force for good when it combats the moral sickness existent in society. An alternate perspective – that of Satan as a liberator – could serve as a cure for a gamut of ills.
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Heavy metal justice? Calibrating the economic and aesthetic accreditation of the heavy metal genre in the pages of Rolling Stone 1980–91: Part one 1980–851
More LessGiven the genre name heavy metal can be traced to a negative adjective that emerges out of 70s rock journalism and which reflects a widespread dissensus among rock critics about its value and impact on North American rock music, how are we to explain the gradual or cumulative shift away from this majority aesthetic disapprobation, in the 1980–85 period, towards a widespread economic accreditation, particularly in the pages of leading rock magazine, Rolling Stone? Is it simply a belated recognition of the longevity of the genre and its resurgent popularity with majority audiences? If so, how are we to explain the subsequent shift, clearly evident in the Rolling Stone coverage in the 1986–91 period, from economic to aesthetic approbation of selective bands, particularly those identified with a thrash metal underground, which is nevertheless seen to emerge from within the genre or to be an aesthetic development of some of its key musical features, while rejecting others? Drawing on a comprehensive survey, composed of album reviews, lead or feature articles and interviews, drawn from the Rolling Stone archive, my research reports, in Part One of this article, a definite shift in the critical reception of heavy metal to economic accreditation in the 1980–85 period, based not only on the genre’s persistence and sustained economic success but also its ability to appeal beyond its core metal audience and therefore challenge the dominant rock and pop aesthetic. For some critics this means that a selective set of popular bands, such as AC/DC, the Scorpions and Def Leppard, can be afforded a degree of aesthetic approbation, even the status of ‘artists’. But this praise also leads to the Great Metal Question: can they now seek to move beyond the musical and lyrical conventions of heavy metal in order to appeal to a wider audience beyond their core fanbase?
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Channelling the darkness: Group flow and environmental expression in the music of Black Sabbath and Joy Division
By Steve TaylorAlthough they superficially belong to different genres of music, Black Sabbath and Joy Division share a fundamental commonality in that their music was shaped by – and powerfully depicted – bleak urban industrial environments. This article highlights a number of specific ways in which both bands’ music depicted (and was influenced by) this environment, including an unusually bass-heavy sound, the repetitive and continuous quality of their music, an austerity of sound, the rigid structure of songs and performances and lyrical content. Both bands attained such a high – or pure – degree of environmental expression because they were examples of the phenomenon of ‘group flow’. I examine the aspects of group flow identified by psychologists and show how both bands exhibited these, including a highly cooperative creative process, a lack of conscious deliberation and a prolific and spontaneous output. It was their group flow that enabled the two bands to ‘channel’ their environment directly and powerfully.
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Black noise ruins: Notes after Locrian’s Rain of Ashes
More LessIn this article-cum-essay, I scrutinize the particulars surrounding Locrian’s release Rain of Ashes. The text opens with a reflection on quiddity and what I call curity (whyness) to situate the musicians aural potentialities, and move towards articulating what I define as ‘black noise’. In the context of black noise, I claim Locrian perform the ruins of black noise. I attempt to write alongside the music by replicating some of the music’s qualities and galvanize those qualities by using commentaries, reviews of the release and interviews with the band’s members while trying to analyse the push-and-pull aura of Rain of Ashes for the listener.
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Appropriating the extreme: Interculturality and the decolonization of the image in extreme metal in México and Colombia
More LessIn this short article, I engage in a musical iconographic analysis of album covers from extreme metal bands, specifically those belonging to the subgenres of death metal and grindcore, in both México and Colombia. Both countries have gone through socio-historical processes marked by violence, which, by extension, have resulted in the popularization of consumer media products based on said violence (e.g. war against drug traffickers). My analysis rests on a transhistorical outline of the constant forms of domination that both countries have suffered since the conquest of the American continent and the ways in which Latin American extreme metal represents these experiences through the artwork of their albums, thus engaging in a process of decolonization of the imaginary through the reappropriation of imagery traditionally used in extreme metal.
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The stones sing: The mestizo metal music of Kay Pacha and Yana Raymi
More LessThis article addresses the music of Kay Pacha and Yana Raymi, two bands from the city of Huancayo, Perú, that mix metal music with the world-view and instrumentation of the Andes, in an effort to reclaim Wanka culture and identity. To understand why both bands choose metal music to express what they understand as their own ancestral identity, I explore the history of the city of Huancayo, examining how the unique conditions in which its formation and development took place allowed local people to preserve native customs and, at the same time, integrate foreign elements that were gradually assimilated and conceived as their own. This phenomenon of integration has been termed mestizaje by José María Arguedas, who also sees it as a means to preserve and expand native culture. That particular way of understanding mestizaje can be examined by paying attention to the development of local popular music, including metal; particularly by reviewing the music, narratives and aesthetics of Kay Pacha’s black metal and Yana Raymi’s folk metal. I supplement the presented analysis via interviews with Jhon ‘Yachaq’ Limaymanta and Jhonn Castro, founding members of the respective bands.
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Building communitas through symbolic performances: Mexican metal and the case of Cemican
More LessThe Latin American metal collective represents a big portion of the metal artists and fandom in the American continent. México has a powerful metal scene and an equally strong devotee population. There is one particular band that represents a collective voice capable of depicting the nation in the present moment. Cemican is a band that fits into the genre called Aztec folk metal. Their albums have shown an affinity for Aztec and Mayan mythology, and their sound is a flux between the sordid loudness of thrash and death metal riffs and the vibrations of pre-Hispanic instruments. Their performances present re-enactments of rituals reminiscent of the capture of enemy warriors and the heart extractions performed on these. Local audiences get drawn in by the sound of metal but also by the recognition of themselves through the Mexican elements. Mexican audiences reach a certain level of community at the moment of witnessing their performance; this sense of community extends to aspects including feelings of exploration and belonging. Today, México stands as a fertile land for metal music, where elements from two colliding cultures and belief systems can be integrated, and the resulting artefact achieves an indomitable sound. Traditions like the Día de los Muertos (or ‘Day of the Dead’) and its closeness to the idea of death as comical, as well as the merging of polytheism and Christianity have given metal music in México its own communal identity. The search for authenticity in identity is also a fact that is present in Mexican metal music through symbolic practices and representations. The paradigm and dynamic change as the conglomeration of European-influenced sounds clash with the religious syncretism of the actual Mexican people.
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Heavy metal as a profession?: The Mexican heavy metal scene and its effects as an informal and non-formal learning space
By André EppThrough the far-reaching social change experienced in modern society, spaces and places of learning increasingly transform. Schools, training companies and universities remain important, albeit formal, educational institutions; however, informal and non-formal learning spaces increasingly gain attention when it comes to the acquisition of work-related knowledge and competences. Even though in recent years, youth and music cultures have focused more on learning in general and knowledge in particular, research about the educational potential of heavy metal has remained a blind spot, seldom garnering any attention. Therefore, the article illustrates, from a biographical perspective, what influence the Mexican heavy metal scene has had on the acquisition of work-related competences and how these settings can be considered spaces and places of informal and non-formal learning. The underlying educational possibilities as well as different modalities of learning are illustrated. To record the biographies of participants from the Mexican heavy metal scene, autobiographical interviews were conducted. These autobiographical-narrative interviews allowed for the analyses of certain individual cases as well as the underlying societal structures and patterns. The results are illustrated with the help of a case study. Ultimately, the study showcases the biographical development of an individual’s life and the ways in which the spaces and places connected to heavy metal in this individual’s life offered key educational moments. Thus, the educational potential of the Mexican heavy metal scene for the acquisition of work-related knowledge is determined.
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Female participation in Colombian metal: An initial approach
Authors: Jesús Antonio Córdoba and Karen Ortiz CuchivagueCultural expressions reflect the ways in which a society represents its traditions, its interpretations of the world, and the views of the people that develop within it. Likewise, they are capable of representing a system of gender roles that are reproduced and legitimized through them. Rock and metal music, as artistic expressions, can reproduce differentiated male and female roles that, in turn, reproduce inequality and an uneven access to opportunities. This has been constant in Colombian society; therefore, uncovering these manifestations and seeking ways to question and transform these roles have become increasingly important tasks. In this short article, we describe some characteristics of female participation in Colombian metal, and how this intervention responds to the particularities of its context. We approach this objective by analysing testimonies of women who currently work as metal and rock artists in Colombia.
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Brazilian native metal and the experience of transculturation
Authors: Marcelo Velloso Garcia and Vítor Castelões GamaPolitics and identity go together in Brazilian heavy metal. Headbangers often experience accusations regarding their less-than-Latin-American identity for enjoying a foreign musical style more than their own native styles. Even though this is partially true, Brazilian heavy metal engages national and musical identity in at least two different ways. The first is through the denial of any connection to Brazilian culture and its roots by accepting this anglophone genre. The second is through the transformation of the musical genre itself, thanks to the influence of Brazilian folk music. Based on these changes, we intend to describe how Sepultura laid down the roots that eventually flourished in the music of Arandu Arakuaa, a band associated with a movement known as the ‘Insurgency of Native Metal’, which describes itself as a union of Brazilian metal bands that write and perform songs about their country. We will also delve into how Sepultura, a highly regarded group often added as part of the ‘big five’ of thrash metal, used this influence to pave the way for other Brazilian bands, specifically Arandu Arakuaa, encouraging them to explore further possibilities regarding transculturation. Thus, in this article we intend to contemplate transculturation as a theoretical concept and as a tool to understand Brazilian heavy metal within its contradictions and core beliefs.
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Metal Music and the Re-imagining of Masculinity, Place, Race and Nation, Karl Spracklen (2020)
By Owen CogginsReview of: Metal Music and the Re-imagining of Masculinity, Place, Race and Nation, Karl Spracklen (2020)
Bradford: Emerald Publishing, 272 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-83867-444-1, h/bk, £70.00
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Metalmorphosen: Die unwahrscheinlichen Wandlungen des Heavy Metal, Jörg Scheller (2020)
More LessReview of: Metalmorphosen: Die unwahrscheinlichen Wandlungen des Heavy Metal, Jörg Scheller (2020)
Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 286 pp.,
ISBN 978-3-51512-638-0, p/bk, €24.00
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