Session 6: The Power of Threat: Violence, Language and Change
2nd Global Conference
Wednesday 11th November – Thursday 12th November 2009
Salzburg, Austria
Machine Guns and Machine Gun Drums: Heavy Metal’s Portrayal of Warfare
Samir Puri
Centre of International Studies, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Warfare is a perennial source of lyrical and visual inspiration for metal artists. In this they are not alone since from time immemorial composers have been impassioned to write music by the struggles and conflicts of their day. Few other genres, however, are as fascinated by the visceral experience of warfare itself or are as sonically suited to convey it. The sheer intensity and sonic violence of metal – especially in its extreme sub-genres – arguably constitutes as close a mimicking of the cacophony of battle that modern music can offer. That said, there is no uniformity in metal’s portrayal of warfare. Lyrical stances can vary between patriotic veneration of military history to outright criticism of war. They can range in taste too, and for every delicate handling of its undeniable horrors, other metal artists or songs might seemingly rejoice in the brutal gratuity of war for nothing more than shock effect. What, therefore, can be said about the relationship between the phenomenon of war and its artistic representation in metal?
Drawing on the author’s understanding of the war studies academia, this paper inquires into metal’s unique contribution as a medium through which to portray different aspects of warfare. It will inquire into whether warfare is simply a conveniently dark theme that metal repeatedly – and perhaps self-servingly – mines for material, or whether there is a deeper, more fundamental relationship. It will do so not merely through the obvious discussion of how portrayals of warfare can vary between metal sub-genres. It will also inquire into whether metal musicians have a responsibility to their subject matter which is, after all, a real phenomenon that scars and ends lives and determines the destinies of peoples, and whether the (usual) detachment of the metal artist from this subject matter impedes or enhances they ability to convey it.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
The Common Vernacular of Power Relations in Heavy Metal and Christian Fundamentalist Performances
Christine James
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Valdosta State University, USA
Wittgenstein’s comment that what can be shown cannot be said has a special resonance with visual representations of power in both Heavy Metal and Fundamentalist Christianity communities. Performances at metal shows, and performances of “religious theatre”, share an emphasis on violence and destruction. For example, groups like GWAR (God What an Awful Racket) and Cannibal Corpse feature violent scenes in stage shows and album covers, scenes that depict gory results of unrestrained sexuality that are strikingly like Halloween “Hell House” show presented by neo-Conservative, Fundamentalist Christian churches in the southeastern United States’ “Bible Belt”. One group may claim to celebrate violence, the other sees violence as a tool to both encourage “moral” behavior, and to show that the Christian church is able to “speak the language” of young people who are fans of metal, gore, and horror.
Explicit violence, in each case, signifies power relationships that are in transformation: Historically, medieval morality plays and morality cycles had been used as a pedagogical tool, a welcoming, inclusive, interactive, embodied sharing of religion and ideology. (McCarthy, 1998; Gottschall 2004; Baldwin 2006) In the modern-day context of fundamentalist religious education, these Hell House performances seek to exclude outsiders and solidify teen membership in the Christian community (Collins-Hughes 2006). Hell House performances are marketed to the young church members, and are seen as a way to reinvigorate conservative Fundamentalist Christianity. Women and girls routinely take part in, and often organize Hell House events. Teenage girls involved in the pro-life movement often look forward to playing a girl suffering the aftereffects of an abortion, complete with fake blood and screams worthy of metal gore shows.
In the context of heavy metal, violent performances do not seek to exclude, but provide an outlet for a variety of socially unacceptable or unpopular feelings. Psychologists have argued for the therapeutic value of emotional musical performance for adolescent males experiencing social isolation (Lachmann 2006). For example, US high school shooters, such as Kip Kinkel, would benefit from expression through music providing outlets for anger, such as Mahler; an important counter-argument to the common media assumption that the violent music may cause violent acts. The primary examples in the literature tend to be young men, but the notion of violent performance having potential benefits can also be applied to women. “Hard and Heavy-Gender and Power in a Heavy Metal Music Subculture” by Leigh Krenske and Jim McKay (2002), an ethnographic and autobiographical analysis of a heavy metal club and its denizens, illustrates how female heavy metal fans negotiate power relationships and define themselves, asserting themselves into an atmosphere of (controlled) male aggression, and symbolic oppression of females. The most challenging situations involve women as performers, and the quest to be taken seriously as a performer.
In each context there is an apparent, if not actual, empowering of women who are willing to play particular kinds of roles. The use of violence and gore has a value beyond merely shocking the audience, it is arguably a way that some women find their voice, both for fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist gore metal fans.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Doing the Devil’s Work: Heavy Metal and the Threat to Public Order in the Muslim World
Mark Levine
University of California, Irvine, USA
As I finish writing this article the Iranian government has just arrested over 100 “Satanworshippers” in a raid on an “immoral concert” featuring heavy metal music in the southern city of Shiraz. Those arrested were accused of “drink[ing] alcohol, hurt[ing] themselves and suck[ing] blood.” Other purported crimes included having tattoos and “broadcasting a Satanist ceremony… live to the world via the internet.” The newspaper that reported the story, Jam-e Jam , contained photographs of drum sets and amplifiers seized in the raid,” which was reportedly the culmination of a more than year-long surveillance operation by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’s intelligence division against “foreignlinked groups and their venues.” Shiraz’s Deputy police chief, Hossein Zolfaghari, argued that the arrested metalheads “believe they should defy religions, especially Islam, do as they want and drag the world into anarchy” (“Iran arrests 104 at ‘Satanist’ party,” Agence France Presse, May 29, 2009).
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