Death Metal Music

Metal Music Studies has grown enormously over the last eight years from a handful of scholars within Sociology and Popular Music Studies to hundreds of active scholars working across a diverse range of disciplines. The rise of interest in heavy metal academically reflects the growth of the genre as a normal or contested part of everyday lives around the globe. The aim of this series is to provide a home and focus for the growing number of monographs and edited collections that analyse heavy metal and other heavy music; to publish work that fits within the emergent subject field of metal music studies; that is, work that is critical and inter-disciplinary across the social sciences and humanities; to publish work that is of interest to and enhances wider disciplines and subject fields across social sciences and the humanities; and to support the development of Early Career Researchers through providing opportunities to convert their doctoral theses into research monographs.

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This paper examines the reception of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring across several media such as performances and recorded editions. Taking influence from both Richard Taruskin and Peter Hill, it demonstrates that by delivering ‘perfect’ renditions, the primal and violent nature of the composition has been neutered and
recording such performances has added to this effect. However, the currents introduced by Stravinsky live on in heavy metal music both in the genre’s use of disorienting and abrasive musical elements, and in its fascination with controversial and fantastical themes.
The study draws particular comparisons with progressive death metal band Meshuggah, whose compositional techniques borrow from ideas laid out in the Rite whilst mirroring and developing its themes and imagery. Their utilisation of polyrhythms and dissonance within note-perfect performances sees the chaos of the Rite displaced into the band’s distorted tone, whilst their lyrics and aesthetic suggest fears of a dystopian future, as opposed to the Rite’s echoes of a brutal and uncivilised past.

An intriguing affective and ‘elitist’ aesthetic underpins forms of extreme metal fandom. Within this fan subculture, it is the merits of genres, bands and the aesthetics of the music (such as technical prowess, performance and production) that are a constant source of interest, debate and subsequent demarcation amongst fans. This chapter explores how fans engage with the more extreme forms of metal through their interactions online and in-person.  In particular, the intensities, performances and practices of self-identified extreme metal fans will be discussed by tracing their histories, experiences, progressions within and rationale for their musical interests. Moreover, while fan performances and practices are informed by aesthetics and invigorated through affect, broader ‘elitist’ debates also emerge within extreme metal’s subgenres. Thus fans converge around and enforce forms of taste-making and gate-keeping by delimiting the appropriateness of comments, content and viewpoints surrounding specific genres, bands and so forth.

Methodologically this chapter blends interviews, ethnography and textual analysis, while drawing on key works on fan (sub)cultures, music and socio-cultural theories of affect and taste to explore extreme metal fandom. In particular, Bourdieu’s cultural theories of taste, capital and literacy are deployed to demonstrate that many fans are highly literate in the subtleties and nuances of their metal subgenres, while displaying forms of symbolic and cultural capital through their accumulated knowledge, musical ability and collecting of artifacts. Finally, conceiving of fandom as a performative project of identity construction, the affective (and aesthetic) attachments, investments and intensities that underpin and shape such forms of extreme metal fandom are also explored.

In this study, we will develop the idea that Extreme Metal, in search of generic renewal due to stagnantion in its musical language since the end of the 2000s, tries to appropriate, or at least adapt to its discourse, some of the codes of contemporary art music. As part of this hypothesis, we propose to illustrate, with examples chosen from the repertoire of the band Dodecahedron, the wide variety of processes implemented in a recent album (2017). This article will discuss the fusion between Plato's solids, "textures" borrowed from composer GyörgyLigeti, and also electronic music.

La música de cada época es producto de un proceso de influencias entre músicos y de cambios de técnicas musicales. Además el entorno social geográfico y político determina los sentimientos e ideas que la música de la época va a transmitir. De esta misma manera el Heavy Metal va a tomar su forma a partir de una evolución de técnicas e influencias que serán complementadas por los nuevos sentimientos derivados de la situación vital de la época.
El Heavy Metal así como ningún género de calidad se detiene en un solo punto. Cada grupo aportará nuevo material de análisis. Sin embargo se puede definir un punto clímax en donde hay ciertas características en común que engloba el significado de Heavy Metal.  A continuación se analizará el proceso de construcción del Heavy metal como género. Para ello se explicarán las principales características que identifican el género. Además se mencionan los datos más importantes sobre los diferentes grupos influyentes en la consolidación del género y de los grupos pioneros. A modo de ejemplo se analizarán una pieza de cada grupo mencionado aplicando los conceptos característicos del género y su proceso evolutivo. Eventualmente se mencionará el significado de las letras según su contexto pero este aspecto quedará en segundo plano.
El metal llegó a ser un fenómeno mundial que se introduce en todo tipo de culturas. Incluso en costa rica el metal llegó a ser un movimiento liderado por varios grupos demostrativos y con una infinidad de bandas de Garage que no se dan a conocer por falta de promoción, medios económicos y tecnológicos, pero no por falta de talento. Este trabajo también abarcará una descripción un análisis de los principales grupos de Heavy Metal.

Na perspectiva das filosofias da diferença, principalmente no pensamento de Nietzsche e Foucault, o poder não precisa ser compreendido somente sob os auspícios da dominação e do controle, mas principalmente como um exercício nas relações de forças. Porém, ao tornar-se uma obsessão, a adoração e obstinação pelo exercício do poder acabam por descambar em uma atividade fascista, seja ela na dimensão macro ou micropolítica. Utilizando os conceitos de poder e resistência
presentes no trabalho de Foucault, e em alguns intérpretes do pensamento libertário contemporâneo e das filosofias da diferença, esta tese busca realizar uma série de diálogos entre a educação e a ecologia, sem necessariamente estabelecer princípios ou fundamentos de uma educação ambiental. A proposta deste trabalho, inversa e disjuntiva às propositivas oficialistas e normalizadoras em educação ambiental, é
levantar algumas possibilidades de promover relações entre a educação e a ecologia que resistam à imposição de uma lógica unívoca, condutiva e policialesca. Na primeira parte, o conceito de poder é utilizado para discutir a promoção da unificação, da homogeneização e da cristalização das práticas cotidianas sob a égide da Educação Ambiental institucionalizada nas políticas públicas, destacando as discussões sobre as relações entre o poder e o saber, a normalização, a pastoralidade, a
governamentalidade e o exercício policial. Na segunda parte, são abordadas possibilidades de resistências que buscam inverter (no sentido de inversão nietzscheana-deleuziana da filosofia) e tornar menor (como condição insubmissa e rebelde do pensamento e da prática cotidiana) a ecologia e a
educação, assim como a relação entre as duas. Os aspectos licantrópico (de “monstruosidade” mestiça e híbrida), infernal (de rompimento com o Uno e multiplicador das diferenças) e ruidoso (do incômodo ao pensamento e a uma ilusória harmonia) dessas relações menores e inversas entre a educação e a ecologia estão presentes, nessa tese, nos discursos e capas dos álbuns de diversos conjuntos heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, hardcore e grindcore, ou seja, do que pode ser chamado de (anti)música ou música extrema.

Palavras-chave: Poder, resistência, ecologia, educação, música extrema

This edited volume demonstrates the emergence of a "metal studies" domain of academic discourse, with contributors mainly from sociology, sociocultural anthropology, and ethnomusicology. Studies of different nationalities and culture formation of local scenes are applied to descriptive ethnographic and ethnological cases, and issues of globalization and the center/periphery ideas that such analysis entails is a common theme.

A través del método etnohistórico y algunos abordajes teóricos interdisciplinarios, se plantea a la perspectiva emic en la que está inmersa el testimonio del autor como herramienta aprovechable junto a los otros testimonios recopilados en un esfuerzo de analizar los procesos históricos que competen al movimiento musical del Metal en su ciudad, Mérida, cuáles han sido sus orígenes e influencias, su desarrollo histórico y su realidad en el presente.

Palabras clave: Rock, Metal, Etnohistoria, Imaginarios.

Rebellion in the haunt. The cultural legacy of the musical movement of metal in Mérida: An ethnohistorical contribution.

Abstract Through the ethnohistorical method and some interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, it is posed to the emic perspective in which the authors testimony is immersed like a useful tool together with the other testimonies collected in an effort to analyze the historical processes that correspond to the musical movement of Metal in his city, Mérida, what his origins and influences have been, his historical development and his reality in the present.

En este trabajo exploraré la construcción de identidades y estereotipos sobre la escena metalera desde la pantalla chica. El cine, así como los programas televisivos, han jugado un papel fundamental en la reproducción del “canon” metalero.  Destacan series animadas como Beavis and Butt-Head, transmitidas por la Music Television (MTV) en los años noventa del siglo XX, la cual dio paso a series posmodernas como Metalocalypse, en donde se privilegia la vida de los músicos y no tanto la de los fans.
Si los productos fílmicos, audiovisuales y televisivos pueden verse como documentos etnográficos que evidencian un contexto cultural, independientemente de la intencionalidad del autor, entonces las imágenes televisivas asociadas con la escena metalera serán filtradas y re-significadas por cada sujeto y colectividad. Estos imaginarios ficcionales, que pueden o no corresponder con la realidad, generan estigmas, identidades, tabúes, temores y, paradójicamente, la reproducción de la escena metalera mundial a través de diversos consumos culturales. Se analizará la imagen global del Heavy Metal en las narrativas de Metalocalypse y cómo éstas evidencian la estructuralidad metalera, ello a partir de un ejercicio etnográfico entre los participantes de esta comunidad de sentido en la Ciudad de México. Los testimonios etnográficos fueron seleccionados aleatoriamente para apuntalar mis interpretaciones.

This study’s main objective was to explore the general, philosophical conception of power to see if talking about power in metal is a positive or a negative thing for its culture. It is often claimed that metal is about power. If we define power as domination, as it usually is, then power in metal could be used as yet one more instance of oppression in our societies. However, if we see power as a ‘cluster concept’ with multiple meanings, then we cannot consistently attribute to metal just one interpretation. So, if we alternatively think of power as resistance and/or empowerment, we can justify metal as an emancipatory experience and a lifestyle.

The present study aims to investigate, through mythocriticism, the song «Revived» by the early Finnish Death Metal band Adramelech. The article will focus on the symbolic constellation which lies beneath the lyrics of this song also in relation to the cover artwork of the EP from which it is drawn, «Spring of Recovery» (1992). The first part of the study will analyze Revived’s scenario of "initiatory death": the "Regressus ad Originem" – i.e. the return to the germinal stage –, grounded in an intense aquatic imaginary, eventually reveals itself to be a "Regressus ad Uterum", that is a regression into the watery abyss of gestation. Then, the symbolism of the immersion into the "spring of recovery" – a key-syntagm which again informs the whole EP’s title – will be explored. Through its matricial and primordial Water, the chthonic spring bestows onto the initiate a prodigious "renovatio", which starts his uterine ascent. This study will thus demonstrate how some representative artists of the Death Metal subgenre – authentic postmodern lyric poets – evoke and recombine the most fecund archetypes of the collective unconscious, substantiating Mircea Eliade’s assumption according to which "poetry renews and continues the myths" even within contemporary multimedial universe.

Reviewed by Bente Kiilerich The concepts 'classical antiquity' and 'heavy metal music' may appear to be worlds apart. Not only are they separated chronologically but each belongs to an entirely different habitus. While the classical is associated with tradition, good taste and

Resumen: Uno de los problemas clásicos de la investigación musical estriba en vincular de algún modo las estructuras sonoras de una época, con su correlato social, económico político y cultural. No obstante, esta correlación se hace más obvia en épocas de crisis, como ocurrió con la eclosión del Metal Medallo, y la guerra entre el narcotráfico y el estado colombiano en la Medellín de la década de los ochenta. En ese contexto surge Alex Oquendo-figura icónica del death metal-que al día de hoy continúa siendo un referente insoslayable del canto gutural o growl. A pesar de la evidente relación entre la agresividad de su voz, y la violencia extrema desatada en el país, hasta ahora no se habían publicado estudios sobre el particular. A partir de ideas como vocalidad y embodiment, trataremos de explicar cómo y por qué la escena del Metal Medallo no es sólo efecto sino premonición de la violencia desatada en esa época, y el estertor-la "voz de la muerte" su más conspicuo reflejo. Además, haremos un breve ejercicio de comparación de una canción emblemática del heavy metal de esa época, "Todo hombre es una historia", cantada por Elkin Ramírez líder de la reconocida agrupación Kraken, con la versión que hace Oquendo en voz gutural acompañado por la misma banda.

El siguiente artículo versa sobre la recepción que los músicos suecos At the
Gates elaboran de los cuentos del escritor argentino Jorge Luis Borges. Su influencia se
encuentra en algunas de las letras de las canciones del álbum At War with Reality (2014a). At
the Gates presenta una refiguración (Ricoeur, 2009) de la narrativa borgiana y crea
redescripciones de las tramas y escenarios de los relatos. Además, en las letras de las canciones
se encuentran intertextualidades (Zavala, 2017) que relacionan la propuesta artística de los
músicos nórdicos con la narrativa del latinoamericano. Se evidencia que la propuesta de At
the Gates contra una realidad impuesta es semejante al quiebre de la realidad presente en la
trama del cuento borgiano.
The following paper discusses the reception of Jorge Luis Borges Short-
stories by the Swedish band At the Gates. The influence of the South-American author is
made evident in some of the lyrics in the At War with Reality (2014a) album. At the Gates
presents a refiguration (Ricoeur, 2009) of the borgesian narrative and creates redescriptions of
the plots and the setting. Besides, the lyrics contain intertextual elements (Zavala, 2017) that
are related with the texts of the Latin-American writer. This paper shows a proposal of At
the Gates against an imposition of reality that is similar to that in Borges’ work.

¿CÓMO CITAR?
Lagos Chacón, P. M. (2021). La Responsabilidad en la Producción Cultural. Primer Encuentro Internacional de Empresa y Tecnología en la Frontera 2021, Centro Tecnológico de Cúcuta [CTC]. PDF. https://www.academia.edu/50852844/La_Responsabilidad_en_la_Producción_Cultural

En vista de una desigualdad social que vive cotidianamente el país (Índice de Desarrollo Regional - Latinoamerica (IDERE LATAM), 2020), la cual ha llevado a diferentes grupos ciudadanos a manifestarse de formas pacíficas y violentas en espacios físicos y en espacios virtuales dentro del marco del Paro Nacional (Pardo, 2021) en la ciudad de Cúcuta, la siguiente ponencia tiene como objetivo general Conceptualizar una Producción Cultural Responsable con aportes desde: las ciencias sociales, autores como Pierre Bourdieu que no solo estudió la cultura sino que se preocupó por el campo de la producción cultural puntualmente (Rodriguez, 2015); la filosofía, y sus aportes para una comprensión reflexiva sobre el significado de la palabra Responsabilidad desde Europa con Bilbeny y América Latina (Perú) con Miguel Polo; y la música, con el caso de la banda de death metal medellinense Masacre y sus aportes a la construcción de memoria histórica del conflicto armado colombiano. Invitando así a los individuos y grupos que integran el campo de la producción cultural o que desean integrarlo a realizar productos culturales de forma responsable con sus comunidades, con sus contextos naturales y frente a lo político.

We trace the history of Indonesian Islamic metal bands, including Purgatory, Tengkorak and Kodusa, and the One Finger Movement that revolved around these bands (centred mainly on Jakarta). We look at the differences in symbols, heroes, rituals and values between One Finger Movement bands and the Bandung (Indonesia) secular Death Metal scene. We also study Bandung Death Metal band Saffar, which was known for its Islamic lyrics on its debut album but which has been for a few years in something of a limbo owing to the departure of vocalist and lyricist Parjo. We also look at Saffar's positioning of itself as a ‘secular’ band with Islamic and Anti-Zionist lyrical themes rather than as an Islamic band per se. This dichotomy can be best explained by the phrase ‘a band of Muslims rather than a Muslim band’. The secular Bandung scene context is a significant explanatory factor here.

In this reflection, we will develop the idea that Extreme Metal, in
search of the renewal of its somewhat stagnant language since the end of the 2000s, tries to appropriate, or at least adapt to its discourse, some of contemporary art music’s codes. As part of this hypothesis, we propose to illustrate, with examples chosen from the repertoire of the band Dodecahedron, the wide variety of processes implemented in a recent album (2017). This article will discuss the merger between Plato's solids, textures borrowed from composer György Ligeti, and electronic music.

This article sketches Slayer's phenomenology in close connection with Hegel's philosophy. It argues that, while the conceptual and teleological distance between the two parts is definitively a very large one, there are also important and rather unusual points of convergence on several topics, religion and war being the most prominent of them. Taking into account other seminal themes existent both in Slayer's lyrics and, to a certain extent, in Hegel's philosophy-like evil, criminal-ity, scepticism and nihilism, besides the already mentioned religion and war, the article tries to introduce possible common grounds between these two radically different continents, arguing that Hegel's dialectical method can be successfully extended also to apparently 'exotic' themes, as Slayer's phenomenology, among many others.

Baulch studies the individual but intertwined musical subgenres of death metal, punk, and reggae on the Indonesian island of Bali. The analysis comes from the 1990s, a period marked by the deregulation of state-owned media and a change in the character of New Order government policies in Indonesia. Unlike traditional liminal explanations for youth culture, the Balinese are shown to absorb aspects of Western culture into their own.

We trace the history of Indonesian Islamic metal bands, including Purgatory, Tengkorak and Kodusa, and the One Finger Movement that revolved around these bands (centred mainly on Jakarta). We look at the differences in symbols, heroes, rituals and values between One Finger Movement bands and the Bandung (Indonesia) secular Death Metal scene. We also study Bandung Death Metal band Saffar, which was known for its Islamic lyrics on its debut album but which has been for a few years in something of a limbo owing to the departure of vocalist and lyricist Parjo. We also look at Saffar's positioning of itself as a 'secular' band with Islamic and Anti-Zionist lyrical themes rather than as an Islamic band per se. This dichotomy can be best explained by the phrase 'a band of Muslims rather than a Muslim band'. The secular Bandung scene context is a significant explanatory factor here.

In this thesis, I present a series of close readings of metal texts chosen for their rhythmic difficulty. In the first chapter, I address use of polymeter and hypermeter in the music of the metal bands Meshuggah and Intronaut. I draw conclusions about the many complicating factors involved in conceptualizing Meshuggah’s core rhythmic style, the importance of the consistent use of this style in determining meaning, and compare the meanings expressed in Meshuggah’s music to the very different ones expressed in Intronaut’s music.

In the second chapter, I address several instances of tempo ambiguity and tempo change taken from the music of the bands Gojira, Meshuggah, The Contortionist, Animals As Leaders, TesseracT, and Car Bomb. I explore different types of tempo ambiguity and change and their implications for perceptions and conceptions of tempo, pulse, and meter, as well as specific meanings tied more closely to the details of each song.

In the third chapter, I address two more songs in which rhythmic difficulty is created by a lack of pattern and/or pulse. I comment on the ways that rhythm can express randomness, its potential for expressing chaos, and the very different ways in which these techniques are central to the images of the bands Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

I conclude by drawing attention to a theorized link between heaviness (as in “heavy” metal) and disorientation caused by rhythmic complexity, as well as examining the implications of my analysis and synthesizing with the work of others to draw conclusions about the social place of the type of metal I discuss in the broader musical world.

Este artículo presenta un estudio de las construcciones y negociaciones respecto a la identidad de género insertas en los videoclips de dos grupos de metal extremo español. A través de un análisis profundo de la semiótica audiovisual de los casos de estudio y su relación con un marco teórico cuya base principal son los estudios de género en las músicas populares, se pretende mostrar cómo los videoclips, además de productos culturales de promoción y publicitación de las diferentes propuestas musicales, son un medio de transmisión de significados identitarios. Del mismo modo, este trabajo busca observar cómo las negociaciones respecto a género y poder se han desarrollado al mismo tiempo que la escena del metal español hasta alcanzar una alta complejidad, reflejo de una cultura cambiante en la que se insertan múltiples conflictos sociales y culturales
Palabras clave: Identidad de género, metal extremo, videoclip, estudios de género.


This article conducts a research on the constructions and negotiations of gender identity present in the music videos of two extreme metal Spanish bands. The main goal is to show, through a close analysis of the study cases' audiovisual semiotics and its connection to a theoretical framework based on gender and popular music studies, how music videos are not only cultural products of promotion and advertisement, but also a way of transmitting the identitary meanings through the musical discourse. Likewise, this article aims to observe how negotiations on gender and power have developed at the same time that the Spanish metal scene, up to achieve a great complexity that reflects a changing culture in which multiple social and cultural conflicts are inserted.
Keywords: gender identity, extreme metal, music video, gender studies.

In conjunction with Home of Metal and Capsule, this public symposium seeks to bring together researchers, policy makers, heritage and creative workers and musicians. We welcome contributions from fans and heritage consumers in response to their experience of the Home of Metal exhibitions and events which are scheduled for Summer 2019.

An International Conference at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto, October 24th–25th, 2014

Music is present in virtually all human cultures and it has been integral to Christian life and worship for two millennia. In recent scholarship, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between music (as a practice and as an academic discipline) and theology (as an academic discipline arising from the practice of faith).

The purpose of this interdisciplinary conference is to gather together scholars interested in exploring further the relationship between music and theology. In particular, the conference will consider theological issues raised by the social practice of music, and implications for justice, ethics, morality.

For more information: https://musictheologyjustice.wordpress.com/schedule/