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Asja Voronkova
Center for Youth Studies at theNational Research University – High School of Economics,
St. Petersburg
Death And Emotions, 19.11.2011Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Death Metal: How The Social Defines The Aesthetic
Heavy Metal: An Overview
Although using the same basic set of instruments, rock and heavy metal are semantically different
Heavy metal culture started as an opposition to the mainstream culture as well as the pacifist hippie culture associated with rock music
The main value of heavy metal is “reality”
Underground Heavy Metal In The 1980s: Transformation Of The
Topic Of The “Real”
Heavy metal splits into the mainstream and underground branches, the underground branch acquiring the label “extreme”
Extreme metal is characterized by “musical radicalism” – Keith Kahn-Harris. This subgenre continues the search for the “real” on the base of nihilism.
“Only death is real” – Hellhammer, “Messiah”
Musical Features Of Death Metal: Overview
Hardcore punk as the main source for new means of expression: general musical aggressiveness tendency towards experimenting chromatic riffing song structure doesn't depend on harmonies rhythmic structures and riffing take over the
duty to hold the structure together, which suppresses the melody
Deena Weinstein “Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology” (1991): a sociologist's point of view that omits musical features, losing important information
However, this method is applicable to old school death metal (of the 1980s), because musically it is not interesting enough
“Zombie Ritual” – Death, from the album Scream Bloody Gore
(1987)
<...>Stare into his eyesNow in his spellKiss the rotting fleshNow you're in hell
Drink from the goblet, the goblet of goreTaste the zombie's drug, now you want moreDrifting from the living, joining with the deadZombie dwelling maggots now infest your head<...>
...And There Are Reasons To Be Scared, Indeed
Strategic Defense Initiative Program Chernobyl disaster AIDS Conservative leaders closing their eyes on all of
the above
Ulrich Beck: Risk Society
Horror movies Development of visual component in music results in
the need for provocation Pop goes with the topic of sex Underground is interested in dying!
Zygmunt Bauman: “The remoteness and unreachability of systemic structure, coupled with the unstructured, fluid state of the immediate setting of life-politics...call for a rethinking of old concepts that used to frame its narratives. Like zombies, such concepts are today simultaneously dead and alive.” – Liquid Modernity (2000)
“Intoxicated” – Obituary, from the album Slowly We Rot (1989)
Robbed of the soul. Live in hell.Rise above the charred believings' bowel.Rise above the soul's chalky chains.Give the destiny what it's named.The darkest white brought in death balloons soon to come.Rise above the dark demon's tower.Body's seized the charge.You've killed yourself.
Rotting the soul to leave.Ranting, "she's one to give."Darkening your soul to waste.Ranting, "She's soon to gain."Rotting above the tide.Ranting, "She's holding time."Killing their souls in pain.Ranting, "she's one to gain."
Semantic Collapse
Death metal becomes relatively popular in the 90s, after the end of Cold War
There is no more need in the ideology of suppressed fears
Result: change of topic!
Conclusion
Early death metal mirrored what the creators of this music felt about the time they were living in
Slow rotting and walking dead seem to be good metaphors for the social processes of the 1980s (Beck, Bauman)
