Metal Scene Research Articles

Eastern Desekratorz and Nuclear Metal Lust:1 Performing ‘Authentic’ black metal in Malaysian Borneo

Abstract Among the globalized metal scenes of South East Asia, Malaysian Borneo’s black metal (BM) demonstrates a great deal of referencing to the satanic themes and sonic rawness of the first wave of western BM bands such as Venom and Bathory. However, the ways in which Malaysian Borneo black metallers perform what they perceive to be ‘authentic’ BM identity clash with the reality of their everyday lives. In fact, their social backgrounds seem incompatible with the features of BM authenticity they strive to perform. What remains unclear is how and why Malaysian Borneo BM fans and musicians manifested their authentic belonging to this subculture by adopting the genre’s dominant anti-Christian imagery, when in most instances Christianity is not their religion of choice. Qualitative data were collected by ten weeks of ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with eight members of Malaysian Borneo’s BM scene in the states of Sarawak and Sabah. Findings were supported by content analysis of local BM recordings, lyrics and interviews published in independently produced metal fanzines. BM ‘authenticity’ in Malaysian Borneo emerged as a theatrical pursuit of the most shocking global examples of primeval BM, which allows for a troubled, precarious coexistence between perceived ‘authentic’ BM aspirations and everyday social life in the respondents’ lives.

Re-conceptualizing women’s marginalization in heavy metal: A feminist post-structuralist perspective

Abstract The continuing expansion of the field of metal music studies has evoked an increased interest from scholars to critically explore women’s participation within heavy metal, along with other axes of identity, from a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Since Weinstein’s ([1991] 2000) canonical sociological study of heavy metal the notion that heavy metal is masculinist remains theoretically pervasive in gendered analyzes of heavy metal and its practices. The upcoming special issue ‘Metal and Marginalization’ signals the ‘disruptive return of the excluded’ (Butler 2004) whereby concepts of marginalization, inclusivity and agency are called into question. Drawing upon my own doctoral research, this article deconstructs the synonymous and obstructive relationship heavy metal has with masculinity by focusing on women’s embodied practices. Influenced by Butler’s (1990) theory of performativity and poststructural notions of ‘equality’ and ‘inclusivity’ (Butler et al. 1997; Scott 1988), I discuss how heavy metal scenes should be considered spaces of equality and potentiality as they permit different performativities and understandings; thus, creating real pathways for doing metal fandom differently.

They have no right to wear those clothes: The ambivalence of the dress code of German skinheads and Estonian metal heads

Abstract Ever since the beginning of post-subcultural studies, youth studies have developed in the direction of theorizing on the decreasing emphasis on the significance of a coherent style, towards the disappearance of subcultural boundaries and a switching between identities. In our article we are going to demonstrate that in some cases subcultures maintain and defend their style. By highlighting studies of German punks and skinheads and the Estonian metal scene, we show how subcultures develop strategies for defining the boundaries of their scene and collective identity. Subcultures prompt an inner discussion about the ‘real’ and ‘wannabe’ ways of being a member of a scene. We show in the case of German skinheads that a purist cult of ‘old-school’ clothing can appear and demonstrate with the example of Estonian metal fans that a subculture can choose and focus on some elements of style which they claim to be ‘theirs’ and which become central symbols for the metal style. The main platforms for these discussions within both subcultures are printed fanzines and face-to-face interactions. In this manner subcultures develop the ‘communities of practice’, which is critical to the commercialization of former subcultural dress and other commodities. Using social network theories we show that subcultures are capable of establishing methods of inner social control and initiating discussions with the aim of establishing clear boundaries between the mainstream society and their scene, through controlling the ‘meaning of style’. This demonstrates that in combination with network theories the classic subculture theory can still be relevant for understanding music-related social groups.

Predictors of communal formation in a small heavy metal scene: Puerto Rico as a case study

Abstract Heavy metal music has constantly been under scrutiny due to its perceived negative effects on its listeners. Quantitative research has focused on heavy metal music as a risk factor for mental health problems and antisocial behaviour. This research agenda has neglected to explore and quantitatively document how the music can foster positive outcomes among its listeners, in particular a strong sense of community. Fans and producers of heavy metal music constantly reference community as an important aspect of the sonic experience. Still, few studies have addressed the communal experience in heavy metal music from a quantitative perspective. Therefore, the specific aims of this study were to (1) document levels of sense of community among members of the Local Metal Scene (LMS) in Puerto Rico, (2) explore differences on sense of community among core scene members and those at its periphery, and (3) explore predictive variables that can explain sense of community among its members. We present data from a larger study of the metal scene in Puerto Rico, which used a mixed methods approach including ethnographic observations, qualitative interviews and surveys with members of Puerto Rico’s metal scene. Results evidence high levels of sense of community, with existing differences among members of the same scene. Furthermore, our results identify six predictive variables of importance for sense of community among the LMS in Puerto Rico.

Headbanging in Nairobi: The emergence of the Kenyan metal scene and its transformation of the metal code

Abstract In this article, I discuss the development and structures of Kenyan metal culture. In doing so, I show that this local metal culture is dependent on an urban setting that provides electricity, performing venues and the Internet. Furthermore, a growth period is encountered that is characterized by a slowly increasing structural complexity. Additionally, I outline the idea of a metal subject in general and a Kenyan metal subject in particular. Therefore, I follow a praxeological approach that shows that, even if the Kenyan metalheads’ aim is to reproduce the social practices of the global metal culture, new forms of metal practices are thereby produced and the so-called metal code is transformed. I conclude this article by proposing the idea of four transformative boundaries that lead to the emergence of a genuinely Kenyan metal sound. These boundaries are communicational and technological boundaries, boundaries of skill as well as boundaries of local culture.

Tracking timbral changes in metal productions from 1990 to 2013

Abstract The metal scene has undergone an evolution in sonic characteristics that is partially rooted in music technology developments and associated production techniques that have given rise to a set of identifiably distinct ‘metal’ timbres. The science of psychoacoustics provides a measurable way of assessing these perceptual changes. This article proposes a methodology for psychoacoustic analysis in order to track the evolution of metal-specific timbres, and to speculate on the development of, and applications for, timbral metering in metal production. Sampling, synthesis and digital editing techniques have given rise to entirely new genres of music, yet metal as a genre has remained ostensibly with much the same musical format. Nevertheless, the sonic fingerprint of modern metal production often bears the hallmark of these computer-aided developments. In particular, the metal audience is now, consciously or not, used to the sound of triggered drum samples and sound replacement, ‘re-amping’ guitar and bass signals, and the restricted dynamic range of the ‘loudness war’. As a genre that is known for taking joy in all things loud, both anecdotally and in academic research, the issue of manipulating dynamic range compression in order to increase perceptual loudness in modern music production is perhaps even more pertinent to the metal genre than in other popular music forms.

‘MySpace bands’ and ‘tagging wars’: Conflicts of genre, work ethic and media platforms in an extreme music scene

In this paper I interpret the transformations that took place in an extreme metal scene due to online fan interactions during the first wave of music–related online social media between 2004 and 2008. I show how the online success of a band on MySpace led to the devaluation of a whole genre, and also to the decreased reputation of MySpace as a medium among fans, coining the term ‘MySpace band.’ I describe how this judgment was strongly interrelated with the common conviction among fans that the activity of a band on a social platform should not be considered as ‘work’ as opposed to ‘working hard’, playing shows and touring ‘in real life’. In another case study I examine how the use of the tagging function on Last.fm lead to conflicts regarding the categorization of the genre and ignited vivid debates in the scene. The boundaries of the scene became uncontrollable in the open online social sphere, with newcomers transforming the representation of the scene in real time. Through those case studies, on the one hand, my aim is to show the interrelation of culture and technology: how value judgments on social boundaries, genres and work ethics are closely bound up with the uses and interpretations of media platforms. On the other hand, as subcultural and post–subcultural explanation schemes too could be applied to those scenic practices, I suggest that instead of concentrating on the presumed structural nature of scenes, focusing on the discursive constructions of genre may offer a fruitful avenue for understanding collectivities of musical taste.

Approaching the Underground

This article aims to shed light on how and why the underground urban metal scene in Bangladesh came into existence, and why it takes the forms it takes in this post-colonial country. Consistent with much recent work about alternative rock, it is argued that the concept of scene is helpful in this task because it allows a framework through which to understand how multiple elements come together but never fully cohere into a unified subcultural whole that has a ‘straightforward’ relationship with a cultural locality. Based on interviews with key figures in the scene, ethnographic observation and textual analysis, the article proposes that urban youths' frustration with the poor state of conditions in the country is channelled into a passion to build an alternative space. The exploration of foreign musical styles and the fantasy worlds of metal allow participants to occupy ‘another place’. While participants assert the distinction of their music from mainstream rock and pop, one of the main findings is that they are not much concerned about the idea of selling out to the corporate music industry if they become popular. Rather, translocal connections with other underground scenes existing elsewhere are emphasized in a local scene that remains tied to the activities of a largely middle-class, part-time, male population of artists who share particular social and economic resources. These resources afford their participation in the metal scene. The findings lead to questions about the extent to which the scene reproduces alternative rock discourses about authenticity and implicit critiques of capitalism, and also whether its transnationalism contributes to the hybridization of global cultural forms.

Symbolic Capital and Gender: Evidence from Two Cultural Fields

This article builds a gendered understanding of Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital. Through a comparison of two cultural fields – the heavy metal scene and the contemporary folk scene in Toronto, Canada – I show that field structure impacts the extent to which gendered dispositions (which we can understand as masculine capital and feminine capital) are exchangeable for symbolic capital, or reputation. Using semi-structured interviews, discourse analysis, and participant observation, I highlight two features of the fields that shape the extent to which masculine and feminine capital produce symbolic capital: the degree to which symbolic capital is institutionalized, and the level of symbolic boundary-drawing in the field. The heavy metal field’s low institutionalization of symbolic capital and high symbolic boundaries heighten the salience of gender as a basis of symbolic capital, while the folk field’s high institutionalization of symbolic capital and low symbolic boundary-drawing reduce the extent to which gender matters.

On your knees and pray! The role of religion in the development of a metal scene in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico

Abstract Heavy metal music is simultaneously reflective of, and reactive to, the cultural underpinnings of the spaces in which it is created. Wallach et al. have emphasized the need to understand metal music outside of Anglo-American contexts and culture. Although the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico seems like an unlikely scenario for the emergence of a metal scene, it has in fact existed via underground means for the past 25 years. Due to the Island’s strong Hispanic and Catholic roots, stemming from Spanish colonialism in the fifteenth century, religion has played a central role in the development of the local metal scene. The first systematic organization of a metal scene was structured by Christian metal groups under the name of ‘Metal Mission’ and served as a meeting space for social interaction based on metal music and religion. The objective of this article is to document the role of Christian religion in the emergence and maintenance of a metal scene in Puerto Rico. We will present data from a larger study of the metal scene in Puerto Rico, which used a mixed methods approach including ethnographic observations (300 hours), qualitative interviews (n=50) and surveys (n=400) with members of Puerto Rico’s metal scene. Although metal music has roots in critical perspectives towards religion, our research shows how it has also helped shape the Island’s metal scene.

Mapping the underground: An ethnographic cartography of the Leeds extreme metal scene

Abstract This article centralizes changes within Leeds’ popular ‘musicscape’, i.e., the relations between popular music and urban landscape. Focusing on Leeds’ extreme heavy metal musicscape, we map sites of the Leeds metal scene (past and present) in order to understand the shifting social relationships, effects of city centre regeneration, and the ways in which heavy metal music scenes have the ability to adapt and respond to continual modifications within the urban city. To address these concerns, we draw upon scholarship from popular music and place, heavy metal and human geography. Heavy metal scenes are a significant, yet often invisible and under-acknowledged, part of the urban cultural landscape. Mapping the metal musicscape, then, becomes an important way to understand broader physical, social, political, and cultural changes that occur to, and within, the postmodern city.

‘Ons is saam’ – Afrikaans metal and rebuilding whiteness in the Rainbow Nation

Abstract The South African general election of 1994 installed a democratic system of government in a nation that had ruptured by violent segregation since 1948. While the ‘miracle’ of the Rainbow Nation aimed for a unified state, the redistribution of power heralded by the rise of ‘new’ South Africa left much of the white Afrikaner population with a sense of loss. The task of the post-apartheid Afrikaner cultural industry is now concerned with finding a place for the Afrikaner in modern South Africa. As such, this article explores how ‘Afrikaans metal’ has been compliant in fostering a sense of community and encourages sentiments of localized belonging. The passion and dynamism of heavy metal allows for the proliferation of a metal scene explicitly concerned with the promotion of an Afrikaner identity, performing in Afrikaans and creating Afrikaans metal for South African metal fans. However, just as the Afrikaner community at large struggles to find a white identity untarnished by apartheid, Afrikaans metal fans and bands face a similarly complex mission. Afrikaans metal represents a site within which this ‘lost’ Afrikaner identity can be both reclaimed and contested, and thus renegotiates the role of Africa’s ‘white tribe’ into the twenty-first century.

Female, Mosher, Transgressor: A 'Moshography' of Transgressive Practices within the Leeds Extreme Metal Scene

This paper examines and reconceptualises transgression in the Leeds extreme metal music subculture through theories of performance, embodiment and spectacle. The spectacle, for Debord (1967), is a social relation that is alienating and mediated by images and technology. At a live extreme metal concert fans subvert social norms, challenge gendered expectations, and disregard hegemonic norms of etiquette and decency. Moshing is the most visible and sensuous example of transgression within the extreme metal scene. It is an aggressive, physically demanding performance which embodies resistance to the impersonal and disillusioning world of the spectacle (Halnon 2004). The pit is a transgressive space that is itself transgressed by women who participate in this masculine, chaotic space, disrupting the homosocial bonds of male solidarity (Gruzelier 2007). This paper offers an ethnographic account of a female metal fan participating in the transgressive practice of moshing within the Leeds metal music scene---a moshography.

Grunting Alone? Online Gender Inequality in Extreme Metal Music

The global metal scene is a highly skewed field of cultural production in which women are greatly under-represented. As tokens, women are likely to be subjected to gender-biased evaluations, the male gaze, and are held accountable when breaking gender roles. This paper investigates the online gender dynamics in extreme metal by conducting a content analysis of the comments on videos of females (and males) performing ‘vocal covers’ on YouTube. Surprisingly, men and women tend to be evaluated along similar lines, suggesting the possibility that women might utilize the Internet for individual music production to circumvent offline gender inequality.

Sex and Gender in the 1980s Heavy Metal Scene: Groupies, Musicians, and Fans Recall Their Experiences

Groupies, heavy metal musicians, and highly devoted fans (metalheads) were some of the most salient identity groups for teenagers and emerging adults in the 1980s—the tail end of the Baby Boom and the beginning of the newly emerging Generation X. Met with appalled reactions from conventional society, the heavy metal scene nevertheless appeared to help at least some disenchanted youth negotiate turbulent times. The present study of 144 middle-aged 1980s groupies, metal fans, and professional musicians used both quantitative and qualitative data to develop insights into the developmental processes of these emerging adults of the 1980s. Metalheads described their childhood experiences, including maltreatment, their sexual and substance use activities in the 1980s, identity issues, and reported on current indicators of adjustment, such as education, mental health, and happiness. The results confirm that youth involved in the metal scene had high rates of substance use, risky sexual behaviors, and especially for groupies, traumatic childhood experiences, as well as drug dependence and sexual violence during their groupie days. However, despite their trauma and risky behaviors, participants were able to thrive and develop healthy adult lives, from which they look back fondly on those 1980s experiences. The richness of these data provide insights into the search for identity for marginalized youth, and provide hypotheses for future research on the understudied developmental processes of such adolescent style cultures.

Grunting Alone? Online Gender Inequality in Extreme Metal Music

The global metal scene is a highly skewed field of cultural production in which women are greatly under-represented. As tokens, women are likely to be subjected to gender-biased evaluations, the male gaze, and are held accountable when breaking gender roles. This paper investigates the online gender dynamics in extreme metal by conducting a content analysis of the comments on videos of females (and males) performing ‘vocal covers’ on YouTube. Surprisingly, men and women tend to be evaluated along similar lines, suggesting the possibility that women might utilize the Internet for individual music production to circumvent offline gender inequality.

Heavy metal: controversies and countercultures

1. Introduction: Heavy Metal as Controversy and Counterculture Titus Hjelm, Keith Kahn-Harris & Mark LeVine Part I: Controversies 2. Suicide Solutions? Or how the Emo Class of 2008 were Able to Contest their Media Demonization, whereas the Headbangers, Burnouts or 'Children of ZoZo' Generation were not Andy R. Brown, Bath Spa University 3. 'How You Gonna See Me Now': Recontextualizing Metal Artists and Moral Panics Brad Klypchak, Texas A & M University - Commerce 4. Triumph of the Maggots? Valorization of Metal in the Rock Press Helene Laurin 5. Dworkin's Nightmare: Porn Grind as the Sound of Feminist Fears Lee Barron, Northumbria University 6. The 'Double Controversy' of Christian Metal Marcus Moberg, Abo Akademi University, Finland 7. Hellfest: The Thing that Should not be? Local Perceptions and Catholic Discourses on Metal Culture in France Gerome Guibert, University Paris III, and Jedediah Sklower, independent scholar Part II: Countercultures 8. Malang, Indonesia and Toledo, USA: A Theory of Metal Scene Formation Jeremy Wallach, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and Alexandra Levine 9. Voice of Our Blood: National Socialist Discourses in Black Metal Benjamin Hedge Olson 10. Extreme Music for Extreme People? Norwegian Black Metal and Transcendent Violence Michelle Phillipov, University of Tasmania 11. The Extreme Metal 'Connoisseur' Nicola Allett, Louchborough University 12. Black Metal Soul Music: Stone Vengeance and the Aesthetics of Race in Heavy Metal Kevin Fellezs, Columbia University 13. (I) Hate Girls and Emo(tion)s: Negotiating Masculinity in Grindcore Music Rosemary Overell 14. Heavy Metal and the Deafening Threat of the Apolitical Niall Scott, University of Central Lancashire

Female, Mosher, Transgressor: A 'Moshography' of Transgressive Practices within the Leeds Extreme Metal Scene

This paper examines and reconceptualises transgression in the Leeds extreme metal music subculture through theories of performance, embodiment and spectacle. The spectacle, for Debord (1967), is a social relation that is alienating and mediated by images, visuals, and technology. At a live extreme metal concert fans subvert social norms, challenge gendered expectations, and disregard norms of etiquette and decency. Moshing is the most visible and sensuous example of transgression within the extreme metal scene. It is an aggressive, physically demanding performance which embodies resistance to the impersonal and disillusioning world of the spectacle (Halnon, 2004). The pit is a transgressive space that is itself transgressed by women who participate in this masculine, chaotic space, disrupting the homosocial bonds of male solidarity (Gruzelier, 2007). This paper offers an ethnographic account of a female metal fan participating in the transgressive practice of moshing within the Leeds metal music scene – a moshography.

The Study of Soil Arsenic Pollution in the Slag Field of Plateau Lake Yangzonghai Lake Area

To figure out the arsenic pollution source and characteristics in the slag field around the Yangzonghai Lake, we made deep monitoring analysis. We employed the X fluorescence metal scene analyzer and also the traditional atomic fluorescence spectrometry method for precision analysis. It finds out the arsenic pollution level, spatial change regulation, the vertical distribution characteristics, and pollution diffusion path. The work could provide effectively technical support for the soil arsenic pollution prevention in the area.

Metal rules the globe: heavy metal music around the world

Part 1. Introduction: The Global Conquest of an Outcast Genre Affective Overdrive, Scene Dynamics, and Identity in the Global Metal Scene / Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, and Paul D. Greene 3 The Globalization of Metal / Deena Weinstein 34 Part 2. Metal, Gender, Modernity A Dream Return to Tang Dynasty: Masculinity, Male Camaraderie, and Chinese Heavy Metal in the 1990s / Cynthia P. Wong 63 Unleashed in the East: Metal Music, Masculinity, and Malayness in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore / Jeremy Wallach 86 Part 3. Metal and the Nation Electronic and Affective Overdrive: Tropes of Transgression in Nepal's Heavy Metal Scene / Paul D. Greene 109 Otherwise National: Locality and Power in the Art of Sepultura / Idelber Avelar 135 Part 4. Metal and Extremist Ideologies The Marketing of Anglo-Identity in the North American Hatecore Metal Industry / Sharon Hochhauser 161 Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal / Ross Hagen 180 Are from Israel and That is Enough to Hate You Forever: Racism, Globalization, and Play within the Global Extreme Metal Scene / Keith Kahn-Harris 200 Part 5. Metal and the Music Industry Arenas of the Imagination: Global Tours and the Heavy Metal Concert in the 1970s / Steve Waksman 227 Thunder in the Far East: The Heavy Metal Industry in 1990s Japan / Kei Kawano and Shuhei Hosokawa 247 Part 6. Small Nation/Small Scene Case Studies Metal in a Micro Island State: An Insider's Perspective / Albert Bell 271 Noisy Crossroads: Metal Scenes in Slovenia / Rajko Mursic 294 Nako: The Metal in the Marrow of Easter Island Music / Dan Bendrups 313 Afterword / Robert Walser 333 Acknowledgments 337 Works Cited 339 Contributors 367 Index 371