{"title":"Defining contemporary metal music: Performance, sounds and practices","authors":"M. Mynett","doi":"10.1386/mms.5.3.297_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms.5.3.297_1","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary Metal Music (CMM) features, usually down tuned, harmonically distorted timbres, and from a performance perspective regularly contains fast and frequently complex subdivisions, as well as highly synchronized instrumentation. The combination of these elements results in a significant concentration of dense musical sound usually referred to as “heaviness”. From a performance, sounds, practices and production aesthetics perspective, this article proposes the broad musical parameters for CMM’s heaviness, and from this viewpoint likewise seeks to distinguish CMM from traditional heavy metal music. The analytical perspective implemented in this article adopts aspects of the theoretical frameworks developed by Allan F. Moore (2001) in Rock: The Primary Text. Moore expresses the challenges encountered in imparting a definition of rock, stating, “we are always in the process of defining rock, and no formulation I shall offer can be considered definitive” (Moore 2001, p.4). There are numerous similar problems when attempting to classify musical parameters for Contemporary Metal Music (CMM) (Walser, 1993; Shuker, 2005; Weinstein, 2011). For example, there is the possibility that oversimplifications are made through excessively broad generalisations. However, Moore’s sentiments regarding a model of style for rock music could be seen as equally valid when applied to CMM. Therefore, although there can be no unchanging and definitive description of CMM, the author similarly proposes that there are ways of expressing common musical sounds, performance perspectives and a coherent set of practices that are frequently shared. In addition to proposing these common sounds, perspectives and practices, the methodology implemented in this article is further influenced by Allan F. Moore (2001). Moore distinguishes heavy metal from hard rock from the perspectives of: structure; tempo; guitar articulation; instrumentation and associated texture; vocals; and from numerous elements collectively referred to as ‘formal predictability’ (Moore, 2001, pp.157-151). In a comparable manner, this body of work seeks to distinguish, and provide a clear delineation between, CMM and traditional heavy metal (THM), and as “points on a style continuum” (Moore, 2001, p.148).","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45113324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Breaking down the breakdown in twenty-first-century metal","authors":"Steven Gamble","doi":"10.1386/mms.5.3.337_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms.5.3.337_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42422248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metal and Musicology","authors":"Lewis F. Kennedy, M. Yavuz","doi":"10.1386/mms.5.3.293_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms.5.3.293_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1386/mms.5.3.293_2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48706329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Harmonic function and modality in classic heavy metal1","authors":"E. Lilja","doi":"10.1386/mms.5.3.355_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/mms.5.3.355_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43343423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Songs of Injustice: Heavy Metal Music in Latin America, Nelson Varas-Díaz (2019), Heavy Metal Studies in Latin America","authors":"Adrián Márquez Rabuñal","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.275_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.275_5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47787401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vigilante feminism as a form of musical protest in extreme metal music","authors":"Joan Jocson-Singh","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.263_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.263_1","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on my 2016 ethnographic research on women in New York’s extreme metal music scene, this short article discusses the emerging concept of vigilante feminism; a term first coined by American Studies professor Laura D’Amore in her 2017 study, Vigilante Feminism: Revising Trauma, Abduction, and Assault in American Fairy Tale Revisions. Through interviews with the death metal band Castrator, the role of the female musician and fan in the extreme metal music (EMM) scene is explored. Using the lens of vigilante feminism as a form of musical protest, I analyse lyrical content, performativity and the ways in which female musicians navigate the traditionally masculine-coded subculture. I argue that for some female death metal musicians, vigilante feminism acts as a form of empowerment which enables them to coexist in a liminal space so often dominated by their male counterparts.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44968743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Postmodernism in Lou Reed and Metallica’s collaborative album Lulu: The subjective perception of highbrow and lowbrow","authors":"D. Gibson","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.187_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.187_1","url":null,"abstract":"The 2011 collaborative album Lulu (by Lou Reed and Metallica) presents one with what can be clearly identified as a ‘clash’ between highbrow and lowbrow culture. This ‘clash’, as will be demonstrated in this article, attempts to ‘blur’ what the media tries to enforce by revealing that Metallica and Lou Reed in actuality cannot be exclusively defined by one coherent label. The intended implication is that the album should not be dismissed as its impact, as Metallica’s first postmodern album, ought to be remembered and formally recognized as such – a postmodern experimental metal album.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66737973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Sans compassion nor will to answer whoever asketh the why’: Personal sovereignty within black metal","authors":"Kevin Hoffin","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.151_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.151_1","url":null,"abstract":"The importance of personal sovereignty in black metal cannot be overstated. After all, we are the ‘wolves amongst sheep’. Presented here are the results of a documentary analysis (consisting of subcultural output and various studies) research project intended to analyse the wolf imagery in black metal wherever it may appear and regurgitate and reform these depictions in terms of their representations of personal sovereignty. For those who embrace the lycanthropic and colour their interactions with the world around them with hues of such dark, lupine tenets, this project will peruse these values through the philosophical kaleidoscopes. It will posit, hopefully convincingly, that the black metal subculture is rife with complications and contradictions – a paradoxical slant into a personal sovereignty that can never be attained, remaining frustratingly out of reach.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43719676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peace of mind: The impact of metal gestures on stress and power","authors":"Susan Eischeid, J. Kneer, B. Englich","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.137_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.137_1","url":null,"abstract":"Findings on metal research show an action-oriented, socially competent and less stressed community, opposing the assumption that metal reduces well-being and induces depression. Our study aimed to investigate the stress-reducing effects of metal for its fans and if this is influencing power experience. The idea is based on findings that indicate positive psychological and physical effects of music in general as well as the stress-reducing effects found for open, expansive gestures (e.g. ‘Metal gestures’). After stress was raised, participants listened either to metal or to classical music. While music was played, movements of half of the participants were blocked, thus, metal gestures were not possible. Metal music led to stress reduction of such blocked movements while classical music was found only to reduce stress when movements were not blocked. Stress reduction predicted the experience of power, but metal music and movements did not.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1386/MMS.5.2.137_1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48038137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Worshippers of the sugarcane fields: Agrarian politics, symbolic inversion and black metal in Indonesia","authors":"Russell P. Skelchy","doi":"10.1386/MMS.5.2.163_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MMS.5.2.163_1","url":null,"abstract":"The inverted cross as a symbol in black metal music has long associated the genre with the mysterious and transgressive aura of the occult. Although the inverted cross can be construed as simultaneously sinister and frivolous, the idea of social inversion carries broader implications. Drawing from interpretations of social and symbolic inversion from multiple disciplines, this article examines how social order is contested and negotiated in Indonesia through the musical idiom of black metal. Indonesia currently has the world’s largest Muslim population and is one of Asia’s fastest growing economies; its transition to democracy since 1998 has been touted as an example of how Islam, capitalism and democracy can successfully coexist. And yet democratization and the expanded influence of capitalism have had uneven (or deleterious) results in halting the country’s increasing wealth gap. Using the Indonesian black metal act Bvrtan as a case study, I describe how their song lyrics, sampled sounds and visual artwork convey the exigencies of the Indonesian agrarian class in a shifting political landscape. Furthermore, I argue that Bvrtan use black metal as a space of social inversion in a way that simultaneously upholds the virtues and values of agricultural workers while depicting a dystopian world where they are further marginalized in the ongoing project of constructing a modern Indonesia.","PeriodicalId":36868,"journal":{"name":"Metal Music Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44956273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}