Why Metal Intrigues
(Some of) The Many Faces Of Metal
A Cut Above:Take a listen as you read through this article
Like a musical version of the argument for women to have equal rights as men a few decades back, metal music has long since been discriminated by the mainstream masses who typically advocate the likes of Britney Spears of the pop genre, and the extremely famous Beatles of the rock genre, as an ‘illegitimate’ sort of genre.
Let’s get some things straight for a start. In this open-minded music lover’s opinion...
(1) Metal is NOT noisy. It merely has a different (I prefer ‘unique’ actually) musical structure from mainstream genres, and has an exotic breed of sound never before heard in the history of contemporary music (up ‘til 1970 of course, when Black Sabbath finally first brought to the masses “heavy metal”). That is why it seems ‘unacceptable’, because it does not conform to the norm. Let us ask ourselves this question then. Is the norm absolutely the “correct” way of doing things then? In the realms of something that is supposed to be ruled by creativity and not conformity?
(2) Metal is NOT satanic. With the exception of some extreme black metal bands, metal music is largely in the same lyrical universe as their pop, punk, and rock counterparts, with some of the most ubiquitous ones being world peace and human ethics. Yes, many metal bands like to sport long & wild hair, and a multitude of tattoos and facial piercings, but that is all for the sake of creating the image they desire for their band. Does painting your fingernails black, or putting black eyeliner, or even white face makeup that make you look like a ghost equate to Satanism? If so, I would really doubt Avril Lavigne being a devout Catholic then. Oh yes, the frontman of American alternative metal band, Slipknot, is a devout Christian by the way, and all of his band members (including himself) put on devious-looking masks and costumes during their live performances.
(3) Metal is NOT responsible for inducing aggressive behaviour. Much as many of this genre’s music videos and live performances have crazy antics and sometimes dangerous acts being performed, they are just pure poetry on-stage. People like to see (or hear) such things in the world of entertainment, because they know they cannot do it in real life, and thus, releasing this constantly suppressed primal desire through this medium is actually a good thing. Any aggressive behaviour possibly induced in any individual can be safely attributed to their lack of the capacity to discern between what is real and what is not (such was the case with Marilyn Manson being a possible catalyst for the Columbine Shootings of 2000), which is a personal fault and not the music artiste’s.
Now that I have debunked some of the most common myths of metal music, I hope that more people would have a greater understanding of this much misunderstood genre, and hopefully learn to appreciate it more as well.
More on bands below:
Black Sabbath: Legendary English pioneers of heavy metal
Metallica: Their name says it all
Metal is actually really a mutation of blues, a popular form of music typically played by African-Americans at bars and pubs dating back to post-WWII times. Metal just simply imitated it, but replaced the acoustic guitar, saxophone, and piano with the electric guitar, synthesiser, and keyboards respectively. The bass guitar part remains the same for both genres, and as I have mentioned earlier, it is really just of a different breed of sound. Along the ‘80s and ‘90s, metal slowly evolved into what most people know of it today: Heavy, brutal, energetic, and rebellious. However, despite such a brutal image, metal actually has a lot of diversity within its own genre. There are catchy and ultimately listenable songs that do not lose out to their rock and pop peers, such as those from the power and symphonic metal sub-genres, and if you think they are not really musical, think again. They are in fact deeply rooted musically, for they are some of the few contemporary music genres that actually employ full orchestral or orchestral bodies like the string ensemble on a regular basis. Furthermore, metal is the musical epitome of expressing human angst, melancholy, anarchism, and a strong questioning of the way the current world works, all of which are dark intangibles that are impossible to put words to. Therefore, metal music is indeed a medium for channelling all of mankind’s negative intangibles without actually actualising them and hurting anybody or anything along the way, and yet still retains that sweet satisfaction most of us enjoy deriving from musical entertainment. Rather than be frightened by the beast and conform to its intended purpose of scaring you into running away, metal does the opposite by slicing, dicing, ripping, and shredding away at the beast to scare it away instead, all with boldness and grace. Now, isn’t that just so brutally beautiful?
Agathodaimon: German hellbringer of gothic melodies
Norther: Stellar guitar shredders of Finland
Also, another interesting point to note about metal would be its occasional presentation of complicated ideas. Some people have that stereotypical view of metal talking about death, rape, rebelliousness, and other uncouth matters (such as satirically spoofed in the Japanese comedy movie, Detroit Metal City (2009)) all the time, which is dead wrong. Especially inherent in the more eloquent melodic death, progressive, and symphonic metal sub-genres, are philosophical concepts dealing with the questioning of the purpose of human existence, weakness, and intrigue with the Universe. Unlike pop music that largely deals with that boy whining over that girl dumping him, you loving me but not the other way round, or even the superbly trivial fuss over having an umbrella or not, metal is comparatively so much more deeper in depth of substance, and musically intricate as well. Whereas rap is just all about catching monotonous beats with ‘U’ grade poetry, and rock is somewhat like metal with toned down guitar tunes and clean vocals all the time, metal presents much more rhythmically complex beats (which makes it musically more interesting), and a greater vocal range that augments the vocalist’s ability to express a wider range of emotions, which is an extremely vital prerequisite to making music that withstands the test of time.
Without music, life would be an error.
Indeed, without metal, music simply cannot exist as a single complete entity.
P.S. For anyone interested to know more about the beauty of metal, visit Zetalambmary.blogspot.com (:
Article by Aloysius Boh.
