Black and Death Metal: Two Sounds and (Youth) Cultures on the Edge of Mainstream
Sarah Chaker · 2008
As indicated by the title, the focus of this paper concerns two modern 'underground' styles of heavy metal music and their corresponding scenes. When listening to black or death metal music, some people may conceptualize certain acts of war: bombs exploding, the rattling of machine guns and the screams of mortally wounded men. These impressions are in line with the contents often picked up by black or death metal musicians: violence in all conceivable forms and blasphemous themes dominate the lyrics and images of black and death metal. To many people, such music comes across as cruel, ugly and 'aggressive', and many assume black and death metal fans to be ill, dangerous, criminal, stupid or antisocial. In general, the saying 'expect the unexpected' does apply to various youth cultures and scenes as well as to the black and death metal scenes. This paper summarises the results obtained from my PhD thesis Black and Death Metal. The Sound. The Market. The Scene. This research project was developed and carried out at the Department of Music at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany) and is near completion. The structure of the paper is as follows: Assuming that the majority of readers of this article are not heavy metal experts, some general information will be provided regarding black and death metal. The scientific approach utilised for the analysis of the phenomena black and death metal will be then discussed. An outline of the manner of my personal involvement in the scenes will also be provided. Finally, the main results arising from the thesis will be presented.