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Heavy Metal Music, Culture and Philosophy FAQ (Metal as Music)


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Archive-name: heavy-metal/metal-as-music
Posting-frequency: semimonthly
Last-Modified: 16-Mar-06

See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
------
Part I       :: Frequently Answered Questions (Granular)
------

{ I. Frequently Answered Questions
   I. Procurement
   II. Ideology
   III. Music Making
   IV. Scene Inbreeding
   V. Overheard
   VI. About this FAQ          }

I. Frequently Answered Questions (Granular)

      The Frequently Answered Questions section provides granular
      responses to identified questions and constitutes section I of
      the FAQ, whereby all things which need to be addressed first
      are, before section II, or the academic/philosophical section of
      the FAQ.

      1.1 Procurement

         Metal (the music) is a creation of the spirit; metal (the
         physical manifestation as recording) is a creation of a
         pressing machine and mail-order distribution system like any
         other object. Luckily, thanks to increased technology and
         better marijuana, buying metal is in many ways at its easiest
         point in history.

         1.1.1 how to find?

            (a) Local record stores - since 1997, it has been easier 
            to find death and black metal in such stores.

            (b) Online mainstream store - amazon.com, half.com and
             gemm.com are great highly-visible, "safe" places to buy.

            (c) Underground distro - the traditional way to buy; see
            http://www.anus.com/metal for links. This often saves $2-$6
            per CD and gives you the ability to find the lesser volume
            (100-1000 copy) releases. Disadvantages are that most distros
            are flaky one-man outfits.

         1.1.2 distribution

            See section IV, "Metal as virtual community," subsection
            3.

         1.1.3 trading

            See section IV, "Metal as virtual community," subsection
            3.

      1.2 Ideology

         Many questions come up about why metalheads act the way they
         do, and quite often the answer has ideological origins.

         1.2.1 black metal crimes

            What were the crimes in Norway and other states related to
            black metal and their extent?

            "Beginning with a small, ineffectual fire at Storetveit
            Church in the month preceding the Fantoft blaze, there
            have  since been a total of at least 45 to 60 church
            fires, near-fires, and attempted arson attacks in Norway.
            Roughly a third have a documented connection to the Black
            Metal scene, according to Sjur Helseth, head of the
            Technical Department of the Directorate for Cultural
            Heritage."
               - Lords of Chaos, p 79

         1.2.2 theology

            The theology of black metal involves a primary dualism in
            which "good" is a weak force which seeks to be inert, and
            "evil" is a dark and strong force which seeks destruction
            and constant change, chaos.

               - gOD = centralized force, guilt force, dependency on
               life (= external) for not only physical need but also
               for correlation to a "reality"

               - society = slavery; it is the result of not having
               spiritual insight and thus is a massive load of denial
               which we force on each others as tokens of material;
               even more, the ultimate expression of materialism is the
               "individualism" and "equality" of modern society which
               denies our inner abilities and strengths in favor of
               conformity, jobs, and bureaucratic norms.

               - satan = liberating force of individual chaos and
               uniqueness of all corners of universe, "NON SERVIAM,"
               and the freedom of darkness: a kind of nihilism in
               which all things are mysterious for their potential and
               not their actuality, and nothing ever is, only in the
               process of being.

               - "good" = obedient, oblivious, denial, "modern
               reality" dogmatically silent denial existence system

               - evil = free, feral, animalistic, instinctual, vital,
               courageous, virtue, will, power, freedom, vice, sloth,
               ambient fear.

               "Other government operations and 'experiments' have also
               been verified beyond a shadow of a doubt. The CIA's 
               COINTELPRO activities against domestic 'agitators' in 
               the 60s and 70s have been verified by the government and 
               by non-governmental agencies. Also in the 50s there were 
               several cities selected, apparently completely randomly, 
               for a particularly heinous 'experiment.' These cities 
               were doused with nuclear radiation in order for the 
               government to determine its effects on the human body. 
               They wanted to figure out how the populace would be 
               affected by long-range fallout during a hypothetical 
               nuclear war with the Soviet Union. A couple of years ago
               the government apologized for this 'experiment' but added 
               the levels of radiation were relatively harmless along 
               with some other extremely lame excuses. And people 
               wonder why I'm paranoid."
                     - Zahhak, on http://www.burzum.com/

         1.2.3 fascism

            (Summary for those easily offended: metal is a Romanticist
            musical genre, and as such idolizes the ancients, nature,
            an easy relationship to the giving and taking of death, a belief
            in cosmic order derived from the pattern of thoughts, and of
            course nationalism. While most metal artists are not National
            Socialisms, white pride/white power, white supremacists, white
            nationalists, neo-Nazis, Republicans, etc. the greatest majority
            of contributors to the genre have been Romanticists and thus
            have beliefs which coincide somewhat with some of those of
            National Socialists. Our job as FAQ authors is not to apologize
            for or promote this relationship, but to report on it!)

            As it stands now, it is fair to say that a large
            percentage of black metal's founders and practicioners
            identify themselves as having National Socialist or
            racialist leanings, and that most of those who innovated
            the genre with death held such viewpoints. Simultaneously
            however it is worthy to mention that these individuals
            share an interpretation of the relationship between
            Satanism, nihilism, fascism and Odhinism; they see the
            fascist mentality as approaching the "warrior morality"
            Nietzsche writes of or a spiritual coexistence with
            nature.

            Many also have identified, as a result of Satanist or
            Odhinist spiritual leanings, with the rebellion against
            Judeo-Christianity that claims Europe should be free from
            the Semitic influences of Judaism, Christianity
            and Islam. In one way or another, most black metal
            fans have found something in fascism with which they
            identify, even if they do not accept the whole.

            Before the cry of un-P.C. terror goes up, let us not
            forget that metal is a post-moral genre and so has no
            qualms about the methods of the Nazis, only questions
            about the ultimate effectiveness. There are also many who
            appreciate the Nazis but as a scientific preference would
            have used other methods for similar but not exact goals.

            Nazism was a revolt against the idea that the individual
            could be represented as an equal for purposes of 
            commerce, and thus a superior utilitarian society could
            be achieved:

            "And if we ask who was responsible for our misfortune,
            then we must inquire who profited by our collapse. And the
            answer to that question is the 'Banks and Stock Exchanges
            are more flourishing than ever before.' We are not
            fighting Jewish or Christian capitalism, we are fighting
            every capitalism: we are making the people completely
            free."
               - Adolph Hitler, Speech of April 12, 1922 (Munich)

            Romanticism shared this view of the individual not as 
            something to be counted but experienced:

           "According to the romantic conception, the lost unity could
            not be restored by external means; it had rather to grow 
            out of man's inner spiritual urge and then gradually to 
            ripen. The romantics were firmly convinced that in the 
            soul of the people the memory of that state of former 
            perfection still slumbered. But that inner source had been 
            choked and had first to be freed again before the silent 
            intuition could once more become alive in the minds of men. 
            So they searched for the hidden sources and lost themselves 
            ever deeper in the mystic dusk of a past age whose strange 
            magic had intoxicated their minds. The German medieval age 
            with its colourful variety and its inexhaustible power of 
            creation was for them a new revelation. They believed 
            themselves to have found there that unity of life which 
            humanity had lost. Now the old cities and the Gothic 
            cathedrals spoke a special language and testified to that 
            'verlorene Heimat' (lost homeland) on which the longing of 
            romanticism spent itself. The Rhine with its legend-rich 
            castles, its cloisters and mountains, became Germany's 
            sacred stream; all the past took on a new character, 
            a glorified meaning."
               - http://flag.blackened.net/rocker/roman.htm

            These themes and other Romantic tenets appear in prominent
            places in metal music:

                     While we may believe
                     our world - our reality
                     to be that is - is but one
                     manifestation of the essence

                     Other planes lie beyond the reach
                     of normal sense and common roads
                     But they are no less real
                     than what we see or touch or feel

                     Denied by the blind church
                     'cause these are not the words of God
                     the same God that burnt the knowing 
                        - Burzum, Lost Wisdom

            Many consider Nietzsche the philosopher of metal, and in
            his view, our "individualism" works against the mechanism
            of natural selection that enables us to be more than
            talking apes:

            "Mankind does not represent a development of the better or
            the stronger in the way that it is believed today. 'Progress' 
            is merely a modern idea, that is to say a false idea. The 
            European of today is of far less value than the European of 
            the Renaissance; onward development is not by any means, by 
            any necessity the same thing as elevation, advance, 
            strengthening.

            In another sense there are cases of individual success 
            constantly appearing in the most various parts of the earth
            and from the most various cultures in which a high type 
            does manifest itself: something which in relation to 
            collective mankind is a sort of superman. Such chance 
            occurrences of great success have always been possible 
            and perhaps always will be possible. And even entire 
            races, tribes, nations can under certain circumstances 
            represent such a lucky hit."
               - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ 

            A philosopher reviled by the fascists for being "too 
            extreme," Julius Evola combined occultism and tradition
            to show us the ancient order of humanity only recently
            interrupted by modern society:

            "The essence of liberalism is individualism. The basis of
            its error is to mistake the notion of the person with that
            of the individual and to claim for the latter, 
            unconditionally and according to egalitarian premises, some
            values that should rather be attributed solely to the former, 
            and then only conditionally. Because of this transposition, 
            these values are transformed into errors, or into something 
            absurd and harmful.

            Let us begin with the egalitarian premise. It is necessary
            to state from the outset that the 'immortal principle' of 
            equality is sheer nonsense. There is no need to comment on
            the inequality of human beings from a naturalistic point of
            view. And yet the champions of egalitarianism make equality 
            a matter of principle, claiming that while human beings are 
            not equal de facto, they are so de jure: they are unequal, 
            and yet they should not be. Inequality is unfair; the merit
            and the superiority of the liberal idea allegedly consists
            of not taking it into account, overcoming it, and 
            acknowledging the same dignity in every man. Democracy, 
            too, shares the belief in the 'fundamental equality of 
            anything that appears to be human.'

            I believe these are mere empty words. This is not a 'noble
            ideal' but something that, if taken absolutely, represents
            a logical absurdity; wherever this view becomes an 
            established trend, it may usher in only regression and
            decadence."
               - Julias Evola, Men Among the Ruins 

            Some of our most forward-thinking environmentalists realize
            that so long as this modern delusion of the individual
            exists, we will be on a path toward overpopulation and 
            pollution of our natural environment:

            "A fundamental, devastating error is [having a] political 
            system based on desire. Society and life are been organized
            on basis of what an individual wants, not on what is good 
            for her...Just as only one out of 100,000 has the talent to
            be an engineer or an acrobat, only a few are those truly 
            capable of managing the matters of a nation or humankind...
            In this time and this part of the World we are headlessly 
            hanging onto democracy and parliamentary system, even 
            though these are the most mindless and desperate 
            experiments of humanity...In democratic coutries the 
            destruction of nature and sum of ecological disasters has 
            accumulated most...Our only hope lies in strong central 
            government and uncompromizing control of the individual 
            citizen." - Pentti Linkola, The Year 2017 Will Never Come

            Many, like the Romantics, posited a return to a pre-modern
            worldview, without necessarily giving up our technology. It
            is not just a different type of government, but a different
            conception of society -- and the individual:

            "The world may be explained in sociological terms. David 
            Riesman describes three basic social personalities in _The 
            Lonely Crowd_. 'Other-directed' people pattern their 
            behavior on what their peers expect of them. Suburban 
            America's men in gray-flannel suits are other-directed. 
            'Inner-directed' people are guided by what they have 
            been trained to expect of themselves. [General Douglas] 
            MacArthur was inner-directed. The third type, the 
            'tradition-directed,' has not been seen in the West 
            since the Middle Ages. Tradition-directed people hardly
            think of themselves as individuals; their conduct is 
            determined by folk rituals handed down from the past." 
              - William Manchester, American Caesar

            Recently, these ideas have come about through a resurgence
            in the popularity of later Romantic-style works, including
            medieval fantasy and Gothic Romance:

            "I've never thought it an accident that Tolkien's works 
            waited more than ten years to explode into popularity 
            almost overnight. The Sixties were no fouler a decade than
            the Fifties -- they merely repead the Fifties' foul harvest
            -- but they were the years when millions of people grew 
            aware that the industrial society had become paradoxically
            unlivable, incalculably immoral, and ultimately deadly. In 
            terms of passwords, the Sixties where the time when the 
            word progress lost its ancient holiness, and escape stopped
            being comically obscene. The impulse is being called 
            reactionary now, but lovers of Middle-earth want to go 
            there...[Tolkien] is a great enough magician to tap our 
            most common nightmares, daydreams and twilight fancies, 
            but he never invented them either: he found them a place 
            to live, a green alternative to each day's madness here 
            in a poisoned world. We are raised to honor all the wrong 
            explorers and discoverers -- thieves planting flags, 
            murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the 
            colonizers of dreams." 
              - Peter S. Beagle, introduction to "The Hobbit," 1973

           The authors of this FAQ advance a radical thesis regarding
           the development of "NSBM," or "National Socialist Black Metal,"
           and the prevalence of Nazi beliefs and imagery in metal bands:
           that metal is fundamentally a Romanticist movement, that 
           modern democracies have failed to avert our largest problems,
           and that for those reasons, metal bands have found sympathy
           for a set of issues shared in common between Romanticism and
           nationalist anti-capitalist aristocratic societies like the
           National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party); 
           furthermore, because the situation - environment, population
           quality, servitude tendency of modern life - is so bad and
           yet is so widely unrecognized, metalheads grasp for ideals
           both in line with their own and _symbologically extreme_
           enough to communicate effectively. Hence, in an extreme
           genre of music, anyone who is nationalist, environmentalist,
           Romanticist or simply detests modern society may acknowledge
           National Socialism as not only a possible solution but as a
           symbol of the type of solution needed: unlike every modern
           government, the Nazis were not afraid to limit the greed of
           individuals and to kill unsuitable ones. Regardless of what
           vectors of determination a metalhead would choose for "un-
           suitable," that kind of gumption appeals as the only likely
           way to reverse the mess that is modern society, a mess to
           which metal bands have for several generations demonstrated
           their antipathy.

         1.2.4 christianity

            Metal and Christianity are in direct opposition; metal is
            the lawless, romantic, free and spiritually personal
            existence that Christianity fights with a material God
            ensconced in a symbol so absolute that any chaos or chance
            can be attributed to him.

            The outlook has not always been so clear. Black Sabbath
            wanted to create a Gothic horror movie soundtrack out of
            heavy rock, and with it came imagery that took several
            decades to explore. By the time of underground metal, the
            alienated outlook of hardcore punk had been absorbed by
            the metal community, including a total rejection of all
            things Christian.

            It is likely that newer generations will accept only those
            Christians who have a Romanticist, e.g. transcendentalist,
            outlook toward religion. Historical examples of this type
            of Christian include Johan Eckhart, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
            Arthur Schopenhauer and Adolf Hitler.

            "Afraid of what lies after death
            Your screams are unheard to Him
            Resisting your wake of adorn
            Your pleading falls deaf on your lord

            'Go fuck your god' will be my final words
            To die is just the concept of living
            To be forgiven, salvation blessed with pain
            Endeavored is the blame of creation

            Pathetic lives, every second someone dies
            Delightful is the sight of repention
            No destiny, just a certainty of death
            In pain inducing lies of salvation
            Never repent..."
               - Deicide, Repent to Die (Legion)

         1.2.5 suicide/slayer lyrics?

            This is forthcoming as soon as someone can show us a
            definitive connection between lyrics/music and suicide; I
            believe there is an incidental connection in that
            teenagers especially use music to define "mood" that
            resonates with their socioemotional representation of life
            at that moment in time. Hence, sometimes the right
            soundtrack must be chosen and Slayer is a reasonable bet.

            However, it is useful to analyze the lyrics of Slayer to
            examine this supposed "suicide-inducing Satanism" of which
            media trumpets and social bores have made quite a
            celebration of resentment. For this purpose, the nihilism
            of Slayer's lyrics is reproduced here to demonstrate its
            logicality and statement of critique of modern society:

               "Fear runs wild in the veins of the world
               The hate turns the skies jet black
               Death is assured in future plans
               Why live if there's nothing there

               Spectors of doom await the moment
               The mallet is sure and precise
               Cover the crypts of all makind
               With cloven hoof begone

               Chorus:
               Sadistic Minds
               Delay the Death
               Of twisted life
               Malicious world

               The crippled youth try in dismay
               To sabotage the carcass earth
               All new life must perish below
               Existence now is futile
               ...
               Convulsions take the world in hand
               Paralysis destroys
               Nobody's out there to save us
               Brutal seizure now we die."
                  - Slayer, Hardening Of The Arteries (Hell Awaits)

            Where a killing is an act, art is a pretend act, or an
            articulation of the significance of that act - without the
            act itself necessarily occurring. In an artistic view of
            the world, all events and ideas have significance in some
            part of a large and varied reality.

            Slayer here express both an emotion and a diagnosis of
            modern times, speaking ultimately fatalistic depression
            and the social projection involved with the onset of
            failure. "Nobody's out there to save us" is a directly
            level criticism of the belief in a God who intervenes in
            the world to prevent humans from experiencing the
            consequence of their choices, as indicated by the previous
            line, "Paralysis destroys."

            The emotion of listless nihilism and a lack of hope
            portrays the sickness illustrated by thinkers such as F.W.
            Nietzsche, James Joyce, Bertrand Russell and Thomas
            Pynchon (Pynchon also uses the term "epileptic" to refer
            to the social neurosis which motivates social change
            through fear).

            The extrapolation of society from this work is quite
            clear: "all of mankind", "crippled children", "the world",
            and "humankind" are used synonymously for the human
            endeavor on planet earth, unified by a belief in the
            common logic referenced by the phrase "existence now is
            futile," implying a previously less futile existence (from
            the word "now" postmodifying the existential token) where
            presumably the logical system now ruptured in "epileptic"
            "seizure"s is dysfunctional. A similar view is taken in
            the break from Modernism that so-called "Postmodernists"
            employ: the direction of progress is no longer progress,
            but regression, because we have failed to address our
            inner needs.

         1.2.6 black metal disputes

            At this point in time, I am not aware of any ongoing
            disputes in black metal except of course the constant
            warfare against Christian and Jewish imitators of the
            genre who preach their own sordid religion through their
            propagandist songs.

         1.2.7 Research list

            For someone who wished to experience metal in depth
            without a huge time investment, the following list of
            useful albums might give them a chance to understand the
            whole from a slice of its most influential.

            1.2.7.1 - 1.2.7.3
               See Section II, "Metal as abstract concept,"
               subsection 2.1.4.

      1.3 Music making

         Creation of metal music is an important stage in Hessian
         evolution, as it changes a deconstructor/appreciator into a
         creator and thus completes the education necessary for
         uebermensch process.

         1.3.1 technique

            Technique is the ideas for constructing events toward an
            objectivized efficiency.

            1.3.1.1 Blast Beats

               Please see section II, subsection 2.1.5.1.

            1.3.1.2 Fast strum

               Please see section II, subsection 2.1.5.2.

            1.3.1.3 Double bass

               Please see section II, subsection 2.1.5.3.

            1.3.1.4 Harmonics

               Please see section II, subsection 2.1.5.4.

         1.3.2 production

            See our production techniques in Section III, "Metal as
            physical manifestation."

         1.3.3 as cultural event

            Concerts as metal culture connect members of the culture
            through bonding via violent but pacifistic dancing, drug
            use, conversation, collective obstacle courses provided by
            society, and appreciation of music and the distinctiveness
            of each other. One learns more people-watching at a
            Hessian event than anywhere else.

      1.4 Scene inbreeding

         No one is willing to declare a "sure" cause of scene
         inbreeding, since it is a great argument as to why it occurs,
         but one thing is for sure: after some time, scenes converge
         on themselves if not kept fresh. This author blames "power"
         and "monetary gain" as things which some people allow to
         encourage them to hold down territory within a genre, instead
         of advancing it; this disease of self-instability is usually
         cured with drugs and Roky Erickson ballads.

         1.4.1 closed minded

            Some argue the "scene" is ruined by those who are
            closed-minded and will not accept new ways of creating
            music or thinking about ideas. Then again, those who are
            calling themselves "open-minded" usually listen to bands
            that are mostly the same old trash with a flute player,
            female vocalist, and keyboardist added to blast out trendy
            aesthetic touches. One thing is clear: too much
            consistency in expectation can ruin a "scene," whether
            that is by only allowing past-proven archetypes or only
            accepting that which is trivially "new" (in aesthetics,
            instrumentation, and production) but internally, in
            composition very much similar to everything else. The
            best art seems to worry less about external factors than
            about expressing itself well with whatever means are at
            hand.

            Often overhead: "you're just closed minded, you won't
            accept this new aesthetic variant" (experienced debaters
            will recognize the Bifurcation Fallacy here).

         1.4.2 too serious

            Some argue that the music should not be taken too
            seriously, and that it should just be in fun, and no one
            should interpret anything more from the music than the
            music itself. One must consider, however, the great
            amount of privation and sacrifice undergone by many death
            metal musicians to make and distribute their music, and
            how seriously they make "artistic" and "ideological"
            choices about their music, plus how many of them talk
            about it in interviews. So as a scientist I would argue
            that whatever can be inferred from just the music is
            valid, and the rest is context - and if one truly listens
            to metal, one can hear a fusion of the oldest philosophies
            in history into a dark and nomadic nihilism for the
            future.

            Often overheard: "you're taking this too seriously... it's
            just music" (experienced debaters will recognize this is
            a Non Sequitur; all art has an ideology behind it, even if
            that ideology is a commitment to no belief, and every 
            person who takes on an ideology is shaped by that belief
            and in turn finds it influences their artistic output).

         1.4.3 connection to music

            Art is an expression of the consciousness of an "author":
            if same author values the ideological, there is a
            connection in the consciousness between these theories,
            leading to the idea that the art is indirectly influenced
            but crucially related by the same idea that is behind the
            author's connection to the ideology. For instance, a
            fascist musician might have started both of his
            explorations as an ecologist.

            "Anyways it's not like all artists have completely
            admirable qualities about them. If we were to nitpick
            about everything we didn't like about artists, nobody
            would be able to appreciate art of any kind."
               - Philip Wang, malgrnk@timewarp.net

      1.5 Frequently Overheard Questions

         These are publically heard or sampled questions people have
         been frequently asking about the general topic of metal, with
         an emphasis on the recurring items. A random but healthy
         measurement.

         1.5.1.1 Recently heard Questions

            Sampling data from three major sources, USENET postings,
            conversation overheard at record stores, and world-wide
            Hessian email measurement, a generality at best was
            consolidated.

            1.5.1.1.1 emperor/enslaved tracks

               Q: Can someone refresh me as to what the deal is with
               the Enslaved half of the "Hordanes Land" split? They
               only have three tracks, but seven are listed. Were they
               indexed incorrectly or are the last four just missing?
               I've got the red Century Media version, if that makes a
               difference.

               5.Slaget I Skogen Bortenfor
               6.Allfadr Odinn
               7.Balfor

               the rest is just a fucked up listing of the various
               'parts' of the songs.
                  - "Sybren," poster to alt.music.black-metal

               N.B.: Both the Century Media version (red/black) and
               the Candlelight version (black) of this album contain
               the error.

            1.5.1.1.2 swedish distortion

               The Swedish death metal of the early 1990s had a 
               blistering electric guitar tone heard most prominently
               on "Clandestine" by Entombed and "Like an Ever-Flowing
               Stream" by Dismember.

               "I have always loved the Swede death metal guitar sound
               above all. Maxing the highs and lows on an old BOSS
               'Heavy Metal' gets that heavy Entombed 'Left Hand Path'
               sound. Put the Level and Distortion each at half, then
               just adjust your EQ's in your amp accordingly. You are
               more likely to find a BOSS 'Heavy Metal' at a pawn shop
               or something of that sort, seeing as how BOSS
               discontinued them a couple years ago..."
                  - Gary (Morgion)

               "i seem to remember somebody said they used a small
               Marshal 50W combo for that album. Also, last i bought a
               dist box, the recommended one was Boss distortion II (i
               _think_, anyway it's the orange one).
               But that could never beat a custom rebuilt marshal
               (rewire the preamp to get one distorted and one clean
               channel, need not be that expensive).
               Guitar mics are important too, i still admire the
               Duncan Seymore 'Invader' mics that someone persuaded me
               to buy (and with that cool a product name, how could
               they go wrong). Now these are oldish wisdoms, but if
               you go to the store and drop that kind of talk, they
               might at least tell you something useful besides the
               sales pitch...

               Check out the Meshuggah paper at
               http://www.notam.uio.no/~espenth/mesh/ under 'Sound'
               etc."
                  - Rasmus (Comecon)

            General consensus seems to be that one should use two
            distortion pedals in sequence and EQ heavily; favor the
            mids instead of the bass.

            1.5.1.1.3 blast beats

               Please see Section II, subsection 2.1.5.

            1.5.1.1.4 discographies

               For the most detailed and up to date discography, you
               probably want to visit the homepage of the band or the
               label. The following are indexes to those which
               through multiple reference points will get you what you
               need.

               Listings of bands and labels

                  The part of this FAQ which was once here is,
                  expanded, at the Dark Legions Archive.

                  Dark Legions Archive Links Forest
                        http://www.anus.com/metal/about/links/

               Release databases

                  http://www.anus.com/metal
                       Lists historically important bands.

                  http://www.freedb.org/
                       For tracklists.

                  http://www.vampire-magazine.com/
                       Cover scans, release data.

                  http://hematoma.net/
                       Underground band, label data.

            1.5.1.1.5 current prison totals

               At the time of this writing, here are the current jail
               totals for metal musicians:

                  Varg Vikernes     21 years    Bergen, NO
                     He will be out in 2006 if all goes well.
                  "Faust"           15 years    Oslo, NO
                     Out of jail for some years.
                  "Samoth"           2 years    Oslo, NO
                     Out of jail for some years.

            1.5.1.1.6 origin of name "heavy metal"

            Some say the name Heavy Metal had been used by
            Steppenwolf in the '60s in "Born to Be Wild":

            I like smoke and lightning
            Heavy Metal thunder
            Racing with wind
            And the feeling that I'm under
               - "A Heavy Metal FAQ," by granel@geocities.com

            The term "heavy metal" was used to describe mass
            technological destruction to the point of biological
            toxicity in William S Burrough's book "Nova Express,"
            published in 1964. He may have also used it in a story
            written before "Naked Lunch" in 1959.

            It is difficult to trace the etymology of the term
            "heavy metal." Most likely, it arose simultaneously
            as inspired by the class of metals, including mercury,
            described by the same term: volatile, toxic, and
            disproportionately heavy both in physical weight and
            the responsibility of those who handle such dangerous
            substances.

            "The earliest citation in the OED relating to the 
            musical sense of 'heavy metal' is from William Burroughs
            in 1964.  Here is an earlier Burroughs usage I have found:

           1962 William S. Burroughs _The Ticket That Exploded_ 39  
           The Other Half was only one aspect of Operation Rewrite--
           Heavy Metal addicts picketed the Rewrite Office, 
           exploding in protest."
              - Fred Shapiro, "Antedating of Heavy Metal," American
              Dialect Society

           lead (n.)
             "heavy metal," O.E. lead. Black lead was an old name 
             for "graphite," hence lead pencil (1688) and the 
             colloquial fig. phrase to have lead in one's pencil 
             "be possessed of (esp. male sexual) vigor," first 
             attested 1941 in Australian slang. Adjective form 
             leaden is a relic of O.E. The fig. sense of "heavy, 
             oppressive, dull" is first attested 1577. Lead 
             balloon "a failure" is from 1960, Amer.Eng. slang.
                - Online Etymology Dictionary
                http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lead

         1.5.2 "intellectuals"
            See section II, an abstract concept view of metal, for
            more information.

            "You may notice that various affiliations of some of the
            bands are listed. This is because some people may think
            that Nazis are nasty people and don't want to accidentally
            buy their albums, or that Church of Satan members are
            wimps, a disgrace to the scene, and should be brutally
            sodomized."
               - Thomas Wolmer, d90-two@nada.kth.se

         1.5.3 totally granular

            These are questions from beyond the abyss of coordination,
            organization or necessary coherence. In some strange way,
            these random shots struck us as profoundly reflective of
            the confusion the genre causes.

            1.5.3.1 drinking blood

               When drinking blood, be sure to have it chilled, or
               else it will curdle (clump up and become nauseating).
               It is recommended that you verify the blood is from
               meat for human consumption (or, of course, DIY).

            1.5.3.2 fire-breathing

               The useful thing I can say here is that if you are
               breathing fire by blowing a highly flammable liquid
               over open flame, ready yourself NOT to inhale no matter
               what happens - get away from the flame first.
               Otherwise, you will fry your lungs and die in a brief
               paroxysm of intense pain followed by helpless
               suffocation.

            1.5.3.3 sodomy

               Sodomy is most commonly legally defined as any contact
               between the genitals of one person, and the mouth or
               anus of another. The word has its origins in Biblical
               Christianity. It is sometimes used to mean sexual
               deviation, though in legal contexts it is defined as
               above. Throughout history, "sodomites," mostly male
               homosexuals and bestialists, have been punished by a
               largely theocratically controlled government, in hopes
               of stamping out "ungodly practices" that might bring
               divine retribution against Judeo-Christian society
                  - http://www.gai.com/

      1.6 About this FAQ?

         Brief authorship information about those who created this
         FAQ, their origins, beliefs and other projects.

         1.6.1 authorship

            The staff of the Amerikan Nihilist Underground Society and
            the Hessian Studies Center contributed extensively to this
            FAQ. Most written by Spinoza Ray Prozak, formerly a DJ at
            KSPC FM (88.7) in the eastern Los Angeles basin, and now a
            free-lance writer in The Netherlands.

            For contact, corrections or additions, please email
            goat@anus.com.

         1.6.2 contributorship

            The position of contributor is shared with a constant
            stream of references to USENET or email list postings from
            talented individuals worldwide. If we use your text,
            attribution will be given including your name and a cite
            to the publishing of the original work.

         1.6.3 design
            Design and contents copyright 1994-2006 Spinoza Ray Prozak
            and the Hessian Studies Center.

         1.6.4 affiliated sites
            The staff that produced this FAQ are involved with a
            variety of sites:

               http://www.anus.com/metal/
                  Master philosophical metal reviews, history, info,
                  pictures and sound.

               http://www.deathmetal.org/
                  Institute for the study of death metal.

               http://www.grindcore.org/
                  Academic study of grindcore.

               http://www.hessian.org/
                  Political representation for metal culture.

================================================================

(c) Copyright 1994-2006 Hessian Studies Center @ www.hessian.or

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