to
Main StoragePatrick Wolf
July 22, 2002
What is it that makes people cringe around certain styles of music? For me, it’s Rap. For others, it’s Country and Western. Are human beings made of sound waves, and when a noise from an unknown source comes into contact with us, do our bodies get apoplectic in trying to reflect it somewhere else? I can’t count the number of times that someone has heard my musical preference and literally had a gut wrenching, visceral reaction to it. People have used the terms evil, possessed, and demonic to describe my music. What is it that makes one think if a particular sequence of musical notes is played, loud and fast, it is obviously an entity manufactured in the bowels of Hell itself? If the vocals are low and growled, why are they suddenly “sounding like demons”? Except for in horror movies, I wasn’t aware that demons growled. The musical style I speak of is Death Metal, and it has been around prominently for over a decade. Its origins were groundbreaking, and over the last few years it has does nothing but progress. It is not a popular style, and the general public has a bastardized idea of what Death Metal is. Like a good Scotch, this style of music has gotten better with age.
In the early to mid 1980’s, there was little to no heavy music, even in the so called Heavy Metal realm. Relatively unknown bands at the time such as Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer were taking the scene up a couple notches in terms of heaviness and speed. Lyrical content was also another factor. Mental images of death, destruction and war were unheard of except for in that anachronism called “The Sixties.” Towards the latter half of the decade, numerous other bands took up this rather newly created style and the musical entity of Speed Metal or Thrash Metal was unleashed with a fury. MTV even had a three hour segment on late Saturday nights called, “Headbanger’s Ball,” in which they would play some of this heavier music.
During this same time period, wanting to go even more extreme than these bands that are currently playing fast and heavy music, there rose up a surging underground movement in the Tampa, Florida area. These bands tended to pen lyrics on the darker side of things such as death, violence, gore, and yes, the much stereotyped description since the beginning of heavy music, Satanism. Bands with names like Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary, and Deicide are the proverbial fathers of this movement. The musical talent required to pull off such sonic malevolence is second to none. It is one thing to play a standard cookie cutter Pop song, and it’s yet another entirely different beast to play a five minute song with tons of riffs, numerous time changes, accompanying it with a low-end guttural growl, and do all this at a speed that would exhaust your average musician. It’s about the energy, aggression and atmosphere that these bands formulate that makes this a preferred genre for me.
Even in the realms of Death Metal, the lyrical content varies widely and it is this type of variety that has always kept the scene alive. As touched on earlier, there are bands that base their lyrics around a certain theme. For the gore and horror movie fan, he/she may enjoy bands like Cannibal Corpse or Mortician. For those who fancy a taste for war and violence, Boltthrower or Malevolent Creation are ideal bands. Not a big fan of religion, God, Christ, and ideals associated with them? Deicide or Acheron make great listening companions. Most people that I know who are into Death Metal are honestly not that apprehensive when it comes to lyrics; it is the music that matters. These adjectives are so overused in this genre to describe this brand of music, but they are nonetheless applicable: brutal, pummeling, extreme, grinding, and the list goes on. As an interesting side note, I find it humorous that actor Jim Carrey is a fan of Cannibal Corpse, and that their appearance in the movie Ace Ventura – Pet Detective was his doing. Subsequently, their song entitled, “Hammer Smashed Face,” is included on the movie soundtrack alongside more mainstream acts like Aerosmith and Tone Loc.
A close relative of Death Metal in the extreme music family is Black Metal. Early bands in this genre adopted occult ideas and symbolism to build their image. Going back to the 1980’s, some of the more influential bands of the early years of its inception were Venom, Celtic Frost, and Bathory. Whether or not the band members were really Satanists was inconsequential; it was an image and the fans loved the music irregardless. In the early 1990’s, the style was taken to new heights with the prominent rise of what is termed Norwegian Black Metal. To this day, modern Black Metal bands can credit their musical styling to this movement.
The frontrunners of this scene at the time were Mayhem, Dark Throne, Emperor, and Immortal. Again, lyrical inspiration also tends to revolve around central themes. Some band’s lyrics come from the Pagan and Viking folklore of the Scandinavian people dating back thousands of years. Others have chosen to base their music around a vision of a mythical land and the inhabitants therein. Musically speaking, the style is extreme in its own right. The drums are a rapid fire and vicious onslaught. The guitar work may not be the most technically proficient, but it is fast and effective. Sometimes, keyboards are added for a more ambient effect that doesn’t detract from the rest of the music. One of the more noticeable differences in Black Metal compared to other forms, are the screeching high pitched vocals. They are quite distinct. Corpse paint also adds to the mystique of this style. Various bands have their own ideas of what corpse paint represents, but it is essentially a white painted face with black makeup intended to look ghoulish. If visions of walking through moonlit forests or roaming old castles in search of vampires is the question, then Black Metal is the answer.
I enjoy a wide range of music from Classical to Jazz, or Country to Rock. However true that is, when I am having a bad day, nothing can calm my nerves quite as much as the two described forms of Metal. As long as people attribute negative connotations to music that is fast and vocals that growl, they will simply refuse to acknowledge that this is music.
Seeing these bands play live is an experience. The fans really get into the music, and the band reciprocates the energy by putting on a killer show. There is no fancy lighting or gimmicks, just sheer intensity. The problem with some people is the utter lack of sanity that accompanies detractors of this style of music. Being an avid fan of Death Metal for more than a decade, I can honestly say that I have never exhumed dead bodies, burned any churches, sacrificed any goats, or killed anyone with a chainsaw.
Unless it’s on internet radio, chances are extremely slim that you’ll get to hear any of these bands on the local Rock station. Radio stations are worried about the Arbitron ratings and not necessarily broadcasting good “heavy” bands. Whatever is popular on MTV is most generally what is played on the radio, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s not exactly a promising sign.
Death Metal and Black Metal are both forms of music that are hard to find in stores. So the options to acquire it are limited, which leaves mail order, online shopping, and concerts. One has to be a dedicated fan if they go through all the trouble to get their hand on it. Whether or not people like it, these forms of music will be around for the years to come. If we’ve learned one thing since the beginnings of Rock-n-Roll, things can only get wilder. Elvis was controversial in the 50’s. Back in the 60’s, it was The Beatles. The 70’s had KISS. The 80’s made Ozzy a household name. Androgyny in the form of Marilyn Manson was contentious in the 90’s, although I think he’s overrated in the evil department. Now here we are in the 21st Century looking back twenty years at KISS from a current frame of reference. How tame they were, but everyone was out to get them. Who knows, maybe in the year 2020, I’ll tune into the Golden Oldies radio station and hear, “Up next is the hit song from Cannibal Corpse in 1994. From their Tomb of the Mutilated album, this is “Hammer Smashed Face”.
to
Main Storage