Death Metal: Music, Culture, and Counter-Hegemony

Death Metal: Music for Everybody and Nobody
By
Francisco J. Salamanca V.
American Cultural Studies
Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades
Universidad de Chile
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Introduction
A young man of about 17 years old is dressed entirely in black; he wears a shirt with
incomprehensible letters and monsters devouring corpses on it. He wears tight jeans and boots,
and he is walking and listening to loud music on his earphones. Approaching along the street, a
frightened mother holds the hand of her little son, but before they meet, she crosses to the other
side of the street. The man is a metal head, and his favorite music genre is Death Metal. Many
people label this music “evil” and “satanic” because of its shocking and defiant themes, which
express feelings of isolation, marginalization, and a deep rejection of the mainstream (Music,
Theology and Justice, 2017). What is Death Metal culture ultimately all about? Why has it been
so appealing, not just to American youth, but to young people in Chile as well?
By analyzing the gothic-like elements used by death metal musicians and producers, such as
their album artwork, their singing style, and their lyrics, this article concludes that an important
aspect of death metal head culture, which originated in the United States, is that it emerged as a
reaction against, and as a rejection of, mainstream American culture, and it is defined in
opposition to it. Many metal heads, therefore, have embraced aspects of a collective identity that
is necessarily defined in opposition to mainstream culture, particularly those aspects of the
culture linked to Christian ideology and imagery, which to death metal heads are extremely
oppressive and hypocritical. Understandably, this has invited many scathing attacks by members
of the Christian community and conservative elements of American society. But the metal head
movement, and especially its ability to provide young and old with a sense of identity in
opposition to the mainstream culture in the United States, also made it extremely appealing to
young Chileans during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), which, as it happens, was also
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responsible for the establishment of a highly oppressive and hypocritical mainstream culture
linked to Catholicism.
The dominance of specific groups and perspectives in American society over time has
obscured the fact that other groups, subordinate groups like death metal heads for instance, have
not been considered as part of an American national identity (Neil Campbell, 2006, p. 15). This
is related to hegemony. The concept of hegemony is used by Gramsci (2009) to refer to a
process whereby a dominant class (in alliance with other classes or class fractions) does not
merely rule a society by force or coercion, but leads it through the exercise of intellectual and
moral leadership (Storey, 2003, p. 79). Narrowing the concept of hegemony to the music
industry, we can name three main media corporations that dominate the market; Sony, Universal
and Warner music (BBC, s.f.). Herman and Chomsky (1988) remind us that “they are actually
run by people with opinions and a very specific set of interests”, the dominant class chooses
what music is relevant and what will be internalized by the subordinate class and this is all death
metal culture hate.
Counter-hegemony, meanwhile, which was also developed by Gramsci (1995), is a process
whereby people are able to develop and instrumentalize a discourse that is capable of challenging
the dominant assumptions, beliefs and established patterns of behavior within a society. Both
hegemony and counter-hegemony interactions help us to understand how death metal culture has
used its lyrical and aesthetic content to provide youth with an identity and to reflect the power
struggles young people have with current mainstream culture.
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Death Metal Origins.
Death metal culture goes back to the early 1980's, while the term itself came from Thomas
Fischer and Martin Ain, both of which are former members of iconic bands such as Hellhammer
(1986-1990) and Celtic Frost (1980-1991) respectively, and who started a fanzine (fan magazine)
entitled Death Metal. The music scene blossomed in big cities like New York, Los Angeles,
Seattle, and London. However, the most important bands came from Tampa, Florida. Tampa
City provided the perfect environment since it represented the intersection between greedy white
men/rednecks, Caribbean voodoo magic and spooky Native American rituals (Fontaine, 2017).
As a result, the most representative bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death and Morbid Angel
were born there. Consequently, all of them had their own style, and they contributed to the genre
by adding to it their unique personalities. Death metal music is usually fast, low, powerful,
intense, and played very loudly—the guitars are often tuned down. A great deal of it consists of
speedy and chaotic guitar riffs. Other bands play slow, deep, and repetitive tunes. Drums are
overpowering, and there are very fast, hyper “double-bass” blast beats, which mimic the sound
of machine gunfire (Death Metal Music, The Passion and Politics of a Subculture, 2003).
Metal heads are very committed to supporting their bands. They use long hair, they also wear
tight black jeans and black T-shirts stamped with covers from their favorite bands, mostly with
demons, monsters and zombies, the whole suit that recall army soldiers. Among their main
activities they exchange CDs, Cassettes, DVDs, they attend to concerts, they collect magazines
with topics related to their bands’ Bios and Latest albums, and also they get together in pubs to
hang out with friends at night or watch horror films.
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Gothic-like Elements in Death Metal Culture.
I was really young when the band first started out. I was never really into writing Satanic lyrics
at all, personally. We did write gore lyrics, but it was more like kind of tongue-in-cheek, horrormovie type level. Nothing like encouraging people to go out and hurt themselves or anything
stupid like that. It's pure fantasy-movie type, scary stuff. And then, I just really got into writing
about reality, which is what we all have to deal with. (Schuldiner, 1994).
Going back in time in the 4th century A.D. the Goths, Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, and the
Vandals were descendants of the Nordic Teutons of Cimbri. The Goths were important enemies
of the Christian Romans who considered them as barbaric as well as pagans. Goths’ religion
involved sacrifices in order to get some of their gods’ favor (Rogers, 2006, p. 88, 89). In
addition, the Gothic style was extreme, seemingly uncontrolled, larger than life, intended to
invoke a strong emotional response, whether awe, pity, compassion, horror or fear (Prendergast,
s.f.).
In general, people who are drawn to Goth love mythology, the mysterious, the supernatural,
and they basically hold on to things in society that they feel are important and which are dying
out (What is Goth?, s.f.). This does not mean Goths are evil; it just means that they have a
different perspective when it comes to understanding themselves and their world. Many bands
were inspired by the outstanding writer Edgar Allan Poe who was also inspired by the same
principles centuries ago. He was very controversial because of his addictions, abuse of alcohol
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and his critics to other authors (Place, 2016, p. 5). With his short stories of mystery and horror
such as “The Masque of the Red Death” as well as his gothic poem “the Raven” where he mixed
the fears and the beauty exquisitely in levels never imagined before. Overall, this author
unconsciously created some of the principles adopted by metal heads, representing a counterhegemonic force against mainstream and Christian ideology/imagery, In effect all of this help in
order to understand how Death Metal ideology works.
Death Metal bands have used various Gothic motifs and the first impression we get is through
its artwork which is the invitation to get into this world of chaos, demons, blood, and noise. In
1991, the Death Metal band Malevolent Creation released their album The Ten Commandments
whose cover art is attributed to the artist Pär Olofsson (Image 1). In the foreground, the biblical
character Moses is portrayed as a demon, and two tablets are held high above his head and above
what is presumably Mt. Sinai, which was the site from where Moses could show his followers
the Promised Land. In this case, however, the tablets do not lead to the Promised Land; instead,
they seem to wreak havoc and destruction down below. The album’s use of color is revealing.
In general, there is an emphasis on one color over others: the reds are very red, but the other
colors are washed out or have a lower contrast. Here we can appreciate how the artist explicitly
plays with the fear of the demonic. The image inspires horror, insanity and evil, all of which are
commonly part of Death Metal tropes. More importantly, this album cover art reveals how Death
Metal culture understands Christianity and mainstream culture, and how the former has
continuously bred the fear of the demonic in the collective subconscious of Americans. This
influence goes back to the very first Puritan settlers, where the figure of Moses leading the
Israelites to the Promised Land was taken to heart by the new colonizers in North America. The
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album cover alludes to the hypocrisy of Christianity in America by suggesting that instead of
bringing salvation and virtue to the New World, the Ten Commandments instead brought
oppression, dispossession, and, as such, are extremely hypocritical.
Another important factor is the singing style used by Death metal lead singers, which also
takes on a gothic-like aspect. While Christian singers have a lot of technical training and produce
angel-like harmonious and pleasant sounds in harmony (which represent a kind of celestial
heaven), death metal singers roar and scream as if they were demons crawling out from hell.
They use a technique where the membranous folds above their vocal cords are used to exert
pressure on their larynx to produce a deep and guttural growl, which is practically unheard of
outside extreme metal music. In fact, they are not really described as singers at all since their
voices exhibit little of the standard melody or tunefulness found in mainstream genres of music.
Instead, death metal musicians use unpleasant vocal sounds in order to invite their listeners to
explore a gothic aesthetic (and hence, an alternative perspective from which to experience the
world). Therefore, the death metal singing style is deliberately unlike pop music, where the
singing and the music are, for the most part, in harmony. A good example of the guttural growl
used in death metal culture is the song Eaten Back to Life by Cannibal Corpse (1990). In this
song, “cookie monster” vocals, made popular by one of the founders of the band, Chris Barnes,
are characterized by lyrics that are almost incomprehensible without the aid of a lyric sheet.
Indeed, some “cookie monster” vocalists produce sounds that are barely recognizable as a
language at all (Death Metal and Music Criticism, 2012). The progressive elimination of
recognizable signifiers of vocal melody and clarity is a key element of death metal. Death metal
vocalists deliberately use this counter-cultural or oppositional approach to mainstream musical
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conventions in order to clearly demarcate their music from the Christian mainstream. For death
metal heads, the link between popular music and Christianity is related to the harmonic and to
the harmonious. And therefore, it is linked to control and oppression. Death metal music
provides its listeners with a gothic alternative that frees them from this mainstream pattern.
In terms of lyrics, death metal music also engages and articulates gothic-like elements that
invite listeners to question and to, ultimately, subvert mainstream values. Death metal culture
often articulates its subversion of mainstream ideology throughout their lyrics. Here they
attempt to penetrate what they understand as the bubble created by Christianity, and they try to
help listeners get out of that bubble and back onto the surface, where everything is clear—and
where there are no more lies. This is another death metal “weapon” used to counterattack right
into Christianity’s core. The band Vital Remains, for example, with their album Dechristianize
(2003), goes straight to the point without metaphors or painkillers. The song Let the Killing
Begin (appendix 1) sets the mood, and features a section of Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" which is a
classic poem (that makes us reflect on life, as changing as the moon, turning like a wheel,
sometimes benevolent and sometimes cruel) as well as voices from the movie The Greatest Story
Ever Told. The track lyrics deal with the “dechristianization” of France during the French
Revolution: in the 18th century.
Trembling to its fall
Putting an end to it all
By storm, by force
With might, without remorse
We are here to conquer this world
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The title of the song already anticipated and let us very clear what kind of subject we would
face in the lyrics; Satanism, religious criticism, apocalypse and blasphemous matters. Therefore
in this first fragment, the artists are taking the place of the French revolutionaries as they set out
to overthrow the old Christian order.
He raped the culture of mankind
He raped the pride of the ancient ways
He raped all thought of freewill
I who will watch you fall into obscurity
In this second fragment, the artists illustrate what Christianity has done, how it has been
eradicated older traditions and made people follow their dogmas instead. We know that with the
insatiable desire for domination and expansion of the mainstream culture, many other small
groups have disappeared or been absorbed by it. Even with their false constitutional free will,
they have oppressed and subjugated people for being different in the name of their God.
Hell's grim tyrant
The eldest of night and chaos
Breathe once again
Far from the shadow of god
This day of reckoning will be unavenged
Glory of wrathful indignation
I deny god and all religion
Turn up the whites of their eyes
Dechristianize
In this last fragment, the song is calling upon Satan to rise again. Satan is an entity in
the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity, he is usually
seen as a fallen angel, who used to possess great piety and beauty but rebelled against God, and it
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is Satan who will challenge the shadow of God according to the world created by Christendom.
These previews gothic elements are illustrated in the lyrics as shadows, chaos and hell, to
express a counter-hegemonic reaction to the mainstream, as the artists say that Satan will take off
the bandage that has blinded humankind, considering that for Christians God represents light,
purity, and wisdom, in opposition Death Metal culture see him just as blinding and instrument
for submission to conduct plunder and domination.
Death Metal bands explore themes such as: the occult, death, violence, and mutilation, which
are, for the most part, seen by the mainstream Christian culture as sins, heresy or blasphemy, and
therefore requiring punishment, or at least scrutiny. Nevertheless, death metal culture revels in
myths that explore humanity's darker side, and in the stories of human evil and degradation.
There is an attempt to move beyond the binary structure of good vs. evil and to reveal the
hypocrisy of the mainstream Christian society. Like it or not, these realms of human behavior
predominantly took place, and continue to take place, within Christendom itself. Christians and
members of the respectable elites, in general, have preached not to do what they, in fact, have
done for centuries: feasting, drinking, having adulterous relationships with women, plunder,
dispossession, etc.
Death metal heads believe that mainstream society covers up its sins with the bible, they use it
as their shield, and they use fear as their weapon. For this reason, metal heads enjoy taking
advantage of this hypocrisy, making fun of their silly and obsolete way of thinking. Therefore,
metal head culture shields itself from this hypocritical mainstream culture, and they have found a
retreat into a powerful sound they call death metal. Through the use of gothic-like elements that
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help them create this movement (and this mood), they have constructed a new identity through
the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, and the concerts they attend. They want to show
society that they are just people who have different values and beliefs, but who still share a
common ground. Chilean metal heads have done the same since the late 1980’s and early
1990’s; the growing popularity of American death metal seemed to fit perfectly with the Chilean
situation: an oppressed youth during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Metal Heads in Chile, and Identity for Chileans in the Context of the Dictatorship.
At the end of the 80’s on the Chilean streets appeared a wave of strangers with long hair,
walking on the main avenues, the ladies and gentleman screamed out and quickly closed
the doors and windows of thought, they have a bad appearance, they are bad people, they
said, they were sweating violence, they were born into a world that they don’t like, and
they showed it every moment… (Cine1, 2016).
In Chile, death metal culture also had its repercussions in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but
in a different and more complex context. Consequently, Chilean metal heads expressed their
discontent against the political crisis the country was experiencing under the dictatorship, buying
and listening to American death metal music served as a channel to express all their wrath and
discontent towards the oppressive national context.
In a way, death metal culture was appealing to Chilean youth because it provided local metal
heads with an identity, a way to understand themselves as an oppressed group, and to take a
stand against mainstream society, which was characterized by a dictatorship on the one hand, and
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by a conservative Catholicism on the other. Just as in the American context, local death metal
heads articulated a counter-hegemonic position through their music and culture.
This was not an easy thing to do in the Chile of the 1980’s, and there was an active effort to
criminalize and demonize death metal culture. The national police during the dictatorship, for
example, was extremely aggressive. They used to raid the concerts and gigs in order to stop
them. This type of music was also rejected by the mainstream press, TV, and mass media in
general. Many metal heads were branded as drug addicts because of the way they dressed and
because of their long hair. Despite this oppression, the 1980’s were the best years for death metal
music in Chile, and they contributed to a lively opposition movement, despite the fact that the
latter also tended to look at them with suspicion The opposition to the dictatorship often
described metal heads as “satanic”, as being gang members, and “drug addicts”. Perhaps, the
country at that time was not ready for this kind of musical and social expression. But at the same
time, this movement also contributed to the change that took place in Chile, as people realized
that there was more to life than just the Catholic Church, the police and the military government.
The impact of death metal culture on the hegemonic media establishment during the
dictatorship was put to the test in an infamous incident on national television. One of the most
popular TV programs in Chile at the time was called Sabados Gigantes. This program was part
of a strategy to manipulate the masses and to establish a one-dimensional society (Marcuse
1964). Sabados Gigantes, a variety show, offered luxury products to members of the working
class in exchange for their willingness to be ridiculed on television. The craving for
consumption was palpable in each contest: It did not seem to matter if you sang badly, or if you
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were ugly and were ridiculed; what mattered was winning the stereo set, the color TV and, if you
were lucky, a house or five thousand pesos. Programs like these were promoted by the
mainstream during the dictatorship, diffused by the national media, and consumed by the
oppressed as a form of coercive harmony (Nader, 1999). In 1987, on one of the episodes of
Sabados Gigantes, a local death metal band called Necrosis, was invited in order to be mocked
and dismissed, as a way to belittle the importance of youth expression., During this broadcast,
Don Francisco (Mario Kreutzberger), the top host in the country, mocked the band live on
national TV while they were trying to explain their music and death metal culture in general.
Don Francisco constantly interrupted them and laughed at them, also involving the audience,
who participated actively.
All the metal heads in the country still consider that incident as the most offensive and
humiliating thing they have ever experienced in the local death metal scene. The incident
revealed the way the mainstream culture in Chile viewed, understood, and treated all cultural
expressions that fell outside of the dominant, hegemonic cultural order. Despite this attack by
the mainstream media, death metal music thrived in Chile during the dictatorship, and the fact
that Sabados Gigantes felt it had to incorporate a death metal act into the show testifies to that.
A vibrant culture focused around the infamous Rockshop, where fanzines, cassettes, and posters
were sold and traded, building in this way an epicenter of cultural dissent. Furthermore, the
Death Metal Holocaust festival became an iconic event and gathering in Chile that helped the
dissemination of new bands and the movement in general, becoming one of the most important
events in South America where bands such as Pentagram, Atomic Aggression and Dominus Xul
all had a great influence, not just in Chile, but also abroad.
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By analyzing the gothic-like elements used by death metal musicians and producers, such as
album artwork, singing style, and lyrics, this article explored how metal head culture, which
originated in the United States, served as a way to articulate a counter-hegemonic movement
within American society. When we look back at American history, we see the indiscriminate
slaughter of innocent human beings, which was often justified by an obsession with the spread of
Christendom, in the name of God. Despite this, we see that a non-violent music genre that seeks
only to criticize and question American and Chilean society is discriminated against and vilified.
Death metal heads are just trying to figure out what their place is in the world, and what they
know for sure is that they do not belong to mainstream culture, because they do not share its
values and beliefs and they do not feel represented by it.
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Works Cited
BBC. (n.d.). BBC. Retrieved from BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1042_globalmusic/page3.shtml
Chomsky, N., & Herman, E. S. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the
Mass Media. Vintage International.
Cine1 (Director). (2016). Cassette, Historia de la musica Chilena [Motion Picture].
Fontaine, H. (2017, Noviembre 3). https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-seminal-deathmetal-bands-come-from-Florida. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Why-do-somany-seminal-death-metal-bands-come-from-Florida: https://www.quora.com/Why-doso-many-seminal-death-metal-bands-come-from-Florida
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan. (2018, Septiembre 17). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan
Joseph Jacobs, L. B. (n.d.). Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved from Jewish Encyclopedia:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13219-satan
Neil Campbell, A. K. (2006). American Cultural Studies, an instroduction to American culture.
New York: Routledge.
O’Connor, M. K. (2017). Music, Theology and Justice. New York: Lanham Boulder.
Phillipov, M. (2012). Death Metal and Music Criticism. Maryland: Lexington Books.
Place, R. (2016). Edgar Allam Poe Classic Tales. Zaragoza : EDELVIVES.
Prendergast, K. (n.d.). Introduction to the Gothic Tradition. Retrieved from Introduction to the
Gothic Tradition: https://www.usask.ca/english/frank/gothtrad.htm
Purcell, N. (2003). Death Metal Music, The Passion and Politics of a Subculture. Jefferson, Noth
Carolina: McFarland.
Rogers, G. (2006). Understanding American Culture. Bedford, Texas: Mission and Ministry
Resources.
Schuldiner, C. ". (1994). 666 at Calling Death.
Storey, J. (2003). Theory and Popular Culture. London: Pearson .
What is Goth? (n.d.). Retrieved from What is Goth?: http://www.whatisgoth.com/
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Annex
Canal 13. (1987). Sabados Gigantes. Necrosis. [Archivo de video]. Recuperado de
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPgrXC1kLws
Artwork
The Ten Commandments, Malevolent Creation (1991), Image1. Roadrunner.
https://www.nuclearblast.de/en/products/tontraeger/cd/cd/malevolent-creation-the-tencommandments.html-2
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Song
Eaten Back to Life, Cannibal Corpse (1990), track 1; Shredded Humans. Metal Blade Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_r8eIweibI
Lyric
Dechristianize, Vital Remains (2003). Century Media Records.
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/vitalremains/dechristianize.html#1
Trembling to its fall
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Putting an end to it all
By storm, by force
With might... without remorse
We are here to conquer this world
Like cancer... our hate consumes the light of Elysium
Unstoppable force of demonic supremacy
All destroying...all devouring
Heaven now ravaged... scarred and empty
Strike the death knell of the pandemonium
Imbrue one's hands in the blood of Christ
Washing away all filth of righteousness
The dimming of the light
Engulfing the trinity
He raped...the culture of mankind
He raped...the pride of the ancient ways
He raped...all thought of freewill
I who will watch you fall into obscurity
Washing away all filth of righteousness
The dimming of the light
Engulfing the fucking trinity
I spit upon your deity
Supposed creator of all things
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Idol of irreverence you worship above
Show your true face... the image of prevarication
Unhallowed be our twilight
Thy grace untriumphant
Mourn the crowning of unconquerable profanation
Hell's grim tyrant...the eldest of night and chaos
Breathe once again...far from the shadow of god
This day of reckoning will be unavenged
Glory of wrathful indignation
I deny god and all religion
Turn up the whites of their eyes... Dechristianize
Our poisonous truths
Divinity...drowning in impurity
Unconquerable...unstoppable
Sanguilent in your agony
Like cancer... our hate consumes the light of elysium
Unstoppable force of demonic supremacy
All destroying...all devouring
Heaven now ravaged... scarred and empty
Strike the death knell of the pandemonium
Imbrue one's hands in the blood of christ
Washing away all filth of righteousness
The dimming of the light
Engulfing the trinity
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He raped...the culture of mankind
He raped...the pride of the ancient ways
He raped...all thought of freewill
I who will watch you fall into obscurity
Washing away all filth of righteousness
The dimming of the light
Engulfing the fucking trinity
Dechristianize...Dechristianize...Dechristianize...Dechristianize...
Hell's grim tyrant...the eldest of night and chaos
Breathe once again...far from the shadow of god
This day of reckoning will be unavenged
Glory of wrathful indignation
I deny god and all religion
Turn up the whites of their eyes... Dechristianize...
Dechristianize