Dissecting the Bloodthirsty Bliss of Death Metal

As an avid death metal fan, I think that overall this article isn't wrong, but there's much more to be learned from the subjective experience of violent music. Which is to say: just ask a fan, and they'll tell you.

Using "negative" emotions to evoke a positive response is way, way older than metal. It's a technique as old as humanity itself, and is present the oldest stories we have (e.g, Homer, Gilgamesh and Beowulf.)

Storytelling and emotions are not straightforward things and the emotional response we get is not linearly tied to the subject matter.

To suggest that a metalhead must be negative and violent because they listen to Cannibal Corpse is tantamount to saying that someone must be suicidal because they enjoy a good performance of Hamlet.

I had to stop reading at:

> “It’s the paradox of enjoying a negative emotion that I was interested in,” says Thompson, a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. “Why are people interested in music that seems to induce a negative emotion, when in everyday life we tend to avoid situations that will induce a negative emotion?”

I've been listening to various forms of metal (heavy metal, (technical / melodic) death metal, metalcore, deathcore, etc.) for over 20 years, and I never once (not even once) even thought to think about associating negative emotions to the music. In fact, it's the exact opposite reaction.

I listen to it because it makes me feel positive. I listen to it for the same reasons that other people listen to music types they enjoy, which I think can be left unsaid because anyone who enjoys music knows exactly that feeling.

John Darnielle, on why he listens to metal: "I mean, it’s music that I enjoy. I enjoy the playing, I enjoy the compositional approaches to musical expression. It’s weird, nobody ever asks. ‘What does listening to this type of music do for you?’ about any other kind of music, but with metal there seems to be this ‘justify your connection to it’ vibe out there. It’s a unique mode of musical expression that challenges the listener and transports me to different realms. I’d say the same of the rap I listen to, or the classical music, or the ambient music—but I guess I find a lot of different headspace to explore in metal, a lot of different moods to enjoy and ways to enjoy them."

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/06/19/big-ups-the-mountain-g...

Anecdata ahead. There are different sub genres even within such niche genre as death metal. I love melodic death methal bands such as Dark Tranquility (those in the know would recognize it just by looking at my username), In Flames, and Insomnium. Their lyrics in general are not about extreme forms of aggression as article suggests, but revolves mostly around feelings of loneliness, apathy, acceptance and imminence of death, despair etc. First and foremost I listen to it because it is a very good music by talented musicians, just in their choice of genre. There is definitely an element of appeal in it in its “death” aspect though and I thought about it a lot over the years. Contrary to its general tone and lyric content melodic death metal does make me feel relaxed or energized, but generally brings positive emotions. I came to the conclusion that it is about unearthing all the fears and negative emotions that this music brings up in lyrics, acknowledging them and making peace with them instead of suppressing them.

As a fan, I feel like they focus too much on the lyrical content and intelligibility when the genre clearly downplays both of these aspects moreso than any other genre. Death metal vocals aren't intended to add any sort of intellectual meaning or melody. They're meant to add an additional percussive effect, to add punctuation to various song measures and refrains. And in the case of those with truly monstrous voices, to add a powerful meta-human element. Some of the best tracks out there aren't even in English for instance, and yet English audiences eat them right up.

It's not about the violence. It's about what is considered socially acceptable. I mean, violent lyrics, seriously? Have they ever listened to blues, or folk music?

My staff has murdered giants, my bag a long knife carries / For to cut mince pies from children's thighs, with which to feed the fairies.

- Mad Tom of Bedlam (traditional folk song)

And of course, there are movies, and even tv, which often have imagery more violent than any metal song (and visual, not lyrical).

So what's going on here? Why is metal "violent", and the rest of this stuff is "normal"? My answer is mutual contempt. The stylistic cues of metal - both the music and the clothing - is to say "I reject social norms". Society of norms responds in kind, saying metal is worse than, say, the latest Avengers movie or the plot of a Shakespeare tragedy - that metal is "violent", and this other stuff is "normal".

As a fan of technical death metal and a guitarist it is one of the few genres that has the depth and complexity to keep me interested. This is also why I enjoy music from Sibelius and other classical greats. In contrast, most pop music is so stock that I can guess the next notes in a sequence and it just becomes dull to listen to.

Also, as someone often described as stoic, metal has a enough energy to actually get me excited and feeling. When I listen to it, I get more of a response than say listening to DMB. I wonder if this is related to being an introvert, a lot of metal heads seem like they like to listen to music alone and get energized from solitude, where as a pop music fan may enjoy listening with friends.

A lot of the people I know that listen to death or black metal are very scientific - physicists, mathematicians, etc. I've always figured people are attracted to the music for two reasons -

Firstly because they tend to be social outliers. As kids, smart and a little awkward. Much like the music. It's not for everyone and it gives you a sense identity and a group to belong to.

Secondly because it's challenging to listen to. Like, but somewhat moreso than most genres, you have to spend time figuring the music out. As my mother would say "every song sounds the same" - except it doesn't. There's super complicated time signatures and riffs and everything else. And even if it's not (as) musically complicated, it's just not easy compared to pop tunes on the radio. It's another challenge to work out and make it accessible. And when you do, it's like understanding a world that most others don't (perhaps like coding, or maths, or science).

Anecdotally, metal crowds seem to be far more lovely and polite than most. The Cannibal Corpse show I went to a few years back was remarkably so compared to a lot of the punkrock or hiphop shows I attend...

I really like something that Marshall Mathers (Eminem) said at one point, something along the lines of people's inability to distinguish the fiction in his lyrics from the fiction of, for example, horror movies.

He'd actually said something neat, that he feels there must be something more sacred about music for people to freak out to that extent. There's something ineffably interesting about that.

Every think piece on the subject of death metal waxes about the violent lyrics, but I really challenge you to decypher the lyrics in the song selected to open the article[1] without reading them in advance. If you can interpret the lyrics in this song, you're better at this than I am, and I've been listening to this type of music for over a decade.

Also, as of right now, this article sits at 41 points and 43 comments. Classic metalheads ratio'ing discussions.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhN6lT-y5U

For me it’s all about the dissonance and I almost never listen to lyrics in any form of music and find it an annoyance. If there was a death or black metal musical, I wouldn’t like it probably, for example. The voice to me is another instrument that is no better or worse than other instruments but unique in that voices are obviously much more varied than an instrument is.

But I think it’s worth getting a survey of some sort from folks into metal seriously. We’ve already shown that metal fans are among the most dedicated listeners of a genre, for example, according to Spotify’s stats. The Metal Maniacs BB more than a decade ago did an informal survey among the members and found that at least in that crew most metal fans are pretty darn introverted, which is a finding that most people not into the music and cliques would be surprised by. That board may be up on the Wayback machine but maybe it’s be of some value to researchers.

The self-report aspects of a study are handy enough for the purpose of identifying further research if you have no clue what to investigate next at least.

>is that long-term, persistent exposure to violent media may lead to subtle changes in one’s personality, desensitizing fans to violence and reinforcing negative social attitudes.

I'm not sure I agree. I can listen to all the "violent music" I want, but can't stomach through a contemporary or even classic horror film. I was really weirded out and had to stop halfway through while watching a documentary on the Austrian guy who kept his daughter in his basement for many years.

Also, not to be a cliched metalhead, but I'm disappointed by the lack of good death metal in this article.

I see a lot of good points here I otherwise would have made but:

1) "Death metal" is surprisingly regional. This article is very American-centric, as European death metal generally isn't not inspired by violence in the same way.

2) Almost all "good" art in human history is about sadness and death, especially poetry (which are probably the closest analog to modern lyrics).

3) Many of these bands tend to be intentionally over-the-top and not serious about their themes. They are usually very much going to for a classic B-movie goofiness vibe. (Cannibal Corpse, from the article, is definitely in this group)

This article focuses excessively on 'violent lyrics', which are only a feature of some small sub-genres in the greater landscape of modern extreme metal. While no one is going to confuse the lyrical content of most metal as being upbeat or positive, there is enormous diversity of musical styling and lyrical subjects across the genre, just like any other. Most lyrics and most extreme metal bands don't focus on subjects like the article discusses (CC in particular). Death Metal (and it's sub-genres) is today more associated with musical and vocal style rather than violent lyrical imagery.

I realize I'm being counter cultural here in saying this, but these are my musings: I wonder if our society is making a mistake. Little things carve channels in our minds over time that we aren't always aware of. In good times and easy times it may be easy to ignore the violence, glorification of sex and money and "live the good times", but in our times of trouble and stress, will our thoughts turn to those things we fed our minds on a constant diet? During social upheaval, would we have the discipline to sacrifice and love when the first thing that comes to mind are violent lyrics?

The same thing probably goes for pop music; if the first thing that comes to mind when we speak of love or relationships are the lyrics from a Justin Bieber or Beyonce, or the thousands of songs about failed relationships, selfishness, and angst-- we might be missing out on some depth, feeling, and principles from earlier eras, like "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Believe_Me%2C_if_All_Those_End...]

In previous societies, music was written for other purposes like Handel saying, "My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better." If every little influence in our life, including music, helped us to educate our emotions, feelings, and thoughts, perhaps our society would feel more cohesive, less isolated, more kind, and less bellicose. Moore's song was written as consolation and a declaration of faithfulness to his wife-- and it was wildly popular-- what have we lost in the centuries?

Self therapy?

From an external point of view, something like CBT or desensitization therapy for maybe claustrophobia or fear of guns looks very disturbing, but I'd like to hear an opinion on the participants.

I'm not terrified of heights but I'm very nervous of them. After I get up there and the adrenaline dump is over and I'm just doing my task, I get quite a spectacular high at having overcome my fear. So its not paradoxical to me given experience, that I could both be scared of heights yet get addicted to parachute jumping.

In a like way I could see people who are not terribly enthused about having to live in an area of urban hand of high rates of hand to hand combat and rape might find getting thru a metal song about the topic, extremely motivating and enjoyable.

Corporate mainstream stuff is highly formulaic and self similar and its no surprise it won't speak to all people, making it surprising if something like metal or a zillion other counter cultural things (alt-right, horror movies, etc) didn't exist.

I think that Halloween is the perfect time of the year to try to convey the aesthetic. Do you like scary movies? Thrillers? Surreal comedy? Elements and concepts from all of these feature heavily.

Essentially, I celebrate Halloween all year round, and it's just a blast.

As a classically trained musician, I've tended to lean toward more aggressive and technical metal. The other people I know who have gravitated toward death, black, and/or power metal are by overwhelming majority trained musicians.

In a deeper way, there's also the role of catharsis, of someone else sharing your pain. Sometimes when one is in distress and hurting, it's so helpful to have someone else expressing something you can't quite convey in words.

A lot of what is said in the article is true. However the condescension and limited viewpoint are jarring.

Extreme metal is much more than ‘plain old’ death metal bands like CC. There is black, thrash, grindcore, doom, post-metal, industrial and hybrids therof. Just like with any other music (think Leonard Cohen vs U2), there is vast difference in subtlety and sophistication of lyrics in metal. And just because the lyrics are a certain way it doesn’t mean the folks who wrote them aren’t smart - it is hard to ponder the meaning of life while headbanging to the blast beat of a Cannibal Corpse song!

Death metal and fast aggressive music is an avenue of release for me. I listen to it when working out, and when trying to get in focus when coding under pressure. It's easily one of the most fun things I do all day.

I don't watch music videos or dwell on the lyrics (or understand them most of the time), so I don't really see much of the gory side, and also most of the bands I like do not have much of a gory persona anyways. It's all just fast, high energy, quite complex and stimulating music to me to get my heart rate up, and I love it!

Now, back to Amon Amarth... :-)

A friend of mine once said: “There is a reason why Death Metal is very popular in the Nordics and Reggae in the Carribean”

I thought that was insightful.

PS: I really like Death Metal, Unleashed in particular

I would think the positive feelings are mostly what I've heard called "Opponent Process Theory". I mean, if you subject yourself to the violence, lyrics, melody, rhythms, of death metal it is like an assault. There is usually nothing soothing about it. Your body has to defend itself. It would be analogous to marathoners and the high they experience when running long distances. #throwupthehornsfordio

In an open-source crossover, I once heard Jono Bacon (sometime commenter on HN, former Canonical community guy), explain that there are two genres of music in his collection. Death Metal, and Brutal Death Metal. I believe he's been in a band of his own as well.

Never got into the metal scene myself but never seen it as more than an indulgence in some form of silliness, some kind of fooling around with something that is not real but something that gets together kids who would otherwise feel lonely

Melodic death metal FTW :))

Maybe they'd be better off looking at black metal, especially early Norwegian stuff when members of Mayhem were killing themselves/each other.

Or maybe My Dying Bride, Mourning Beloveth etc.

The rest of it is a blast.

Not all lyrics are like the ones mentioned in the article... I just like style. Makes good "wallpaper" music when you're doing something else.