Death metal music inspires joy not violence | Hacker News Reader

Death metal music inspires joy not violence

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172 pointsTsukiZombina103 comments

Great to see research coming to a conclusion I think most metalheads intuitively know.

I love walls of sound, I love intensity that feels like it takes a surplus of cognitive bandwidth (ADHD) and gives it a little bit of resistance to tug against, almost like those various rubber stress toys. I think most metal fans hear lyrical gruesomeness as something between fantasy and a cause for more empathy than anything else. And let's be real, a lot of it is flat out unintelligible. It's an aesthetic.

Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears. I listen to some pretty heavy stuff (see links), but the other day I cried at a dog video, and recently had to turn off the police scanner at the mention of a particularly sad crime. Mosh pits look scary but there's a shared ethical framework. Injuries happen, but they're almost never due to malice. Somebody falls down, you pick em up. Bigger people stomp around keeping the peace and returning lost shoes, aha. It's bounded, consensual violence – just like a martial art.

Exceptions exist – there are church burners and skinheads, but they tend to cluster in their own sects and you don't get mixed up with them accidentally.

https://youtu.be/E9z-Tipz5JQ?t=40

https://youtu.be/Y037ZIKckIY

https://youtu.be/9YkSki1qbLA

> Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears.

In my music hobby as a guitarist, I've been involved in heavy rock and classic blues bands, played in a classical guitar ensemble, and did some sessions in a jazz setting. More recently I've been guitar tech and roadie for my son who plays in a metal band.

By far, the nicest people I have come across have been in the metal scene. I've been invited around to try gear, and been offered the lend of more gear from heavy metal guitarists.

My former co-founder in my business is a fan of extreme Northern European metal, and she is one of the nicest people I've met.

> Most of the metalheads I know are absolute teddybears.

There is a lot of social batesian mimicry in adopting a "vicious metalhead" image (or any other image from a band). I would expect a sexual agressor adopting an innocent "boys-band" image (agressive mimicry in this case), underdogs trying to pose as "I'm richer than you, b*ch", and common people trying to identify him/herselves with a strong badass image or a more exciting life. Admiring the opposite of who you are is in the root of any fandom.

There's a weird rule of opposites which can happen with music. I think people often take up art and music as a form of healing, so there's some kind of reaction vector involved. Lots of people who take up Irish Trad are tortured souls or have "thorny" sides. Also, the corpus has a lot of happy sounding songs talking about truly horrible things.

I remember reading about some study ages ago about an inverse relationship between violence in music and violence in daily life. Basically they found that gangsters who were doing horrible things every day listened to much 'nicer' music than people living essentially nonviolent lives.

Makes me really wonder about those who listen to New Age or other really chill music. (This includes me, at times.)

Ultraviolence and Beethoven?

c'mon, Beethoven is metal for 1700s.

When the waltz was introduced, people said that the dance was too lascivious and would result in the decay of societal morals.

Hell yeah, Lana Del Rey should collab with Beethoven

(One of her albums is called Ultraviolence)

Welly welly well well.

I've sometimes heard a saying that goes something like: "Metalheads are like hedgehog, they put spikes on the outside but are really soft on the belly".

Wow, I haven't heard "Job for a Cowboy" since I was in high school. HN was definitely last place I would have expected the reminder. I will say I saw my fair share of fights at shows between the typical crowd and Neo-Nazi types, who were sometimes hard to distinguish from what we called "gutter-punks". So I don't completely share your experience, though the way you state it was how it was most of the time. Communal and caring, admittedly it seems ever group is this way toward it's in-crowd. West-coast hardcore seemed to bring out people who were looking for fights, I even got someones blood on my shoe once at a Terror show. As an innocent bystander ofcourse.

I'm about 10 years older now, and have traded in that sound wall, for a different kind. As an "adult" (Is 29 adult, probably not) I can get that same feeling listening to people like Lawrence English, and Tim Hecker, who are most assuredly not metal at all but produce much denser layers of frequency that would put any metal band to shame. I mostly just listen to jazz though, which takes a severe bit of concentration, attacking the "ADHD" from a different angle. Forcing me to follow a phrase through, for fear of it becoming noise.

I always look at it as a kind of performance art, for people who would never admit that they like performance art. It's absurd, and it's ridiculous and it's a really fun live experience.

Some artists address this phenomenon directly:

Wimps and posers, leave the hall. --- Manowar, Metal Warriors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxwcr72VcKg

We did once informal study among friends comparing heart rate in rest and taste in music. Those with low heart rate favored faster tempo and those with fastest heartbeat favored slowest tempo.

(Age and cardiovascular fitness matter more, but tt the time we were all young and relatively fit).

Are you also considering an analogy: those with innate capacities for violence tend to favor an aesthetic or desire of joy or peace?

It's not 100% true, but I find that it tends to be.

> those with innate capacities for violence

Pretty sure that's everybody.

Possibly, but some, though willing to aggress on others, quickly cowar at any actual sign of violence.

So heavy metal brings joy, but Nazis and psychopaths love classical music at least in the movies.

I was just speaking to inherent ability for violence, not morality.

AFAIK church burning is typically more black metal than deathmetal, which as a genre has somewhat of an ideological bent. See: the whole recent fiasco surrounding the band Deafheaven

I recently started listening to Deafheaven and haven't heard of this fiasco? Do you happen to have any links to news related to it?

codeine king is very much not rooted in any metal, as a band from the sludgewave era of metalcore/hardcore its a sound rooted in hardcore, codeine king is not metal

vctms is a metalcore band

jfac is a deathcore band, esp during the doom ep era

deathcore being a combination of death metal and metalcore

actually, none of the bands you linked are metal

No one has cared about that TRVE nonsense in almost two decades, gatekeeping genres is trite.

ight bet

that doesnt invalidate the fact that metalcore isn't metal, since it's rooted in punk hence, metal core

metal isn't metal, since it's rooted in punk. FACT

Extreme metal rooted from Discharge. Sounds close enough anyway. Crossover thrash isn't metal because it has punk on it, too?

Regardless, this is just pedantry.

Funny enough you mention Discharge... most contemporary DM bands dress (and have a few songs) that sounds like crust bands ~1982

Correcting genre labels is hardly gatekeeping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAhrbAK_34w

Yeah, that's totally closer to punk than metal...

you do realize taim is deathcore right? if you're confused you can google the bands name and look at the genres they're classified as and then read about how genres work... v simple but i could help if you want

Why, yes I do. I've shared a stage with them. You're the one trying to tell people that *core is not metal.

if you still need help figuring out what is and isnt metal simply google search the band or plug it into metal archives

its 2019 i hope hn users are capable of this

A great deal of metal is prima facie ugly, and I find that most of the people attracted to this aesthetic have emotional issues, abuse drugs, or self-harm, etc. I enjoy hanging out with some of these people, but it's an observation I can't ignore.

As you point out, there are a number of subcultures, some of which are generally wholesome and aesthetically sound. For example, Manowar fans are usually intelligent, driven, and extremely muscular.

The way that you phrased the part about 'emotional issues, abuse drugs or self-harm' are you meaning to imply that this somehow makes them lesser people? Bearing in mind that these traits all tend to be a direct sequelae of childhood trauma?

Absolutely not. I'm just speaking plainly, and I'm glad you made that point.

They are my friends for a reason.

That's death metal though. Other forms of extreme metal can have lyrics that, far from toying with splatter-gore themes for the shock value, express terminally anti-social politics.

I'm thinking of black. Sometimes I'm just happy that a few of the bands I listen to sing in Swedish or Norwegian etc that I don't understand, so that I can't tell what they're singing about. Although the imagery can often give a bit of a hint, rather.

To make it absolutely clear in case people don't know what I'm talking about: there is a clear trend of black bands that are downright neonazis. By no means all, or even I think a majority, but they are right there.

I'd just like to point out that, as someone who mainly listens to black metal, I do not share these opinions.

Concerning the lyrics, I generally categorize them into two groups (with non-empty cut set):

* Intellectual lyrics, which criticize some part of society or human behaviour, or they deal with personal issues (e.g. http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/todtgelichter/angst.html#1)

* Theme lyrics, which try to fit a core concept of the bands music, like satanism or some war/Third Reich theme (e.g. Graphic http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/behemoth/thesatanist.html#1 Graphic). Also, note that a having a certain theme does not automatically imply endorsing it.

Usually, the music as well as the lyrics are cold and cynical, which can make their actual meaning hard to place or even ambivalent at times.

Concerning the neonazis: Personally, I do not see a trend towards the worse, but there are a few sketchy bands out there (the ones I know of are usually older, from the 90s or so).

Oh, P.S.: while the black metal fans may be not as teddybear-y as death metal fans, we are usually quite a nice bunch :)

Endorsing Satanism isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you read The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey it can represent a logical construct that rejects blind theology.

That came up during episode 666 of the NPR This American Life podcast, "The Theme That Shall Not Be Named":

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/666/the-theme-that-shall-no...

The first segment about the Satanic Prayer Hotline is really amusing. Act One is about a talk back radio preacher who went on tour with Slayer & wrote about it for Spin Magazine, and that's also worth a listen.

>> Also, note that a having a certain theme does not automatically imply endorsing it.

That's true- often it's done for the shock value.

But that's a bit of a controversy there, rising on the horizon. Personally, I don't want to be the one to say that it's all a performance and all that stuff about uncompromising self-expression and antisocial-ness, is just, you know, posing.

When it comes to the fans (who are also the musicians, usually), I've seen my fair share of total dickheads and absolute darlings, and lots of folks in the middle so eh. Let's not generalise either way.

Edit: Btw, with "intellectual lyrics" you're talking about a new generation of bands, including Misþyrming and Mgła. They are still a little rare, I find. Or I just like more traditional stuff and I'm missing all the serious lyrics :0 Please point to more stuff like that you link above, thanks.

What do you think of Mgła?

A lot of people in the scene seem to like them alright, but I never took to them. The lyrics don't appeal to me, and I mostly find their music too bland. Hence, if you'd ask me about the nazism allegations, I could not tell. I've also never met the guys nor have I been at a concert (you often get a good grasp whether the guys are idiots there).

Love the name though :)

Black metal is way sillier than death metal. In the early days, sure, there were a group of people who took the imagery of metal seriously or at least tried to. But black metal is so theatric and cartoonish these days. It'd be like being afraid Count Chocula will inspire a generation of cannibals.

It'd be like being afraid Count Chocula will inspire a generation of cannibals.

Years ago, there were the fundamentalist types who would've thought that the vampire/occult theme was a cutesy backdoor into pulling kids into satanic occult stuff. Same sort of people who tried to stigmatize D&D and video games. Same sort of people who wanted to censor books, music, movies, etc.

In 2019, we have a new kind of fundamentalist running around trying to de-platform wrongthink. I see them as just the 2019 version of the same people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QbTRiiZmPo

Oh hey, as someone who's been on the "wrong" side of both the "Right's" 80s/90s family values moral panic (D&D, Marilyn Manson, violent videogames etc.) and the "Left's" progressive moral panic, I also can relate to that connection. The pendulum keeps swinging, yet either way we are being preached to as being immoral and in need of repenting.

Either for sinfulness or privilege, which serve the same purpose in their ideological frameworks.

Oh yeah! Lots of people note that "privilege" is basically "original sin" except there's no chance of forgiveness or redemption. Also, since it seems to be attached to ethnicity, it's more specifically like the fundamentalist variations involving racial arrows of morality. (The idea that inspired the "Children of Hamm" from the Handmaid's Tale.)

In a lot of cases, it's not just "wrongthink", the people are actually genuinely far right extremists.

Take the Asgardsrei festival in Ukraine for instance. It is literally run by neo-nazis, with the far-right Azov Battalion acting as guards, avowed racist/fascist bands on the stage, and a whole day of militia workshops and talks by known neo-nazis.

So yes, it is real. It's a small scene, and most black metallers hate their guts, but it shouldn't be ignored.

So yes, it is real. It's a small scene, and most black metallers hate their guts, but it shouldn't be ignored.

By the same token, this small subset shouldn't be used to tar the entire black metal scene. There are activist pseudo-journalists who have done this in the past, and this is a prevalent pattern in recent years. Look out for this happening, and be sure to speak out when you see it happening.

What's silly about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varg_Vikernes?

the antisocial/nsbm culture of black metal is mostly a meme, left in the realms of dsbm and of nsbm/small niches of the microsubgenre war metal

pensees nocturnes dropped a circus black metal album and its pretty fun/literally 0 nsbm elements https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FiKXVZnlQE

Black metal has troubled origins, but honestly it's just a parody/joke now. Black metal these days is to the world what heavy metal was 30 years ago, when Dee Snider had to appear before the US senate because of the "Parents Music Resource Center" to defend Twisted Sisters lyrics because "think of the children!".

I don't really see any difference between your comment and claiming death metal listeners are violent. It's not true. Black metal doesn't make someone a neo-nazi. Neo-nazis are already neo-nazis.

Did the researchers make that subgenre distinction?

Makes sense. The people at every death metal show I've been are always pretty happy and friendly. Even in most mosh pits people look out for eachother and will help somebody up who falls or help someone who gets hurt out of the mass of people. It's always been positivr, even the show I split my head open on someone else's head(accidently) we both just laughed about it, then after someone told me my face was covered in blood me and my buddy went to go get me some stitches. Good times.

The timing of this article feels like it was written in response to Singapore banning a Swedish black metal band from performing at the very last minute.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/watain-black-...

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/watain-concer...

I fly halfway across Japan about every two years for metal concerts in Osaka. Big-name extreme metal acts usually only visit Tokyo & Osaka. About 3-4 years ago Watain was headlining a show. I would have been PISSED, having bought a plane ticket and a hotel, only to find the headline act was cancelled due to some nonsense. \m/>_<\m/

Fellow metalhead in Tokyo. Know of any good shows/lists of shows?

Usually I just wait for something to pop up on my feed on Facebook, probably based on some of the bands I follow. Here's Osaka's most common metal venue:

https://www.songkick.com/venues/269466-namba-rockets

Some recent favs:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5eQuhBfDE0

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlZA5OYj2I

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WeeMHq3I3Y

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsFM7kj0RII

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ekRLVXIIpw

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlFeOy-I2MY

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Qqk_wNFOk

Spectral Voice is really something else, take a listen to Blood Incantation.

Thanks, digging them already.

So here's a thought that just occurred to me.

For context, I've never understood death metal or anything in that realm. The screaming in particular... but I realize that's just my personal preference. No judgment intended. Just opinion, not objective fact.

So only recently I discovered the ASMR phenomenon. And it seems like ~10% of the population (estimated) get a particular response to those sounds.

Other commenters here talk about a "wall of intensity" and things in that realm. What if metal appreciation is the same way as ASMR? By this I mean, what if you just have a predisposition to the sound intensity?

Just a question. I have no answers. This might be ridiculous. I have no idea.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I know a couple of my friends have had very similar experiences getting into music.

My parents have always been musically inclined, my dad played drums in a rock band and my mom played the flute and sang. There was also always a lot of music in our home, I got my introduction to rock music via Deep Purple's Machine Head on cassette tape, which my parents bought in the 70s and gave to me in the early 90s. I still have it, along with Sgt. Pepper's and Dødens Triumf by The Savage Rose. Absolute classics that helped shape my taste in music.

So there was always rock music nearby as I grew up, and I think specifically Jon Lord on hammond organ through a distorting guitar amp (the intro to "Lazy" is so damn good) is what opened my ears to heavier distortion and the enveloping sound it creates. And of course Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I also discovered Motörhead around this time, and started to love the raw punk-influenced edge to their sound, compared to Deep Purple's more polished compositions, which also took me in the direction of over-the-top dragons and swords power metal.

From there, I was introduced to progressive death metal in the form of Opeth, thanks to an open FTP at a LAN party (I think piracy was and is hugely important in a lot of peoples' personal musical journeys). That got me used to growled vocals, and I slowly got into harder death metal, and branched out to brutal death metal and grindcore/deathgrind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCsoB8p578Q

I've started branching out to more old school death metal now, wanted to catch up on what I missed in the 90s and early 2000s.

I guess I'm rambling. My point is that it's a musical journey of exposure and experience and learning about new bands and genres. I don't think very many people start out enjoying extreme metal, and I don't think it's a genetic ASMR thing.

I'd be surprised if it's that simple. If you'd not raised the point, I think I'd have guessed most had to grow on you with exposure like appreciating spirits or strong foods. Hang around with bikers or metal heads and you'll learn to love it whether you intend to or not... Or find something else to do fast. :)

After growing up with Sabbath, Lemmy, Maiden, ACDC, UFO etc, when I first heard death metal and growl vocals I just thought it sounded a bit naff. Yet somewhere along the way to middle age I grew to love them and also stopped noticing genres. There's now plenty of Ensiferum, Arch Enemy and so on in among bands of all kinds, classical and jazz I listen to these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFYVcz7h3o0

For me it was absolutely an exposure thing. I spent years listening to metal with clean vocals but hating harsh vocals. Then I listened to one of Equilibrium's instrumental songs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DiJw9wIibw) and fell in love. I was disappointed to discover that most of their songs were "ruined" by the growled vocals, but managed to enjoy them in spite of that. Over a bunch of listens I learned to how to appreciate what Equilibrium did with growls, and once I "got" that I started enjoying a lot of other bands that I previously disliked.

I don't it's a genetic thing.

AFAIK I like more genres than I don't, but everything I've ever gotten into (Rock -> Metal -> Jazz -> Hip Hop -> No Preference) has been because I've convinced myself to like it. Possibly a genetic trait but it doesn't feel right, especially given that metal music can be appreciated for totally different reasons: One doesn't listen to Opeth the same way as meshuggah

As I understand it music is something you can train your brain to like and the choices are heavily influenced by other people around you, society, culture. On its own metal music is equally as likable as kpop, for example. But you don't necessarily learn to have that attitude towards music and limit yourself trying to fit in, etc.

No kidding. Since everyone is posting their favorites it seems, here's one of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMRKBz89uRQ

And another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNuVdsx7qJY

> "We used 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams as a [comparison]," said Dr Sun.

Could it be that the listeners were simply tired of hearing an overplayed song (Happy) to the point that even death metal was refreshing?

An obscure song should be compared to another obscure song.

Just to note: Some death-metal bands have positive lyrics[0,1]... (Though, whether they can really be called a death metal band is possibly a point of contention.)

[0] - https://youtu.be/lk2-bgwA0Ro

[1] - https://youtu.be/Nh10gL_GP_w

Some examples with science-themed lyrics (not all "death metal", though):

Avenged Sevenfold - Fermi Paradox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl8rofNa0tI

Avenged Sevenfold - Exist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntgOlFbGWLY

Nightwish - The Greatest Show on Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJb3xwtpmmc

Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUb1p8fm7Ag

Dream Theater - The Great Debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z6vpiXQJNA

Allegaeon - Gray Matter Mechanics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-NvEec8y8

Allegaeon - All Hail Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONPMWHP8AZ4

I think those are more towards the symphonic end of the metal spectrum. They tend to love science, SciFi, but also fantasy.

Not only do they have positive lyrics, some even have comforting recipes[2]

https://youtu.be/xwksxDHNoAE

I don't know why but I half-expect that to be a ROSMT[0] link.

[0] - https://youtu.be/OvW2xeSn4As

tgi definitely have positive lyrics, most modern melodic hc bands do, but they are definitely hardcore and not metal

Can't mention positivity without linking Lykathea Aflame [0]

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IEqf9mo93w

> We used 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams as a [comparison]

> I didn't personally write them, but I would be frankly astounded if anyone listened to that song and then felt a desire to be eaten by a cannibal

If anything, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams is more likely to make me want to be eaten by a cannibal.

Key takeaway: music is not about what it looks like on the cover. It can also be a way to shield yourself from the people you're trying to get away from, and a way to differentiate yourself. Almost every one of the ultra-kind but non-mainstream people I know who are into outwardly weird or off-putting (anti-mainstream) stuff are into the culture community for the boundaries they provide. Juggalos are about the community, metalheads are about the community, otakus are about the community, furries are about the community.

Metal music is cathartic the same way a movie, a videogame, a book or a theater performance are.

You experience intensity, highs and lows, tension and release. You expose yourself to a harsh emotional rollercoaster, to digging deep into one's psyche, and come out on the other end hopefully invigorated and refreshed.

If metal music inspires violence, so do the Odyssey, Star Wars, Othello and many many others.

They (We) are pretty nice people. We're rational, scientifically inclined, reasonable, and empathetic. We're responsible for our actions, since we don't have any mystical ideology or supernatural deities to fall back on.

A vast majority of the music we listen mocks stereotypes, oppression, points out to hypocrisy, the real violence and aggression shown by the 'normal' masses.

We have cleaner track records. Some of us will dress up to appear aggressive and immoral, but we know you have pitchforks and judgments that you're waiting to hurl at us.

A notable case of people being profiled as violent due to their taste in metal music is the Robin Hood Hills murders [1].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murde...

EDIT:

The children that were prosecuted also raised eyebrows because of their philosophical interests in LaVeyan Satanism (which is absolutely not what most people would probably assume it to be)

I'd like to see a study like this done on members of the Norwegian black metal scene from the early 90s. Because I still can't figure out what the burnings and stuff were about (aside from paganism, I guess), and “TROO” metalheads sound pretty crazy even compared to all the other ‘alternative’ culture aficionados.

But generally, of course, this experiment seems like just one bit of a proper comprehensive study.

The way I see it, metal bands in other countries and cultures had a lot of societal issues to channel into their music. Mostly repressive religion, and also political instability in South America, conservatism in the US, the end days and aftermath of the Cold War in Germany and Eastern Europe, just to name a few.

Norway didn't really have much of that. It was (and is) a really safe country, very stable, religion is mostly pretty bland non-offensive Protestantism, most people maintain very ordinary non-spectacular lifestyles.

The 2nd wave black metallers felt completely suffocated by this quiet peaceful existence, so they rebelled against the peace and quiet and tolerance, and took teenage rebellion to absolute extremes, doing whatever they could to frighten the ordinary people.

There were probably also other issues wrapped up in it, I think Dead (Mayhem's lead singer, who killed himself) was depressed or maybe had even deeper issues. These guys felt like outcasts in their own homes, so they acted out.

TROO or TRVE metalheads aren't just in black metal, although I think they are more prevalent there. We have them in every genre, from death to folk to power metal and beyond. There's a drive for some people to identify themselves by the things they like and even more by the things they don't like. Some people just get really wrapped up in something they care a lot about, and music affects us on a very primal level.

Here's a great Defcon talk from Neil Fallon (lead singer of Clutch) about how music tugs at our emotions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVx5Y1OE-KE

Burnings where the extreme outliers, maybe like there where some killings in the American hip-hop scene at the same time. Remember that the (black) metal scene in Norway was so large that in the late '90s a black metal band had a song in the national top 20 list for weeks (Satyricon, fuel for hatred). What a handful of persons taking it to the extreme, did do not define the scene

Edit: Don't underestimate the calming effect from death/black metal when writing code

> calming effect from death/black metal when writing code

For a looong time, I've been looking for techno or breakbeat with proper metal, i.e. more than some vague guitar buzz. No luck.

Filmmaker's ‘Crepuscular’ might be the closest thing yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XvB64VU3yw

For some reason, a steady rhythm vastly outperforms anything else as a soundtrack for coding.

You'd love Karma to Burn then, example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxGD45SK08o

It's alright, but it's a standard stoner rock arrangement, so not sure how it fits in the context of my comment.

the norwegian scene was mainly just edgy teenagers making music as an affront to the overly commercialized nature of metal at that time, with more roots in punk/folk than what most people think of as "metal", and ofc hail satan/vandalizing bullshit is going to be the route you take if you live in nowhere norway

ironically now the 1st and 2nd wave bm bands are used as aesthetic pieces for edgy mainstream artists

Literally any Cannibal Corpse song would have been better for this study than literally any Bloodbath song.

I dunno man, Bloodbath has some bangers. Huge fan of the tunes with Akerfeldt on vocals.

Not metalcore but the punk/hardcore album Joy as an Act of Resistance by Idles embodies this.

Now I'd definetely love this kind of study for Hip-Hop. I feel like the results (about decoupling between lyrics' violence and listeners/bands' feelings) would be utterly different.

\m/

When I'm in a particularly bad mood, I'm always calmed down by hardcore punk, thrash, and metal. I've always assumed it was an audible form of letting off steam.

party death metal is very joyous

Party Cannon Bong Hit Hospitalisation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eki2SNegxIE

KILLITOROUS // IT'S NOT STANLEY, IT'S STAN LEE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YflBqKgLyks

technical party dm

This brings me great joy:

https://youtu.be/T6mUmTDJAME

And in tomorrow's news: videogames are fun...

everyone knows metalheads are lovely people

Next clickbait title : "BDSM inspires joy not violence". Then replace BDSM with RPG, FPS ...

How does that square with https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/04/young-heavy-m...

Extreme non-mainstream interests tend to attract people who feel alienated by society, which often includes people with undiagnosed issues.

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