Heavy Metal Crossing Borders

              Heavy metal’s distinctive sound originates from the blue-collar communities of the US and UK during the 1970s.  The middle-class society that was built out of manufacturing jobs became scarce as automation and technology pushed the workers into low-wage, nonunion work that lacked stability and equity. Ryan Moore writes, “The music and iconography of heavy metal reflected the reification of these youths’ class consciousness-they knew they were screwed, but it was hard to articulate why.” (Moore, 2010).  The political, technological, and economic forces that layered the challenges they faced made it hard to decide a direction to channel their frustrations.  When presented with direct conflict from authority figures, the threat is obvious, but globalization, deindustrialization, and outsourcing became abstract and difficult subjects to emulate.  Metal emerged with ominous enemies, anonymous evil, and faceless shapes that overwhelmed its victims.  The supernatural, mythological, and legendary became favorite subjects of early pioneers, allowing an outlet for the desperate social status decline they experienced. 

              The self-titled song, Black Sabbath, by Black Sabbath (1970) is a great example of early heavy metal lyrical content that expresses these ideals. The song describes a “figure in black”, “eyes of fire”, and people running from “Satan”, a vague malicious threat with no real tangible substance.  The distinctive muted palm-picking of the electric guitar enters the song at the final stanza, merging the lyrical content to metal’s musical idiom.  Deep Purple, another early heavy metal founder, and their song “Smoke on the Water” is another song that uses this imagery to develop the genre’s early themes.  While based on an actual event, (the fire that destroyed the Montreux gambling house), the chorus “smoke on the water, fire in the sky,” helped perpetuate the ominous destruction that heavy metal was known to champion.  These topics in addition to the continually developing dark and destructive tonal qualities helped shape the music that followed. Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, and Motorhead were among some of the early voices to help in its genesis.  Deena Weinstein describes Judas Priest as a contender responsible for the codification and crystallization of heavy metal after its formative period.  She writes, “I would nominate Judas Priest’s second album, Sad Wings of Destiny (1976), as the first that embodies all of the genre’s sonic, verbal, and visual codes.” (Weinstein, p37)

              Regionally, metal’s global spread began from its roots in the US and Western Europe to Australia, Canada and eventually Japan by the end of the 70’s.  During the 80s, it had spread behind the Iron Curtain, and to more affluent and urbanized areas of Latin America, like Argentina and Brazil.  Just as other forms of the industrial world flourished, like television, Coke, and automobiles, metal traveled from more developed areas to lesser ones.  By the 90s, the increased international reach of the genre reached Asia’s pacific rim, the middle east, and sub-Saharan Africa.   Despite its origins, metal has not been seen as belonging to any specific culture.  In contrast to the British-Punk emergence with its visual cues of a Union Jack, cockney accents, and deeply rooted political themes to the leadership and social injustices specific the Great Britain, metal has never been tied to a region.  Weinstein notes, “like hell and paradise, one cannot point to a place on a realistic map of the world to show where metal is rooted.” (Weinstein, p45). Just like the corporate arm of capitalism and sinister reach of global powers with central headquarters yet active in fields afar, metal has remained without territorial landmarks.

              Metal’s central audience base seems to originate from areas that have or had an industrialized base.  From the start, the style has been the music for those who live under the conditions of modernity but to not enjoy the benefits of it.  This property compliments its growth in tandem with globalization and is a likely sign of its spread through the youth that experience these continuing wealth disparities and growing social stratifications.  From its origins, metal now experiences a wider range of audience age participation, broader field of impact, and wider scope of representation.  The heavy metal bands and their fanbase from the 70s and 80s are now the elder leaders and influencers of the younger perpetuators of its blends.  The splintering of subgenres, like death, speed, hardcore, and black are all signs of collaborative growth from new perspectives.

              Heavy metal earns its place in cultural relevance because of its striking ability to encapsulate the frustrations of the seemingly faceless attacks on economic stability, disparaging decline in social status by the middle-class, and the growing gap in wealth stratification.  These forces continue to grow in their anonymity, and the ability to strike back expressively becomes more difficult as the foe is ensconced into deeper obscurity by layers of power structures.  It’s core sound and ideology allowed regional cultures experiencing these evolutions to add to the mix.  Viking legends were easy adaptations, and groups from the Nordic regions found quick homes for content.  Iraqi bands developed stylistic additions from bootleg tapes smuggled over, and the group Acrassicauda, (named after a species of scorpion in the Iraqi desert), fled to Turkey and performed in Istanbul in 2007.  Turkey’s metal community of about 250 bands helped the group get instruments and participate in a multi-band concert in November of that year.

              Heavy metal is an incredible genre, as its origins are not necessarily based upon resistance, but its expressions of frustration with the unknown forces that oppress its composers.  While its later contributors would splinter the genre into some that would address specific ideological fights, the core of metal began as the underclass solution to expressing its desperation with exclusion from the modernity many of their contemporaries were allowed to enjoy.  Today’s metal is broad and includes a much broader range of expression, but at its heart it still retains depth, meaning, and identity to those who embrace its call.

              Enjoy today’s listening example of Acrassicauda and their song “Gardens of Stone” from Nov 3rd, 2010.  https://youtu.be/2fIDFSUMvLY