Ode to a dying God: Debasement of Christian symbols in extreme metal | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 5, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2052-3998
  • E-ISSN: 2052-4005

Abstract

That extreme metal has had a conflictual experience with religion is nothing new. However, extreme metal’s engagement with ‘God’ is much more complicated than mere mockery, disdain or satire. This article will explore, through a close analysis of Celtic Frost’s , and Antediluvian’s and , the often sincere and thoughtful, yet critical, engagement with God and religion through a very particular voice that I see within the extreme metal ethos. This voice takes the form of deconstructing Christian mythology through the paradoxical aspects of the religious – where the aetiological aspects of a myth are undermined not by reasoned analysis but through the inverted repetition of biblical stories and mythology.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/mms.5.2.243_1
2019-06-01
2024-04-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adams, James Luther and Yates, Wilson (eds) (1997), The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections, Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Antediluvian (2011), Through the Cervix of Hawaah, Profound Lore Productions, Audio Recording.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Antediluvian (2013), Λόγος, Nuclear War Now! Productions, Audio Recording.
  4. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1968), Rabelais and His World (trans. Helene Iswolsky), Cambridge: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Barasch, Frances K. (1993), ‘Theories of the grotesque’, in Irena R. Makaryk (ed.), Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 8590.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bataille, Georges (1985), Visions of Excess: Selected Writings. 1927-1939 (trans. and ed. Allan Stoekl), Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bataille, Georges (1993), The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy, New York: Zone Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bataille, Georges (1994), The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism, New York: Verso.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Berger, Harris M. (1999), ‘Death metal tonality and the act of listening’, Popular Music, 18:2, May, p. 161.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Blondel, E. (1991), Nietzsche, the Body and Culture: Philosophy as a Philological Genealogy, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Celtic Frost (1987), Into the Pandemonium, Noise, Audio Recording.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Celtic Frost (1998), Morbid Tales / Emperor’s Return, Noise, Audio Recording.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Celtic Frost (2006), Monotheist, Century Media, Audio Recording.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Christe, Ian (2004), Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, New York: Harper and Collins.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Clark, Lynn (2003), From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural, New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Deleuze, Gilles and Sacher-Masoch, Leopold (2013), Masochism; An Interpretation of Coldness and Cruelty: Together with the Entire Text of Venus in Furs, New York: Zone Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Derrida, Jacques (1996), ‘Faith and knowledge: The two sources of “religion” at the limits of reason alone’, in Jacques Derrida and Gianni Vattimo (eds), Religion, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 178.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Douglas, Mary (1966), Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Downey, Greg, Dalidowicz, Monica and Mason, Paul H. (2015), ‘Apprenticeship as method: Embodied learning in ethnographic practice’, Qualitative Research, 15:2, April, pp. 183200.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Farley, H. (2009), ‘Demons, devils and witches: The occult in heavy metal music’, in Gerd Bayer (ed.), Heavy Metal Music in Britain, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 81104.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Golden, K. B. (2012), Nietzsche and Embodiment: Discerning Bodies and Non-Dualism, New York: State University of New York Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Granholm, Kennet (2011), ‘“Sons of northern darkness”: Heathen influences in black metal and neofolk music’, Numen, 58:4, pp. 51444.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Halnon, Karen Bettez (2006), ‘Heavy metal carnival and dis-alienation: The politics of grotesque realism’, Symbolic Interaction, 29:1, pp. 3348.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Harpham, Geoffrey (1976), ‘The grotesque: First principles’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 34:4, p. 461.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Hjelm, Titus, Kahn-Harris, Keith and LeVine, Mark (2011), ‘Heavy metal as controversy and counterculture’, Popular Music History, 6:1&2.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Introvigne, Massimo (2016), Satanism: A Social History, Leiden: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Kahn-Harris, Keith (2007), Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, New York: Berg.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Kayser, W. J. (1963), The Grotesque in Art and Literature, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Kelly, Kim (2015), ‘Pneuma Hagion’s R. discusses death metal, Greek philosophy, and gnosticism’, Noisey, 8 February, https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/rpydqm/pneuma-hagion-interview. Accessed 14 August 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Kierkegaard, Søren, Hong, Howard V., Hong, Edna H. and Kierkegaard, Søren (1983), Fear and Trembling: Repetition, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Krauss, Rosalind and Bois, Yves-Alain (1997), Formless: A User’s Guide, New York: Zone Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Kristeva, Julia (1982), Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Lave, J. (2011), Apprenticeship in Critical Ethnographic Practice, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Lesourd, Elodie (2013), ‘Baptism or death: Black metal in contemporary art, birth of a new aesthetic category’, in A. Ishmael, Z. Price, A. Stephanou and B. Woodard (eds), Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory: Issue 1, Punctum Books, pp. 2943.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Meindl, Dieter (1996), American Fiction and the Metaphysics of the Grotesque, Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Moynihan, Michael and Søderlind, Didrik (2003), Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, Los Angeles, CA: Feral House.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Mudrian, Albert (2004), Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore, Los Angeles: Feral House.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1974), The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs by Friedrich Nietzsche (trans. Walter Kaufmann), New York: Vintage Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Norman, Joseph (2013), ‘“Sounds which filled me with an indefinable dread”: The Cthulhu Mythopoeia of H.P. Lovecraft in “extreme” metal’, in David Simmons (ed.), New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 193208.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Partridge, Christopher Hugh (2005), The Re-enchantment of the West (Vol. 1): Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture, London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Partridge, Christopher Hugh (2006), The Re-enchantment of the West (Vol. 2): Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture, vol. II, London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Patterson, Dayal (2013), Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Port Townsend, WA: Feral.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Phillipov, Michelle (2011), ‘Extreme music for extreme people? Norwegian black metal and transcendent violence’, Popular Music History, 6:1&2, pp. 15063.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Podoshen, Jeffrey S., Andrzejewski, Susan A., Wallin, Jason and Venkatesh, Vivek (2018), ‘Consuming abjection: An examination of death and disgust in the lack metal scene’, Consumption Markets & Culture, 0:0, July, pp. 122.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Purcell, Natalie J. (2003), Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture, Jefferson, MO: Macfarlane & Company, Inc. Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Ricoeur, Paul (1969), The Symbolism of Evil (trans. Emerson Buchanan), New York: Harper & Row.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Ricoeur, Paul (1974a), The Conflict of Interpretations (ed. Don Ihde), New York: Continuum.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Ricoeur, Paul (1974b), ‘Religion, atheism, faith’, in Don Ihde (ed.), The Conflict of Interpretations (trans. Charles Freilich), New York: Continuum, pp. 43663.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Ricoeur, Paul (1974c), ‘The hermeneutics of symbols and philosophical reflection: I’, in Don Ihde (ed.), The Conflict of Interpretations (trans. Denis Savage), New York: Continuum, pp. 284311.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Spracklen, Karl, Lucas, Caroline and Deeks, Mark (2014), ‘The construction of heavy metal identity through heritage narratives: A case study of extreme metal bands in the north of England’, Popular Music and Society, 37:1, pp. 4864.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Stewart, J. (2007), Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Unger, M. (2016), Sound, Symbol, Sociality: The Aesthetic Experience of Extreme Metal Music, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Venkatesh, Vivek, Podoshen, Jeffrey S., Urbaniak, Kathryn and Wallin, Jason J. (2015), ‘Eschewing community: Black metal’, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 25:1, February, pp. 6681.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Unger, M. P. (2019), ‘Ode to a dying God: Debasement of Christian symbols in extreme metal’, Metal Music Studies, 5:2, pp. 243262, doi: 10.1386/mms.5.2.243_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/mms.5.2.243_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error