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1981
Volume 10, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2052-3998
  • E-ISSN: 2052-4005

Abstract

Lord Of The Lost’s (2021) is a thematic concept album exploring different aspects of the Judas reception without a straightforward narrative or interpretation, but covering varying viewpoints on betrayal and salvation. It hereby pushes the boundaries of heavy metal as a genre by combining different texts. The band explicitly points out their first source of inspiration, the apocryphal (~100–80 ), and adds that the album also features the literary theme of impossible (here: brotherly) love. I argue that the album references a specific text implementing this theme, namely William Shakespeare’s (1597), most prominently implied by ‘star-crossed’. These two texts are as different as they could be, contrasting, e.g. religious enlightenment and entertainment. Still, they have one thing in common: they both rely heavily on Christian astrology. By investigating how the album makes use of this shared motif to create its own version of star-induced fate, I show how both texts overlap and intermingle on the album. The result is a kaleidoscope that is a prime example of postmodernism. By refusing a fixed depiction of Christian imagery and even adding another text, demonstrates that art does not have to be linear or limiting, and opens heavy metal to new, postmodern ways.

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/content/journals/10.1386/mms_00125_1
2024-05-23
2026-04-16

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/content/journals/10.1386/mms_00125_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Christian astrology; Christianity; intertextuality; New Testament; star imagery; star-induced fate

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