Skip to content
1981
Volume 11, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 2052-3998
  • E-ISSN: 2052-4005

Abstract

This article examines how the heaviness of metal music serves as a key aesthetic tool to evoke the sublime, a concept that captures encounters with overwhelming greatness or power, provoking awe, fear and admiration. Referencing the theories of Immanuel Kant, Jean-François Lyotard and Philip Shaw, the article demonstrates how metal’s intensity mirrors both the mathematically and dynamically sublime, creating an overwhelming auditory experience that challenges the listener’s cognitive limits. The article also explores the parallels between metal music and religious experience, arguing that metal’s use of the sublime reflects the emotions felt during the contemplation of divine power. By doing so, metal provides a secular form of religious awe, offering listeners an experience akin to confronting something vastly greater than themselves. Ultimately, the article highlights how metal’s engagement with the sublime transcends traditional boundaries between aesthetics, art and spiritual experience.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/mms_00184_1
2026-01-20
2026-04-10

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Barratt-Peacock, R. and Herbst, J. P. (2025), ‘The effects of ensemble singing on heaviness in metal music: Revisiting a systematic approach’, Metal Music Studies, 11:1, pp. 6589, https://doi.org/10.1386/mms_00166_1.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Doran, R. (2017), The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Eckhart, M. (2009), The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart (ed. and trans. M. O’C. Walshe), New York: Herder & Herder.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Herbst, J. and Mynett, M. (2023a), ‘Mapping the origins of heaviness between 1970–1995: A historical overview of metal music production’, in R. Scott and A. Brown (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 2942.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Herbst, J. P. and Mynett, M. (2023b), ‘Toward a systematic understanding of “heaviness” in metal music production’, Rock Music Studies, 10:1, pp. 1637, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991162.003.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Kant, I. ([1790] 2000), The Critique of the Power of Judgment (trans. P. Guyer and E. Matthews), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Lyotard, J.-F. (1984), The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (trans. G. Bennington and B. Massumi), Minneapolis, MT: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Mynett, M. (2019), ‘Heaviness in three dimensions: The use of sonic space in contemporary metal music production’, in S. Frith and S. Zagorski-Thomas (eds), The Art of Record Production, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 6679.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Pseudo-Dionysius (1987), Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (trans. C. Luibheid and P. Rorem), New York: Paulist Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Rorem, P. (2015), The Dionysian Mystical Theology, Minneapolis, MT: Fortress Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. St John of the Cross (1959), ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ (ed. and trans. E. Allison Peers), New York: Image Books.
  12. Shaw, P. (2006), The Sublime, London and New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Thacker, E. (2011), In the Dust of This Planet, Winchester, VA and Washington, DC: Zero Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Unger, M. (2016), Sound, Symbol, Sociality: The Aesthetic Experience of Extreme Metal Music, Cham: Springer.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Volák, V. (2022), ‘Heaviness’, Studia de Cultura, 14:3, pp. 5362, https://doi.org/10.24917/20837275.14.3.4.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Wolters, C. (trans.) (1978), The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works, London: Penguin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Žižek, S. (2002), Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates, London: Verso.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Colledge, E., McGinn, B. and Smith, H. (eds) (1981), Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, New York: Paulist Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Otten, W. (1999), ‘In the shadow of the divine: Negative theology and negative anthropology in Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius and Eriugena’, The Heythrop Journal, 40:4, pp. 43855, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2265.00115.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Spearing, A. C. (trans.) (2001), The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works, London: Penguin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/mms_00184_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): aesthetics; Christian; Kant; Lyotard; Mastodon; mysticism
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
Please enter a valid_number test