Metal Music Studies - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2023

This article investigates whether and how five of the major metal subgenres differ in their harmonic practices in the twenty-first century. One hundred metal tracks – twenty from each of the five subgenres of power metal, black metal, metalcore, melodic death metal and progressive metal – released since 2000 were analysed, capturing their chord progressions and modulation techniques. Tonal analysis indicated that although each subgenre seems to adopt the techniques used by the early heavy metal bands of the 1970s and 1980s, individual signature styles contribute to the desired sonic aesthetic. The study found pronounced harmonic practices in most subgenres, yet the most distinctive in power metal and black metal. While black metal focused on non-diatonic minor chords for a dark atmosphere and dissonant aesthetic, power metal emphasized the brighter Dorian mode and employed baroque and classically influenced secondary dominants and diminished seventh chords to add colour to progressions and brighten the sound.

Although the connection between (heavy) metal and ‘class’ still is one of the most controversial research questions in ‘metal studies’, little historical research has been done on working metalheads and musicians. Therefore, this article explores the regional working biographies of metal musicians in the German Ruhr area and in Birmingham/ the Black Country to show how these occupational lives changed during the long 1980s and how they were related to the regional metal scenes and to the concept of ‘class’. Based on the latest and historical interviews with musicians, the article focuses on the ways in which work in the scenes and work out of the scenes developed in the massive structural changes, on the role the families played, and how these shifts can be contextualized in contemporary history. The findings suggest that metal musicians mattered as pioneers into a broader social transition from working biographies based on milieus to those based on lifestyles. Beyond that, especially in the form of the extreme metal underground, the scene’s attitudes towards work epitomized the beginning of a new subject culture that took shape as a result of the do-it-yourself mentality, of global communication and of broadened horizons of what to consider as possible for the future.

Because of its marketing impact and key role in the definition of a band’s visual identity, the artwork of a metal album is carefully designed to reflect the music played by the band. Bearing in mind the historical association between colour and music, we performed a quantitative colorimetric analysis of 1150 metal album artworks (MAA) (and of 400 non-metal artworks for the purpose of comparison) in order to study the place of colours in metal artworks visual identity. In each artwork, we have extracted its five dominant colours (with a k-means clustering algorithm) and underwent a colour histogram analysis. We showed that MAA appear darker than their non-metal counterparts. We derived a colour palette of MAA and showed that black, (dark) grey and brown/orange tones are by far the most frequently used colours. The presence of these ‘metal colours’ is very consistent between metal subgenres. However, the visual identity of some metal subgenres encompasses specific artwork colorimetric rules. Black metal album covers are darker and mainly use black and dark grey. Groove metal artworks tend to display warmer and more saturated colours with an increased use of brownish and orange tones. Drone metal albums are lighter while crossover albums have a mottled appearance. Nevertheless, for most of the metal subgenres the artwork visual identity seems to rely on colour-independent elements. We suppose that this identity might rather be built on thematic elements and probably also on the logotypes’ style. A lot of work remains to be done to clearly understand what makes metal albums look so peculiar.

Although black metal would reach international notoriety with the actions of Varg Vikernes, who murdered his friend and fellow musician Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth in 1993, the foundation of the genre’s violent, misanthropic image was set several years earlier by the Swedish vocalist of Mayhem, Per ‘Dead’ Ohlin, whose onstage penchant for self-harm and eventual gruesome suicide earned him almost mythical status within the realm of metal music. The fact that Dead’s influence on metal music has remained so strong in the 30 years following his suicide has significant artistic implications, especially considering that he never managed to record a studio album with his band. Although Dead’s suicide colours his self-harm with obvious elements of mental illness and trauma, his role as an artist warrants a deeper analysis of his onstage theatrics, viewing them from the perspective of intense devotion to his art. By reading Dead’s artistic endeavours within the context of performance art involving self-harm, his actions become an aesthetic expression of that pain, which, when combined with the atmosphere of the music and his lyrics, creates an intense portrait of Dead’s quest for an expressive outlet in his performance. Dead’s self-inflicted performative violence echoes the work of pioneering artists such as Chris Burden, Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic, and although Dead undoubtedly suffered from serious mental illness, viewing his self-harm alongside other visceral artistic expressions of pain and trauma helps refigure his aesthetic contributions to black metal as a unique synthesis of destruction and creation.

Review of: Decolonial Metal Music in Latin America, Nelson Varas-Díaz (2021)

Bristol: Intellect, 256 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-78938-393-5, h/bk, $127.80

Review of: Le Hellfest: Un pèlerinage pour metalheads (Hellfest: A Pilgrimage for Metalheads), Corentin Charbonnier (2017)

Azay-sur-Cher: Corentin Charbonnier éditions, 208 pp.,

ISBN 978-2-95587-890-3, p/bk, €17