Research Topic 3: Metalstorm Website

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to this great website called Metalstorm and I thought I would make it the subject of my final research blog. The design of the site is well laid out and the aesthetic is much as you would expect from a metal site, dark colours and imagery. It includes many cool sections such as a forum where members can discuss their favourite bands, concert reviews, top 100 lists of favourite albums, exclusive interviews, photo galleries, and news on upcoming album releases and events. The site also includes videos and links to band sites where you can actually listen to some of the music you’ll come across. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is articles written by members of the site that are in the form of ethnographic and cultural studies of different styles of metal. This is basically fans of metal doing what we’re being asked to do for this course just because they feel they need to say something about their favourite style of music. There were two major things that surprised me about this website and I’ll go into more detail below.

The first is even though metal has often been dismissed in the past as mere noise it has perhaps more subgenres than any other music subculture. The top 100 albums lists are a useful tool for discovering new bands to enjoy. Once you’ve discovered what particular style a band you like is from you can search that style for the top 100 albums and see what thousands of other members think are the best albums. It shows just how versatile metal is with separate lists containing hundreds of albums and bands from different genres such as traditional heavy metal, black, death, doom, folk, gothic, glam, industrial, stoner, symphonic, thrash and even hard rock bands. For a style of music that can’t apparently be differentiated by most people from noise it seems that thousands on this site can easily distinguish between a number of different styles quite easily.

The second surprise was how the site showed just how big metal is and how much of a global entity it has become. The site has over 14 thousand members, which is not record breaking stuff but still a respectable number for a subculture supposedly on the fringe of respectable music. Not only is the membership large but it comes from all over the world showing that metal isn’t just a force in Europe and North America. If you go to the band search there are also bands from all over the world not just from metal hotspots and the events and club locations also shows there is support for metal elsewhere. In fact whilst most of the bands still come from European and North American countries there are bands here from all the populated continents. Some are from regions you wouldn’t really expect either like, Bolivia, Lebanon, Iran, Israel, Indonesia, Tunisa and South Africa. It seems no matter what continent or culture they come from or how strict the government is there is a fanbase for metal everywhere which shows it really has crossed cultural boundaries.

For those of you interested in finding out more about metal as a musical culture this website is definitely a place you need to visit. Check it out. http://www.metalstorm.ee/home/index.php

Research Topic 2: Heaven & Hell- The Devil You Know

The Devil You Know is the debut album of heavy metal act Heaven & Hell. Debut is probably a little misleading though as this group of musicians has actually been around for years. The group consists of Black Sabbath mainstays Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi as well as two members who joined Sabbath in 1979, Vinnie Appice, and former frontman for Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio. This lineup released the albums Heaven & Hell in 1980 and Mob Rules in 1981 before Dio and Appice left the group to form Dio, the band. In 1992 they returned to release Dehumanizer before once again splitting to follow their own projects. In its most recent incarnation the band has renamed itself after their first collaboration and released the album The Devil You Know in April of 2009.

Dio has always tried to differentiate his time with the band as being separate from that of Ozzy’s, and as such has always wanted to play under a name other than Black Sabbath but never could because the record company wanted to run with the known brand. Now he’s got his wish, but despite this there is no more effort put into disassociating themselves with their pasts. After all, Dio himself is considered by many to be the founder of power metal not to mention the “devils horns” that have become so associated with metal and Black Sabbath are also considered the earliest and most influential heavy metal band. So it makes sense to keep those ties for marketing purposes. This is made clear by the album cover. The title itself is a reference to the audience knowing of the bands origins. The cover art also includes the devil figure featured on most Black Sabbath albums.

The album itself is at once typical of the group but also different to their previous releases. When Dio originally joined Black Sabbath he brought with him lyrics about wizards and other mystical figures. Here, there is none of the mythological elements that so often enter Dio’s work. This album is a lot darker and heavier and once again the album cover gives a good indication of its nature. The art features a monster in the foreground with a crucifix in the background and has the numbers 21 and 45 to signify (according to Geezer Butler) the bible verse Matthew 21:45 which tells of the angels on the left side of God falling from grace.

The titles of the songs also reflect this darker feel. With song titles like, Fear, Double the Pain and Follow the Tears showing a more depressing side. There’s also the usual subversion of religion with titles like Atom & Evil, Bible Black, Rock & Roll Angel and Breaking Into Heaven. Iommi is considered to have created the detuned doom sounding guitar riffs and they are on ample display here. The powerful vocals of Dio which haven’t faded despite the onset of age seem to meld much better with the music in this album than any other. The message isn’t as dark as it seems though. The lyrics may subvert traditional views of organised religion but it doesn’t promote Satanism, it is merely pointing out the evil in the world. As Dio states in the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, even the bands name is a reference to how there is good and bad in all of us. The band does not shy away from the bad in the world but rather confronts it and whilst doing so manages to produce one of the best metal releases of recent years.

Research Topic 1: Iron Maiden: Flight 666

Last night I went along to the cinema to see Iron Maiden: Flight 666. Basically, it’s a “rockumentary” made by the Sam Dunn, the same guy who made Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and Global Metal. In this movie Sam follows one of the biggest metal bands of all time, Iron Maiden (and whose songs inspired the title of this blog) on their Somewhere Back in Time Tour, arguably the most ambitious tour in metal history.

From the get go you get a good impression of the logistics required for this tour. The band custom outfitted a Boeing 757 called Ed Force One (after band mascot Ed) to carry all their stage equipment with singer Bruce Dickinson in the cockpit so they were able to go to places that weren’t possible before. These included places like India, Costa Rica, Columbia and Chile. The last of these is perhaps the most significant as before this tour the band had been blocked from playing in the country by the powerful Catholic Church which felt their lyrics promoted Satanism. This is in stark contrast to Brazil where a minister in the church actually preaches the moral message of Iron Maiden’s lyrics to his congregation. Regardless, as Bruce Dickinson said in the movie, these kids weren’t there to start a revolution they simply wanted to see the band.

Another thing that struck me was the amazing reception they received in these remote places which proved that despite little airplay on mainstream radio they are one of the biggest bands in the world. Nowhere was this more obvious than in South America, where the band was greeted wherever they went with chanting hordes reminiscent of a soccer crowd. Drummer Nicko McBrain says he thinks this is because they came from humble working class beginnings, which lends them a certain authenticity which the impoverished South American crowds can relate to.

As enthusiastic as the crowds on the street are it’s nothing compared to what you see in the concerts. The band looks every inch the part in cut-off t-shirts, leather, bullet belts and in the case of Bruce Dickinson army uniforms and local wear such as a sombrero emblazoned with Ed’s face. The bands performativity again is enthusiastic and energetic. The guitarists run round the stage blazing out virtuosic riffs and solos and Dickinson gestures to the crowd often to get them involved. I’ve been to a lot of rock concerts and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone try and get the crowd involved as much as Bruce Dickinson does in this film. The crowd also responds more positively than usual with a sea of arms raising their “horns”, pumping fists and what seems like the whole crowd singing at the top of their lungs. Whilst enthusiastic, the crowds don’t seem to cross into the aggressive, something heavy metal has often been accused of. Here there are no “bash circles” or the like, just thousands of fans enjoying their heroes music. You can really see how much this means to some fans too as they leave the arena in tears.

The final impression of the documentary that I had was the amount of work Iron Maiden puts into pleasing their fans. The logistics involved in getting such a tour organised took a year. The songs played were old classics that hadn’t been played as much recently, which Dickinson says was a “thank you” to the newer, younger fans for their support. This tour isn’t what you would expect of a rock or metal act with little hedonistic partying, drugs or sex going on. The band members bring their families along. The schedule is gruelling and in their spare time rather than partying the band can be found on the golf course or tennis courts relaxing between gigs. Steve Harris, the musical driving force of the band, spends his spare time in the studio. Of course, you have to bear in mind that Iron Maiden are an older band now and were probably wilder in their younger days but overall this documentary gives a good indication of how much effort gets put into giving the fans the experience of a lifetime.

Flight 666 is in cinemas for an extremely limited amount of time so go see it now.

Vindicating Metal

The purpose of this blog over the coming weeks is to explore one of the most misunderstood and enduring subcultures in music, heavy metal. I thought I'd start off this blog with a little history.

Heavy metal has been described by many to be mere "noise" but it covers a huge variety of complex sounds ranging from the melodic to the downright brutal. The genre developed in the late 60s and early 70s with bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and of course the band who many consider to be the originators of metal, Black Sabbath. During the 70s the blues influences were ditched for a more fast paced style adopted by bands such as Judas Priest and Motorhead. In the 80s more complex music styles arose with bands like Iron Maiden,from the new wave of British metal, and Metallica who were a thrash based band gaining popularity. During this period glam-metal bands like Motely Crue and Poison also came to the fore. With the advent of grunge things looked grim for the metal genre in the 90s. However the death and speed metal scenes continued on underground and harder bands like Sepultura and Pantera gained notoriety. In the mid 90s came the nu-metal scene with bands like Limp Bizkit and KoRn, combining elements of different styles such as hip hop (in the case of Limp Bizkit) with the raw sound of metal. In the new millenium metal has continued to grow in popularity and complexity with symphonic metal, which uses orchestral arrangements and operatic singing to create a more lush sound, growing out of the gothic genre of the 80s and 90s. Bands like Evanescence, Lacuna Coil and Nightwish have become extremely popular in the mainstream as well as amongst heavy metal fans.

Heavy metal fans themselves have also been judged by many in society as aggressive, drug abusing, Satanists thanks to the portrayal of the culture in the media. During the 80s a battle was waged between the music industry and the PMRC (Parents Media Resource Center) over the lyrical content of heavy metal. They claimed that the music encouraged suicide, aggression, sexual promiscuity, aggressive behaviour, drug abuse and dabbling in the occult. This view is a simplistic generalisation that is based on a literal (often incorrect) reading of heavy metal lyrics. It is a view that has endured even until today aomongst people outwith the subculture with many viewing metalheads with fear. This blog will hopefully go some way towards enlightening the readers about the appeal of heavy metal to its fans and refuting the simplistic views of the media towards it.