"In 1986 something strange happened. Metal became the biggest, most popular music in the world. And everywhere you looked, kids were growing their hair long and flashing the devil horn sign and playing air guitar.
But not everyone loved it. Critics thought it was unsophisticated music for unsophisticated people. One writer went as far as calling it “sick, repulsive, horrible and dangerous”. Heavy Metal was the moral panic of the day. And Metal fans were considered low lives, dead-end kids - the bane of society. This music has millions of passionate fans worldwide. Yet for 35 years it’s been constantly critisised…” Sam Dunn, Director of, Metal – A Headbangers journey (2005)
The first time I watched this DVD (yes, I’ve watched it a few times since) it blew me out of the water.
I was, and still am, so used to defending the music I love to people who do not understand it and only see defunct, non-productive, scum-sucking youth in their leather clad outfits banging their heads to a cacophony of machinegun drums and distorted guitars. This post is aimed at those people.
People grossly underestimate the average Metal fan, believing that we cannot construct a sentence or speak English fluently. Little do they know that we run multi-million Dollar, independent record labels, we run print media in the form of magazines and newsletters. We operate web pages and fan sites that receive more hits than some of the popular websites you may know. We are intelligent, well educated, well spoken people that are being judged solely by the music we listen to. Researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (USA) - a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.
When Dee Schneider, frontman for 1980’s Shock-Rock band Twisted Sister, was subpoenaed to appear before the US Policy Review Committee (PRC), he walked in with his big hair, torn jeans, earrings, some residual make-up from the night before and a true stick-it-to-the-man attitude, they did not expect the well formed speech he had prepared slamming the conservatives for their prejudice against people who follow this genre of music. (Watch the interview here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QqplPfYTE8)
The common perception of the Metal musician is that of the unsophisticated, uneducated individual, but if I may draw your attention to virtuosos the likes of Beethoven and Bach. Arguably the greatest composers in history – these composers of classical music, associated with higher learning and academia, never attended college. They were labelled as rebels and improvisers, out of the accepted norm of those days. Does that not make you think of muso’s like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie VanHalen and Yngwie J. Malmsteen? But why then is Metal not considered a virtuosic form of music?
Let’s get deeper into that:
The PRC rated songs according to profanity, sex, drugs or alcohol, the occult, violence – most metal songs deal with much more provocative themes. Themes like hedonism, religion, death and war. Themes that society tends to recoil from, Metal embraces. Not to be morbid, dark and scary but to purge these negative thoughts. And that’s what Metal is to me and many other fans, a release. Is what people feel not more, or at least as important than what they think? Metal gives its fans a sense of belonging, transcendence – much like the modern church does for its flock. Therefore, can Metal not be seen as a pathway to God? Far fetched? I think not. In a recent article an Anglican priest spoke out against religious groups’ negative view of metal music, saying churchgoers could learn lessons from heavy culture.
Rev Rachel Mann believes people who can deal with the concepts explored in dark lyrics, and who can accept negative aspects of the human condition, can have a more balanced world view than worshipers who take themselves too seriously. (Read the full article here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/priest_says_church_can_learn_from_metal.html).
“It becomes a great big family of people” – Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P)
Now people are going to call me out on the Satanic and Occult culture associated with metal. Church burnings and blasphemy is part and parcel of the allure of some Metal bands. To my mind it’s not real Satanism, it’s Halloween. The majority of Metal fans, or at least those I have come in contact with, can’t understand or defend these actions. And they shouldn’t have to.
For me, my love of Metal started as a teenager when a dear friend of mine played some songs on his acoustic guitar around a camp fire one night. To my dismay, all the girls went ga-ga over him and his musical ‘prowess’. I borrowed a guitar, he taught me 3 chords, and my journey into darkness started... The first Metal album I was exposed to was the Metallica “Black” album. I listened to Nothing else matters 22 times that day. I knew I had to learn that song, it haunted me, and stuck in my head and would not go away. It seems like an eternity ago, and yet the love and flame of passion burns in me stronger than ever. To this day people often ask me “Aren’t you getting to old for that shit?” I guess they’ll never understand that Metal is a passion, it’s a lifestyle, it’s a commitment and a drive that will never dissapate. And my honest hope is that those people find something in their lives that they can stand up for. Something that makes their heart beat faster when they are exposed to it.
I’ve explored what Metal means to its fans, and I’ll end it as it began – with a quote from Sam Dunn:
“35 years after Black Sabbath first played the devils note and Metal culture is still thriving. There’s a new generation of fans, and the old guard still stands strong.
Why has metal always been consistently stereo typed, dismissed and condemned? Metal confronts what we’d rather ignore. It celebrates what we often deny. It indulges in what we fear most. And that’s why metal will always be a culture of outsiders.
Ever since I was 12 years old, I’ve had to defend my love for Metal against those who say it’s a less valid form of music. My answer now is that you either feel it or you don’t. If metal doesn’t give you that overwhelming surge of power, make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck – you might never get it, and you know what? That’s ok. Because judging by the millions of metal heads around me, were doing just fine without you” – Sam Dunn
Well said and so very true!
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