Classical Myth and History in Heavy Metal: Power, Escapism and Masculinity
With a few exceptions, recent scholarship on the reception of Classics in music has focused on Classical music, especially opera. For example, Fitzgerald’s recent treatment of “Vergil in Music” in the Blackwell Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition includes nothing written after 1958. But as my colleagues and I will demonstrate this afternoon, at least one type of contemporary music is not only full of material from ancient Greece and Rome but in part defined by it: heavy metal. Since this claim may be surprising to some because of the general view of heavy metal—metal for short—as a low form of music, my aims today are to demonstrate the pervasiveness of Classical material in heavy metal and explore some possible reasons why metal more than other forms of contemporary music is attracted to Classics. In addition to providing background for the papers that follow, a brief look into the history of heavy metal will also show that metal bands have exhibited an interest in other times and places—both real and imagined— from the very beginning, and that this interest is a defining characteristic of the genre. This history is significant because in many ways, metal is a conservative genre; there are clear forefathers to whom almost all subsequent bands owe—and acknowledge—their allegiance. As Hjelm, Kahn-Harris and LeVine (2013:10) note, “What binds metal together … is a relatively stable canon of artists—Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Slayer being particularly revered—and a core of themes and preoccupations that are pursued across metal sub-genres.” Because these forerunners already showed interest in these kinds of subjects, they sanctioned continuous use by all subsequent bands. <> To simplify, metal begins in 1969-70, with the debut of the two main forefathers of heavy metal, the British bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Both of these
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bands demonstrate interest in the occult and fantastical worlds. <> Led Zeppelin famously draws on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, referring to places or characters from The Lord of the Rings in the songs “Ramble On” and “Misty Mountain Hop.” Other songs are also considered to owe a debt to Tolkien, including “The Battle of Evermore,” “No Quarter,” and “Over the Hills and Far Away.” But they also have a song entitled “Achilles Last Stand.” While there is debate about the extent to which that song has any connection with Greek epic (a favorite interpretation is biographical, since Led Zeppelin’s singer Robert Plant had recently suffered an ankle injury), the title is a clear reference to Greek myth. <> Black Sabbath have said that they took their influence from horror movies, and their change in lyrical subject matter coincided with their change in sound as they transitioned away from the more traditional ‘60s band they had initially formed as. <> From the very beginning, their albums are full of otherworldly topics, especially the occult, including the title of their band, which is also the name of their first album and a song on it (another song on that album is “The Wizard”). Their second album, Paranoid, contains one of their most famous songs, “Iron Man,” about a man who travels to the future and then is turned into metal on his return, at which point he takes out his pain on the rest of the world by attacking it. <> Such topics were picked up and further authorized by subsequent bands, including Iron Maiden, perhaps the most famous band of the second wave of heavy metal, referred to as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and covering roughly from 1979 to 1983. Their songs that draw on the ancient world are 1983’s “Flight of Icarus,” 1984’s “Powerslave” (about the Pharaohs) <> and 1986’s “Alexander the Great,” which provides a biography of the famous ruler (Osman has discussed this song at some length in a recent article).
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But they have drawn inspiration from a variety of sources, including literature, as with “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” based on Coleridge’s poem of the same name, and “To Tame a Land,” based on the science fiction classic, Frank Herbert’s Dune. Iron Maiden’s use of these lyrical themes is especially important because they had a formative influence on the overall appearance of metal through their characteristic lettering and use of a mascot, Eddie <>. This visual idiom is an important reminder that, as Fabbri notes in a seminal study, musical genre is not just defined by the sound of the music, but also includes such things as band names, lyrical content, and album covers. From its origins, then, metal is defined not only by its sound, but also by its affinity for material from distant times and places, both real and imagined. A study of heavy metal’s reception of Classics thus cannot focus only on lyrics. Because Classics has been a part of heavy metal for the genre’s entire history, now over 40 years long, it is necessary to ask what it is about the ancient world that appeals to people who play—and listen to—this type of music. Later, Nick will tell us a bit about what some of these artists say about their own motivations, but I want to highlight a few trends. As with any such issue, there are multiple causes, but I will focus primarily on the related notions of escapism and power. Unlike much contemporary music, metal often avoids material from day-to-day existence. In this sense, Classics is just one form of escapism, with books, movies, and even video games providing other routes. <> For example, the American band Virgin Steele has produced two albums based on Aeschylus’ Oresteia (now the subject of a monograph by Liverani), but also a concept album about Adam’s first wife Lilith (Visions of Eden). Similarly, <> Symphony X—a progressive metal band that relies heavily on Classical music— has written numerous songs based on Greek mythology and literature, including the Odyssey, but have also produced an album based in part on Milton’s Paradise Lost.
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In this regard, there seems to be little difference to these bands between writing a song based on Tolkien and writing a song about the Trojan War. <> The German band Blind Guardian has done just that, and they are often referred to as “Tolkien” or “hobbit metal” for their extensive use of material from Tolkien’s Middle Earth (similar niche genres include “Viking Metal” and “Pirate Metal”). They have also written songs based on material from Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy worlds, such as those created by Robert Jordan, Michael Moorcock, and George R. R. Martin. Their 14-min song about the Trojan War, “And Then There Was Silence,” is just another example of finding sources on which to draw for exciting—or fantastical—stories. Another way to frame this interest is in terms of the epic, primarily in the modern sense of the term as grandiose and larger than life, but not necessarily completely removed from the ancient sense. Metal, in many ways, is defined by being over the top, in terms of dress, volume, and subject matter. In this regard, the grandeur of the topic is the natural complement to the music; such music requires more grandiose subject matter, and content and form reinforce each other. This sense of grandeur is perhaps most evident in the length of some of these songs. For example, some the Iron Maiden songs on Classical and other literary material that I mentioned are long and elaborate, with “Alexander the Great” coming in at 8 and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” at 13 minutes. Similarly, Symphony X’s song “The Odyssey” is 24 minutes, and <> Manowar’s “Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts” is 28 minutes long (with a 5 min drum solo called “Armor of the Gods”). The subject matter and length of these songs connote power, which scholars and critics such as Weinstein and Walser have long seen as one of the defining characteristics and preoccupations of the genre. They have connected this emphasis on power with the fact that this
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kind of music was originally played primarily by men to a predominantly male audience, which might further explain the attraction to larger-than-life masculine figures such as Achilles and Alexander. This focus on power is also reflected in the music itself, which is largely defined by its aggression and the use of heavily distorted electric guitar. While Andrew will talk about the sound of heavy metal, as an example of some of the stylistic features of heavy metal, I am going to play a brief clip from the German band Rebellion’s 2012 concept album about Arminius, the German who defeated Varus at Teutoberg forest <>. As even this brief sample makes clear, the distorted electric guitar to metal is central to metal’s sound, and is part of the reason for the very name “heavy metal,” a designation that reflects the modernity of the genre, tied as it is to technology. In fact, in a recent geomusicological approach, Harrison has argued that part of metal’s sound comes from its origins in the blue-collar, industrial towns of England, especially Birmingham, the hometown of both Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, another one of the undisputed members of metal’s pantheon, and the band perhaps most responsible for metal’s stage look <>. This blue-collar background brings us back to escapism, as material from the ancient world, alongside material from books, movies, and video games provides an alternative to working-class daily life. In this regard, Tolkien and Homer are equally epic, equally mythic, and equally removed from the perceived banality of modern life. Another reason for the appeal of Classics to some people in metal is nationalism. While Matthew will talk more about this at length, I want to mention the connection between some bands and the history of the places from which they come. This choice of subject matter is perhaps most apparent with Greek and Italian bands, who have an obvious connection to the ancient world, which is fostered by the educational system, in which most students study Greek
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and Latin, respectively. Thus, the <> Greek band Sacred Blood has released concept albums about the Battle of Thermopylae and Alexander the Great, and are working on another one called Argonautica. Similarly, <> the Italian bands Heimdall and Stormlord <> each devote entire albums to the Aeneid, while White Skull <> wrote their album Public Glory, Secret Agony about the assassination of Julius Caesar and subsequent civil war and <> Ade—the Italian name for “Hades”—recently released a concept album about Spartacus. Outside of Rome, but in areas formerly belonging to the Roman Empire, bands also write on topics relevant to their particular region’s history. <> I have already mentioned the German band Rebellion’s recent concept album called Arminius - Furor Teutonicus, and the Swiss band Eluveitie wrote a concept album, Helvetios, about the Gallic Wars, told from the side of the Celts <>. These bands have an obvious connection with their subject matter through geography and their countries’ education systems, and their perspective on the past tends to be shaped by nationalistic ideas. Even these bands, however, do not limit themselves to Classical material, but use other fantastic and historical material. For example, White Skull also put out an album about the Vikings, while Rebellion released a concept album based on Macbeth. Many metal bands are drawn to another aspect of the Classical world: Latin <>. Numerous bands have Latin names and/or use Latin for album titles and in their songs. One explanation for Latin’s appeal is that it represents a certain otherworldliness, in part because it is old and connected to the arcane (we might compare the use of pseudo-Latin in the magic spells in Harry Potter). But many of these bands have a religious interest in Latin because of its connection with the Catholic Church and—by extension—Satanism. Satanism—to whatever
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extent individual bands are actually committed to it—is a hallmark of more extreme forms of metal, such as death metal and black metal, and these bands tend to use Latin more than those in other subgenres <> (this slide shows some of the main types of heavy metal; the ones in red are the ones less likely to draw on Classical material). For most bands, though, Latin seems to be one way to elevate and add weight to a band’s message, perhaps not dissimilar to the reasoning that drives random people to call up Classicists to ask them for something to put in a tattoo. As Campbell says in one of the few works of scholarship on heavy metal in Classics, “classical allusion, from band names to album and song titles, to the content of individual lyrics, is apparently used to give the works an historical gravitas and hence mystique, or sometimes a liturgical flavour, to examine historical themes, often those of military action or heroism, or as a narrative starting point” (121). When done well, reception studies remind us that there is a mutually affective relationship between texts (in the broadest sense of the term). So, for example, a good discussion of the reception of the Odyssey by Joyce should teach us something not just about Ulysses, but also about the Odyssey. Because Classical material appears across a wide range of heavy metal’s subgenres, and over all of its 40+ year history, it is possible to assert that part of what defines metal is its use of this subject matter. Similarly, we cannot fully understand the meaning of Classics in modern society without considering its centrality to this modern genre of popular music—and this is what my colleagues will attempt to do now. <>
Works Cited Arnett, J. J. 1996. Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation. Boulder. Campbell, I. 2009. “From Achilles to Alexander: The Classical World and the World of Metal.”
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In Bayer, G., ed. Heavy Metal Music in Britain. Farnham. 111-24. Fabbri, F. 1981. “A Theory of Musical Genres: Two Applications.” In Horn, D. and P. Tagg., edd. Popular Music Perspectives. Göteborg. 52-81. Fitzgerald, W. 2010. “Vergil in Music.” In Farrell, J. and M. C. J. Putnam, edd. A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and Its Tradition. Malden. 341-52. Harrison, L. M. 2010. “Factory Music: How the Industrial Geography and Working-Class Environment of Post-War Birmingham Fostered the Birth of Heavy Metal.” Journal of Social History 44:145-58. Hjelm, T., K. Kahn-Harris, M. LeVine, edd. 2013. Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures. Bristol, CT. Kahn-Harris, K. 2007. Extreme Metal. Music and Culture on the Edge. Oxford. Liverani, E. 2009. Da Eschilo ai Virgin Steele: Il mito degli Atridi nella musica contemporanea. Bologna. Rafavolich, A. and A. Schneider. 2005. “Song Lyrics in Contemporary Metal Music as CounterHegemonic Discourse: An Exploration of Three Themes.” Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 33:131-42. Swami, V., F. Malpass, D. Havard, K. Benford, A. Costescu, A. Sofitiki, D. Taylor. 2013. “Metalheads: The Influence of Personality and Individual Differences on Preference for Heavy Metal.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 7:377-83. Thomas, R. F. 2007. “The Streets of Rome: The Classical Dylan.” Oral Tradition 22:30-56. Umurhan, O. 2012. “Heavy Metal Music and the Appropriation of Greece and Rome.” SyllClass 23:127-52. Waksman, S. 2009. This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal
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and Punk. Berkeley. Walser, R. 1993. Running with the Devil. Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown. Weinstein, D. 2001. Heavy Metal. The Music and its Culture. Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA. Weinstein, D. 2014. “Just So Stories: How Heavy Metal Got its Name—A Cautionary Tale.” Rock Music Studies 1:36-51. Wiederhorn, J. and K. Turman. 2013. Louder Than Hell. The Definitive Oral History of Metal. New York.
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