Is heavy metal the new form of world music?
February 24, 2016 10:43 AM   Subscribe

Metal's appeal has gone global, and is deepening. Leading nations emitting potent metal sounds now include some in southeast Asia, South America, and the Middle East. (SLWSJ)
posted by doctornemo (43 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reading about Arkona and Chthonic in the pages of the Wall Street Journal while sitting here at my job as a commercial real estate banker that has to hide her metalhead inclinations all day gives me all kinds of feels, none of them good.
posted by skycrashesdown at 10:52 AM on February 24, 2016 [9 favorites]


I love Encyclopaedia Metallum for finding new bands from around the world. The struggle is real in some countries as they can be a drain on resources.
posted by NoMich at 10:56 AM on February 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


Welp, metal has gone mainstream, guess I can't be a fan anymore.

Seriously, 1985 me is laughing his ass off about the Wall Street Journal taking metal seriously.
posted by COD at 11:01 AM on February 24, 2016 [6 favorites]


Metal is good business, invest your sons.
posted by thelonius at 11:03 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Those photos are pretty neat. Plus the part about CDs being dumped by record labels and ending up randomly for sale in China in the early nineties. I used to listen to Tang Dynasty a lot back when I worked in China. Tthe lead singer enunciated really clearly and it helped me with my Mandarin, actually. Every once in a while, I'd be listening to a song and its meaning would just suddenly become comprehensible. Those were the days.

Actually, though, this is a good reminder to check out some of the metal recommendations friends have made.
posted by Frowner at 11:12 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


So, metal is now the Volkswagen Beetle of music?
posted by Thorzdad at 11:14 AM on February 24, 2016


And let's not forget Cesare Bonizzi, the 70-year-old Capuchin monk who is also a heavy metal singer. A good introduction to his work is Fratello Metallo.
posted by seasparrow at 11:15 AM on February 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


Indonesia is a metal hotbed: Its president, Joko Widodo, wears Metallica and Napalm Death T-shirts.

I did not know this.

Latin America’s metal-head population probably outnumbers Europe’s, says Jeremy Wallach, a popular-culture professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who specializes in metal music.

O.k., so. Two things here:

1.) I would gladly put my hand in the office paper shredder right now if it meant I could trade jobs with this guy.

2.) Women in Metal (MULHERES NO METAL) is a short documentary on women in Brazil who play metal.

I love Encyclopaedia Metallum for finding new bands from around the world.

Hmm. Kazakhstan has a metal label with a rather questionable name...
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:17 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Hey, Virendra, I recognize Thieves' Guild armor when I see it. I'll be keeping an eye on you.

Also Skyrim/metal related, the kind of stuff you miss when you fast travel in Skyrim.
posted by charred husk at 11:18 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


mandolin conspiracy:
"1.) I would gladly put my hand in the office paper shredder right now if it meant I could trade jobs with this guy."
He's just a pop culture prof down in BG, technically a Southeast Asian anthropologist who really likes metal. If he's who I think he is, he might take you up on that for the lulz.
posted by charred husk at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


One of the guys from The Black Dahlia Murder does a monthly column at Metal Injection covering underground bands from all over the world. There's a lot of stuff from places you'd expect (Florida, Scandinavia etc..), but he also highlights bands from Indonesia and all over Asia. WARNING: A lot of the album covers are gruesome and definitely NSFW.
posted by dortmunder at 11:27 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Metal is such a crazy broad genre. I must be getting old because when people ask me what I like I say something like "Well I like metal but probably not anything like what you're thinking". ie I've heard of most of the bands in this WSJ piece but none of them are the kind of thing I would ever put on. I'm more into Earth or Horseback and things alone those lines, metal allows a lot of experimentation at the fringes. Not that I don't enjoy heavy riffs and guitar solos, but I'd rather listen to Japan's Boris over yet another technical death metal or the most brutalest festival headliner of 1995 who is still kicking out records.

Even within supposed sub-genres there is a huge variation. Aesthetically and ideologically the contrast between say, Burzum and Wolves in the Throne Room, is pretty huge even though they are both "black metal".
posted by bradbane at 11:31 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]




Metal is such a crazy broad genre. I must be getting old because when people ask me what I like I say something like "Well I like metal but probably not anything like what you're thinking". ie I've heard of most of the bands in this WSJ piece but none of them are the kind of thing I would ever put on. I'm more into Earth or Horseback and things alone those lines, metal allows a lot of experimentation at the fringes. Not that I don't enjoy heavy riffs and guitar solos, but I'd rather listen to Japan's Boris over yet another technical death metal or the most brutalest festival headliner of 1995 who is still kicking out records.


Earth and Boris are both amazing. If you haven't seen them live, you definitely should. P.S. I wear this hoodie to my office job every day.
posted by dortmunder at 11:38 AM on February 24, 2016


Seriously, 1985 me is laughing his ass off about the Wall Street Journal taking metal seriously.

So, metal is now the Volkswagen Beetle of music?

The people banging their heads in 1985 are now in their late 40s at least. They're working corporate jobs, running investment firms, maybe even sitting high up the WSJ hierarchy.

Just like with punk, metal has long stopped being the scary new music that shocked your parents. Now it's the music your parents probably had on when you were conceived.
posted by Sangermaine at 11:40 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


They start young in Finland.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2016


dortmunder I have that t-shirt :).

Earth and Boris are both amazing. If you haven't seen them live, you definitely should.

Totally, and I know Earth's Dylan Carson has been having health problems so if you get the chance definitely go see him. Last time I saw Boris they did 2 nights in a row, one as Boris with a heavy metal set and one as boris playing Flood all the way through.

If you like that kind of stuff definitely check out Horseback, one man black metal project from this blues/folk musician named Jenks Miller from North Carolina. His newest album is really good, as are his other recordings.
posted by bradbane at 11:52 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you like that kind of stuff definitely check out Horseback, one man black metal project from this blues/folk musician named Jenks Miller from North Carolina. His newest album is really good, as are his other recordings.

I followed the link in your earlier post and am listening to Invisible Mountain right now.
posted by dortmunder at 11:59 AM on February 24, 2016


...metal scenes appear... like mushrooms after the rain

↑ This f'ing line.
posted by Krulth at 12:00 PM on February 24, 2016 [5 favorites]




Timely. I recently found a great YT channel featuring doom/sludge/stoner/desert with lots of European bands (Greece, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Iceland, Finland...) Metal is indeed strong globally.
posted by popaopee at 12:38 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Fan 1: Gives me a lot of energy, makes me happy.
Fan 2: Heavy metal's deep, you can get stuff out of it.
Fan 3: The way they dress, the leather.
-Tap
posted by MtDewd at 12:39 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


- 1 for neglecting Ulver; + 1 for checking Babymetal \m/
posted by octobersurprise at 12:39 PM on February 24, 2016


If you like that kind of stuff definitely check out Horseback, one man black metal project from this blues/folk musician named Jenks Miller from North Carolina. His newest album is really good, as are his other recordings.

I followed the link in your earlier post and am listening to Invisible Mountain right now.


From there go to Panopticon, particularly the Kentucky-Roads to the North-Autumn Eternal trilogy, and then keep going to Agalloch. Both are there in the intersection of black metal and folk and bluegrass.

Speaking of Panopticon, is anyone else going to their first ever live performance at Migration Fest in August?
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 12:41 PM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Some genres can absorb regional and international influences while still remaining what they are. Hip hop, garage rock and metal are chief among them.
posted by jonmc at 12:41 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just like with punk, metal has long stopped being the scary new music that shocked your parents. Now it's the music your parents probably had on when you were conceived.

Well, yes and no. I'd say metal is an even broader category than punk, with more way out there subgenres. So while there are popular metal bands, genres, and crossovers, there is still a lot out there that is going to be abrasive/shocking to almost everybody.

Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and whatnot that scared people in the 80s, sure, they're no big deal now. But even if one liked all those bands, they may not accept even first wave black metal, grindcore, or doom.
posted by mountmccabe at 12:47 PM on February 24, 2016


I was just thinking that if I have to become a Trump expat I should pick a place with a sweet metal scene.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:47 PM on February 24, 2016 [4 favorites]


About Spanish heavy metal, we've had it since the 80s (see: Leño, Barón Rojo, Barricada, Extremoduro, Héroes del Silencio). But I think after Rosendo (from Leño) and Fito (from Platero y Tú) started their solo careers the most famous heavy metal band is Mägo de Oz which frankly to me it sounds like folksy Black Sabbath verging on piratecore.
posted by sukeban at 12:52 PM on February 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


(We also have local influences)
posted by sukeban at 12:54 PM on February 24, 2016


From there go to Panopticon, particularly the Kentucky-Roads to the North-Autumn Eternal trilogy, and then keep going to Agalloch. Both are there in the intersection of black metal and folk and bluegrass.


I dig Agalloch. Their bassist has an acoustic doom/folk side project called Dolven, which is pretty good.
posted by dortmunder at 1:13 PM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


Is the distorted electric guitar the only musical instrument invented in the last century? (metal fan here).
posted by colie at 1:38 PM on February 24, 2016


Reminds me of the Vice documentary, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, that came out in 2007 and follows a group of guys trying to play in a metal band in wartorn Iraq. Not only were they surrounded by war in general, but it was also really dangerous for them to be playing this American heavy metal music. But the guys were like, man, we just want to grow our hair long and listen to the music that speaks to us and play shows for the other Iraqi metalheads!

I think about those guys every so often, and how they ended up selling their instruments and fleeing to Syria (!). But it turns out they got refugee visas to come to the US, and they've even put out an album. I'll have to check it out.
posted by gueneverey at 1:42 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


This post is heaven.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:42 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Arkona are great. Also TIL about Babymetal - subbed!
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:11 PM on February 24, 2016


Is the distorted electric guitar the only musical instrument invented in the last century? (metal fan here).

By no means... Theremin, synthesizer, and all those instruments Harry Partch invented.
posted by larrybob at 5:59 PM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


My inner 13 year old is grooving out to Doris Yeh of Chthonic on like five different levels.
posted by signal at 7:34 PM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Indonesia is a metal hotbed: Its president, Joko Widodo, wears Metallica and Napalm Death T-shirts.

Barney Greenway from Napalm Death actually reached out to Widodo to ask him to spare the lives of Australian citizens sentenced to death there. Sadly, he was not successful.
posted by Existential Dread at 7:38 PM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


So what you're saying is...

The metalocalypse... has begun.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:11 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Metal as world music? For some reason, I'm reminded of this article on what we know about Viking music (tl;dr - almost nothing):

"An Arab merchant visiting Hereby, Denmark, in the 10th century had this to say about the Viking's singing:

"Never before I have heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Slesvig (in Denmark). The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed."

Another visitor compared their singing to the sound of a heavily loaded cart rolling down a hillside. The storyteller explains the sound was a result of lack of moderation in contact with alcohol."
posted by Devonian at 3:24 AM on February 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


I love Babymetal, but I sometimes get weird looks because i'm a 41 year old guy.

Is It Weird To Like BABYMETAL? No... No it is not weird to like Babymetal.
posted by Pendragon at 11:31 AM on February 25, 2016


Oh, man, the Indonesian metal scene is such a thing. At least in Jakarta (which means Jogja is probably ten times as crazy) there's a metal record store on almost every level of every shopping mall, this kind of hellish black hole of screaming amongst candy-coloured Javanese pop soundtracks and cheap knockoff watches. Obviously the big international acts are well represented but there's a thriving local scene as well (slFB) and some of those guys are Heavy. As. Fuck.
posted by prismatic7 at 10:34 PM on February 25, 2016


2.) Women in Metal (MULHERES NO METAL) is a short documentary on women in Brazil who play metal.

I just watched that and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the link. I'm not a big metalhead, though I like it once in a while, but I love how metal lends itself to these subgenres and adaptations.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:42 AM on February 26, 2016


Pendragon: "Is It Weird To Like BABYMETAL? No... No it is not weird to like Babymetal."

It would definitely be weird, except for the fact that Babymetal is awesome, hence it would be weird not to like them.
posted by signal at 7:42 AM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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