Terrible Lizard

One of the great unknowns dis year.

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almauro

Thats called headbanging. I suggest you give it a try while pumping up your fist, maybe throwing up a horn. But then again, it's all instinct so if you haven't done so, you never will.

I'm almost tempted to play some Cattle Decapitation,...nah.





Power death metal with audience cheers included. This album was the transition between Therion's death metal and symphonic metal periods. It's cheesy but rousing.

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Howard the Duck

punk is about rebellion

metal has always been a tight social group who are tightly knit and a strong community

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Unknown Soldier

Most metal followers are outsiders anyway and I agree rebellion is often the furthest thing from their mind.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

VEGANGELICA

I was just listening to Cattle Decapitation a couple days ago, trying to find a song of theirs that I like for its sound and not just its meaning. Someone at MB introduced me to Cattle Decapitation around 2 years ago, and I love the group's intentions but their sound, not so much.

Headbanging...I'd say it is partially instinct (the desire to move to the music), but mostly a learned and copied social response. Headbangers seem to have fun doing it, though. I suppose they feel like they are "letting go." You're probably right I'll never do headbanging. I think I'm too self-conscious and analytical to be a headbanger because I'd start to wonder why I'm doing it.

And if I threw up the horns, the urge to perform a rabbit hand puppet show with them would become too strong to resist.



Hmm. So perhaps metalheads really are less rebellious (against mainstream accepted perspectives on life) and are more into grouping and copying each other than I had assumed, based on the themes of the music.

I think of punk as showing rebellion against injustices and power structures in society.

I've been thinking that metal is rebellion against typically accepted definitions of beauty/aesthetics, and against the social pressure to appear or act "nice," "peaceful," and "optimistic" by embracing, instead, expressions of aggression in music.

I've thought that death metal music more fundamentally stands as an often theatrical extistential cry against the forces of nature either by accentuating human defiance of death, or by focusing on human frailty in the face of it.

Consider this song below, "Push the Venom," by Kataklysm...with a video showing cool harpies trying to pick off the fettered man, who ends up vanquishing them, rebelling against his bondage.

This song seems very rebellious to me, although the music itself sounds mainstream within the metal genre. The lyrics, for example, show rebellion against those who try to drag you down:

"I am the king of defiance.
I am the rebel of power.
I am the son of survival.
As you fall into darkness,
I will rise from the sun.
I'm alive, I'm alive."

I think people often try to believe that life turns out well and is predominated by joy and fulfillment. Metal music embraces that this one-sided image of life isn't the truth. Maybe most metalheads are just into the theatrical, energizing aspect of the music without considering any sort of core message in it?

KATAKLYSM - "Push the Venom"
Cool harpies!


KATAKLYSM - Push The Venom - HQ - YouTube

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Blarobbarg

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure this is it. I read through your entire post, and it was very well written, but I seriously doubt almost any metalhead is thinking that deep into it. Most metal fans, in my experience, have been in their teens/twenties and just love the aggression. It's therapeutic. Metal lets them let loose and just go crazy and have fun. It's also a good channel for the anger/angst that they feel on an everyday basis.

That's my take on it, anyway. Hell, I'm probably wrong.

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Terrible Lizard

That's exactly it, for non-******* metalheads anyway.

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“YOU ARE SCUM SLUT.”
-John Martyn

Janszoon

I don't think there's any more of an overarching message to metal than there is an overarching message to, say, jazz. I love both genres and love very different things about different styles within them, but in no case does it have anything to do with message. It's just the pure music that I love.

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Unknown Soldier

There is a lot more relevant stuff on this post concerning metal and your critique of the genre is based on somebody from the outside looking in. A lot of what your saying has been addressed constantly over the years, BUT most people into metal in my experience are just interested in the themes of metal, rather than the actual messages that people seem to think that metal has. I don't think I've ever put on a metal album with the idea of finding some inner message, most metal fans just love either the power of the music, the diversity of the genre and the whole aesthetics of metal. As I said before it often attracts outsiders and misfits in life like the pull of a magnet, other people get into metal through what is known as a gateway band, usually a metal band that has a lighter melodic edge before they move into the heavier stuff.

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Power Metal

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VEGANGELICA

Thanks for your replies. Janszoon, I didn't think jazz *had* a message! Metal music at least seems to be saying *something*.

I can understand liking metal for its raw power. I like metal for its aggression and gloom, but because I feel aggression and gloom about particular issues, I gravitate toward songs that offer realistic reasons for these emotions.

An exception is "Day of Suffering," which I'd like even if the song had no words, only gutteral growls.

Oh, and Terrible Lizard...welcome back from the dead! This one's for you:

Dream Death -- "Back From The Dead"



That's how your old avatar might look if you resurrected him...or her. ^

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