Customer Reviews

Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Death Metal Music is valuable for its history of death metal, as it knowledgeably jumps from band to band and provides helpful descriptions that will likely lead readers to discover new bands. However, in Chapter 3 (pp. 39-49), which describes the lyrics of death metal, the author makes some surprising mistakes that soil her credibility and call into question how accurate her findings might be.

The biggest problem occurs during her discussion of the social messages in death metal. She writes, "Anti-abortion messages may be found in songs like `Altering the Future'" (48). I have seen this mistake made before, but anyone who has heard this song by the band Death knows that the lyrics are not anti-abortion, but in fact pro-choice. The first verse describes the rotten life that follows for a baby born to a mother that is not capable of being a fit parent. The verse ends with this statement: "To exist in this world may be a mistake / The one who is with child, it's their choice to make." Clearly, Chuck Schuldiner is advocating a woman's right to choose. The second verse describes the necessity of capital punishment for murderers, but the chorus makes a clear distinction between abortion and murder. The chorus goes, "Abortion, when it is needed / Execution, for those who deserve it." The whole point of the song is that sometimes lives need to be ended to improve the future. To call it anti-abortion is to deny part of the legacy left behind by a death metal giant, and if any band should be well represented in this book, it is Death.

Chuck described his views on abortion in a 1995 interview as follows: "It should be legal. If I was a woman surely I would like to have a choice to have a child or not. In [the] U.S. [a] lot of new-borns are killed because they were unwanted. It is better to solve it immediately when a woman finds out about the pregnancy and she doesn't want a child. Better to go for an abortion than to kill a baby. That is terrible. Men cannot force women to keep a child when they themselves feel they can't." See http://www.emptywords.org/SparkMagazine07-95.htm for the whole interview.

Another statement suggests an ignorance of the metal bands that prefigured death metal. The author writes, "Mysticism and the occult accented the lyrics of major 1970s bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Witchfynde, Iron Maiden, and others" (40). Iron Maiden? Iron Maiden was formed in 1977, yes, but did not release its first album until 1980, and even then its lyrics were dedicated to reality and to retelling classic stories; mysticism and the occult did not become part of Maiden's repertoire until a few years later in songs like "The Number of the Beast" and "Revelations." To group Maiden with Sabbath and Zeppelin, both of whom recorded their most important material in the early 70s, suggests a shaky understanding of metal history.

The author makes another glaring error concerning time, again on page 40. She brings up H. P. Lovecraft because his horror stories of chaotic gods and hoary magical secrets influence the lyrics of bands like Morbid Angel and Nile. Unfortunately, she refers to him as "a 19th century author" (40). Lovecraft was born in 1890, and though he wrote a couple stories as a child, the bulk of his writings came from the final ten years of his life (1927-1937), obviously making him a twentieth-century author.

These may seem like small points, but they are all easily documented facts that the author was simply too lazy or too careless to get right, all in the course of ten pages. How many other mistakes did she make? Can her scientific studies later in the book be trusted? I enjoyed the history she provides of death metal, but I'm not going to keep a book on my shelf when the author cannot summon the respect to correctly write about Death or Lovecraft.

Hello, potential readers. I'm the author of this book, and I just wanted to write a little something to let you know what the book does and does not do, and what some of its strengths and weaknesses are.

While some critics have said the book reads like a grad school thesis or dissertation, this it was not. I actually wrote it while I was in college, but it was a labor of love that I produced on the side. Most of it was written when I was around 19-20 years old, though it took me a couple years to edit it and get it published.

I really do feel this is a unique look at the Death Metal subculture from an insider angle. I spent many years penetrating every part of the scene (shows, "metalfests", labels, zine-producers, touring bands, radio stations, etc.), and really became a member of it myself. I was surprised at how fully I was able to embrace and enjoy the music as well as all of the social aspects of the subculture. At the same time, I did plenty of research on what had already been published about metal heads, horror fans, and similar groups.

With that said, a lot of the research done for this book was very informal. Because nothing had really been published on death metal in particular (with the exception of some pretty unreliable sources), I relied to an unusual extent on "authorities" in the scene. I built a rough history of the scene through extensive interviews with death metal fans and musicians who lived through it. Quotes from these scene personalities and authorities are scattered throughout. These are not the most reliable sources, but they were definitely the best available. I feel confident that I ended up with a thorough and accurate sketch of the Death Metal scene.

(One of the readers who criticizes my book on this page points out what he feels are three small but worrisome errors. In one case, he interprets a lyric differently from me. In another case, he has found an editing error ["19th century author" should have read "19th century-style author"]. And in a third case, he justifiably worries that I grouped one band with a series of other bands from a different decade. In the larger paragraph, I was trying to illustrate the similarities in lyrical content among these bands, but I phrased this particular sentence in such a way that drew attention to the time period, and this was a mistake.)

For me the biggest failing in this book is the section where I report survey results. I do bring cursory attention to the fact that my sample of death metal fans wasn't selected in a scientific fashion that permits generalizing the results to all death metal fans. But at the same time, the way I write about this group throughout the section seems to ignore my own warning. In some ways, I wish I could go back and re-edit this, now that I know much more about conducting social-scientific research.

So what does my book offer? While it's a bit dense and too information-packed to be a quick easy read, it can serve as a good reference book for those with an interest in the history of the scene, especially the bands and albums that characterize different subgenres and eras of the scene. It also provides a nice broad sketch of scene dynamics and the ways in which this subculture has functioned and changed over time. But most fundamentally and most importantly, I do feel that the book really gives voice to the fans and musicians of death metal. It provides a strong a challenge to some stereotypes about metal heads and the music they love. Later chapters also discuss in detail the value and function of subcultures like the death metal scene, and the significance of the lyrical themes and pervasive dark imagery of metal. To me, these are the heart of the analysis.

So, in conclusion, I hope you'll find my book an interesting and worthwhile read. Because it was published by an academic press, the price tag is pretty steep. You might want to check it out at your local library to decide whether you're interested in owning it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
natalie

I had initially expected this book to be your typical "history of ..." and, judging from the other reviews, I think many other people were expecting this as well. I'll warn you now: if you're looking for a book on the history of death metal, this is NOT the book to buy. However, if you want to delve into the world of death metal from a purely academic perspective, this is a pretty damn good place to start.
The book reads much like a thesis paper or a supplementary textbook, focusing on the socio-political aspects of the death metal subculture. The history provided is minimal at best (and contains a couple of errors, but nothing worth the abuse that suttercane202 laid on it), providing a very brief overview that is best targeted to those outside of the death metal scene. There are plenty of interviews, quotes, and references throughout the book, and the author uses them wisely, although I believe the book could have delved a little deeper into some elements. The only serious flaw I find in this book is that many statements are repeated throughout the book, taking space that would have been better occupied by additional, new material.
I have been an active member of the death metal scene since '86, and I don't really find anything new in this book, but it was still enjoyable to read.
Based on material alone, I could definitely see this book becoming a very useful addition to a socio-political course in a musical institution in the near future. And speaking as an avid death metal fan, I would like to see this book added to curriculum outside of music institutions so that outsiders can finally get an objective insight into the scene - maybe then they won't freak out so much when they see us walking down the street.

I'm amazed that something I find so visceral and intense can be rendered so bland.

But I must be fair: Purcell at least has an intimate connection with the death metal scene. And she lets the musicians and fans speak, forging her critique from their experiences.

The problem has little to do with her passion for the scene; she infuses the final chapter with an almost palpable desire. Her primary drawback appears to be her training in the number-crunching social sciences. I would love to see her approach to the topic if she were trained in an interdisciplinary field such as American Studies.

Perhaps the book will be of some value, however, in explaining to my concerned wife why I dig this music as much as I do, since I've failed to do so convincingly so far.

'Death Metal Music: the Passion and Politics of a Subculture' is an excellent book to read while you've got some Nile, Rotten Sound or Incantation pounding & grinding in the background. It compliments the music and reminds you of what's unique and inspiring about the entire death metal genre.

Natalie Purcell does a fine job of articulating what draws people to death metal music and why metal heads in general tend to be very open-minded and free-thinking individuals. Individuals are people who question the so-called "norms" of society and what they're being fed by those who are out to mass-market and profit from every trend that comes along. The profit-motive is why the more popular music genres always produce the most diluted, homogenized and quickly-forgotten music. Death Metal is one trend, or sub-trend, they can't quite get their hooks in, thus it remains raw and pure. And of course the very traits that make extreme metal unmarketable are also the traits that make it exciting and powerful and fearless. Music by free-thinking individuals for free-thinking individuals. I learn more about myself as I learn more about the music, and this book is a great compliment to that notion.

I came across this book when doing research on a metal related website (The Metal Archives) for grad school. I'm going to have to agree with some of the other reviewers here that this book leaves much to be desired.

I wouldn't at all say the writing is too "dense" as some have complained (and even the author herself claimed). "Dry" would be a better adjective. It lacks an engaging narrative writing style that would make it worth reading in it's own right. And it fails to connect with subcultural theory or cultural studies in a way that would make it worthwhile (at least to me) as a work of academic criticism. Perhaps people in the social sciences or sociology might find more of interest here?

I gave it two stars instead of one, because the book can still be useful as an authority for some historical information, and because some survey results are interesting. It really is disappointing though, because there is definitely a lack of scholarly literature on the subject, and it would be nice to see someone actually to do the subculture justice. If you're looking to do academic research extreme metal subculture, the writings of Keith Kahn-Harris are probably a better place to start.

This is both an informative and interesting book. From the outset, readers should be aware that it was written a lot more like a sociological study and than an expose or a fanzine.

Although the book is a dense read, it is packed with insight and thought-provoking analysis. It's a welcome addition to the library of any serious sociology student or researcher with an interest in subcultures. At the same time, it contains a great deal of information that would be fascinating to fans of death metal music, and is a must-read for those with a real interest in the genre.

being a die-hard fan of the Death Metal genre, I already knew 95% of everything that was already written in this book. what i found most educational about the book is the history of death metal, which was the only thing i didn't know. Natalie Purcell goes into detail on why death metal fans are attracted to this type of music, why we create this type of music, why the lyrics are so negative, ect. anyone that does not respect or understand death metal should read this book in order to gain a better understanding of why we do what we do.