The Mosh Pit 09.05.08: Answering The Critics Of Heavy Metal

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 09.05.2008

Heavy Metal has received its share of criticism about sex, violence, brutal vocals, and the occult, and this week the Mosh Pit takes the critics on one and all. Also, we take a brief look at the Carcass reissue and revisit the downloading versus CD issue. Check out the full column!




Before I get started, I wanted to point out that I total swiped the idea of this story from a column Patrick Robinson did earlier this year, although this was obviously about rap. It was good column, and you should check it out. From then, I new someday I would have to take on the critics of metal the same way.


Answering the Critics


One of the more interesting phenomena in music, and certainly when you walk the more extreme end of that art form, is the criticism people like to heap upon genres they don't like. You can be optimistic, and say it's a mere case of them "Not getting it", or you can be critical of their hostility. Ironically, I listen to some pretty extreme music and am still guilty of ripping into other styles. Like I really have a case to throw stones when I listen to women growling like the cookie monster and men running around in corpse paint!

In a way, I walk the line by my patented tag line "Keep it real." Usually I end this column with that and something to the effect of "Listen to what you love no matter what I or anyone else says." Or something like that sometimes tied to the theme of the column. I am an unabashed and self admitted music lover, and at the end of the day I really just wish for people to enjoy music no matter what it is. Even if I don't like it.

In fact, the music we don't like is still healthy, since so much variety necessarily creates the fertile platform for creativity that is the natural growth and evolution of music. For example, I don't like metalcore that much but its use as a component in current trends has produced some really cool results.

Back in the day, heavy metal still had a stigma for being extreme and/or wild. While some parts became mainstream, the underground was what it was. So there is a direct line from Sabbath all the way to your favorite band today that has been the target of criticism. Just as I make fun of hair bands today, and even more so when they were going off during the 80's, the fact is that the fans of those bands had just as much a good time making fun of the more extreme music I listened to. Although for those of us interlopers stuck in the underground, we wore that as just another badge of honor.

Sound familiar? It should, as this is little different to today; music or otherwise. Just cruise over to the wrestling zone to see the fights over who is popular with the IWC or not, based on sheer popularity, to get a look at that.

So this column is for those who look at the metal and make those comments. I know why you do it, and honestly I don't care. The music is for me, and I'll just happily share it with those who also get it. But for you critics, hopefully this will open your eyes to the bigger picture and help you look at music in a different way. For the rest, maybe in some small fashion you'll come away more armed to defend you're favorite music.

So here are the chief complaints I get as a fan of heavy metal:


The bands are just trying to be more brutal than each other.

Yes. That is the trend with many of the more well known bands today. Music trends are like that. What is hot gets copied and someone always ups the ante. Gangsta rap did it, grunge did it, and hell, even disco did it. The most popular subgenre of metal right now is either death metal, or a derivative of death metal. It also includes hardcore influences as well, especially in the more "mainstream" bands. This kind of style of music naturally lends itself to seeing who is more hardcore and brutal. If you look back at the history of other popular styles of metal or even other music, you'll see the same trend.

Now this is the kind of music you either get, or don't. Also, for many it's not a good place to start if you want to get into more extreme forms of music. You're probably better off pushing your own personal envelope with a "gateway" band to see if you like that and can adjust. If you just jump from a nu-metal/alternative band like Disturbed to Nile, the results could be quite mixed. You're better off going a route via the new Testament album, then maybe try some melodic death like Dark Tranquility or Arch Enemy, or even a related genre like Amorphous with their death like folk or Opeth with their artistic prog like statements, before hitting the brutal technical stuff.

But the point is that it is not for everyone. That's cool; I don't get a lot of music either. I don't care for rap at all, but I have learned a healthy respect for it due to its similarity to metal in the context of its history, place/role in culture, and how the hardcore fans don't like what the big labels shove at them either. I also don't get today's modern R&B scene one bit - Give me Motown any day of the week. But as long as you like it, that's cool, just remember to reciprocate the feeling. And while you're at it, just remember that the last thing you want to do is get into a war of pointing out odd trends. Odds are I've got plenty to shove right back into your face.

Finally, there are PLENTY of bands in the vast metal genre who don't sound like this. Sure, they don't get lots of mainstream attention right now (unless they have a new album coming out next week), but they are there. First, checkout the metal scene in Europe. There are tons of traditional metal bands (like Wolf), power metal bands (Gamma Ray), symphonic bands (Older Rhapsody, Nightwish) or even gothic bands (Leaves Eyes – Yes, I know they're also symphonic). The internet is your friend, my friend. And actually, so is this column. Ask!


They don't even sing. They just scream and growl at each other.

Says who? I didn't know there was a criteria set that defines what an actual singing voice should be. Although admittedly, a guy growling bloody murder is a hard case to make for an artistic statement, it still doesn't change the fact that for some of us this does in fact sound good. Sure, if he was backed by an orchestra and dressed like Frank Sinatra, it might be weird, but in the context of the music…

Actually, that would be kind of cool.

Anyway, this is just another part of the death (and black) metal scene and an aspect of its current heavy influence. But just like the brutal part we discussed above, you can ultimately avoid this trend till it passes over if you want. I just thought of like a dozen bands with normal vocals if you want, some I already listed above. So use the net to find some of the great bands out there that do match what you like. Last time I looked at some of the big metal sites around, there was well over 50,000 metal bands documented in metals almost 40 year run, and it just keeps getting bigger!



You can't understand what they say

I can't understand what in the hell Bob Dylan says most of the time without the linear notes either, so what is your point?


It's just a bunch of sweaty testosterone

You may feel free to tell Lita Ford, Anette Johansson, Doro Pesch, Angela Gossow, Christina Scabbia, Floor Jansen, Simone Simons, all of Girl School, Tarja Turunen, the Iron Maidens, and a host of others that fact. I'd pay to see that discussion go down.

But really, if you look at the content of any other genre of music you'll see bands who act like that, while others don't. Sure, metal has Manowar, and let's face it – You don't get anymore testosterone than dudes dressed like Conan wanting to conquer the world. But for each one like that you also get a band like Opeth that has a completely different look to it.

No admittedly, metal is a male driven scene still. But plenty of gals are getting in on it more and more, so I wouldn't fret too much about it. And let's face it, you so want to date the chick that can survive the pit…


People only go to concerts to jump around and run at each other.

Pesha! Concets are tame these days. Mosh Pits are what fellow columnist Dan Halen said best: Controlled Chaos. Plus I've seen the same thing (or something akin to it) at other types of concerts.

Now if you want to see REAL trouble, lets talk about the people who were hospitalized at Woodstock, killed at a Who concert, and the less we say about Hell's Angels keeping security the better. A bunch of kids running in a circle under supervision is tame.



There is to much satanic imagery.

I'll say one thing – I can't pin this one on to many other bands outside of metal. Not at least without pulling some odd references out of my hat (Black Widow anyone?). Still, people thought AC/DC where satanic (Exhibit A – The album cover and title track to Highway To Hell) and even pagan themes surrounded Led Zeppelin. There has always been a sort of anti-religion message in a general block of music, or at least a general thumbing the nose by the more popular forms. Honestly, that is just playing off of cultural images, people pushing other people's buttons (successfully), and just rock & rolls typical anti-authority nature.

Now that I have aid all of that, I need to address a couple of real issues within the metal scene. First of all, there are a number of pronounced bands that carry a pagan theme. You have to look no further than the entire Viking metal subgenre to see that. But bands singing about Valhalla and battling in the frozen north is hardly satanic.

Second, there is the one subgenre that is just choked full of anti-Christian bands and satanic themes: Black metal. Norway's church burnings are a clear sign of that, although that is still more about the anti-establishment rebellion of the time than the music itself. But it is certainly there. Now whether this is just part of the fad of that scene and style, or any real allegiance on the part of the bands, is more debatable. I'm just going to be honest and say it does exist.

At the end of the day, this is a very small music scene within a huge metal movement. Claiming all metal is satanic because 1% of the bands use that imagery is like saying rap is just about money and bitches, when that is clearly not the case.

To bad though, there is some really good music hiding in the black metal underground that won't get noticed thanks to people being scared to understand fact from fiction.


There is to much sex

Sounds like a personal problem.


That's not an answer…

It wasn't a good question. But if you want a better answer: The old sex and rock and roll manifesto is not as prevalent in metal as it is in some of the other genres. This includes all the pop stars on the billboard charts I might add.


There is to much violence.

That's true. Sometimes there is almost as much violence as the 6:00 news.

I fail to see why some genres of music should be punished when it is just being honest enough to admit bad things exists. This is like the people who complain when rap shows the ugly side of street life. As if the bands really wanted to grow up around that and be confronted with it daily. Just because you want to fake reality doesn't mean everyone else will brush that reality aside just so you can be spared the indignity of having to think about it.

Now some bands, a small percent I might add, do go over the top. But so what? If that much brutal reality doesn't work for you, and I more than understand if it doesn't, then just don't listen. But don't claim that metal is not real music because of some gory picture on the cover, and I won't claim that your favorite pop R&B singer isn't real music because the cover sells sex.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.



Encore

OK. Let's recap and make this some real simple talking points:

1. Not all music is for all people. I have albums you won't like, and you'll have albums I don't like. But we are all richer for their being such diverse kinds of music in total. Although, that doesn't mean we can't take a few fun jabs at each other. We just need to remember the big picture.

2. Some kinds of music will have themes someone else won't like. If we started to get rid of every song based any one person's disapproval, the only damn thing we'd have left is one 50 year old copy of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". And someone would probably bitch about the fact it's about Christmas.

Bottom line – Keep it real people.


I'm sure there is more I missed here, so feel free to add more and I'll do another one sometime. Even better, add your own stories of how you dealt with people!








The Set List

Lists are cool. Lists are fun. Here is the list of what has been rocking out in my headphones. New and old, here is what has received the most plays from me this week.



1. Carcass - Swansong

Carcass continue to rerelease their catalog in stellar super-digipak format with cool extras, DVD, and the spine of all five will eventually make a nice collage picture when sitting on your CD shelf. Most fans consider either this or Heartwork to be their defining album, while a few hardcore grindsters give the nod to the earlier output. For me, the beauty of the bands short catalog is that the scope of all five albums really fits into various moods, as if they have an album for all seasons. The frash like grind has given over here to a more melodic death metal, more influential than popular to the end, but a welcome piece of choked surgical guitars and mutilated vocal corpses. A band of much talent thrown at the wall of brutal gore, but still having a decadent artistry in the violence. If you ever wanted a gateway album to harder metal albums, but didn't want to jump into the mosh crush of the extreme end of things, this is a safe place to start. It's a good album without being over the top. But start here, as you go back through the catalog, things start to get VERY extreme real fast.

Also, if you are a fan of the band, you can't go wrong with this beautifully rendered reissue. The big labels should take note on how to make reissues something a little more special for the fans.




2. Motorhead - Motorizer

Yep, still playing it and this album keeps growing on me. Lemmy might be still making albums his way after 30 years, but he has the science down to a simple brash bar fight like jam. Almost a snap shot in history of sounds you don't see get released with a copyright date of 2008, but yet mindful enough to be fresh. Even if many of these songs could have made the cut on previous outings. Oh hell with it – Sometimes you analyze, and sometimes you just drink a cold one enjoy. This is one of those albums where you grin, have some gin, and enjoy it.








3. Hail Of Bullets - …Of Frost And War

You know, I really shouldn't like this album. The vocals are just out there, even for a death metal band. It sounds like the dude is being led off to Auschwitz (Chill, I'm using the reference because of the albums theme). But man, the music. There is some real good axe work tearing a new riff through this thing. Oh yea, it's death metal all the may, and fairly heavy on the death I might add. But the snare fires like machine guns on the Eastern Front and the guitar carpet bombs rhythmically. But hey, I might be biased as hell. I'm a sucker of a good WWII concept album, and this style of music fits the theme of the Axis invasion of Russia perfectly. Definitely for the extreme death faithful, that's for sure.






Tales from the Pit
Fun with comments!


I'm not much a fan of metal these days (except Tool,) but I am a fan of this article. I couldn't agree with you more on what's going on in the music industry. Or should I say "music journey?" Great job on this!

It's sad to see that the album is in life support these days. I do have to admit, I do download (illegally,) but in the part of the world where I live, all the great stuff doesn't get imported. But when I see albums that I love shipped here, I do buy them.

I think that part of the problem is that most albums do not get shipped internationally. Just the mainstream stuff, in which only ten percent is actually worth buying.

There is a silver lining for the album, though. There recently has been a resurgence of vinyl records. It's in demand again, apparently. Who thought that the first mainstream music medium might outlive all mediums? ~ Posted By: john mars

Unless I go on a binge (see this spring), I try to keep things well mixed. A little metal, a little commentary, hopefully a good time by all, everything just gets thrown into the Mosh Pit… Anyway, you're dead on about the resurgence of actual records. My local Indy store owner told me the same thing. Also, foreign stuff can be tough, especially if you live somewhere with expensive shipping. But thankfully, here in the States the internet can be a good friend to finding small Indy outlets or even just for eBay. Anyway, thanks for reading!


I had almost this exact conversation the other day (vinyl v CD v digital). Most recorded music has been designed for the format in which it was released. In the 70s, albums were arranged into sides/chapters (Metallica are a great example of that - Fade to Black, Welcome Home). The "flow" of pre-1985 albums sounds strange on CD. It's as if they're often two EPs on one disc. When CDs came in, bands started making longer and longer records and the flow changed. No more restrictions on there needing to be a break at 25 minutes in. What does this mean for the future? I'm not sure. Many bands that are comfortable with making one solid hour of music will continue, but I suspect that lots of pop bands will stop releasing albums altogether and just focus on digital singles. For "real" music... I don't know. Maybe bands will just introduce new songs in concert and release entire shows. Maybe we'll see more experiments like NIN's Ghosts.
Does that make any sense?

I also think that CDs in general are going the way of vinyl: for audiophiles only. The bit rate of iTunes is only 128kb/s. That's barely above tape quality, but most people don't care. Quality isn't that important when you're listening to music on cheap headpones or through your PCs speakers. This in turn will lead to simpler songs, more compressed production. Some people will always care and want top quality, but we're a minority. ~ Posted By: Luke

I have nothing really to add, since Luke is spot on. Plus it's always cool to see someone else get the sound quality side of things. Great post man!


1. Sorry, Mr. Mars, but Tool is about as metal as Pink Floyd is. During a live track, Maynard even made a joke about winning the Grammy for Best Metal Performance, all said tongue-in-cheek as if he were actually saying "yeah, we're not metal." Sorry, but as a devout metalhead since the age of 12, I feel I have to be a sort of defender of the faith.

2. Mr. Haggerty, sir, I am like you. I NEED that hard copy. I downloaded two Demolition Hammer albums not long ago after not being able to find anything by them for years (all it took was one song, ".44 Caliber Brain Surgery," to get me hooked on the best overlooked US thrash act ever), and I'm still pissed that I couldn't find the actual albums themselves.

Downloading PRO'S:
-Many bands make songs that I think are positively atrocious, but have the odd song here or there that I don't mind (AFI's "Miseria Cantare - The Beginning" is the only song I can listen to by them, so I dl'd it instead of finding the album).
-CHEAPER.
-You can find rarer items easier online for download than you can in a record store. P2P servers, torrents, iTunes...you name it. I've found rare shit there that I've NEVER seen in a store before.

CON'S:
-No artwork, or just a minimized thumbnail of it. Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness album has amazing artwork to it, just a mess of grey howling skulls sludged together to create something other-worldly. A minimized thumbnail? That does it no justice whatsoever.
-Mobility. Before my iPod, I had just a standard MP3 player. 4gb. I was able to fit about 1/8 of my CD collection on there, which made it a bad purchase in the long run. It broke. My iPod? Yet to break, but it eventually will. My CD collection? I keep it safe. If I'm near a CD player and I want to hear an album, I just pop it in and let it ride.
-Like you said, the journey is great. Dream Theater's masterpiece Metropolis II: Scenes From a Memory NEEDS to be listened to in one sitting. There are songs that could definitely be played by themselves, but they all flow into one another, as most concept albums do, and fit each other perfectly. The same can be said for every album by the Haunted: there are songs that stand out VERY well on their own, but (especially in the case of rEVOLVEr) the weaker songs are placed so perfectly that they help the flow of the overall album, and thus become stronger due to their placement. ~ Posted By: AndrewCrow

It's always good to have Andrew Crow stop in. One thing I wanted to point out that I basically missed since I brushed over the subject, but he nailed, was how good song placement can make average songs better. That's part of the music being a journey and a complete package. There are songs on Pink Floyds Dark Side Of The Moon that I would not listen to independently on my own, but damn if the album would be less without them! That's the difference between a good album and a great one, the total package is greater than it's parts.


I can't see the CD taking on a role similar to that of the record. Part of the record's appeal lies in the fact that the music itself is being recorded in a different, totally non-digital way, whereas the music on a CD is still just digital, only in the form of a hard copy.

Are we still taking potshots at Britney Spears? Honestly, I hate when people make the argument that the rise in downloading in the last ten years is the result of some sudden influx of bad music. Don't try to portray people who download music as victims who have been fored to turn to downloading in order to escape some plague of terrible music.

In truth, the market has always been full of shitty music; it just so happened that people finally discovered the means to get their music via filesharing at around the same time that Britney and her ilk were beginning to rise to fame (i.e., the late nineties). ~ Posted By: Phats Waller

Not that it matters, but I wasn't actually trying to take a pot shot at Britney (this week); I was simply using her as the most identifiable pop artists who I figured people could relate to. The real point is that albums by these pop artists are simply designed to be singles and video delivery mechanisms, and are not a journey into itself. The artists, or their writers, don't see it that way. How can they when they are more concerned with release dates and whose collaborating to give an album a rub? That's all. Britney is fine at what she does, if you like that. I have friends at work that do. Good for them. I simply disagree on the value of the album as a whole.

Also, you're right in what you said. I'm not sure if I conveyed it properly, but I didn't mean to imply that people download now because music has gotten worse recently. Of course music has always had its crap, and trends ride high and low. I make a lot of fun of the late 80's for the same reason. What's different now is that the technology has given people a means to circumvent this issue. It's not just downloading either I might add. I was a fairly disgruntled metalhead until 5 years ago when I was able to start using the net to find music I really liked again.


Yes, MP3s/iTunes/iPods have made music more portable. But my chief concern with that is that in the end, they are still computer files. Files that can be infected with digital player-killing viruses.

Not to mention that MP3 players can break easily by virtue of their size.

My CDs are admittedly only taken out for long car drives and flights.

It actually does help to stop listening to entire albums after awhile, as you can go back and re-discover how good some tracks actually are.

And some new bands (10 Years, lostprophets) have put great instrumentals/interludes at the end of some album tracks. Instrumentals that can't always be found online. ~ Posted By: Erick

Great post Erik. You mentioned the one thing I did NOT think of at all, and that is the issues with computers and what can happen to files and what not. Thanks for reading and commenting!


Fucking excellent article and topic. ~ Dan Halen

Checks in the mail Dan! Seriously, I somehow knew beyond a doubt that you would understand exactly what I was talking about. Us collectors can sense each other, like the force or something, across time and space.



St Anger is one of the first albums that I LITERALLY had to stop listening to because my ears were being raped so much ~ Posted By: natedoggcata

Testify Brother!


Only one problem...

You talk about evolution and advancement - but then complain that digital doesn't sound as good due to compression and such. Is it so far fetched to picture a time when 128kb/s is no longer the norm?

Figure 10 years ago, when music was first starting to go online- the average household was still using either 33k or 56k modems and a 10G hard drive was considered HUGE.

It wouldn't be so far fetched to picture online music coming in 7.1 surround sound and uncompressed in the not so distant future.

The only real differences would be the piece of mind of actually feeling and holding something tangible that you just bought... and a piece of paper/lyrics that the artwork is printed on. ~ Posted By: cyks

What I meant by advancement was the trend, and in this case it's towards choice, mobility, and compactness. While I would agree that technology advances could make higher rates possible, and I honestly hope your right because that would be excellent, I'm not convinced. The people who are into the picky details of the full sound experience, the audiophiles, are a small contingent of the market right now. Major labels are not going to have albums produced to that small market, nor will the companies that mass market players. The current trend is what the masses want, singles with lower memory and production that adjusts the sound to "compensate" for compression and the sound of little headphones with no range. For what it's worth, I hope you're right.



Parting Shots
Little bits of metal news, music industry news, site happenings, and personal takes.

What? Britney is going to open the VMAs again? Really? REALLY. Actually, that could be very smart. If she busts her has and pulls it off, she'll get so much hype it would be ridiculous.

Why do I keep bringing up the VMAs. Does anyone REALLY give a shit? That's what I thought.

I'm a little shocked at what a big deal critics are making about Sarah Palin and her pregnant 17 year old daughter. I mean, a person having the same family issue that tons of other families have disqualifies them to be a good leader? Yea – Let's only vote for people who don't know what the typical American family goes through. That, my friends, is the real elitist attitude you keep hearing about in this election.

God what a crappy news week in music. No wonder AJ Grey sticks to chick pictures. Those are always in season.

Two weeks to Motorhead! Hell yea.

Lemmy owns

Several more weeks to the Mosh Pit's anniversary! I can't believe Mitch kept me around for a year. He's screwed now; I'll be like luggage that he'll have to keep forever.

Final Thoughts

Keep it real, and listen to what you love. And if some dude in a column laughs at the ridiculous amount of Agua Net and eye make-up they have, just turn the volume up to ten and ten them I said ‘Hi'.