Those of you who have seen Sam Dunn’s docu-film “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” will know he set out to study the music we love as a culture as much as for the art form – as he’s an anthropologist.
Culture would, however, denote a sense of a shared passion and of community, something Mr Dunn focuses on. But there’s a flaw in his reasoning.
You do see this sense of community forming at the big festivals like Download and Bloodstock. These festivals have the infectious spirit of a huge group of like-minded people uniting to have fun and enjoy the music we all love. The fact the world outside the festival’s bubble doesn’t understand? We just don’t care.
Moshers, metalheads, Goths – call us what you like – we’re heavy metal fans and we are proud of it!
So why do we not get this same spirit found at the festivals in the local scene here in the Steel City (Sheffield, UK)?
Something that’s become very apparent is the idea of “true metal” – only metal which falls into this category, usually the most extreme forms of black, death and doom, is considered to be the real thing – everything else is “poser” or “fake”. So apparently, if you can’t growl like Nergal of Behemoth or you don’t have the scream of Mortuus from Marduk, you just aren’t metal?
To me, metal is an art form that has to be reckoned with. In the late 70’s and early 80’s it was actually one of the most popular forms of music, despite the efforts of many in authority in America and elsewhere. Despite a drop in popularity from those dizzying heights, it maintains a vast and loyal fan base who are enduringly passionate for the music. In the words of Rob Zombie – “I’ve never heard “Yeah, I was in to Slayer, one summer!” I’ve never met that guy!”
And whether the metal in question is black, death, power, symphonic, progressive, battle or any other of the prefixes it acquires, on a basic level it has the same elements as all the rest – it’s metal, pure and simple. And metal is a force all of its own.
Heavy Metal is the kind of music that speaks to the outsiders and the loners, the people who never fitted in to the model society had laid out for them for any number of reasons. We all know we are set apart by being fans of metal music – we’re considered society’s outcasts as a whole because we dare to follow the music that doesn’t confirm to the prescribed format, and doesn’t set out to please the masses. Metal is as it is, you take it or you leave it, and if you don’t like the message it gives out, well then, don’t listen. And that is the attitude of a united front.
So why are we splitting ourselves up even further into silly factions of what’s “true” and what isn’t? Surely all the music which falls under the bracket of “metal”, like it or not, is speaking on the same level?
What a lot of people don’t accept is that metal, by its nature as a type of music, is also an art form. Art and music both have to change, they have to grow and evolve with time. Those that don’t frankly just don’t last long. Moving with the times can sometimes mean commercial success on a given level. But wait! That’s not metal, that’s selling out!
I hate to break this to the True Metal Elitists out there, but if metal didn’t have any viable commercial success at all, there would be no albums, no metal club nights, no live gigs and definitely no festivals. And what, pray tell, would be the point of that? Yes, the message would still be there loud and clear – but a message is there to be shouted from the rooftops and heard by anyone who will listen, not to be hidden away to die unheard?
If heavy metal had no commercial success at all, if it had died on its feet back in the days of the mighty Black Sabbath, then think of what we would be missing from our lives, and think of the unspoken numbers of people that metal reached out to and helped, who wouldn’t ever have received that comfort because there was no success and therefore, frankly, no music. For example, what’s wrong with a Grammy for Best Metal Performance? The bands we love are artists at the end of the day, and they deserve some kind of recognition by the masses for their dedication and brilliance.
Put in that context, is commercial viability really so “not metal?”
All these silly things are splitting the metal fan base apart for no good reason – society by its very nature would do that job quite happily for us, so why are we doing it for them?
If we’re a community of outcasts, as Mr Dunn suggests in his film, isn’t it about time we banded together again and acted like a one?
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