Extreme metal musings

[Phylactery]

Lately, I have been reflecting on why I find this often violent music so emotionally engaging. A lot of this is referring to albums like Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph (and other The Chasm records), Far Away from the Sun, The Red in the Sky is Ours, but also albums from Dissection, Aeternus, Dawn, Vinterland, Burzum, Darkthrone, (Hell, a shit load of black metal really). Music that I find to be much more melodic (why is this?) and emotionally impacting than nearly all trad and power metal I’ve heard. Obviously, I love all those genres, but they don’t make me teary eyed and as emotional (as dumb as this sounds), as the best material from the above bands.

The vocals of these bands are all obviously guttural growls/screams, which sound unpleasant to many, but I find them to be injected with such passion that I can’t help but feel they add to the emotional impact of these records. Notice how Lindberg’s voice often cracks at points on the debut, or how Corchado frequently changes pitch and expression depending on the lyric, or Culto’s completely haunting vocals on Transilvanian Hunger. I often don’t need to read what they’re even saying; I can just feel that this means something to them. I don’t generally get this as much from clean metal singers, although there are exceptions.

I don’t even know what I’m saying at this point, and I’m probably not articulating it particularly well. It’s just been on my mind lately. I guess I’m asking if anyone feels the same way, or perhaps has a different viewpoint? The goals of all these discussed genres are obviously largely different and that’s probably part of the answer.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

The vocals become an accompanying instrument rather than the central focus of attention and shitty lyrics rarely hinder the aural brilliance in comparison to metal with clean vox. It's kind of like how classical music or movie scores are so highly emotional at times. The music is a cohesive, holistic whole. Also it's hard to get anywhere near as aggressive with clean vocals, yet a lot of extreme metal is relaxing ironically. I have no idea if I'm responding to your post at all but hey I just like talking about extreme metal so all is good.

 

[Baroque]

The beauty in music comes from dissonance and contrast. Harsh vocals over instruments produces both.

The same can be said of why Game of Thrones is so popular, the focus is on the conflict, and not the resolution.

There are exceptions of course, true harmony and rest has its own beauty. See Palestrina. The art reflects our time, however.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Most extreme metal has minimal emotional value to me. Death metal bands largely rely on big, dumb downtuned groove riffs and are no more expressive than any other form of rock music. Most of the vocalists in the style lack range and any form of expressiveness. Doesn't make it bad, of course, lots of it is awesome, but it's popcorn metal. When they do something different (e.g. Demilich, Legion-era Deicide, etc), it usually evokes atmosphere/wonder more than what I would traditionally describe as emotion. It's like calling Aliens an emotional movie or something just because you feel good looking at the special effects and settings and shit; anything that produces pleasure will probably lead to a change in a person's emotional state, but the music largely does not exist for emotional expression. There are exceptions though of course (Dark Millennium, At the Gates, others).

Black metal is just overwrought shite with an emotional depth even shallower than that of nu metal.

Trad and thrash are the pinnacle of emotional expression in metal music. Fact.

 

[Slayed Necros]

I think finding that subtle yet powerful emotion in raw and violent music is half the challenge and half the appeal. It took multiple listens of The Red in the Sky is Ours, Far Away from the Sun, Deathcult... and countless other extreme metal albums for the emotional depth to be fully revealed to me, whereas it usually hits me immediately with most trad metal and often has much less impact.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I've spent some time contemplating the essence/appeal/whatever of metal and the most concise answer I've come up with is that it's about ugly beauty. It's about taking individually ugly features and making something beautiful about them. This explanation accounts for a lot of common features of metal; distortion, dissonance, loudness, harsh vocals, dark lyrical themes, shitty production, uncomfortably fast tempos, etc. For me the sweet spot on the ugly/beautiful scale is right around where you find rugged oddball trad. metal bands like Dark Quarterer and Adramelch. For you I assume that sweet spot is further to the ugly end.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

The vocals of these bands are all obviously guttural growls/screams, which sound unpleasant to many, but I find them to be injected with such passion that I can’t help but feel they add to the emotional impact of these records. Notice how Lindberg’s voice often cracks at points on the debut, or how Corchado frequently changes pitch and expression depending on the lyric, or Culto’s completely haunting vocals on Transilvanian Hunger. I often don’t need to read what they’re even saying; I can just feel that this means something to them. I don’t generally get this as much from clean metal singers, although there are exceptions.

Yes, and when you listen while reading the lyrics, I find that even noticing how vocalists pronounce certain words will give me chills and can have a big effect on the overall experience!!

 

[arg]

Death metal is supposed to be badass and manly, not screaming faggots

 

[CiG]

Death metal is supposed to be badass and manly, not screaming faggots

Ironic, since the death metal you tend to like is pretty gay regardless of how brutal they try to be. Not all of it, but a good chunk I've noticed.

 

[arg]

only toughguy dm for br00tal motherfuckers like me bitches

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

I love OSDM so hard.

 

[Krow]

Hardcore Radikult in this bitch.

 

[no country for old wainds]

generally speaking metal has always been about reviving/romanticising the darker and more elemental truths of existence that society has been designed to veil, and extreme metal has taken that philosophy to its most fanatical extremes. it's the product of subversive and often fiercely dogmatic worldviews that commonly detest the bullshit of the modern mainstream and ache for something more real, whether they find that in alternate worlds or the past or nature or whatever else - it's inevitable that such music would, at least at its most authentic, convey a conviction and a meaningfulness that the majority of other music lacks. trad springs from fundamentally the same well i think, and a lot of DM and BM-heads underestimate how indebted their favourite bands are to the '80s, but i think it's fair to say that trad is typically less zealous and ideological in its quest for and worship of subversive perspectives, leaning more toward nerdy escapism (though nerdy escapism is definitely one aspect of extreme metal as well ofc lolvarg). with extreme metal there can be more serious, dangerous, existential, even spiritual energies at play that can scratch a different itch for me. and yea, disclaimer that there are always exceptions and yada yada

 

[Phylactery]

Death metal bands largely rely on big, dumb downtuned groove riffs and are no more expressive than any other form of rock music. Most of the vocalists in the style lack range and any form of expressiveness. Doesn't make it bad, of course, lots of it is awesome, but it's popcorn metal. When they do something different (e.g. Demilich, Legion-era Deicide, etc), it usually evokes atmosphere/wonder more than what I would traditionally describe as emotion. It's like calling Aliens an emotional movie or something just because you feel good looking at the special effects and settings and shit; anything that produces pleasure will probably lead to a change in a person's emotional state, but the music largely does not exist for emotional expression. There are exceptions though of course (Dark Millennium, At the Gates, others).

I mostly agree with this. I mentioned few death metal records in my post because it happens less frequently with that genre. I especially agree with the bolded. However, this post was mostly in reference to the specific albums that I mentioned.

Black metal is just overwrought shite with an emotional depth even shallower than that of nu metal.

Bullshit.

I've spent some time contemplating the essence/appeal/whatever of metal and the most concise answer I've come up with is that it's about ugly beauty. It's about taking individually ugly features and making something beautiful about them. This explanation accounts for a lot of common features of metal; distortion, dissonance, loudness, harsh vocals, dark lyrical themes, shitty production, uncomfortably fast tempos, etc. For me the sweet spot on the ugly/beautiful scale is right around where you find rugged oddball trad. metal bands like Dark Quarterer and Adramelch. For you I assume that sweet spot is further to the ugly end.

This is interesting, but I find albums like Far Away from the Sun (and a few others mentioned), to be more overtly melodic than the vast majority of trad and power metal.

 

[Vilden]

leaning more toward nerdy escapism (though nerdy escapism is definitely one aspect of extreme metal as well ofc lolvarg). with extreme metal there can be more serious, dangerous, existential, even spiritual energies at play that can scratch a different itch for me. and yea, disclaimer that there are always exceptions and yada yada

For me this is probably the main reason. When it comes to almost all types of art, be it music, books, comics, movies, etc. I almost always seek escapism in some form or another, being transported to another world filled with wonder. Alot of metal i general is quite good at this and extreme metal in particular, when done right, like Burzum for example does this both extremely well and also with an primal authenticity often enchanted with some form of melancholy or atleast non-uplifting emotions that makes it feel even more real and less "nerdy" as No Country quite aptly put it.

 

[CiG]

And then there's Gehennah.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

And then there's Gehennah.

"FUCK OFF, I'M DRINKING!" - A legendary, heart-rending philosophical treatise.

 

[Talos of Atmora]

@Vilden @no country for old wainds That was one of my primary reasons. Rock/metal, jazz and classical are the genres that felt otherworldly to me and really evoked the feeling that a lot of my other interests did. Other forms of music just didn't at the time.

That being said, I didn't really care if it was nerdy or not.

 

[The Butt]

Most extreme metal has minimal emotional value to me. Death metal bands largely rely on big, dumb downtuned groove riffs and are no more expressive than any other form of rock music. Most of the vocalists in the style lack range and any form of expressiveness. Doesn't make it bad, of course, lots of it is awesome, but it's popcorn metal. When they do something different (e.g. Demilich, Legion-era Deicide, etc), it usually evokes atmosphere/wonder more than what I would traditionally describe as emotion. It's like calling Aliens an emotional movie or something just because you feel good looking at the special effects and settings and shit; anything that produces pleasure will probably lead to a change in a person's emotional state, but the music largely does not exist for emotional expression. There are exceptions though of course (Dark Millennium, At the Gates, others).

Black metal is just overwrought shite with an emotional depth even shallower than that of nu metal.

Trad and thrash are the pinnacle of emotional expression in metal music. Fact.

You are gay and chug dicks for a living. But you don't even charge so you can't even do that right. Your life sucks.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

And you're an ugly alcoholic fuck birthed from a (probably ugly) alcoholic fuck. Enjoy your congenital disfigurement and permanent cognitive deficits.