Death metal music and the fall of the western empire
Death metal music and the fall of the western empire
Ok, off the bat you should know that I’m not the biggest fan of death metal music. In fact I’m not a fan at all. Along with country music, bubblegum pop and hard-core rap, death metal music is one of the few genres in which I have zero interest. That’s not to say that I think death metal music is worthless or that bands that play death metal music are untalented, but it’s something that’s simple never reached me on any level beyond annoyance.
Part of that may be because of its fans. Like fans of country music, hard-core rap and several other genres, death metal music fans tend to dress as if they, themselves, are part of a band. And they then tend to build their self-image around said band, in what is generally a very unhealthy and somewhat laughable way. No, James Hetfield doesn’t want to be your friend. He would like your money, though.
I end up shaking my head at people wearing chains, spiked hair and big, black leather steel-toed boots. It’s not because they’re different; far from it. It’s because they’ve decided to express their “differentness” by dressing and acting in the manner of an already established social subclass. They are distinctly uniform in the non-conformity, many of them without even the simple grace to recognize that irony. And irony unrecognized is simple stupidity.
The wikipedia.org page on death metal music reads as follows:
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.
Building off the speed and complexity of thrash metal, death metal emerged during the mid 1980s. It was mainly inspired by thrash metal acts like Slayer, Kreator and Celtic Frost. Along with the band Death and its frontman Chuck Schuldiner (who is often referred to as “the father of death metal”), bands like Possessed and Morbid Angel are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular record labels like Earache Records and Roadrunner Records began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate. Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.
I’m not sure how “rich” the variety of subgenres is, and I’m not certain they should be classed as subgenres at all if a layman can’t identify them. And, to be sure, most laymen couldn’t.
