Heavy Metal Becoming Increasingly Political

SAN FRANCISCO (MSNBC) - Heavy metal singer Chris Barnes didnt know what people would think of Amerika the Brutal, an anti-war song he wrote after his cousin deployed to Iraq in 2003.

He heard a number of complaints but also received supportive e-mails from American troops in the war zone. Heavy Metal Becoming Increasingly Political

As genre nears 30, social commentary weaves its way
among power chords


SAN FRANCISCO (MSNBC) - Heavy metal singer Chris
Barnes didnt know what people would think of Amerika
the Brutal, an anti-war song he wrote after his cousin
deployed to Iraq in 2003.

He heard a number of complaints but also received
supportive e-mails from American troops in the war
zone.

It kind of sent a shiver up my spine because those are
the guys I didnt want to offend by sounding anti-war,
said Barnes, vocalist for the death metal band Six
Feet Under.

Other metal bands are finding similar inspiration.

Lamb of Gods albums criticize American foreign policy.
Cattle Decapitation are ardent vegetarians who use
explicit album covers and songs like Veal and the Cult
of Torture to condemn the meat industry. Serj Tankian
of System of a Down is co-founder of a nonprofit
organization that works on social issues.

More than three decades after Black Sabbath conjured
images of the dark arts, heavy metal is growing up.
The genre is increasingly incorporating social and
political messages into its dense power chords.

Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryan said his San
Diego bands mix of charging guitars and an animal
rights message is drawing a diverse crowd that
includes activists as well as traditional metal fans.

Weve always had a lot of crazy crossover going on, he
said before a recent show. Its a pretty diverse crowd
we have. Ive never known what to make of it.

Twenty artists recently displayed art inspired by the
bands last album Humanure, in an online exhibit.
Proceeds from sales of the art will be donated to
animal rights causes.

Metal bands are also branching out into literature and
mythology. Mastodon, which is headlining a summer tour
with metal stalwart Slayer, patterned the concept
album Leviathan around the story of Moby Dick. Death
metal band Nile bases its songs and image around
Egyptian mythology and iconography.

Metal is expanding and evolving and becoming more
diverse, said Canadian anthropologist and filmmaker
Sam Dunn, who directed Metal: A Headbangers Journey,
released on DVD this summer. Its at a much more
vibrant state than it was even five or 10 years ago.

Dunn is working on a sequel to the film with the
working title Global Metal which will trace the
popularity of metal overseas, especially in developing
countries like Brazil, Columbia and Indonesia.

Its becoming global and its becoming a tool for social
and political commentary, Dunn said. It takes on a
greater meaning in countries where people have had to
struggle to survive. It takes on a much stronger
political tone.

Metal artists have responded to the culture and
politics of the day, said Donna Gaines, a sociologist
and author of Teenage Wasteland, a study of working
class New Jersey metalheads.

Metal music in the 1980s was often homophobic and very
white, she said, but current bands tend to be socially
conscious and suspicious of political power. Theres
also more women in the audience and fronting the
bands.

This is another generation rising, Gaines said.

Heavy metal has always touched on social and political
issues. Metal grandfathers Black Sabbath criticized
the Vietnam War in songs like War Pigs and Children of
the Grave. Iron Maidens Run to the Hills was an angry
denunciation of the displacement of Native Americans.

But much of the criticism was blunted by dark imagery
that panicked parents and led to the now ubiquitous
Parental Advisory labels. Metals punk brethren were
seen as having a more learned world view.

That began to change when hardcore punk and metal
fused in the late 1980s with bands like Dirty Rotten
Imbeciles and Nuclear Assault. But metal was still
primarily known for the excessive lifestyles and racy
videos of glam bands.

The popular view of metalheads as mentally deficient
goons was memorialized with the MTV cartoon Beavis and
Butthead, about two teen metalheads who terrorize
their pudgy neighbor Stewart, who wears a T-shirt of
the glam rock band Winger.

More meaningful music was coming from the underground
as popular culture embraced grunge and metal lost
favor.

Napalm Death was a product of Britains Crass movement,
which fused anarchism and punk in the late 1980s.
Vocalist Mark Barney Greenway, a vegetarian and peace
advocate, is often pulled aside by fans who want to
know more about his progressive views.

One recent song, The Code is Red, Long Live the Code,
takes aim at the spate of terror alerts in America
with lyrics like: Switched on to subdue when the
masses switch off.

Its really, really difficult sometimes to break
through the cloud of apathy, so its great when someone
comes and asks why you are coming from your
perspective, Greenway said during a recent tour stop
in California.

When you come into a country like America, when you
challenge thinking, its a great affront to some
people, he said.

The lyrics on Lamb of Gods two most recent albums have
been expressly political, and the politics lean
heavily to the left.

Napalm Deaths Greenway is considering work as a
political activist when his metal days are over, but
he doesnt think metal will ever completely stray from
hedonistic and supernatural themes.

I appreciate that not everything has to be awareness
raising or political, he said. Music is also a form of
entertainment and it should remain that way. Variety
is the spice of life. Escapism is a good thing if it
doesnt cloud your vision.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14288309/