Heavy metal music – the thoughts of a layman who has a slight idea of what it is, are those of a place where people with overgrown hair, scanty beards, necklaces and bracelets, people swaying deeply to the action of the consumed cocaine or any other narcotic, men and women screaming and abusing at the top of their voices, drummers and guitarists producing perhaps the most violent and aggressive form of music ever. The layman is not to be blamed for getting these thoughts, as the sights mentioned are indeed very common to many metal music concerts and shows. But let us look at metal music, in general, ignoring the sub genres of this form of music and the exceptions, from someone’s point of view who has a fair level of understanding of this form of music – me!
Metal is actually a genre of rock music. Rock music is essentially about revolt and protest. It uses music as a communication medium for feelings of unrest, protest as opposed to the romanticism which is very common to other genres of music especially pop. Apart from this, metal or rock music also conveys one of the important driving forces of our life – philosophy. Sounds strange? But this is true. Most people who have no idea about what metal music is actually about tend to think that metal music is all about abusing and screaming under the influence of alcohol and drugs. But he who knows metal music completely i.e. both the music as well as the lyrics will understand that the philosophy and the feelings of revolt or unrest conveyed by this controversial form of music is very appealing and powerful.
Since metal music is very controversial I am certain that the ideas of revolt and protest have been received in a sense that I did not mean. Most music that the layman likes is about romance i.e. love between individuals. In place of this romanticism which I agree forms an important part of human life, metal music particularly deals with practical problems of life such as coping with failure, betrayal, loss of pride, loss of trust, worldly restrictions on human beings, etc. A considerable fraction of metal music protests out against human sufferings including the sufferings of betrayal, trust, failure, depression, unhappiness due to many reasons. When I say metal protests or revolts out, I mean it revolts out against these sufferings that hinder human happiness.
Let me now sideline the messages of metal music and particularly concentrate on the public image of metal music and musicians – one I have described in the opening of this article. It is a bitter truth that I must sadly adhere to that many metal musicians, those who produce the most powerful, meaningful and influential music are into drugs and heavy alcoholism. Another bitter truth I must adhere to is that many metal music fans are also into drugs and alcoholism. Thus it remains no mystery why people would behave without any sanity at metal concerts, including the musicians themselves. This is the main reason why the layman thinks of metal music as abnormal music and never even bothers to touch it or understand it or see it from a different view. This is where the layman misses out on the beautiful philosophical side of metal music.
Drugs and alcoholism associated with metal music is one of the reasons why this music form does not enjoy a positive public image. Other reasons do exist. One reason is that metal music is produced using guitars designed and tuned for producing heavy power chords and notes. This causes the guitars to produce heavy music, which many people initially cannot bear and find it too loud. Another thing that discourages people from listening to metal music is the lack of clarity of lyrics. One who is not used to listening to this form of music cannot make out amidst all the guitars and drums – the lyrics, the all-important thing when it comes to message conveying. However a metal fan who has been listening to metal music properly and thoroughly for quite some time finds it easy to do this formidable task! In other words, enjoying this form of music requires a considerable level of adaptation.
Coming back to the earlier sidelined messages that are conveyed by metal music, they are of a huge variety. The messages delivered by the metal music depend upon the composers also. There are metal musicians who focus on pointing out the menaces to our society like anti-social elements, terrorists, etc. (e.g. SoulFly, Sepultura, etc.) Some use or reenact a lot of historical events, mythological elements, biblical elements, etc. (e.g. Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath) Some musicians encourage, some merely take out their frustration on the ways of the world, some voice out the harsh realities of the world and so on. Though some bands are famous for a particular variety of songs most bands produce music which conveys almost all categories of messages. One style of metal music, another disgracing thorn to metal music, is Satanism.
Satanists are non-believers of God. They have their own explanations for not believing in God and tend to exploit science as a tool to explain their beliefs and way of life. Satanist musicians write lyrics that are extremely harsh, anti-Christian particularly and can make any religious man feel nauseated. Almost all anti-Christ groups are metallic in nature. So if the first song a new comer listens completely turns out to be that of an anti-Christ group he strongly opposes metal music itself. Wrong move! For all anti-Christ groups might be metallic but not all metallic groups are anti-Christ. In fact there are many number of metal groups which are pro-God or pro-Christ and autonomously anti-Satanists.
So this way metal music even today continues to be a controversial form of music with strong believers and strong oppositions. But there is one thing I can seriously say, metal music is intelligent music. For writing a rich metal song is not funny. More importantly understanding metal music requires a different wavelength of thought, a different approach to things, patience to understand, and patience to adopt. Thought other softer genres of music are trying to satisfy the philosophical or something different thirst of the interested few, metal music ultimately scores in effectiveness of language and platform of propagation. Even if one could take the first step of training the ears to metal music the second step of understanding high level lyrics is even tougher. You will find many people swaying to metal music but they will never be able to explain what the song is about.
There is one way of being a true and clean metal music fan – enjoying, understanding, not misunderstanding, adopting the good, leaving out the bad. Only then can metal music be made inspirational, positively influential and a reliever.