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Death Metal and Music Criticism: Analysis at the Limits
Death metal is one of popular music's most extreme variants, and is typically viewed as almost monolithically nihilistic, misogynistic, and reactionary. Michelle Phillipov's Death Metal and Music Criticism: Analysis at the Limits offers an account of listening pleasure on its own terms. Through an analysis of death metal's sonic and lyrical extremity, Phillipov shows how violence and aggression can be configured as sites for pleasure and play in death metal music, with little relation to the "real" lives of listeners. In some cases, gruesome lyrical themes and fractured song forms invite listeners to imagine new experiences of the body and of the self. In others, the speed and complexity of the music foster a "technical" or distanced appreciation akin to the viewing experiences of graphic horror film fans. These aspects of death metal listening are often neglected by scholarly accounts concerned with evaluating music as either 'progressive' or "reactionary."
By contextualizing the discussion of death metal via substantial overviews of popular music studies as a field, Phillipov's Death Metal and Music Criticism highlights how the premium placed on political engagement in popular music studies not only circumscribes our understanding of the complexity and specificity of death metal, but of other musical styles as well. Exploring death metal at the limits of conventional music criticism helps not only to develop a more nuanced account of death metal listening—it also offers some important starting points for rethinking popular music scholarship as a whole.
By contextualizing the discussion of death metal via substantial overviews of popular music studies as a field, Phillipov's Death Metal and Music Criticism highlights how the premium placed on political engagement in popular music studies not only circumscribes our understanding of the complexity and specificity of death metal, but of other musical styles as well. Exploring death metal at the limits of conventional music criticism helps not only to develop a more nuanced account of death metal listening—it also offers some important starting points for rethinking popular music scholarship as a whole.
- GenresMusic
172 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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December 22, 2023
Earlier this year I thought that I might like to see what music scholars were saying about the musicalities of some forms of extreme metal. Interestingly, while there is a ton of stuff on Black Metal, focusing mainly in the Norwegian scene from the 90s, there's not a whole lot about other genres. I found this book about Death Metal (DM) that piqued my interest, however, in part because it deigned to explore the musical qualities of the genre, rather than merely analyze lyrics and condemn them as bad. Indeed, it was all that and more.
Phillipov had two theses for this book:
1. Cultural and Critical Theorists who attempt to analyze DM through a progressive political lens find themselves disappointed in the endeavour, not because the music can't be interpreted politically, but because the music is, itself, apolitical. And while being apolitical is, for some, a political stance, it is a mistake to think that DM, as a genre, intends, in any meaningful way, to make political statements.
2. To the uninitiated, DM sounds terrible. For the discerning listener, however, DM is musically challenging, compositionally complex, and, shockingly, sonically pleasurable. That is, while DM sounds like noise to those 'on the outs,' those 'on the inside' know how to look for and find pleasure in their listening experience.
In the first half of the book, she compares death metal scholarship with analysis of the punk and the electronic dance music scenes, both of which have been interpreted positively through progressive political lens. She points out that theorists disappointed with the seeming lack of political motivations are missing the forest through the trees: just because DM listeners do not identify with an emancipatory political movement does not mean that there is no value in the music and its culture.
In the second half, she analyzes the music and lyrics of two of DM's classic bands, Carcass and Cannibal Corpse to show how those on the inside of the scene find pleasure in the sonic experience of listening to what is essentially loosely-organized chaos. Phillipov is clear that it takes some initiation and willingness to be uncomfortable before a new listener can fully appreciate the musicality of the frenetic songs, which is part of what has insulated DM from broader cultural criticism. Those who come to enjoy the sonic experience are folks who have stuck it out, who first heard the music as a jumble of noise, before slowly acclimatizing themselves, learning for themselves where the beauty of technicality is found.
Two quotes from the conclusion:
"The listening pleasures of death metal are multiple and complex, and are not well accounted for by an approach which sees pleasure as a diversion from music’s “real work” of political engagement. In assuming that clear lines can be drawn between the “politically good” and “politically bad” text, popular music studies has tended to subordinate pleasure to political concerns in ways that evaluate, rather than explain, the meaning and significance of popular music forms. The political implications of music are obviously important, but what else music might be about is equally important. A productive way forward, then, may be one that acknowledges and explores the specificities of musical genres and their listening pleasures, rather than one that evaluates musical genres according to “how political” they are. Such an approach would assist in developing more complete understandings not just of heavy and extreme metal, but of other genres conventionally understood as politically progressive."
"The persistently negative characterization of heavy and extreme metal has been one result of this trend in popular music studies. Yet the conventions of death metal—its displacement of the singing voice as an identificatory locus of listening, its disruption of conventional melodic expectations, its adoption of “non-narrative” song structures, its transgressive lyrics, and its reflexive anti-reflexivity—effect a reorientation of listening that means that its politics cannot readily be predicted in advance or simply “read off” musical and cultural practices. Death metal may provide access to a musical becoming in which images and sounds of corporeal dissolution are offered as sites of pleasure and play, or to modes of listening in which the “technicalities” of music composition are the central focus. In each case, the genre’s evasion of politics need not be seen as a deficiency of the music or of the scene, but as a means of accessing alternative forms of listening pleasure. Thinking with the pleasures of death metal, then, may require the suspension of prior judgments and pre-given evaluative agendas."
Phillipov had two theses for this book:
1. Cultural and Critical Theorists who attempt to analyze DM through a progressive political lens find themselves disappointed in the endeavour, not because the music can't be interpreted politically, but because the music is, itself, apolitical. And while being apolitical is, for some, a political stance, it is a mistake to think that DM, as a genre, intends, in any meaningful way, to make political statements.
2. To the uninitiated, DM sounds terrible. For the discerning listener, however, DM is musically challenging, compositionally complex, and, shockingly, sonically pleasurable. That is, while DM sounds like noise to those 'on the outs,' those 'on the inside' know how to look for and find pleasure in their listening experience.
In the first half of the book, she compares death metal scholarship with analysis of the punk and the electronic dance music scenes, both of which have been interpreted positively through progressive political lens. She points out that theorists disappointed with the seeming lack of political motivations are missing the forest through the trees: just because DM listeners do not identify with an emancipatory political movement does not mean that there is no value in the music and its culture.
In the second half, she analyzes the music and lyrics of two of DM's classic bands, Carcass and Cannibal Corpse to show how those on the inside of the scene find pleasure in the sonic experience of listening to what is essentially loosely-organized chaos. Phillipov is clear that it takes some initiation and willingness to be uncomfortable before a new listener can fully appreciate the musicality of the frenetic songs, which is part of what has insulated DM from broader cultural criticism. Those who come to enjoy the sonic experience are folks who have stuck it out, who first heard the music as a jumble of noise, before slowly acclimatizing themselves, learning for themselves where the beauty of technicality is found.
Two quotes from the conclusion:
"The listening pleasures of death metal are multiple and complex, and are not well accounted for by an approach which sees pleasure as a diversion from music’s “real work” of political engagement. In assuming that clear lines can be drawn between the “politically good” and “politically bad” text, popular music studies has tended to subordinate pleasure to political concerns in ways that evaluate, rather than explain, the meaning and significance of popular music forms. The political implications of music are obviously important, but what else music might be about is equally important. A productive way forward, then, may be one that acknowledges and explores the specificities of musical genres and their listening pleasures, rather than one that evaluates musical genres according to “how political” they are. Such an approach would assist in developing more complete understandings not just of heavy and extreme metal, but of other genres conventionally understood as politically progressive."
"The persistently negative characterization of heavy and extreme metal has been one result of this trend in popular music studies. Yet the conventions of death metal—its displacement of the singing voice as an identificatory locus of listening, its disruption of conventional melodic expectations, its adoption of “non-narrative” song structures, its transgressive lyrics, and its reflexive anti-reflexivity—effect a reorientation of listening that means that its politics cannot readily be predicted in advance or simply “read off” musical and cultural practices. Death metal may provide access to a musical becoming in which images and sounds of corporeal dissolution are offered as sites of pleasure and play, or to modes of listening in which the “technicalities” of music composition are the central focus. In each case, the genre’s evasion of politics need not be seen as a deficiency of the music or of the scene, but as a means of accessing alternative forms of listening pleasure. Thinking with the pleasures of death metal, then, may require the suspension of prior judgments and pre-given evaluative agendas."
November 1, 2018
The most complete book on the subject from an academic viewpoint.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews