Heavy: How Metal Changes the Way We See the World

by Dan Franklin

What exactly is heavy metal music? How deep do its roots go?

Long established as an undeniable force in culture, metal traces its roots back to leather-clad iron men like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, who imbued their music with a mysterious and raw undercurrent of power.

Heavy unearths this elusive force, delving deep into the fertile culture that allowed a distinctive new sound to flourish and flaying the source material to get to the beating heart of the music. From the imminent threat of nuclear apocalypse that gave rise to Metallica's brand of volatile thrash metal to Bloodbath and Carcass, the death metal bands resurrecting the horror of medieval art.

But there are always more lines to be drawn. Cradle of Filth and Ulver trade in the transgressive impulses of gothic literature; Pantera lay bare Nietzsche's 'superman'; getting high leads to the escapist sci-fi dirges of Sleep and Electric Wizard; while the recovery of long-buried urns in the seventeenth century holds the key to the drone of Sunn O))).

Dissecting music that resonates with millions, Heavy sees Slipknot wrestling with the trauma of 9/11, Alice in Chains exposing the wounds of Vietnam and Iron Maiden conjuring visions of a heroic England. Powerful, evocative and sometimes sinister, it gives shape and meaning to the terrible beauty of metal.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2020

Reviews

[Logan Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are plenty of journalistic accounts of music culture out there that service the fans, advertise an artist, or work as a memoir of the significance of music to their personal life. What’s special about Heavy is that it blends the personal with the objective history and cultural responsibility metal has as a genre on the music industry and as a work of expression.
Dan Franklin doesn’t hold back on the journey inward and outward on reviewing not so much the history of Heavy Metal, but the impacts history made upon those who make it and those who listen. It is about the unending call for the heaviness we search for inside of the music. It is about Metal as a tool for escape (Sleep), a method of examining and shaping perspective about the policies we live under (Primitive Man), or a political stance against fascism (Venom Prison). It is about Metal as a site of negative attraction and hate (Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Mayhem) and if that is of sound mind. It is about Metal as a way to survive (Slipknot), a way to party away the pain (Queens of the Stone Age), a means to enlighten oneself (Tool). It is about all we find of substance in these artists. It is about Franklin not removing himself from the equation, making the book – his journey - personal, as any of these bands are to us. So many more are touched upon: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and so many others. The scope of this book is incredible considering how fast of a read it is.
I found myself validated in my own journey as a heavy metal fan, assuaged for the times it had profoundly influenced my life – sometimes in tandem with trauma and other times not - seen for the hours I’ve spent obsessing over my copies of these albums and the stories I’ve built alongside them (the story of Franklin prying open the CD player of his totaled car to get his Type O Negative album out of the disc player comes to mind).
The book searches for the answers to why we keep resonating, finding, losing, and repeating ourselves inside of this music that has the power to stimulate abstracted bliss, focused fury, or jubilance. I came to it excited for a history lesson and walked away deeply moved, changed, knowing as I do every time I’m at a metal concert that I am not the only one who is constantly searching for something inside the music. The only other experience I have close to it was going to the Guillermo Del Toro exhibit “At Home with Monsters” – finding myself feeling more understood for my weird obsessions.
If you’ve ever found yourself putting on that particular album for the three-hundredth time just to hear that one riff or lyric that’s been eating your head all day to finding yourself in the inner mosh pit of bliss and pain as the entire thing plays, this book is a must for you. It’s all killer, no filler.
Metal heads are a complicated, contradictory and unified, bunch. If you’ve ever been confused on this as I have, read on. You’ll have a vocabulary afterward you didn’t before.

[Rob Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sad to say that I was quite disappointed by this book. Any kind of new release that deals with metal usually piques my interest and this was no different, but I wasn't really enamoured with it by its conclusion.

The essential premise of the book deals with different interpretations of 'heaviness' and how a variety of metal bands manifest this. This isn't a book that chronologically leads us through the history of metal, it instead has (what I would characterise as) mini essays relating to different bands (that aren't really linked); some giving brief summaries about their inspiration and others a little more long winded and at times meandering. Certain chapters and passages I found a little laborious, especially the one dealing with Tool. I'm no great fan of the band, nor am I someone who dislikes them, but I'd rather not read page after page of someone describing their songs to me.

I think at times this book fails to have a voice, instead falling into traps of describing songs, or bands and their history to you (as is often the music critic's wont). Talk of 'heaviness' veers in and out and the conclusion is so fleeting (lasting basically a page, before talking about Inter Arma - who are awesome), it makes you wonder why the author bothered to write about the topic at all. Perhaps there isn't much to conclude about 'heaviness' and i'm being a little harsh, but it would have been nice if this was brought together in greater depth at the end. If you can't be bothered to do that then why write a book about it!

I would add that whilst there were a number of passages I was a little bored by the author does shine a light on some awesome bands, such as the aforementioned Inter Arma, Primitive Man and Thou, as well as a variety of other more contemporary artists, so it's great to hear them being revered as they should be.

I'd probably give the book 2.5 stars, rounded down to a 2 rather than up to a 3 because of the miserly summary. Sorry!

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth analysis of all things heavy. The not-quite-chronological order of the topics makes it engaging and highlights how "heaviness" is more relevant to every day life than one might think - "Heavy" also makes me examine just why I like heavy music. There are some familiar names (Slayer, Sabbath, Pantera, Iron Maiden ... the "godfathers", and Limp Bizkit as the marmite of metal), but also some new bands for me to discover, and the book weaves them all together so heavy music feels almost like a rich tapestry.

[Carnivorous Mower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this book are a bit wanky and try to over-intellectualise metal. However, when this dude gets down to it, it's obvious he's a fan as deeply immersed in metal culture and music as I am, and not just some tourist trying to make a quick buck from it.

Some chapters are better than others. The chapter on Pantera and Phil Anselmo's racism hit home because I'd seen it in action when Pantera played in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2001. It's the same city which suffered the mosque massacre which saw Anselmo's shows cancelled.

Good decision, because the atmosphere was incredibly volatile after the shooting. I work about 2 km from where the worst of it happened, and spent several hours locked down not knowing what was happening. It happened on a Friday. Slayer and Anthrax were supposed to play in the city on the Sunday, a lifetime's dream come true for me. It was rightly cancelled. Slayer retired soon after. That fact is absolutely trivial and meaningless when compared to the act of terrorism and the terrible loss of life.

Unfortunately it empowered white supremacists and other scum of the earth. A workmate who lived in a rough part of town reported parties in the area celebrating the massacre. And they were blasting out Pantera while they partied.

The chapter Under The Surface dealing with doom and drone metal is particularly good. I discovered a good few interesting bands from that chapter, even though it's not usually a genre I go for. I wasn't keen on the chapters about grunge and black metal, but I'm not keen on either genre in the first place.

And one last thing I really related to - trying to recover a CD from a crashed car. I hit an old man who failed to stop at a stop sign and totaled my car. My partner and I walked away a bit shaken, but OK after a night in hospital. I tried to no avail to get a CD out of the car stereo, but it wasn't going to come. No, it wasn't Type O Negative, but Wednesday 13, but I can relate to the story.

[Phil Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable journey through aspects of the heavy metal scene and how the music can provide relevance to the listener.

Rather than a chronological history, starting with Blue Cheer, Sabbath etc the writer’s approach of following his personal taste, in a non-linear fashion, sustains interest in where the book will go. Covering a wide range of artists from Tool to Iron Maiden and then newer bands such as Conjurer and Venom Prison should find something to resonate with most heavy metal fans. As well as resonating, I also found the book to be inspiring - listening again to music with different viewpoint.

Linking artists insights behind the creation of their music, especially from the writer’s own interviews and discussions with them, builds a the premise that metal does change the way we see the world. A world where controversy, injustice and ignorance exists and Dan Franklin explores this in some detail within the heavy metal scene. Exploring the music, lyrics and behaviour within heavy metal as a tool reflect on one’s own place in the world and how we see it provides for an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

[Adam Steiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great achievement of Heavy is the way Franklin makes metal accessible and interesting, even for people who aren’t fans. He opens up a discussion into the nature of heaviness itself; its powerful ideological themes and physical forces. Franklin reaches well beyond the confines of metal to show us its cultural impact and how wider culture has influenced metal. The book reminds us that music is so entwined into our existence that it feeds upon matters of life and death—and metal is perhaps the most extreme form of this.

Franklin is quick to acknowledge metal in its most common form of bombastic intensity, that sometimes verges on parody, wrestling with the limitations of its pathos and always threatening to enter the sublime ridiculous. But in recognising and acknowledging its own sense of history and internal influence, metal is revealed to have a rich culture in its own right. Heavy dissects metal as a more various and nuanced range of bands than many of us who are not hardcore fans might expect.

READ my full review on the HEADSTUFF website

[Chris Majoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een boek voor de metal-liefhebber. Maar ook voor de kenner. Het eerste ben ik wel, het tweede niet. Hierdoor was het boek soms wat te diepgaand. De beschrijving van een nummer is weinig zeggend als je het nummer zelf niet kent. En wat de metal teksten betreft, ik kan ze meestal toch niet verstaan. Maar als vaste Graspop klant, voel ik me toch wel wat verbonden met het genre. Het boek laat wel zien dat er achter metal heel wat meer steekt dan wat "lawaai en balorigheid". Het zijn uitingen van een samenleving die het niet altijd even gemakkelijk heeft met zichzelf. Het boek maakt de brug met andere fenomenen : van Aldous Huxley tot Nietsche tot zelfs Pieter Breughel. Veel aandacht ook voor de hoesontwerpen. Hoewel het hier ook weer lastig is wanneer er geen foto bij staat. Dus zeker een aanrader voor de diepgewortelde metalkenner, wat de auteur overtduidelijk is, maar niet meteen voor iemand die het genre niet kent en er eens wat meer over wil weten.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been saying to whoever wants to hear it since the turn of the millennium that "heavy" is not just a sonic quality and that metal is more than just music. That's it's a way of understanding the world. I am glad to report that I'm not the only weirdo who thinks about metal this much.

While this isn't a major paradigm shift, Heavy traces the parallels between metal and other arts forms/social undercurrents that shaped and colored its evolution. It blends memoir and criticism the same way Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City did. Franklin argues that heavy music offers not just escapism, but a powerful way to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the world at large. It’s also about community: how fringe scenes become sanctuaries for outsiders.

Ultimately, the emotional, cultural, and existential burdens we carry, and how extreme music can help us bear them. I'm 100% for this idea, so I'm 100% behind this book.

[MacDara Conroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things I hold to be true: Dan Franklin is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and insightful writer. And the dissertation format is not the best application of his talents. For me and other listeners who’ve explored heavy music’s hidden and not-so-hidden depths, Heavy: How Metal Changes the Way We See the World is preaching to the converted. To anyone else who needs convincing, however, the academic structure mutes the author’s passion, while the scholarly mode verges on desperation (“Pleeeeease respect my genre?”).

[Neil Barrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving it 5 as it starts and ends so intensely and powerfully. A passionate thesis on heaviness as a way of navigating life and getting the most from our short time on the planet. Dan is a ultimately fan of the best kind and the way he writes about the metal artists, he goes deep, he finds the humour he finds the darkness and the lessons. The epilogue on Type O negative is so great on how to simultaneously take life f&$king seriously and be constantly aware of its ridiculousness.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a collection of stories and ideas than a comprehensive history this was still quite enjoyable. The chapters vary thematically so there are definitely some you will enjoy more than others. The ending felt a little disjointed as the rest of the book was very (over?) serious in tone. And most importantly, please get your Tool lyrics correct.

Grumbles aside, I still really enjoyed this and recommend it if you have even a slight interest in the genre.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting bits but a lot of it reads like a thesis. There's no real connection between the chapters and the choice of bands (bar the first chapter bands, which are self-explanatory.) Disappointing.

[Colin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book about heavy metal ever written. The author wants to share his knowledge of books and budding thoughts about heavy metal in an over indulgent, poorly written, rambling mess. How did this get published?

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author lost all integrity when he wrote passages detailing phil anselmos very open racism and then says he's his favourite front man anyway

Spineless

Best thing about this book was that it reminded me to listen to SOAD

[Vilhelm Vilhelmsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is insightful and nicely reflects the author’s passion for heavy music (which I share with him) but it would have been improved if the author would have refrained from the ‘music journalism’ writing style and adopted instead a more scholarly and critical approach.

[Julien L · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was fun. a cultural analysis of different styles of metal music, and what metal means holistically and the psychological relationship the listener has to it. Rekindled my love of the music I grew up with. Being a metalhead is a lifer's job, even when you like other forms of music

[K. Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat disjointed, more like a series of essays. There is some effort to tie it all together, though. And it's very readable and thoughtfully written.

[Alejo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more like a journal than something insightful, although it claims it does, you never get the promise to see how Heavy Metal changed the world or its influence. It's fun at times.

[Rogier · Rating 2 out of 5]

One star for the effort, one star for the info about some of the bands. The writer just connects anything that (he thinks) fits his narrative (but what is the narrative exactly?).

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Missing what I would call 'influential' or 'seminal' groups.

[Seyhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe in Demons as much as I believe in Angels. I find both in this music. It contains the lexicon of all humanly emotions: good, bad, ugly, nice, bitter, agony, grief, anger, pain, love, sorrow, war, peace,...

I believe it is the only music which tests limits while being limitless. It is selfreckoning, irreverent to expected, revolutionary, exhausting, raw, honest. The intentional heavy volume is a consolation for life. As E.Shafak says; “Heavy metal is alive because it hits us where it hurts the most. Because it is heavy and noisy and full of contradictions, like life itself.”

3 stars because it only highlights renowned American and British Bands. I was hoping to read at least a few pages of great European bands like “ Rammstein” or the very successful small bands which did not received such deserved praise.