A cry in the dark: The howls of wolves in horror and heavy metal music

Weird Fiction is often understood as an unclassifiable fusion of horror, science fiction (SF) and fantasy, and therefore a kind of generically hybridized writing. Here I discuss various parallels between Weird Fiction and music marketed and recognized as ‘extreme metal’, an umbrella term for bands playing in the core styles of black, death and doom metal, and their various offshoots like grindcore and sludge. Analysis of all Weird Metal is beyond the scope of this article, so I focus on artists who achieve Weirdness through the presence and interrelationship of hybridity, numinosity (an overwhelming feeling of majesty) and alterity (radical difference), especially: Wolves in the Throne Room, Howls of Ebb, Portal, A Forest of Stars, Voices and (The Unsearchable Riches of) Void. I also consider how metal relates to the ‘New Weird’, radical developments in traditions of the form, concluding with thoughts on the wider theorization of The Weird.

‘[…] tentacular invisible mother divine!’: (The) Weird (in) Metal as convergence of sonic extremities and literary margins

Norman

2019

From The Wicker Man (1973) to Atlantean Kodex: Extreme music, alternative identities and the invention of paganism

Spracklen

2020

The German epic heavy/doom metal band Atlantean Kodex has written two concept albums based on the folklore and paganism of old Europe and the West: The Golden Bough and The White Goddess. The two albums owe their titles to two books that have influenced the rise of modern paganism, though they remain deeply problematical. In this article, I explore possibly the most important influence on Atlantean Kodex, which is also one of the most important influences on modern paganism: the 1973 horror film The Wicker Man. I discuss the ways in which the film uses the speculative folklore of Frazer and Graves to construct a set of invented traditions about paganism and its alternative, counter-Christian nature, which have made paganism appealing to extreme metal musicians and fans. In this discussion, I use examples from other metal bands and fans who have name-checked the themes and the traditions of the film. In discussing the folklore of the Wicker Man, I also explore the folk music used in the soundtrack, which has also contributed to the invention of modern paganism and extreme folk music. I conclude by suggesting that, although many pagans have adopted this extreme music and myth into their world-views, the myth of the Wicker Man is also used as a playful rejection of Christianity and its authority by those of a secular or humanist persuasion.

Cultural trauma in the lyrics of the Estonian folk metal band Metsatöll

Valijärvi

2022

This article explores the lyrics of the Estonian folk metal band Metsatöll in relation to collective national and cultural trauma focusing on the following themes: the fight against foreign invaders and overlords, land, nature, wolves, kin and family, as well as ancient beliefs. Cultural trauma can be defined as the collective experience of horrendous and traumatic events that leave marks on a group’s consciousness. This article suggests that Metsatöll’s lyrics are a means of processing cultural trauma that has been caused by years of occupation and oppression, the end of singing nationalism of the 1980s and changing values brought on by the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent globalization, capitalism and materialism. This trauma is processed through neo-pagan lyrics and the aesthetics of folk metal. Inspiration for the lyrics can be found in maausk (‘earth faith’), mediaeval chronicles, the national narrative of the great battle, Estonian mythology and folk poetry. Christianity and foreign influences are rejected by resorting to authentically Estonian ancient practices. The lyrics are true to the genre of folk metal in general, and metal music is seen in this study as a fitting vehicle for processing cultural trauma. The study also contains a brief analysis of white masculinity in crisis, as well as a critical discussion on ethno-centric nationalism in a postcolonial context.