Eastern Desekratorz and Nuclear Metal Lust:1 Performing ‘Authentic’ black metal in Malaysian Borneo

Abstract

Among the globalized metal scenes of South East Asia, Malaysian Borneo’s black metal (BM) demonstrates a great deal of referencing to the satanic themes and sonic rawness of the first wave of western BM bands such as Venom and Bathory. However, the ways in which Malaysian Borneo black metallers perform what they perceive to be ‘authentic’ BM identity clash with the reality of their everyday lives. In fact, their social backgrounds seem incompatible with the features of BM authenticity they strive to perform. What remains unclear is how and why Malaysian Borneo BM fans and musicians manifested their authentic belonging to this subculture by adopting the genre’s dominant anti-Christian imagery, when in most instances Christianity is not their religion of choice. Qualitative data were collected by ten weeks of ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with eight members of Malaysian Borneo’s BM scene in the states of Sarawak and Sabah. Findings were supported by content analysis of local BM recordings, lyrics and interviews published in independently produced metal fanzines. BM ‘authenticity’ in Malaysian Borneo emerged as a theatrical pursuit of the most shocking global examples of primeval BM, which allows for a troubled, precarious coexistence between perceived ‘authentic’ BM aspirations and everyday social life in the respondents’ lives.

Throat singing as extreme Other: An exploration of Mongolian and Central Asian style in extreme metal

“…As heavy metal becomes more global in its production and reception, metal fans in the West have searched for bands from around the world, and for new sounds (Wallach, Berger and Greene 2011). In turn, metal bands outside the West have adopted the norms and values of heavy metal, or constructed their own local hybrid sounds (Ferrarese 2014(Ferrarese , 2015. This paper explores how throat-singing has been used in extreme metal as a form of authentic folk or roots music, and how it has been understood by metal fans in the West as a hybrid 'extreme world metal'.…”