METAL’S BARK IS FAR WORSE THAN ITS BITE
By Thomas H Green,
Daily Telegraph music writer/UK
21/03/2007
Heavy metal ‘a comfort for the bright child’
It must be worrying to parents of teenage rockers that the National
Academy For Gifted and Talented Youth has pinpointed heavy metal
as a favoured music of 11-19 year olds with lower self-esteem than
their peers.
This conclusion – that indie, pop and classical fans have a healthier
self image and are better at forming relationships – implies that
metal is a socially divisive force.
advertisementAny old metal-head will tell you such a perspective is
preposterously misleading. Heavy metal has long been a harmless form
of escapism.
Occasionally it hits the headlines, such as when the 1999 Columbine
High School shootings were blamed on the music of Marilyn Manson and
German industrial metallers Rammstein, but these cases almost always
prove to be tabloid scare-mongering.
Ever since the genre was brought into existence in the late ’60s by
the likes of Deep Purple, metal’s main emphasis has been on technical
guitar skill, male bonding and theatrical shows. Little has changed.
Black metallers Cradle of Filth may look and sound a great deal more
unpleasant than Alice Cooper but, in the end, both deal in the same
cabaret Hammer Horror schtick.
Metal in all its forms, and there are many – doom, sludge, death,
goregrind, industrial, prog, stoner, etc, etc – is an easily
embraceable form of outsiderdom that appeals to the introvert.
>>From the days when denim and leather (also the name of a Saxon
album) was the uniform, to the mascara/fringe combo popular with
many contemporary fans, metal is a badge of teen individuality that
requires no deep philosophical commitment.
It has much in common with the escapism of fantasy literature, albeit
couched in a more aggressive context.
Lyrics often have high-fallutin’ literary pretensions, closer to JRR
Tolkien than punk’s righteous fury.
Indeed, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, singer of such opuses as Rime
Of The Ancient Mariner and Flight Of Icarus, is a virtuoso fencer
and published novelist.
When 17 of the National Academy’s gifted metal-heads had an online
chat about their tastes it became clear that the music was a way of
venting the stress of their driven intelligence.
The youngsters said they could connect with metal’s "politics".
While it’s true that a few groups, such as Armenian-American rockers
System Of A Down, approach their political beliefs very seriously,
most metal fans simply require the odd burst of anger replete with
very loud guitars.
Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name is a song about racism
from a passionately political group, but hearing a crowd of metal-heads
chant along to the chorus, "F**k you, I won’t do what you tell me,"
it sounds more like a protest at being asked to clear up an untidy
bedroom.
Metal doesn’t even have the drugs that the ostensibly more upbeat
and sociable dance culture does. Ecstasy and techno go hand in hand
but most metal fans simply enjoy a few beers.
In essence, heavy metal is a lot of sweaty fun, a sixth form common
room favourite for over thirty years.
Parents of junior metallers should happily regard it as a phase. Which
isn’t to say that there won’t always be a place in their progeny’s
adult life for the 21st century equivalent of ACDC’s Highway To Hell.
Many of us can vouch for the fact that wanting to head-bang along to
Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades every now and then does not preclude having
a thriving adult life.
Heavy metal’s bark is far worse than its bite. In reality it’s about
as dangerous as a night out at the circus.