Metal Analysis
The Monstrous Religion of the Divided Subject
This month at The Portal we focus on the concept of Holy Spirit, see here: The Portal.
In my discussion with theorist David Burke we focus on the idea of psychoanalysing the genre of Metal music, which is the subject of his current dissertation work. Burke relies on Lacanian theory through the lens of McGowan’s psychoanalytic philosophy to think about the way it applies to heavy metal music and culture, with specific focus on absence, darkness, and magic.
David Burke is a doctoral student at Bath Spa University focused on heavy metal studies, as well as a metal musician for a band called the Absent Signifiers. His work focuses on negative universality, the politics of enjoyment as well as the aesthetics of the bad.
Throughout the video we discuss:
How does metal respond to or deal with the reality of capitalism as a negative universality; using Lacan to think constitutive absence and darkness
History of interpretations of metal music have moved from derogatory to more sympathetic, sensing metal music’s density, profundity, and seriousness
Metal music is not reduced to its relations of transgression vis-a-vis normative culture, but pointing towards the necessity of enjoyment for its own sake
Metal music in this sense can also be interpreted as a form of religion that persists without God, religious form after the Death of God
As a religious form pointing towards an abyssal enjoyment, metal music has no grounding rational basis, no given substance, but yearns for the chasm
Other forms of modern music are distinct from metal on this negative basis: hip hop, punk, electronic forms of music all have certain rational justifications
Metal music’s negative basis can be understood as the “global scream” (universal negativity), introducing the world to the nature of the divided subject
Metal has had a difficult time with sexual difference, often excluding women, or not-addressing women properly (at the same time: not objectifying women)
The focus on class is also less emphasised in metal (in contrast to punk or hip hop), but more focused on the negativity of problems of theology/religion
Monstrosity is a useful category to think about the way metal reflects and works with the reality of the death drive (subject is identical with the monstrous)
To find out more about David Burke’s work, see: