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Esoteric Symbolism in Doom Metal

David Burke (Student ID 26227622)

University of Southampton, Faculty of Humanities

Supervisor: Dr Chris Prior

A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the BA (History) Degree at the
University of Southampton, April 2016

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Plagiarism Declaration
I confirm that this assignment is my own work, is not copied from any other person's work
(published or unpublished), and has not previously submitted for assessment either at Southampton
University or elsewhere. I confirm that I have read and understood the Faculty and University
regulations on plagiarism.

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Contents
Page 2………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Plagiarism Declaration

Page 3………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....Contents

Page 4………………………………………………………………………………………………….Introduction: Doom Metal 101

Page 9……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...Chapter 1: Horror

Page 17…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Chapter 2: Occultism

Page 25…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Chapter 3: Psychedelia

Page 30…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Conclusion

Page 33…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Art Appendix

Page 51…………………………………………………………………………………………..…..List of musical works consulted

Page 53…………………………………………………………………………………………………………....Bibliography

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Introduction: Doom Metal 101

 
For many people heavy metal music is fast and aggressive by its very nature: The layman, upon being

asked to name some classic metal songs, might suggest Ace of Spades by Motörhead, Enter

Sandman by Metallica or Chop Suey! by System of a Down, all of which utilise fast, driving rhythms

and aggressive textures; the aim in much of this music being to both amaze the listener with the

precision and technical quality of the musicians, and to use the sheer speed and distortion to assault

the listener's senses. However, not all metal has these characteristics; the music under scrutiny in

this study possesses several traits one might not expect of heavy metal, yet is arguably the genre's

first iteration.  

Doom metal's history starts with Black Sabbath's first record in 1969, and has persisted to

this day through multiple musical reinventions. Although other subgenres of metal such as thrash,

death and black metal have emerged, altered the musical landscape and (at least in terms of

commercial success) eclipsed doom metal, Ian Christe claims in a moment of hyperbole that even

now ‘it barely recognizes any metal milestones beyond the first Black Sabbath album.’ 1 This

regressive attitude also extends into the music of doom metal, which is focused more on the

creation of feel, tone and texture than technically flawless composition. Doom metal also has much

in common with the blues, the genre that laid the basic framework for all of rock and metal, as

compared to other genres of metal; both rely heavily on pentatonic scales for melody and

emphasise musical feel. This not only has the effect of making doom feel more primal and less

'constructed' than other subgenres of metal, but also aids in separating doom from those subgenres;

Jonathan Piper notes in his philosophical analysis of the subgenre that its ‘slowness and effective

separation from other subgenres provides a likely explanation for doom metal’s relative absence

from the scholarly literature.’2

1
Ian Christe, Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, (London: Plexus, 2004) p.
345.
2
Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom metal, (San Diego: University of California, 2013) p. 33.

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Despite the important position held by the genre within the history of heavy metal, the

existing historiography has given doom metal surprisingly little attention. Both Deena Weinstein's

Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture and Robert Walser's Running with the Devil (both key early

works in the study of heavy metal) ignore it for the most part, focussing largely on the more

commercially successful and notorious elements of heavy metal culture. Weinstein analyses metal

from a sociological angle and argues that metal fans are drawn to the music for its cathartic

component, whilst Walser’s musicological analysis is mainly directed towards the works of ‘classic’

metal bands such as Van Halen, with his aim being to legitimise heavy metal as a valid musical form.

Doom metal attracts a relatively low level of social deviancy in comparison to other metal subgenres;

there have been no murders within the doom metal scene as there have in black metal, which

renders it of lesser interest to a sociologist such as Weinstein. The musical simplicity of the genre (in

terms of Western harmony and melody) made doom metal an unlikely candidate for Walser, but his

analysis of heavy metal as a cultural form is of great importance to this study.

  In recent years, writers such as Keith Kahn-Harris, Sarah Kitteringham and Benjamin

Hutcherson have begun to study doom metal in more detail, with the latter two writing as both

academics and musicians within the scene. The established consensus defines doom metal's sonic

template as ‘glacial paced antithesis to…technicality, precision and speed’, with ‘long, epic song

structures’.3 The notion of heaviness is discussed by Hutcherson and Piper, with the former noting

that doom ‘is a markedly different style of heavy’ from other metal subgenres, and the latter going

further, describing it as ‘a sensation of weight, typically a weight that overpowers and overwhelms.’ 4

The literal density and slowness of doom metal imbues it with a unique form of power and heaviness

that separates it from most other metal.

3
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses: The Treatment of Women in Black
Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, and Grindcore, (Calgary: University of Calgary, 2014) p. 70; Keith Kahn-
Harris, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2006) p. 4; Benjamin
Hutcherson, Feeling Heavy, Feeling Doomed: Narratives, Embodiment, and Authentic Cultural Engagement,
(Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado, 2014) p. 17.
4
Benjamin Hutcherson, Feeling Heavy, Feeling Doomed…, p. 17; Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness
in doom metal, (San Diego: University of California, 2013) p. 39.

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Piper also suggests ‘groove is a primary principle of doom metal, [and thus] it should not be

a surprise that structure is...at least less important than in other genres of popular music’, especially

compared to the dense, complex composition of death and thrash metal songs. 5 Piper explains that

groove is found in many genres of music that, like doom, downplay the use of ‘syntactic forms or

structures’: Indeed, many doom metal songs revolve around just a few melodies for their (often

extended) duration which, coupled with the ‘constantly moving stream of anticipation’ that

constitutes groove, evoke a trance-like sensation in the listener through repetition and tone. 6 Other

elements such as droning notes, feedback and effects such as delay also help to evoke this feeling. 

Kitteringham observes that the aesthetic of doom is ‘infused with religious, occult, and drug

abuse themes’, and Hutcherson also identifies the use of ‘non-Western religion and abstract art’ -

but absent from the academic discourse thus far is analysis of these themes, and their inter-relation

to the subgenre.7 There has also been limited exploration into doom's aesthetic as a whole, with

Piper being the sole academic to comment on the album artworks of doom metal bands; his

conclusion that the focus lies in ‘emptiness, loneliness and ambiguity’ is certainly true for the works

he identifies, but it is not a full descriptor for the genre. 8 Moreover, there has been little attempt to

historicise doom metal, to understand the way larger contexts have informed artists' use of music

and symbolism; Hutcherson, Kahn-Harris and Kitteringham are all concerned with the sociological

mechanics of extreme metal, with Kahn-Harris taking a more global approach (dissecting the

extreme metal scenes of several countries including the UK and Israel) and Kitteringham focussing

on gender attitudes within the Canadian doom scene. Meanwhile, Piper's study of doom critiques

the model of ‘metal as catharsis’ through the study of doom (which he contends allows an

exploration of negativity instead of expelling emotion through the music), and his choice of albums

5
Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom metal, p. 64.
6
Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom metal, pp. 55-64.
7
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions demand Extreme Responses…, p. 70; Benjamin Hutcherson, Feeling
Heavy, Feeling Doomed…, p. 17.
8
Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom metal, p. 108.

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reflect his intentions - he specifies epic doom such as Candlemass, death-doom band Ilsa and funeral

doom project Evoken, none of which will be making an appearance in this study.

  By contrast, this study will focus on the way in which (some, but not all) doom metal artists

incorporate three cultural ideas into their works; horror, the occult, and the psychedelic. Whilst

much of metal focuses on horror and monsters, particularly death metal, doom metal's use of more

esoteric material separates it from much of the larger metal genre, and connects it to an eclectic

range of cultural and musical influences. Doom metal's use of such paradigms has not been

examined thus far, but there is much to be learned from such study; these cultural trends are

integral to understanding the history of esotericism and countercultural practice. In this study I will

define each of those three cultural ideas, as well as further considering the cultural discourses that

compose doom metal, and defining which styles within the genre are of the most interest. I will then

analyse a range of music, album art and interviews with musicians, aiming to pinpoint how, and for

what purpose, each band incorporates those elements into their style. Further, I will investigate how

these musicians and their works form part of larger zeitgeists (particularly that of esotericism), and

will consider how these artists, in different times and places, have come to utilise similar symbols

and ideas. These commonalities between musicians, I will argue, shows doom metal to be a 'glocal'

musical phenomenon that has the ability to utilise a wide variety of cultural ideas and artifacts in

variegated situations.

As mentioned above, there is an element of selection at work within this study: I have

chosen specific bands and works because they are particularly prominent in their use of symbolism

and esoteric content. The subgenre of doom with the most interest for this study is stoner metal,

which is perhaps the most informed by esoteric influences whilst being amongst the least studied in

the academic world. This study is not intended to be representative of doom metal in its totality,

especially considering the range of different subgenres that exist (from the black and death metal

crossover genres to the avant-garde drone metal scene) and the nuances that separate them. As

well as commenting on stoner metal bands, I will be analysing works from the proto-doom subgenre

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(Black Sabbath and Pentagram, both of whom formed long before heavy metal had solidified into an

identifiable subculture), 'traditional' doom bands such as Trouble and Saint Vitus, and modern doom

outfits such as Ghost. These bands cover a range of contexts, geographically focusing on the UK and

the USA (although there will be mention of bands from other countries) and historically ranging from

the late 1960s to the present day; some doom musicians have engaged with the social issues of their

time, such as Black Sabbath, whilst others have chosen to focus on more fantastical subject matter

for the majority of their works, such as Cathedral.

The demographics of doom metal are more diverse than in much of extreme metal;

Kitteringham keenly notes that many notable doom bands such as Electric Wizard, Acid King and

Blood Ceremony have female members, a more common occurrence than in death or black metal,

although ethnographically doom has remained a largely white European subgenre. 9 Boris, a drone-

doom band from Japan, are perhaps the most famous exception, as they have played across America

and Europe multiple times, thus ‘breaking out’ of their original market. However there are also small

scenes around the world such as in Pakistan, supporting Dietmar Elflein's argument that ‘heavy

metal has evolved into a 'glocal' phenomenon with fans and musicians on every continent’ that

share musical characteristics despite differing contexts. 10 Although heavy metal (including doom)

originated as a working class phenomenon in the Midlands at the end of the 1960s, it is now

common to find doom metal fans from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, all of whom

are drawn to the music for the same basic reason; that of escapism from normative society. The

worlds of horror, occultism and psychedelia allow doom metal musicians to elude and transcend

their surroundings, in reaction to a bewildering, contradictory and oppressive world; for example,

Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn has said ‘the human race needs to be exterminated…I’ve always had a

negative view of humanity.’11 This alienation and discontent with society is the fuel driving both the
9
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions demand Extreme Responses, pp. 72-3.
10
Hassan Umer, Doom Metal in Pakistan, Souciant.com, 30/04/2015, <http://souciant.com/2015/04/doom-
metal-pakistan> (Accessed 03/04/16); Dietmar Elflein, Overcome the Pain: Rhythmic Transgression in Heavy
Metal Music, from Thamirys/Intersecting: Place, Sex & Race, 26: 1, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012) pp. 71-2.
11
Jus Oborn, from Louis Pattison, Electric Wizard is for Lovers, Wondering Sound, 15/10/2014,
<http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/electric-wizard-time-to-die-spinefarm-interview/> (Accessed
22/3/2016).

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creation of doom metal and engagement with unconventional worldviews and frameworks that

challenge cultural hegemony.

Horror

In this study, I will be analysing the concept of horror through the lens of Noël Carroll's 'art-horror';

his discussion of famous monsters in literature (including Frankenstein, Dracula and the works of

Lovecraft) focuses on the combination of ‘threat and disgust’ the human onlookers feel upon gazing

at such ‘violations of nature’. 12 He pinpoints how many monsters in horror are associated with

impurity, which is represented by disease, deformity and decay. Following the arguments of Mary

Douglas in Purity and Danger, he defines impurity as that which is ‘categorically interstitial,

categorically contradictory, incomplete or formless’ as proscribed by human culture - for example,

zombies are categorically contradictory because they are the living dead, whilst the titular monster

from The Blob would be an example of formlessness.13 Carroll argues that this transgression of

cognitive categories is what causes feelings of disgust in the audience, and is what causes monsters

to be labelled as 'unnatural'. Carroll also emphasises how often a physical reaction accompanies the

mental reaction - people shudder, shriek or turn away from monsters (both in book and on screen),

possessed by ‘the conviction that mere physical contact with them can be lethal.’ 14 Walser observes

that ‘horror films have tended to resurge in popularity in cycles… coinciding with periods of social

strain or disorder’, and they ‘provide ways of producing meaning in an irrational society’ as well as

documenting the societal insecurities around them. 15 He argues that heavy metal provides a very

similar function to that of horror within society; it is intended to explore ‘the “other”, everything

that hegemonic does not want to acknowledge…it finds distinction in scandalous transgression’. 16

12
Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart, (London: Routledge, 1990) pp. 22-28.
13
Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror… p. 32.
14
Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror... p. 22.
15
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, (Middletown, CT:
Wesleyan University Press, 1993) p. 161.
16
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil… p.162.

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  Although doom metal, unlike horror, does not seek to overtly scare or disgust its audience

(rather, it intends to create a doom-laden, melancholy atmosphere) there is clearly more connecting

the two media than a significant overlap of imagery. First and foremost, as in all of heavy metal,

there is the desire for transgression, as noted by classic metal scholars such as Walser, who asserts

that outside cultural influences view metal as ‘a travesty of various dearly held myths’, and that this

alienated status is key to the experience of listening and making heavy metal; rejecting societal

norms is a large part of metal’s self-definition. 17 In a review of Black Sabbath's Volume 4, Steve Huey

observes that ‘Many doom and stoner metal aficionados prize the second side of the album, where

Osbourne's vocals gradually fade further and further away into the murk’ of distorted guitars; such

comparisons between the sound of doom metal and the concepts of horrific impurity suggest that,

to an extent, the genre is attempting to emulate some aspects of art-horror. 18

There is also a correlative physicalism to doom metal; Hutcherson notes that although doom

fans prefer to ‘vibe out’ at concerts instead of engage in mosh-pitting, he remarks ‘if I can't literally

feel the sonic vibrations, I feel like I'm missing something.’ 19 This suggests that doom metal, instead

of rendering a listener as an observer or victim of the art-horror monster, attempts to transmit

impure signals into the listeners. Piper, discussing doom metal's approach to mortality, suggests that

the music allows an introspective moment to take place within the listener, where they can

contemplate their relationship with and understanding of death; similarly, I contend that doom

utilising horror allows the listener to unify with the monstrous component of the music, to literally

feel the transgression and impurity of the sound. 20

The first and most obvious example of doom engaging with horror is Black Sabbath, who

began as a blues outfit named Earth before ‘formulating radical transgressions of the blues’ that

shifted the group’s sound into doom metal’s archetype. 21 Their eponymous first album cover
17
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil… p. 24.
18
Steve Huey, Review of Vol. 4 by Black Sabbath, Allmusic, <http://www.allmusic.com/album/black-sabbath-
vol-4-mw0000199950> (Accessed 29/2/2016).
19
Benjamin Hutcherson, Feeling Heavy, Feeling Doomed, p. 19.
20
Piper, Jonathan, Locating experiential richness in doom metal, p. 32.
21
Andrew Cope, Derek Scott, Stan Hawkins, Black Sabbath and the Rise of Heavy Metal Music, (Farnham:
Ashgate, 2013) p. 20.

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features a woman in black, standing before a watermill alongside a dark forest with the title in a

classic gothic script.22 These ‘classic gothic’ elements that formed part of the existing horror dialectic

are mirrored on the first and titular track, which starts with a tolling bell and relies on the dissonant

tritone (or augmented 4th) for its main riff. This interval has been historically known as ‘the Devil in

music’ and has been used to represent evil in classical composition, such as Hell in Lizst’s Dante

Sonata. The crawling pace of the song allows the listener to maximally experience the dissonance,

which is combined with Ozzy Osbourne’s mournful proclamation of ‘what is this that stands before

me?/Figure in black, which points at me’, inspired by a nightmare had by bassist Geezer Butler. 23

The combination of these elements, all present on Side 1, Track 1 of the band’s debut album, shows

that doom metal was inherently connected to the imagery and discourse of horror from its outset.

The band embraced horror in their general aesthetic; early photos of the band were taken in

churchyards and forests, with the members displaying Latin cross pendants to emphasise the dark

image of the group.24

The doom-laden vision Black Sabbath brought forward was one inspired by the world around

them, from the major news events of the early 1970s to their own lives in Aston, Birmingham. Tony

Iommi notes that when the band formed, at a time when ‘flower power’ and the hippie aesthetic still

had considerable cultural weight, ‘nobody was talking about the evil [in the world].’ 25 The maxim of

‘peace and love’ did not translate well to the working-class inner-city environment, which led the

band to grappling with the ills of society in a more direct manner, and one that explicitly described

the issues at hand. Paranoid, Sabbath’s second album tackles issues as diverse as urban decline,

mental illness and nuclear panic, and does so in graphic terms; the song Hand of Doom goes to the

length of depicting one’s skin turning green before inevitable death in the event of drug addiction,

whilst Electric Funeral describes in detail the effects of nuclear war. 26 Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’

22
See Art appendix 1.
23
Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler, from Heavy Metal Britannia, dir. Chris Rodley, (BBC, 2010) 21:39-22:07.
24
See Art appendix 2.
25
Tony Iommi, from Heavy Metal Britannia, 23:39-24:05.
26
See Art appendix 3.

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fuelling the conflict in Vietnam have become War Pigs, which was originally intended to be named

‘Walpurgis’ after the witches’ Sabbath; Geezer Butler describes war as ‘the big Satan’ preoccupying

his social conscience at the time, causing him to frame it in terms of pure evil. 27

Whilst the Paranoid album is replete with horror imagery being used in real-world situations,

there are also more monstrous concepts at work on the record. The use of categorical transgression

is particularly notable on Iron Man; the character travels into the future (a transgression in itself),

sees man’s impending doom, returns to the present and is ‘turned to steel’ (taking on a transgressive

form), but he is mute, unable to tell the world of its fate and is subsequently ostracised by society

(social transgression). The juxtaposition of a character rejected by society and their understanding of

the horrors of man, both internal and external, is integral to the position doom metal composers

take regarding their own situations, and songs such as Iron Man and Paranoid acted as a template

for the genre, the latter song commenting that ‘people think I’m insane because I am frowning all

the time.’ The cover for their third album, Master of Reality, takes inspiration from classic B-movies

in its font choice), reflecting a very different, less serious form of horror. 28

Following the example of Black Sabbath, bands such as Witchfinder General also employed

‘classic’ horror styling in their album covers whilst taking their name from a 1968 film focussing on

Matthew Hopkins, the self-titled ‘Witchfinder General’ of Stuart England. 29 The spread of doom to

America in the 1970s saw further exploration of horror themes, such as Saint Vitus’ 1984 song

Zombie Hunger or Pentagram’s The Ghoul. Concurrent to doom metal, the super-genre of heavy

metal grew in popularity throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in Britain; as the

genre progressed, bands such as Iron Maiden often made reference to horror literature and imagery

in a similar fashion to Black Sabbath, who had anticipated this popular rise of British heavy metal by

a decade. Whilst there was a significant age gap and stylistic difference between Black Sabbath and

27
Geezer Butler, in Jon Wiederhorn, Black Sabbath Bassist Geezer Butler Gets ‘Paranoid’, Noisecreep.com,
30/7/2010, <http://noisecreep.com/black-sabbath-bassist-geezer-butler-gets-paranoid/> (Accessed
31/3/2016).
28
See Art appendix 4.
29
See Art appendix 5.

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bands leading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early 1980s, their relation to similar

transgressive images and themes reveals just how little had changed in British society during the

1970s.30 The economic uncertainty and decline in the effectiveness of public services that began the

decade was even more pronounced by its end, and this environment continued to incubate artists

who were discontented with such surroundings. In contrast to punk, which dominated popular

subcultural discourse during the same period with its outright confrontation of social issues and

mass appeal through simplicity of approach, heavy metal (doom particularly) focused on ‘a world of

its own creation’ based around literary constructs of horror and fantasy in order to explore those

same issues, albeit from a more detached and alienated stance. 31

Even by the 1990s, doom metal musicians were still deeply invested in the imagery and

literature of classic horror, such as in the case of The Obsessed’s Lunar Womb and Cathedral’s 1995

single Hopkins (The Witchfinder General).32 By this point, the anti-heroic character of Matthew

Hopkins had definitively been a part of Western culture since Ronald Bassett’s 1966 novel,

Witchfinder General, and it is certainly interesting to note the historical engagement doom metal

musicians display. Indeed, Walser asserts that ‘metal fans and musicians build on the sedimented

content of musical forms and cultural icons’, which shows an active interest in human history, to

create ‘greater depth and intensity’ by proverbially ‘”Running with the Devil.”’ 33 Even today, bands

such as Bell Witch use the pre-existing horror canon to influence their music, as can be seen in the

cover for their 2012 album Longing; the use of an simple, archetypal horror monster such as a ghost

complements the simple but powerful atmospheres of doom. 34

Perhaps the clearest union of horror with doom metal can be seen in the work of Electric

Wizard, who use motifs from H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos in multiple songs. Lovecraft’s works

often deal with existential quandaries involving determinism, arcane knowledge beyond human

30
See Art appendix 6.
31
Bruce Dickinson, from Heavy Metal Britannia, 1:02-1:05.
32
See Art appendix 7.
33
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil… pp.170-1.
34
See Art appendix 8.

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understanding, and the insignificance of humanity in comparison to the scale of the Universe. The

15-minute Weird Tales from their 2000 release Dopethrone begins with the line ‘From ancient

Yuggoth, black rays emit/Evil’s narcotic cyclopean pits’, making reference to The Whisperer in

Darkness, and warns of ‘abominations drawn to our dimension’. It is in the instrumental section that

the ‘cosmic horror’ of Lovecraft is most clearly felt; at 5:20, the drums are reduced from a crashing

beat to just atmospheric cymbal rolls, phasers are added to the guitar and reverse delay is applied to

the mix. The effect of the sluggish riffs and the enormous distortion of the guitar, combined with

such eerie composition and production, both dwarfs the listener with its scale and replicates the

‘general outline [sic] of the thing which made it so shockingly frightful’, as Lovecraft describes

Cthulu.35 The italicisation of ‘general outline’ implies emphasis upon the sensory impression of the

monstrosity, as opposed to the specific description of the way Cthulu looks, which suggests that

Electric Wizard’s homage to the writer through a non-representative art form is quite compatible.

The use of impure and categorically transgressive sounds (such as music being played backwards)

creates a general outline and atmosphere without the specific, descriptive nature of lyrics.

The band return to Lovecraft’s work on Witchcult Today, which amongst multiple vampire,

Hammer and classic horror references makes a call to the ‘child of Dunwich’ to ‘end the world that

you despise’ on the track Dunwich, emphasising the alienated and apocalyptic worldview often

taken by doom metal musicians. This is also borne out in the similarities between Electric Wizard

bandleader Jus Oborn and Lovecraft; both have indulged in the Cthulu mythos in order to escape

from, and to an extent challenge, an alienating society. In Lovecraft’s case this was early 20 th Century

Brooklyn and Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived in a succession of small apartments as a

near-recluse. Jus Oborn grew up in rural Dorset during the 1980s, which he has described as

‘something majestic…now decaying in ruins’, and has said ‘we created our own sound because there

was nothing else to do’.36

35
H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulu, Weird Tales, (Chicago: Popular Fiction Publishing, 1928),
<http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx> (Accessed 29/3/2016).
36
Jus Oborn, from Gabriel Sigler, Interview: Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn on weed, Satan, and the band’s first
North American tour in a decade, from Bad Feeling Magazine, 30/03/2015, p. 2,

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On Dopethrone, Electric Wizard also explore other horror images, including the zombie

apocalypse, a well-known trope in horror used to make social commentary, as in George A.

Romero’s …of the Dead series. The track Funeralopolis describes ‘funerary cities, flesh press

factories/corporate maggots feed on the carrion…Millions are screaming, the dead are still living’,

which uses a combination of conventional zombie images and criticism of late Western capitalism to

depict impending doom for the planet as a whole, ending with a ‘nuclear strike’. Nuclear weapons

are often explored for their apocalyptic content in heavy metal, as previously observed with Black

Sabbath’s Electric Funeral. Russian band Kamni’s A.T.O.M album also features a nuclear motif in its

artwork; the sheer destructive power, combined with the finality associated with such conflict,

provides a form of horror that connects directly to a real-world anxiety. 37

The Dopethrone album also uses samples from several horror films, including 1970’s Mark of

the Devil. The film portrays uses the figure of the corrupt witch-hunter as a metaphor for an

interfering dogmatic system; in the song I, The Witchfinder, which samples the film, the narrator

proclaims ‘I Am Albino, evil witchfinder/I know she’s guilty before I find her’. 38 Whilst Electric

Wizard’s songs avoid talking outright about the state of politics or society, Oborn’s comments that

during the making of Dopethrone ‘it was just pure hate… it was us against the world’ confirm the

works as critical of society.39 The cover of Dopethrone depicts hooded black figures the blend into

the trees in the background against a horned figure in the foreground; the greyscale palette

emphasises the dark atmosphere and creates ambiguity as to the identity of the hooded

figures/trees.40

From the above examples it can be seen that, much like a horror filmmaker or author, doom

metal musicians use dark and disturbing imagery to make comments on the society around them.

Both forms of art also place emphasis on transgression through the sensory experience of the
<http://badfeelingmag.com/2015/03/30/interview-electric-wizard/2/> (Accessed 02/04/16); Jus Oborn, from
Louis Pattison, Electric Wizard is for Lovers…
37
See Art appendix 9.
38
See Art appendix 10.
39
Jus Oborn, from Nick Ruskell, Treasure Chest: An Intimate Portrait Of Life In Rock, Kerrang!, 1269, (Bauer
Media Group, July 2009) p.60.
40
See Art appendix 11.

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medium, as opposed to linguistic transgression in the form of direct social critique. The dense,

impure guitar and bass sound takes the foreground in most doom metal mixes instead of the vocals,

whilst in horror film or literature the emphasis is placed on showing off (or describing) the horrific

nature of the monster of note; both art forms reserve their social commentary for subtext. With this

in mind, it could be argued that horror-influenced doom metal serves as a musical reflection of the

horror genre, concurring with Walser’s remarks that ‘both heavy metal and the horror film address

the insecurities of this post-war era.’41

Occultism

The Occult, in comparison to the rather specific definition of horror, has long been used as a catch-

all term for a wide range of different practices, groups and ideologies, ranging from Freemasonry to

tarot to indigenous shamanic ritual. It is such a broad term that even academics writing specifically

on the subject, such as Robert Andrew Gilbert writing for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, describe it as

41
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil, p. 161.

16
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‘various beliefs involving a belief in and knowledge or use of supernatural beings’, which "have

occurred in all human societies throughout recorded history." 42 This aside, the basic underpinning

tenets of occultism are an interest in secret knowledge (and to an extent keeping that knowledge

secret), and the ‘presumed ability of the practitioner to manipulate natural laws for their benefit’,

otherwise known as magic.43 Occult imagery has often been used in horror literature and film to

represent dangerous or unknown forces, such as the evil witches in Macbeth, the satanic possession

of a child in The Exorcist or the murderous Thuggee cult in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In

the modern world occult practice has largely been superseded by science, such as in the case of

alchemy being effectively replaced by modern chemistry. As a result of this, occultism is often used

to represent regressive or anti-Enlightenment values, often seemingly removed from the industrial

Western world, such as Summerisle in The Wicker Man. Farley argues that the ‘supernatural and

diabolical themes’ present in the blues (using Robert Johnson’s ‘deal with the Devil’ as an example)

evolved into heavy metal’s fascination with the occult alongside the musical transformation of the

blues into metal.44 This interpretation shows that the fascination with the occult is not particular to

heavy metal alone; there is significant precedent for artists engaging with the transgressive world of

ritual and magic. However, it is in doom metal that one finds some of the most overt connections to

occultism in all of popular music.

Indeed, for doom metal practitioners, the occult presents several enticing opportunities.

Firstly, that of transgression; as observed previously, heavy metal culture thrives upon societal taboo

and placing oneself in opposition to the norm, and mysticism arguably represents a transgressive

paradigm in the post-Enlightenment Western world. As doom metal is and long has been a genre

with a relatively small audience, occult imagery also lends an element of exclusivity and secrecy, in

the vein of occult societies themselves, which helps emphasise a strong connection between the

42
Robert Andrew Gilbert, Occultism, Encyclopaedia Britannica, <http://www.britannica.com/topic/occultism>
(Accessed 29/2/2016).
43
Robert Andrew Gilbert, Occultism.
44
Helen Farley, Demons, Devils and Witches: The Occult in Heavy Metal Music, from Heavy Metal Music in
Britain, ed. Gerd Bayer, Derek B. Scott, Stan Hawkins, (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013) p. 84.

17
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listener and the music or artwork. Hutcherson observes that doom metal fans talk of their favoured

bands in ‘emotive terms’ and often discuss a band's authenticity or ‘realness’, a notion which is

similarly prized in occultism.45

Furthermore, the use of occult symbolism evokes notions of power, ungoverned by the

normal laws of justice or physics, as well as an atmosphere of arcane mystery. As Walser notes

during his analysis of the works of Iron Maiden, ‘Christianity, alchemy, myth, astrology, vanished

Egyptian dynasties: all are available in the modern world as sources of power and mystery.’ 46 He

suggests that in a ‘utilitarian world of work and school’, ‘mystical metal’ can ‘sanctify the experience

[of listening to music or seeing it performed live] with historical and mystical depth...contact with

meaningfulness.’47 Piper, whilst arguing in his abstract that doom metal is connected to mortality,

comments that ‘doom metal practitioners…emphasize bodily immanence and the present moment…

they create a context in which they are free to gain access to otherwise unattainable experience and

knowledge.’48 In this same moment of understanding, doom metal bands that harness the occult are

able to propagate mystical knowledge to their listeners through symbol, sound and lyric.

There is a significant overlap between doom metal bands that use the imagery of horror and

those that use occult imagery, as in popular Western culture many of the images are synonymous;

the pentagram and inverted cross have been incorporated into many horror novels and films. Helen

Farley notes that Black Sabbath were inspired early on to adopt ‘the infernal imagery that went with

their name; wearing Satanic adornments and performing pieces that incorporated occult and

devilish themes’ such as The Wizard from their first record.49 Although the band members had more

than a passing interest in occult literature, Geezer Butler especially, when ‘Alex Sanders, ‘King of the

Witches’, approached them to perform at a ‘Night of Satan’ at Stonehenge’ early in their career, they

declined the opportunity on grounds of their Christianity, suggesting that for Black Sabbath occult

45
Benjamin Hutcherson, Feeling Heavy, Feeling Doomed… p. 18.
46
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil… p. 154.
47
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil… pp. 154-155.
48
Jonathan Piper, Experiential Richness in Doom metal… Abstract, p. 1.
49
Helen Farley, Demons, Devils and Witches: The Occult in Heavy Metal Music… p. 80.

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imagery acted as part of a spectacle, and less a guiding creative or spiritual force. 50 By contrast, the

members of Electric Wizard use occult themes and images alongside those of horror in their works,

such as the names and covers of the albums Witchcult Today and Black Masses; note the use of the

all-seeing eye on the Witchcult cover.51 Electric Wizard go further though, also suggesting in

interviews that they engage with occultism directly; Jus Oborn has implied there are ‘hexes’ hidden

on the band’s records as well as discussing government conspiracies, druids and astrology. 52 From

this it is clear that doom metal bands can interact with occult symbolism in a variety of ways, ranging

from a merely superficial use of imagery to integrating occultist beliefs into every element of the

band’s output.

The first doom band to incorporate occult imagery after Black Sabbath was the aptly-named

Pentagram, which formed in 1973 in Maryland, and used the Baphomet five-point star as the cover

for their second album, 1987’s Day of Reckoning, and also as the cover for the reissue of their

eponymous debut record.53 Pentagram’s direct association with such an overtly satanic symbol, at a

time when anxieties about Satanists and other fringe religious organisations were arguably at their

height, is a powerful gesture of transgression against the societal norm. The American doom metal

bands that followed Pentagram in the 1980s framed their understanding of occultism within the

existing dichotomy of Christianity against Satanism, evidenced most obviously in the song White

Magic/Black Magic on Saint Vitus’ eponymous 1984 album. 54 The band took their name from a 2nd

Century saint, and the track of the same name warns ‘if you’re breeding wickedness/keep this in

mind/Vitus’ soul is watching you’, but also disabuses the listener of dogmatic instruction with the

line ‘let your soul decide.’ Likewise, White Magic/Black Magic asks the listener ‘Which am I to

choose…What am I to do,’ emphasising individual freedom of choice and identifying both forms of

magic as a ‘tool’ instead of a force to be feared.

50
Helen Farley, Demons, Devils and Witches: The Occult in Heavy Metal Music… p. 80.
51
See Art appendix 12.
52
Louis Pattison, Electric Wizard is for Lovers…; Gabriel Sigler, Interview: Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn on weed,
Satan, and the band’s first North American tour in a decade… p. 2.
53
See Art appendix 13.
54
See Art appendix 14.

19
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By contrast, Trouble’s singer Eric Wagner was ‘brought up Catholic’ and Christian themes

abound in the band’s work; their debut album Psalm 9 features tracks such as Revelation (Life or

Death) which proclaims ‘God is here to help/when Satan casts despair’ and The Fall of Lucifer.55 Like

Black Sabbath before them, some early American doom practitioners such as Wagner and

Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling used the symbolism of an established belief system to navigate and

come to terms with the world around them, instead of accepting occultist tenets into their lives. In a

similar fashion, these ‘traditional’ doom bands did not make much of musical experimentation, but

followed the formulas laid before them by Black Sabbath and other early metal groups; in effect,

these musicians were consolidating the doom metal form and its aesthetic.

The rise in evangelical Christianity in America during the 1970s and ‘80s incubated a series of

moral panics that focused their hysteria on heavy metal, amongst other supposed destroyers of

American morality; many of these panics, such as the daycare sex abuse hysteria, featured satanic

ritual abuse as one of the atrocities being inflicted upon the American people. The Parents Music

Resource Center’s 1985 Senate hearings arguably represent the peak of the ‘metal panic’, which

culminated in the now-famous Parental Advisory sticker; heavy metal had been defined within the

popular American psyche as ‘categorically different from previous forms of music… its principal

themes are extreme violence, extreme rebellion… and Satanism.’ 56 The current affairs show 20/20

ran an episode in 1987 on heavy metal, claiming metal lyrics were ‘obsessed with sex, Satanism and

even suicide’ and emphasising the controversy of such deviant behaviour at the beginning of the

report.57 By the end of the 1980s, the dichotomy of Christian/Satanist had been to an extent

normalised in American cultural discourse, leading the next generation of doom metal bands to draw

their occult inspiration from a wider, and less conventional, range of influences. The impetus for this

55
Eric Wagner, from Martin Popoff, Psalm 9, (Escapi Music, 2006). See Art appendix 15.
56
Joe Stuessy, First Session of Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records, U.S Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation Hearing, 19/09/1985, <http://www.joesapt.net/superlink/shrg99-
529/toc.html> (Accessed 11/04/2016) p. 117.
57
Stone Philips, 20/20, 21/5/1987, (ABC Broadcasting, 1987), <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=d1_MhTL7BRU> (Accessed 05/04/2016), 1:20-1:24; Heather Kuntz, ’20-20’ Catches the Essence of the Heavy
Metal Scene, Ocala Star-Banner, 29/05/1987, <https://news.google.com/newspapers?
id=a8FPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nAYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7075%2C7575873> (Accessed 05/04/2016), p. 8B.

20
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change can be noted in several cultural trends, including the New Age movement, the rise of fantasy

as a gaming genre and increasing multiculturalism, all of which emphasised exploring paradigms

outside of normative Western society.

Although not a typical doom metal band, the group most intimately connected to occultism

in the modern day is Om, whose catalogue is a wealth of different religious influences; their name is

one of the most iconic Indian religious symbols, used by Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in chants.

Their album artworks often use Eastern Orthodox paintings and song titles include Unitive

Knowledge of the Godhead, Meditation is the Practice of Death and Pilgrimage.58 The Godhead is a

kabbalistic concept referring to the unknowable aspects of God (or the Infinite), and the suggestion

that one might reach ‘unitive knowledge’ of the unknowable is thus not only deeply bound up in

occultist concepts but is also inherently transgressive. Musically, the band draws on a similarly wide

range of influences that include sacred choral works, Tibetan drone and Eastern instruments such as

the gong and tabla (traditional Indian drum), in addition to doom metal. The band represents a

postmodern take on world religions and their different musical styles, taking the ideas out of their

original contexts and binding them to a doom metal structure; by combining this range of different

styles, Om could be said to be creating a non-specific sacred music, and their lyrics bear this out. The

lyrics to Bhima’s Theme make reference to both Brahma and Lazarus, which stem from two different

faiths, but mostly focus on sacred images that could be found in multiple religious texts; ‘Extol the

solar rays/rise, consolidate on winds/the chariot.’ The use of archetypal imagery and concepts allows

Om’s music to elude its own modern-day context; it feels ancient because the majority of its

reference points are antiquated, which is emphasised with the use of timbres used for millennia,

such as the cello or tabla. At the same time, lyricist Al Cisneros adds modern linguistic phenomena,

such as the use of portmanteau; words such as ‘freedomsea’, ‘pain-sheath’ or ‘soul-galleon’ see no

use outside of Om’s work but help the listener engage with Cisneros’ visions of desert rituals and

spiritual ascent. This mixing of linguistic styles and use of self-constructed lexis effectively places

58
See Art appendix 16.

21
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Om’s lyrics in the category of occult text, or an advanced version of Walser’s ‘mystical metal’; the

level of engagement with the occult source material on Om’s part is higher than most.

Deveykus are a band of comparable occultist credibility and commitment to Om, a ‘Hasidic

doom metal’ band who released their debut album Pillar Without Mercy in 2013.59 Bandleader and

trombonist Dan Blacksberg identifies his music as ‘a kind of ritual’ and saw doom metal as the

perfect match for the ‘brutal and esoteric’ environment of Orthodox Jewish prayer and meditation. 60

The music of Deveykus partners traditional Ashkenazi Jewish songwriting, which relies on diminished

minor scales that balance major and minor tonality, to the dense and immersive textures of doom

metal; the blurring of tonality works with the introspective effects of groove and doom metal texture

to create a meditative but heavy sound. The song titles make reference to established occultist

motifs, such as In the Left Hand Lies the Great Fire, which uses the Left/Right Hand Path dichotomy;

by identifying with the individualistic, ‘black magic’ Left, Deveykus place themselves, like Om, at the

crux of occultism and heavy metal transgression.

There are, however, many bands which are less directly involved with occultism, but still use

the tropes, symbols and themes of the Occult in their works. This includes bands such as Cough,

whose catalogue makes multiple references to black magic, best summed up in the cover of their

debut, Sigillum Luciferi.61 The central sigil is the unicursal hexagram, used by Aleister Crowley in

Thelema, and it is surrounded by another of Crowley’s preferred symbols; the hendecagram or 11-

pointed star, used to represent magic’s intention to go beyond the completion and perfection

represented by the number 10. For their performance in Tel Aviv, sludge band Melvins contrasted

sacred symbols such as the hamsa and the all-seeing eye with more modern symbols, namely the

CND logo.62 Other uses of magic sigils in doom metal artworks include Demon Lung’s The Hundredth

Name, which uses alchemical symbols in its corners, or SubRosa’s No Help for the Mighty Ones,

59
See Art appendix 17.
60
Dan Blacksberg, from Kim Kelly, We Interviewed Deveykus, The World’s Only Hasidic Doom Metal Band,
noisey.com, (Vice, 18/10/2013) <http://noisey.vice.com/blog/deveykus-dish-out-hasidic-doom-metal-in-
brooklyn-and-beyond> (Accessed 08/04/16).
61
See Art appendix 18.
62
See Art appendix 19.

22
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which uses a Hebrew character and the symbol for Earth in the four elements model alongside each

other; many such uses fall under Walser’s concept of metal practitioners using history and occultism

as a resource for aesthetic and musical theme in a ‘way that might usefully be considered

postmodern.’63 Although it might seem random and potentially meaningless because the occult

source material is plucked out of its original context, doom metal artists are using the

aforementioned sediment of human culture to create new iterations of occultist meaning in the

modern world.

The most postmodern relationship between a doom metal band and the Occult is seen in

Ghost, who play a pop-oriented form of doom metal that uses conventional pop songwriting

contrasted against the dense guitar sound and groove indicative of doom. Their singer, who has

changed multiple times since the band’s formation in 2008, is referred to as ‘Papa Emeritus’ and

wears a papal outfit and corpse paint; the rest of the band are masked and referred to as ‘Nameless

Ghouls’. In interviews members have said ‘the whole concept of Satanism… is a huge influence…

We’re using the old imagery of classic devil worshiping and damnation’, and their album covers and

lyrics (as blatant as ‘Our father who art in hell/Unhallowed be thy name’) reflect this classic occult

styling.64 The band’s pastiche of Christian imagery and motifs, such as their inverted cross logo,

extends to their elaborate live performances, where the aim is apparently to ‘put everyone… into

the black bubble’; this is doom metal’s moment of immanence, meaningfulness and connection to

live performance crystallised by one of its practitioners. 65 Even the band’s social media posts are in

character, with each one beginning ‘[MESSAGE FROM THE CLERGY]’; such commitment to the band’s

image reinforces the notion of the band as an occult group in itself, and as such strengthens the

relationship between the fans and the group. 66

63
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil… p. 153. See Art appendix 20.
64
Nameless Ghoul, from Jon Semley, Interview: Ghost’s Nameless Ghoul, A.V. Club, 26/01/2012,
<http://www.avclub.com/article/ghosts-nameless-ghoul-67367> (Accessed 11/04/2016). See Art appendix 21.
65
Nameless Ghoul, from John Semley, Interview: Ghost’s Nameless Ghoul…
66
Ghost, facebook.com, <https://www.facebook.com/thebandghost/?fref=ts> (Accessed 11/04/2016).

23
 26227622

What is clear here is that there is wide variation in the way a doom metal band can use

occult imagery and symbolism, from being integral to the ideas driving the band to merely

peripheral, used as part of a wide range of images that complement doom metal, even to being

subverted into a postmodern pastiche. Such variation seems to reflect the diversity and variation

found in the world of occultism itself, but there are some defined paradigm divides to note. The

bands that emerged in the late 1980s and onwards, as opposed to those that formed in the 1970s,

often take a much more postmodern view of occultism than of their older contemporaries; as

observed above, bands such as Trouble and Pentagram preferred to use socially normative moral-

religious frameworks instead of engaging with occultist societies, or even exploring Eastern religions,

but the bands that followed them were much more open to engaging with occultism worldwide and

throughout history. This correlates with the rise of the Internet, which made thousands of years of

occult literature and art available to anyone with a computer, as well as with the end of the Cold

War, which encouraged the modern global discourse that has allowed such diversity of occultism to

present itself in what is, after all, a popular music form.

Psychedelia

In this study psychedelia, in a similar fashion to the use of occultism, refers to a wide variety of

different cultural elements and ideas that have existed in human society for thousands of years; not

merely the chemicals in themselves, but also the associated cultures, practices and beliefs. This

spans from the Saami people of Lapland and their traditional use of amanita muscaria for spiritual

purposes, to MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), the academic lobby and

research group that has advocated psychedelic-based therapy since its founding in 1986. Since the

24
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introduction of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin cubensis mushrooms to Western

culture in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, the psychedelic paradigm has influenced politics, psychology

and culture, whilst remaining largely excluded from mainstream Western institutions. The Wars on

Drugs in the Western world that followed the psychedelic revolution of the late 1960s served to

confirm the transgressive qualities of psychedelics, which only made them more attractive for

aspiring countercultural musicians. As part of that culture, doom metal musicians were involved as

early as 1971, on Black Sabbath’s Sweet Leaf, which joyously proclaims ‘My life is free now, my life is

clear/I love you sweet leaf, though you can’t hear’. It is perhaps worth noting that doom metal has

several musical similarities to other music genres that celebrate psychedelic use, such as reggae,

though there is also much that separates them. The use of groove, repetition, dense bass sounds

and relaxed, expressive musicality are all present in both genres, which could suggest that the drugs

inform the songwriting to some degree; Kaelen et al. found in 2015 that ‘emotional response to

music is enhanced by LSD’ which supports the notion that psychedelics can inform musical

understanding to some extent.67

 As previously mentioned, the first stoner metal song was released by Black Sabbath in the

1970s, but it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s that the genre gained real momentum; the larger

stoner rock scene emerging in America gave rise to Sleep, whose Sleep’s Holy Mountain was

enormously influential in its addition of psychedelia to doom metal upon its 1992 release. 68 The

band’s sound was integrally influenced by Black Sabbath, but the emphasis on feel is even more

pronounced; in particular, guitarist Matt Pike’s focus is often textural instead of melodic, even during

solos. Lyrically, the album combines elements of occultism, fantasy, science fiction and horror, as in

the case of The Druid, Aquarian, Dragonaut and Evil Gypsy, but it is on Holy Mountain and From

Beyond that psychedelia is overtly introduced by mentions of a ‘stoner sun rising’ in the former and

a ‘stoner caravan’ in the latter. Sleep’s creation of a psychedelic mythology, unique to their music,

67
M. Kaelen et al., LSD enhances the emotional response to music, Psychopharmacology, 232:19, (Berlin:
Springer, 2015) p. 3607.
68
See Art appendix 22.

25
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was an inspiring notion for those musicians that followed a few years later; Acid King, Acrimony and

Electric Wizard all released their debut albums between 1994 and 1995, helping to further define a

distinct stoner metal genre. This shift in focus onto psychedelics in doom metal culture can be

ascribed as a response to the continued reification of Western culture; by openly embracing drug

use as a means of challenging normative society, doom metal continued to find itself at the focal

point of social transgression.

The stoner metal genre is overtly connected to cannabis use, and bands proudly display their

marijuana usage with such names as Bongzilla, Bongripper and Stoned Jesus. Other bands such as

Acid King or Acid Witch refer to stronger psychedelics, and many of these groups use obvious

psychedelic imagery in their artwork and compositions, as well as making reference to horror or

occultist imagery as well; Acid Witch’s first album synthesises a caricature of all three paradigms into

one artwork.69 Science fiction and fantasy imagery, in the vein of classic progressive rock and ‘space-

rock’ such as Hawkwind, are also common themes in stoner metal.

The motif of the cannabis leaf is found often in stoner metal album covers, as it is in; in both

genres usage of the plant is also celebrated through the music and lyrics, in songs such as

Hashdealer, 666lb. Bongsession or Sunnshine Green, which are all taken from Bongzilla’s Gateway.70

The Gateway album title is a subversive and humorous reference to the ‘gateway drug’ theory, not

unusual in stoner metal; puns such as Reefer Sutherland, The Grim Reefer or Amerijuanican often

feature within the genre. Combined with the aforementioned blend of occultism, science fiction,

fantasy and horror, the celebration of cannabis for its ability to ‘lift me out of this life’ (from

Acrimony’s The Bud Song) or to ‘take me away… from the pain of life’ (from 666lb. Bongsession)

seems to suggest a deep underlying escapism that drives stoner metal. The fact that such similar

sentiments can be elicited from musicians in very different surroundings (Bongzilla are from

Madison, Wisconsin whilst Acrimony are from Swansea) shows the versatility of the doom metal

form; the sentiment of escapism is one felt across the modern industrialised world, where existential

69
See Art appendix 23.
70
See Art appendix 24.

26
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angst and social alienation are common. Both examples also continue to conform to Piper’s theory

of doom metal creating a moment of contemplation and existential awareness for the musician and

listener, but instead of an ‘exploration of mortality’ the sentiment is more focused on simply getting

out of the ‘real world’. 71 A more morbid form of this escapism can be seen in Electric Wizard’s

Funeralopolis, which begins with a comparatively light section of pentatonic riffs and a clean guitar

solo. As the main riff is played for the eighth time, a sample of a bong bubbling followed by a man

coughing is played, which signals the introduction of the familiar heavy doom texture and volume.

When the apocalyptic lyrics are considered, as they have been previously, the overall implication

appears to be that the usage of cannabis brings on a prophecy of a nuclear-zombie End of Days.

To continue with a previous observation that the themes studied here have strong

interpolation, it is important to note that psychedelia has had a long association with occult practice,

with religious use of cannabis going back thousands of years in Hindu society. More modern mystics

such as Aleister Crowley became notorious for opium and cannabis use, which he used to receive

supposed visions of Thoth, upon which he based his religion, Thelema. Conversely, one of the most

famous advocates of psychedelic use in the 1960s, the psychiatrist Timothy Leary, later joined a

Chaos Magic circle, whilst his colleague Richard Alpert changed his name to Baba Ram Dass and

published books on Hindu spirituality. Many of these modern psychedelic occultists were influenced

by ancient and tribal use of entheogens, such as Native Americans' use of mescaline from the peyote

cactus, or from traditional Indian use of cannabis. Books such as John M. Allegro's The Sacred

Mushroom and the Cross go further, arguing that religious practice has been causally associated with

psychedelic use since the conception of God,. 72 To connect this to the study at hand, it is worth

noting the similarity between the droning, sustained notes used in psychedelically-influenced

religious music such as Indian raga or Tibetan drone, and the feedback-laden guitars of doom metal;

this confluence of psychedelia, religion and music is most prominently exposed in one of the most

71
Jonathan Piper, Experiential richness in doom metal… Abstract.
72
John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, 40th Anniversary Edition (Gnostic Media, 2009).

27
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famous stoner metal records, Dopesmoker by Sleep, which has been described "as if its ponderous

riffs are consecrating some greater mystical cause, some numinous higher power." 73

Dopesmoker is a single-song album lasting over one hour, remaining at one sedate tempo

throughout, and takes the appearance of being a sacred chant for an imagined religion that worships

and consecrates cannabis. The first riff takes a full 45 seconds to play through once, and the first

lyrics of the song, heard eight minutes in, are ‘Drop out of life with bong in hand/Follow the smoke

to the riff-filled land’; the semi-sacred mythos developed by Sleep on their earlier releases was

brought to the fore on Dopesmoker, particularly that of the ‘stoner caravan’. Lines such as ‘Grow-

Room is church temple of the new stoner breed/Chants loud-robed priest down on to freedom seed’

plainly idealise cannabis in terms beyond its mere chemical properties, placing it at the heart of their

imagined desert cult and elevating the process of using cannabis to a holy ritual. There have been

three different artworks for Dopesmoker since its initial release under the title of Jerusalem in 1999;

the first uses a traditional relief of a praying priest, the 2003 renamed issue uses a Four Horsemen-

inspired painting, and the 2012 version features a conception of the ‘Weedians’ themselves, in a

landscape borrowing as much from Dune as it does from the Kabbalah.74 As much as this reflects the

album’s torturous release due to London Records’ disinterest in such an unwieldy and potentially

cost-ineffective musical venture, the three different images also reflect three very different worlds

around them; the 1999 cover, using a source from antiquity, suggests the nostalgia felt by many in

the Western world as the year 2000 loomed; the 2003 cover reflects an apocalyptic America at a

time of shock and urgency in the wake of 9/11 and the beginnings of the Iraq conflict; the 2012

cover reflects a postmodern world where combining stylistic and thematic elements from diverse

sources is not just a normative means of communication, but is also the method for creating new

meaning.

73
John Semley, Sleep: Dopesmoker, (A.V Club, 2012), <http://www.avclub.com/review/sleep-
emdopesmokerem-73937> (Accessed 29/2/2016).
74
See Art appendix 25.

28
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This bricolage of symbolism fused to psychedelia is not unique to Sleep; the cover of

Acrimony’s Tumuli Shroomaroom features a host of different imagery, ranging from the yin/yang

oppositional colour scheme to the Grey alien-based design of the central figure, with the continent

of Africa at its heart, representing the birthplace of Homo sapiens.75 The theme of alien life,

particularly the ‘ancient astronaut’ thesis, is explored further on the first track, Hymns to the Stone;

the title of this track also renders cannabis as a sacred plant, in a similar way to Sleep. The subtleties

of psychedelia are prevalent on this cover too through its use of complex geometric patterns, some

of which bear similarities to sprouts or roots (most likely psychedelic mushrooms); geometrically-

based design is one of the fundaments of the psychedelic aesthetic, as seen in everything from

Hindu mandalas to Google’s DeepDream program, which creates ‘hallucinatory’ patterns from

ordinary photos, in a similar way to humans on psychedelics. 76

The imagery of psychedelia brings not only another form of transgression to doom metal,

but also provides a transcendent experience by connecting such imagery to the occultism already

present in the genre’s aesthetic. Bands such as Sleep and Acrimony were able to develop an

alternative to Piper’s moment of contemplation upon mortality, replacing it with a appreciation of

psychedelic drugs that borders on religious obsession; this seems to correlate with a longstanding

pattern of human spirituality, and art, being influenced by psychedelic drugs. In the contexts of

which these cultural artefacts were made, identification with psychedelia is representative of what

psychedelics advocate Terence McKenna calls the ‘archaic revival’; a ‘rejection of linear values’ that

is manifested in such varied activities as tattooing, rave culture and experimental dance, which are

all heavily influenced by culture outside of the civilised West. 77 Further, these activities and styles

have been integral in the development of 20 th and 21st Century subcultures, amongst which is doom

metal; practitioners of the genre use the simplistic, regressive and abrasive form as a means of

75
See Art appendix 26.
76
Adrienne LaFrance, When Robots Hallucinate, The Atlantic, 03/09/2015,
<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/robots-hallucinate-dream/403498/> (Accessed
17/04/2016).
77
Terence McKenna, The Archaic Revival, (Bravo Books, 1998).

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escaping the alienating surroundings of the modern world without attracting unwanted attention

from that same normative society, effectively using the distortion and esoteric imagery to encode

additional meanings for their audience to uncover.

Conclusion

The preceding analyses show doom metal to be a versatile and complex art form, defying

assumptions the layman might make upon hearing the apparent simplicity of the music; although

many doom songs are technically quite basic there are a wide variety of motifs, styles and meanings

to be found within the genre. Moreover, it shows the practitioners of the genre to be emulating the

esoteric and transgressive elements that are taken up; the use of esoteric symbolism is by no means

a meaningless façade created simply to shock the dominant culture. Rather, doom metal bands

engage with dark and occult themes in order to navigate the world in which heavy metal was

incubated, that being the industrialised West at the end of the 20 th Century. The horror archetypes

taken up by doom metal musicians have allowed them and their audiences to contemplate

negativity in society, with the literal impurity of the doom metal sound acting as a representation of

monstrousness. The alienation and existential nausea associated with late capitalism fuelled a

reaction on the part of these musicians that took them to increasingly esoteric concepts and themes,

trying over a period of 45 years to escape the conditions in which the music was created. Moreover,

the dark themes and images explored by doom metal serve to bolster the gravitas and authenticity

of musicians and their output, particularly in the case of occult sigils, which often lend an

atmosphere of secrecy, transgression and magic to the music. This helps the doom subculture

identify itself as opposed to hegemonic Western culture whilst remaining within it, in a similar way

to the British punks of the 1970s, of which Dick Hebdige identifies their ‘voluntary assumption of

outcast status’ and their subversion of Western capitalist symbolism by means of the ‘cut-up’

fashion style.78

78
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, (London: Routledge, 1979) p. 110.

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Doom metal musicians have also helped chronicle the world around them, often focusing on

the most transgressive elements of society. Anxieties felt worldwide in the late 1960s were

transmuted into doom metal song topics, such as nuclear panic and the Vietnam War, but instead of

protesting the issues outright Black Sabbath used the music to contemplate the issues in depth,

whilst invoking horror archetypes to make the resulting image more vivid for the listener. The

dichotomy between Christianity and Satanism was repeatedly explored by American doom bands

from the 1970s to the late ‘80s, a time when such discourses were dominating mainstream American

thought; as a result, these groups eventually fed in to the zeitgeist of satanic controversy

themselves. The gradual rise of New Age culture and non-Christian spirituality in the West from the

late 1960s onwards eventually led doom metal musicians to take on a much wider range of sources,

which helped fuel a rising interest in esotericism. By additionally associating the genre with

psychedelic use, doom metal practitioners identified themselves as part of an emerging Western

psychedelic culture, which also encouraged their audiences to pursue esoteric paradigms in their

own lives. In some ways, doom metal still reflects the culture that held sway at the time of its

inception (the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s) but it also reflects the situations of the

artists, regardless of time and place.

Such advocacy of occultist and psychedelic themes place doom metal musicians in a similar

position in society to that of the mystics and writers they are inspired by; these figures are social

commentators that promote worldviews which challenge normative Western society, from the

cultivated notoriety of Aleister Crowley to the cultivated notoriety of Electric Wizard. As these

cultural trends have been part of human society for thousands of years, it could be argued that

doom metal musicians are a new iteration of esotericism; using pre-existing symbolism helps to

connect doom metal to this paradigm, as well as authenticating the genre. Hebdige cites Levi-

Strauss’ work on pre-scientific human societies, noting that ‘magical modes…can be seen as

implicitly coherent systems of connection between things which perfectly equip their users to ‘think’

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their own world’.79 In the modern West, which harbours many social issues despite great

technological advancement, doom metal musicians offer a worldview ungoverned and unrestricted

by the defined boundaries and empiricist discourse of Enlightenment society, helping their

audiences navigate the world around them in addition to providing culture and meaning.

Art Appendix

1. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1969, Vertigo Records).

79
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style… p. 103.

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2. Early pictures of Black Sabbath. Left: Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images, 1970. Right: Jim

Simpson, 1969.

3.

3. Black Sabbath, Paranoid (1970, Vertigo Records).

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4. Top left: Black Sabbath, Master of Reality (1971, Vertigo Records). Bottom right: poster for

Children of the Damned, dir. Anton M. Leader (1964, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Note the

similar font styles. In addition, Master of Reality has a track titled Children of the Grave.

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5. Left to right: Witchfinder General, Death Penalty (1982, Heavy Metal Records) and poster for

Witchfinder General, dir. Michael Reeves (1968, American International Productions).

6. Left to right: Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden (1980, EMI) and Killers (1981, EMI). Note the use of

British urban surroundings contrasted with the categorical transgression of a zombie.

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7. The Obsessed, Lunar Womb (1991, Hellhound Records). The original is Goya’s Saturn Devouring

His Son.

8. Bell Witch, Longing (2012, Profound Lore Records).

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9. Kamni, A.T.O.M (2011, self-released). Note the combination of Hindu deity imagery and nuclear

symbolism.

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10. US release poster for Mark of the Devil, dir. Michael Armstrong (1972, Hallmark Releasing

Corporation).

11. Electric Wizard,

Dopethrone (2000, Rise Above

Records).

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12. Left to right: Electric Wizard, Witchcult Today (2007, Rise Above Records) and Black Masses,

(2010, Rise Above Records).

13. Left to right: Pentagram, Day of Reckoning (1987, Napalm Records) and Relentless (1993,

Peaceville Records).

14. Saint Vitus, Saint Vitus (1984, SST Records).

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15. Trouble, Psalm 9 (1984, Metal Blade Records). Note the skull-shaped rock formation.

16. Left to right: Om,

Pilgrimage (2007,

Southern Lord Records),

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God is Good (2009, Drag City Records) and Advaitic Songs (2012, Drag City Records). All are Eastern

Orthodox icon paintings.

17. Deveykus, Pillar Without Mercy (2013, Tzadik Records). Note the apocalyptic imagery and style,

using animal-headed monsters in a similar vein to the apocalypses of the Book of Daniel.

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18. Cough, Sigillum Luciferi (2008, Forcefield Records).

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19. Emek, Hamsa, Poster for Melvins’ show in Tel Aviv, 27/04/2007.

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20. Left to right: Demon Lung, The Hundredth Name (2013, Candlelight Records) and SubRosa, No

Help for the Mighty Ones (2011, Profound Lore Records).

21. Top to bottom: Ghost, Opus

Eponymous (2010, Rise Above Records),

Infestissumam (2013, Loma Vista Records), If You Have Ghost (2013, Republic Records). The last is a

reference to Max Schreck’s character from the 1922 horror Nosferatu.

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22. Sleep, Sleep’s Holy Mountain (1992, Earache Records). The artwork includes a variety of occult

and psychedelic imagery, including a devil-angel dichotomy, UFOs and mushrooms, as well as the

ubiquitous cannabis leaf.

23. Acid

Witch, Witchtanic Hellucinations (2008, Razorback Records).

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24. Bongzilla, Gateway (2002, Relapse Records).

25. Top to bottom:

Sleep, Jerusalem (1999, Rise Above/Music Cartel Records), Dopesmoker (2003, Tee Pee Records) and

Dopesmoker (2012, Southern Lord Records).

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26. Acrimony, Tumuli Shroomaroom (1997, Peaceville Records).

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List of musical works consulted

(Sorted alphabetically by artist)

Hymns to the Stone and The Bud Song, from Tumuli Shroomaroom by Acrimony (1997, Peaceville

Records).

Black Sabbath and The Wizard, from Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath (1969, Vertigo Records).

War Pigs, Paranoid, Electric Funeral, Hand of Doom and Iron Man, from Paranoid by Black Sabbath

(1970, Vertigo Records).

Sweet Leaf, from Master of Reality by Black Sabbath (1971, Vertigo Records).

Reefer Sutherland, from Hippie Killer by Bongripper (2007, self-released).

Grim Reefer, from Apogee by Bongzilla (2000, Ritual Records).

Sunnshine Green, 666lb. Bongsession and Hashdealer, from Gateway by Bongzilla (2002, Relapse

Records).

Amerijuanican, from Amerijuanican by Bongzilla (2005, Relapse Records).

Hopkins (The Witchfinder General), from The Carnival Bizarre by Cathedral (1995, Earache Records).

In the Left Hand Lies the Great Fire, from Pillar Without Mercy by Deveykus (2013, Tzadik Records).

Funeralopolis, Weird Tales/Electric Frost/Golgatha/Altar of Melektaus, and I, The Witchfinder, from

Dopethrone by Electric Wizard (2000, Rise Above Records).

Dunwich, from Witchcult Today by Electric Wizard (2007, Rise Above Records).

Ritual, from Opus Eponymous by Ghost (2010, Rise Above Records).

Meditation is the Practice of Death, from God is Good by Om (2009, Drag City Records).

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Pilgrimage, Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead and Bhima’s Theme, from Pilgrimage by Om (2007,

Southern Lord Records).

The Ghoul, from Pentagram by Pentagram (1985, Pentagram Records).

Dragonaut, The Druid, Evil Gypsy/Solomon’s Theme, Aquarian, Holy Mountain and From Beyond,

from Sleep’s Holy Mountain by Sleep (1992, Earache Records).

Dopesmoker, from Dopesmoker by Sleep (2012, Southern Lord Records).

Saint Vitus, White Magic/Black Magic and Zombie Hunger, from Saint Vitus by Saint Vitus (1984, SST

Records).

Revelation (Life or Death) and The Fall of Lucifer, from Psalm 9 by Trouble (1984, Metal Blade

Records).

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