Political Expression in Doom Metal

David Burke

26227622

Supervised by Dr. Christopher Prior

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MA (History) degree at the

University of Southampton

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Plagiarism Declaration

‘I acknowledge that this dissertation is my own work. I have read and understood the
Academic Integrity Statement for Students, and the details of possible penalties for
plagiarising in the University Calendar at:
http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/sectionIV/academic-integrity-regs.html’

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Contents

Plagiarism Declaration 2

Contents 3

Introduction 4

Terminology 9

The pursuit of liberty 14

Social and political criticism 26

Nihilism and environmentalism 35

Female representation and narratives 42

Contextualising doom metal 49

Conclusions 55

Bibliography 57

List of musical works consulted (including album artworks) 60

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Introduction

Culture is inherently political. The production of cultural artefacts is inescapably bound to the

economic and social circumstances in which the production occurred. This also extends to the use,

interpretation and reception of cultural objects as audiences apply their own codes of meaning to

works, from Ronald Reagan's misunderstanding of Born in the USA to the Live Aid concerts. Although

works of culture are open to these forms of politicised analysis and usage, some works are more

obviously engaged in social comment than others. The focus of this study will be the subgenre of

doom metal, which is considered a relative outlier in terms of political expression. Doom metal is

typified by slow, dense riffs derived from blues guitar techniques, as opposed to the fast, technically

complex compositions employed by the majority of heavy metal.

Much of doom metal focuses on groove, an element of music that has been excluded from

the traditional Western canon of music theory and can be defined as ‘a stream of anticipation’; the

listener being able to identify when the next beat of a bar will occur despite it not having been

played yet and performing a physical corollary in the form of dancing (or headbanging). 1 In structural

terms, this places the subgenre closer to blues, reggae or traditional African music than to the

technical mastery of death metal or the harsh textures of black metal, with songs often avoiding

typical verse-chorus formats in favour of long, repetitive sections. This is further reflected in the use

of fuzz, delay and reverb within doom metal which provide a sonic palette which is perhaps easier to

absorb than other metal genres, particularly black metal which often aims for abrasion above other

aesthetic qualities. Similarly, whilst metal subgenres such as thrash, grindcore and black have

espoused broad-ranging critiques and produced works reflecting extreme ideologies from all sides of

the political spectrum, doom metal is often considered as more escapist and esoteric with many of

the genre's notable bands drawing primarily upon fantastical imagery and themes for their works. 2

For the purposes of this study, ‘doom metal’ will also be used to encompass its varied subgenres
1
Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom metal, (San Diego: University of California, 2013), p.
64.
2
David Burke, Esoteric Symbolism in Doom Metal, (Southampton: University of Southampton, 2016),
<https://www.academia.edu/35595149/Esoteric_Symbolism_in_Doom_Metal>, (Accessed 4/09/2018).

4
which together draw from similar compositional and aesthetic sources and are often grouped

together by critics and fans. ‘Stoner metal’ is heavily influenced by psychedelia and is arguably the

most fantastical of the doom sub-subgenres; ‘drone metal’ often forgoes percussion in favour of

walls of droning, feedback-laden guitars; ‘sludge metal’ represents a crossover between doom metal

and hardcore punk; and ‘desert rock’ blends the psychedelic aspects of stoner metal with a more

traditional hard rock sonic palette.

The first doom band, Black Sabbath, have been noted for their criticism of contemporary

political issues such as nuclear war, Vietnam and class inequality but since the 1970s these direct

and explicit criticisms of specific aspects of society became less common within the genre. The doom

bands of the early 1980s such as Saint Vitus expressed feelings of social estrangement but avoided

translating these sentiments into overt social critiques; with hardcore punk at its height at the same

time, heavy metal was somewhat displaced from its role as a critical working-class voice that it had

occupied in the UK since the 1970s, and artists such as Iron Maiden led the genre towards a more

fantastical aesthetic that was prominent until the turn of thrash metal a few years later. The early

1990s gave doom and stoner rock bands such as Sleep, Kyuss and Electric Wizard a moment in the

sun, receiving airplay on MTV and forming part of a nascent grunge and alternative culture. These

groups were jointly defined by their interest in fantasy and horror literature, psychedelics and an

escapist outlook, which have formed the backbone of modern doom metal and its aesthetic.

Following the example of post-rock and post-metal, increasing numbers of bands chose to forgo

lyrics altogether in order to focus on delivering soundscapes, tonal experimentation and ever-longer

songs, such as Sunn O))) or Bongripper. In doing so, their capacity to deliver political expressions

directly through art was lessened, although interviews and video remain avenues for critique.

Through the 2000s and 2010s doom metal has expanded hugely as a subgenre thanks to

social media, the decline of major labels as a means of music distribution for metal musicians and

the simultaneous rise of artist-to-fan services such as Bandcamp and BigCartel. The subgenre now

boasts its own festivals, magazines and forums and displays greater sonic and demographic diversity

5
than ever before, but overt social critique remains uncommon within the genre. This is far from

axiomatic however, and some doom metal musicians and bands make direct political statements

that reflect radical beliefs, such as the punk-influenced Primitive Man or sludge/drone metal artists

Thou.

This study aims to uncover the capacity for political expression within doom metal and

willingness to make such expression amongst its proponents, and to identify trends within the genre

that support social critique across the political spectrum. The paper will begin by discussing the

varying definitions of ‘liberty’ that have been employed over the duration of doom metal’s

existence, focusing particularly on Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty; although doom metal

musicians are not known for their overt political engagement, their interest in escape away from

normative society and towards forms of freedom demands investigation into which liberties are

being desired. Liberalism, the form of government under which the majority of doom metal has

been produced, will also receive discussion in order to understand its changing forms and definitions

over the past fifty years. Finally, employing Gramscian theories of complicity and hegemony will aid

analysis of musicians' ability and willingness to make political statements based on their own

contexts, and avoid treating works in isolation. 

Once these definitions are established, the main body of the dissertation will take readings

of various bands' lyrics, artworks and interviews, and establish key themes that amount to political

expression employed within doom metal. Although metal scholarship has expanded considerably

since it was first studied in the late 1980s doom metal has remained relatively under-studied, due to

other subgenres such as black and death harbouring controversial figures and complex musicianship,

compared to doom metal's relative simplicity and lack of associated violent crime. Keith Kahn-Harris

makes mention of doom metal in his study of extreme metal, but his focus is largely occupied by

other metal subgenres.3 Writers such as Hutcherson, Piper, Kitteringham and Yavuz have made more

substantial contributions to doom metal scholarship, but to date there has been little attention given

3
Keith Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2006) p. 4.

6
to the political tendencies and ideologies present within the genre. 4 Due to this, primary source

analysis will form the majority of the study. The main focus will be upon the pursuit of individual

liberty, comparable to ‘negative’ liberty as described by Berlin in Two Concepts of Liberty, which has

featured in doom metal throughout its history and arguably represents a strong tendency toward

libertarianism amongst its musicians and fans alike. Critiques of economic and social inequality and

exclusion will form another theme, with care being taken to focus upon sources which comment

upon wider society, as opposed to those which refer to personal relationships. Another theme is

environmental concern which has manifested in both overt and subtle critiques from doom metal

groups, often in utopian terms, contrasted by a nihilistic vision of apocalypse and environmental

destruction imagined by some of doom's heaviest and darkest bands. Although doom metal is

known for having a higher number of female artists than other metal subgenres, this has failed to

translate into prominent feminist lyrical currents within the subgenre, which will also require further

analysis through redactive investigation.

With some major themes identified, the study will then turn to examining the surrounding

contexts of doom metal musicians and question the extent to which these contexts have been

acknowledged or critiqued by the musicians and their works. Moments of particular interest will

include the late 1960s which incubated Black Sabbath, the rise of neoliberal market democracy in

the 1980s, the previously mentioned end of Communism and the rise of neoliberal consensus, and

the subsequent rise of populism in the 2010s which aimed to dismantle this geopolitical structure.

Although doom metal's artists are primarily based in the industrialised West and derive much of

their aesthetic from Western fantasy and fiction tropes, there are growing scenes in less affluent

countries ranging from ex-Soviet nations to Indonesia and Pakistan that share in the subgenre's

4
Benjamin Hutcherson, Feeling Heavy, Feeling Doomed: Narratives, Embodiment, and Authentic Cultural
Engagement, (Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado, 2014); 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); Jonathan Piper, Locating experiential richness in Doom
metal…; M. Selim Yavuz, ‘Publications and Talks’, mselimyavuz.com,
<http://mselimyavuz.com/publications.html> (Accessed 10/09/2018).

7
imagery and outlook, which conforms to Elflein's argument that ‘metal has become a truly glocal

phenomenon’.5

After contextualising doom metal and its varied political expressions, the study will attempt

to find common ideological ground between doom metal artists overall and investigate whether the

genre acts as an arena for social comment, or whether the opposite is true; that the escapist

aesthetic promulgated within doom metal acts as a safe haven for its listeners, wishing to avoid

political discourses in music. The relationship between authorial intention and fan interpretation will

be key to this concluding analysis, as some artists have developed critiques which are relatively open

to interpretation, whilst other commentaries provide less ambiguity.

Terminology

Isaiah Berlin’s ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ demonstrated that multiple forms of political liberty exist

and gives two contrasting examples. Negative liberty is defined as ‘the degree to which no man or
5
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.

8
body of men interferes with my activity’, the ability of an agent to act unheeded by outside

influences or institutions, which is the form of liberty most obviously deployed in the neoliberal

modern-day West.6 Legislation such as the First Amendment of the American constitution would be

a prime example, as the amendment exists to prevent authorities from infringing upon agents’

ability to hold beliefs and express them. Positive liberty is described as ‘the wish on the part of the

individual to be his own master’ in a transformative sense; not only being able to decide one’s own

actions within existing political and social frameworks, but to unshackle oneself or others from those

systems which prevent one from becoming a better person. 7 Berlin links the modern conception of

negative liberty to the Enlightenment-era works of Locke and Mill, and notes that although it is often

described as the ‘natural’ form of liberty, it is a relatively recent conception primarily based in British

political philosophy. By contrast, positive liberty is connected with Rousseau and the French

Revolution, wherein Berlin identifies the ‘paradox’ associated with this form of freedom; in assuming

political power to transform society and its people, rulers can become tyrannical by imposing new

structures and laws, potentially as oppressive as those being replaced.

Outside of the article Berlin used the Soviet Union to illustrate his criticisms of positive

liberty, following the militarised suppression of a Hungarian uprising in 1956. He questioned how a

government founded with the intention of liberating its people from economic tyranny could itself

become so repressive and violent when faced with dissenting expression. 8 Moreover, Berlin argued

that constructing positive liberty demands the development of new ethical and social frameworks,

and whoever arbitrates such frameworks decides which social traits are virtuous or problematic.

Continuing Berlin’s historical example of the French Revolution, one could cite Saint-Just’s following

quote as an example of such coercive tactics: ‘In every revolution a dictator is necessary to save the

state by force…’9
6
Isaiah Berlin, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, in Four Essays on Liberty, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp.
118-172.
7
Ibid.
8
Adam Curtis, ‘We Will Force you to be Free’, in The Trap, (BBC2, 2007).
9
Louis Antoine Saint-Just, ‘Sixteenth Fragment: On Censors’, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines (1767-
1794), <https://www.academia.edu/21887125/Saint-Just_Fragments_on_the_Republican_Institutions_>

9
 In the examples Berlin gave to support these two definitions of freedom, he introduces a

division between them as belonging to the two halves of the Cold War (during which his article was

written), with positive liberty being demarcated as the province of socialist revolutionaries and

negative liberty as the fundament of capitalist democracy. Partially due to these associations and the

immense influence Berlin’s article has held over political theory, the reputation of positive liberty

has since diminished in Western political discourses; Adam Curtis suggests in his 2007 film The Trap

that negative liberty became the primary definition of freedom in the West over the course of the

Cold War and the neoliberal consensus that emerged afterward, to the extent that the attempts at

installing market capitalism in Russia and Iraq represented a direct imposition of negative liberty

upon an unwilling population.10 Although Berlin advocated for negative liberty, he warned that

governments should not come to think of it as an absolute definition of freedom; if this were to

occur then governments would attempt to coerce their people into accepting negative liberty, just as

had occurred in the revolutions guided by positive liberty.

The importance of considering Berlin’s arguments and the contexts to which he assigned

them has a major bearing on the analysis in this study. Due to many doom metal artists’

sociogeographic environments being the neoliberal West there is frequent support within the genre

for negative liberty, although there are a smaller number of artists who advocate for positive liberty

in their artistic output. However, these commentaries are often made without the musicians’

awareness of political theory or the divide between negative and positive liberty, resulting in

musicians making appeals to both forms of freedom on occasion. This indicates that some artists

have intuitively engaged with a combination of both forms of liberty, similar to the reconciliation of

liberties discussed by Tony Blair in his letter to Berlin. 11 Such unconstructed advocacy for both forms

of liberty leaves these doom metal musicians outside of the established ideological dichotomy,

(Accessed 17/08/18).
10
Curtis, ‘The Trap Part 3…’
11
Tony Blair, ‘A Letter from Tony Blair’, The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library, 23 rd October 1997,
<http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/letterstoberlin.html> (Accessed 17/08/18).

10
whereby negative freedom is the province of neoliberal capitalism and right-wing libertarianism and

positive liberty is commonly upheld by socialist groups. This again may reflect the musicians’ lack of

theoretical knowledge in the field, or a deliberate attempt to avoid identifying with a particular

political ideology altogether. However, as mentioned previously there are other doom metal

musicians for whom political ideology is a major part of their musical identity.

Similarly to Berlin’s essay, Duncan Bell’s What is Liberalism? demonstrates that the notion of

liberalism, particularly the neo-liberal consensus that formed the backbone of post-war Western

politics, carries a ‘plethora of competing and often contradictory claims’ under a broad church of

definition.12 Of particular note to this study is Bell’s identification of Shklar’s liberalism as a ‘doctrine

with one overriding aim: to secure the political conditions that are necessary for the exercise of

political freedom’, penned in 1989 as Soviet states known for their repression of individual liberties

began to dissolve communism across Eastern Europe. 13 By describing liberalism primarily as an

attempt to spread freedom, Shklar is both implying that other ideologies such as Communism were

restricting individual liberty, and supporting the American neoconservative notion that the West has

a moral duty to spread liberty and democracy worldwide by her use of ‘secure the conditions’. She

goes on to define liberalism’s ‘original and only defensible meaning’ as being the ability of adults to

‘make as many effective decisions without fear or favour about as many aspects of his or her life as is

compatible with the like freedom of every other adult’, which is in total conformity with Berlin’s

negative liberty.14 In the same year as Shklar, Francis Fukuyama declared ‘an unabashed victory of

economic and political liberalism’ over competing ideologies without discussing the variance and

complexity of liberalism’s definition, in his paper ‘The End of History?’. 15 Both articles serve to shore

up ideological support for neoliberal market democracy, which was and remains the dominant form

12
Duncan Bell, ‘What is Liberalism?’ in Political Theory, 42:6, (University of Virginia, 2014) p. 687.
13
Ibid, p. 684.
14
Judith N. Shklar, ‘The Liberalism of Fear’ (1989), in Shklar, Political Thought and Political Thinkers (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1998), p. 3.
15
Francis Fukuyama, ‘The End of History?’, The National Interest, 16 (Center for the National Interest, 1989) p.
3, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/24027184> (Accessed 18/07/18).

11
of liberalism present in the West, and both do so through simplification of liberal values and the

history of liberalism.

However, Bell’s synthesis of liberalisms demonstrates that the term has been applied to the

federal project-led semi-capitalism of Roosevelt and the chattel slavery of post-War of

Independence America alongside modern market capitalism, and is likewise subject to gross misuse

such as when ‘American ultra-conservatives conflate liberalism with both fascism and Marxism’

despite their actual upholding of neo-classical economics and libertarian social policy. 16 Liberalism is

thus left in a constant state of flux as its definitions vary wildly between those employed by various

political theorists and policy institutes, those held in common understanding between lay people,

and the forms of liberalism which are actually represented in executive and judicial branches of

‘liberal’ governments. Due to this and the relative lack of expertise held by many doom metal

musicians in political theory, questioning the tenets of liberalism is a topic rarely broached within

the genre, even though artists often claim to support escaping from social norms and rebelling

against traditional authority and hierarchy. This arguably demonstrates a level of complicity toward

neoliberal establishments that is not present in more directly anti-authoritarian music genres such as

hardcore punk, which have included Marxist and anarchist tendencies.

Complicity also requires some further discussion in the context of Gramsci’s cultural

hegemony.17 It is described by Lears as ‘subordinate groups participating in maintaining a symbolic

universe, even if it serves to legitimate their domination’, which can encompass any aspect of

culture.18 The neoliberal consensus that has dominated political thought (and much of broadcast

media) in the West throughout the duration of doom metal’s existence has formed a hegemonic

structure that enforces premises such as negative liberty being the acceptable version of freedom.

For many doom metal musicians this has made advocating for transformative political change

16
Bell, ‘What is Liberalism?’, pp. 690-2.
17
T. J. Jackson Lears, ‘The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities’, The American Historical
Review, 90:3, (Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 568.
18
Ibid., p. 573.

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difficult, as without understanding of political theory they may lack the expressive tools to make

such critiques. In addition, until recently many bands have required the support of market capitalism

in order to transform their artistic intent into a viable livelihood and thus become economically

complicit in the enforcement of negative liberty and neoliberalism, even if they hold objections to

these systems. The move towards Bandcamp, the resurgence of vinyl and the rise of many

independent record labels and metal festivals has somewhat mitigated this issue by establishing a

more tangible connection between artist, fan and medium, whilst a combination of increased genre-

fluidity and easily accessible information on political theory has seen a greater number of doom

metal musicians making more complex and aggressive critiques of neoliberal society, in comparison

to their predecessors.19

The pursuit of liberty

The most noticeable political expression visible in doom metal imagery and lyrics is the pursuit of

individual freedom, which is commonly juxtaposed against a controlling or deceitful world. The form

of freedom sought varies between artists, with some describing a transformative process leading to

liberty (which appears to fall under the definition of positive liberty) whilst others describe freedoms

typically associated with negative liberty. Doom metal musicians often position themselves as

aspiring to escape from the means of social control, which fits with the genre’s interest in escapism

more generally, as well as more general anti-establishment narratives delivered within alternative

19
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, ‘Record sales: vinyl hits 25-year high’, The Guardian, 3rd January 2017,
<https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/03/record-sales-vinyl-hits-25-year-high-and-outstrips-
streaming> (Accessed 23/8/18).

13
popular music. In doom metal lyrics and album artworks, freedom is achieved in a variety of ways

including drug use, embarking on creative projects and eschewing normative working life (echoing

the aspirations of the musicians themselves), driving away from society into wilderness as a literal

form of uninhibited escape, or accelerationist and fantastical motifs such as interstellar travel. These

methods are often contrasted with a deterministic viewpoint that despite one’s striving for freedom,

it may be impossible or illusory: this is the ‘doom’ of doom metal.

The first doom metal song that openly mentions a desire for liberty is Black Sabbath’s 1971

track Into the Void, which describes ‘Freedom fighters sent out to the sun’ who travel through space

before finding ‘a world unknown/Where the sons of freedom make their home.’ 20 In the same

stroke, the band also provided a model for future doom metal bands to develop their own narratives

based on space fantasy such as Deltanaut, whose eponymous 2018 release includes the line ‘a place

beyond the stars/To cast aside these chains that make us what we are.’ Black Sabbath had previously

explored sci-fi themes in their 1970 song Planet Caravan which describes a journey through ‘endless

skies’ with the narrator’s lover. The freedom offered in Planet Caravan is represented through the

ability to travel endlessly that the characters enjoy, ignoring the financial and technological

restrictions that would prevent such a journey in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. Album

artworks from bands such as Enos, Shepherd and Sleep continue these accelerationist themes into

the present day, continuing to reflect a yearning on the part of doom metal musicians to escape

normative society in a literal, spatial sense.

20
Black Sabbath, ‘Into the Void’, in Master of Reality (Vertigo, 1971).

14
Clockwise from top-left: Enos, All Too Human; Shepherd, Stereolithic Riffocalypse;
Slabdragger, Rise of the Dawncrusher; Sleep, The Sciences.

15
 On Black Sabbath’s fourth album (released a year after Into the Void), the final track Under

the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes decries those who would ‘interfere with your mind’ and states

that ‘I wanna live my life with no people telling me what to do’. 21 The song also attacks religious

dogma and placing trust in others, with the ultimate advice being ‘Just live your life and leave them

all behind’. The song advocates an extreme form of negative freedom that borders on solipsism, as

Osbourne sings ‘I just believe in myself because no one else is true…Just believe in yourself’,

although another lyric in the last verse states ‘So believe what I tell you’, which appears to contradict

the song’s appeal to self-direction and introduces a layer of irony to the song, indicating an element

of self-awareness regarding the song’s extreme position. Two months prior to the song’s release as

part of Volume 4, Ozzy argued that ‘If you haven’t got your own mind and can’t do what you want,

you’re not an individual, just part of a mass’, which bears strong similarities to the preceding lyrics

whilst authenticating the band’s libertarian advocacy. 22 Although Black Sabbath approached the

pursuit of freedom in different ways, there is a consistent division established between the narrator

(and by extension the listener, acting as a confidante) and the outside society, which is described as

being ‘brainwashed’, ‘hateful’ and ‘empty’. In Metal Rules the Globe, the authors argue that this

relationship stems from rapid globalisation of ‘neoliberal, ‘free market’ capitalism’, causing people to

‘retreat into individuated identities, dividing the world into rigid dichotomies.’ 23

In 1982 Pentagram composed You’re Lost I’m Free, which similarly establishes a dichotomy

between the song’s narrator pursuing or possessing freedom and their incumbent society which

21
Black Sabbath, ‘Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes’, in Vol. 4, (Vertigo, 1972).
22
Harold Bronson, ‘The Wit & Wisdom of Ozzy Osbourne or For the Best Coke Call Black Sabbath’, UCLA Daily
Bruin, 30th June 1972, <https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-wit--wisdom-of-ozzy-osbourne-
or-for-the-best-coke-call-black-sabbath> (Accessed 17/08/18).
23
Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, Paul D. Greene, ‘Affective overdrive, scene dynamics, and identity in the
global metal scene’, in Metal Rules The Globe, ed. Wallach, Berger and Greene, (Duke University Press, 2011)
pp. 5-7.

16
contains ‘fairy tales’ that prevent agents from achieving freedom through illusion and deception. 24

While You’re Lost I’m Free merely describes those being addressed as ‘lost’ and the narrator as being

‘free’ and Under the Sun emphasises self-directed freedom, Into the Void describes a transformative

process that leads to freedom via space travel, reflecting a form of positive liberty. The diversity of

freedoms advocated by early doom metal bands indicates that the genre did serve as a vehicle for

critique, but was not bound to a particular ideology. Indeed, Ozzy Osbourne stated in a 1970

interview that ‘we’re not a political band, it’s just that most of our songs have messages’, suggesting

that when Black Sabbath made social commentaries they emerged intuitively, rather than deriving

from a theoretical basis.25 The band’s lack of experience in critical theory may have also contributed

to this approach toward social critique, alongside a potential unwillingness for the band members to

identify themselves with radical politics given the reputation of the pacifist-Marxist hippie

movement and the New Left which followed. In the early 1970s with the Heath government in

power and Black Sabbath signing to Vertigo (owned jointly by conglomerate firms Philips and

Siemens as part of Polygram Records); making strident ideological criticism may have been seen as a

dangerous career move.

In the twenty-first century, the model of a deceptive ‘them’ and a truthful ‘us’ has been

extended and developed upon by bands such as Pallbearer. On their 2012 track An Offering of Grief,

Brett Campbell sings ‘In this harsh world of deception, I will stand up once more/ And find within

myself the strength to stumble again.’ 26 Although the narrator is still pursuing liberty and agency,

they acknowledge the potential for personal failure in doing so, but still would clearly prefer to be

free to make mistakes, rather than be deceived by society regarding their agency. Other discursive

models have also emerged, such as Thou’s 2014 track Free Will, which argues that ‘there is only this

moment’ in which to embrace liberty and revelry through ‘sweet, reckless action’, but does not offer

24
Pentagram, ‘You’re Lost I’m Free’, in Relentless, (Pentagram, 1982).
25
Richard Green, ‘Black Sabbath win struggle against Black Magic tag’, NME, 26th September 1970, (London:
IPC), <https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbath-win-struggle-against-black-magic-tag>
(Accessed 17/08/18).
26
Pallbearer, ‘An Offering of Grief’, in Sorrow and Extinction, (Profound Lore, 2012).

17
any freedom in the longer term and in fact decries ‘useless philosophy, theory and poetry’. 27 By

restricting the possibility of liberty to a single cathartic moment, Thou are implying that the ability of

agents to achieve permanent or transformative freedom is far less likely than other doom metal

artists have suggested.

In drone metal, a genre that coalesced after the ‘End of History’ in the 1990s, the absence of

lyrics has been described by Coggins as ‘ineffability…[it] resists musical structuring and, by extension,

resists language as an analogue of that structure.’ 28 Instead of making any form of lyrical

commentary, artists such as Sunn O))), Earth and Bong focus entirely on delivering soundscapes that

have to ‘be experienced rather than understood’, circumventing the need for discourse by

eschewing language; note the use of negative space in the artworks below. Coggins compares this

self-obfuscation to blackletter font in an article discussing ‘metaphors for the inaccessible’ and draws

them together through their relation to mysticism. 29 Heavy metal has often used blackletter fonts

and mystic symbolism as part of the genre’s aesthetic, in part because it enables artists to forgo

‘worldly’ discourses in favour of those surrounding the ancient and arcane. In the context of drone

metal particularly, this seems to be a more advanced iteration of the resignation espoused by doom

metal musicians; more than admitting there are greater powers that seem unchangeable in the face

of a single person’s agency, lyric-less drone metal falls short of making any type of comment,

implying that even the agency to speak has been removed.

27
Thou, ‘Free Will’, in Heathen, (Gilead Media, 2014).
28
Owen Coggins, Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal, (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), pp. 68-70.
29
Owen Coggins, ‘Unstable Metaphors for the Inaccessible: Mysticism, Blackletter, Drone Metal’, in
Sustain//Decay, ed. Owen Coggins and James Harris (Void Front Press, 2017),
<https://www.academia.edu/35723716/Unstable_Metaphors_for_the_Inaccessible_Mysticism_Blackletter_Dr
one_Metal> (Accessed 24/08/2018).

18
Left-right: Sunn O))),
ØØ Void; Earth, Earth
2: Special Low
Frequency Version.

The use of psychedelics by musicians is often described as a means to achieve a form of

artistic freedom by accessing novel modes of thought, echoing writers such as Aldous Huxley and

reflecting contemporary psychedelic advocates such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, who ran the

infamous Electric Acid Tests.30 Doom metal has long had an association with drug use originating

with Black Sabbath’s Sweet Leaf, which is an ode to cannabis wherein Ozzy proclaims ‘My life is free

now, my life is clear’ following using the drug. 31 Although Black Sabbath may have wished to avoid

identifying themselves with a political movement as mentioned above, referring to drug use in music

was actually less controversial by the early 1970s due to the success of psychedelic rock with major

artists such as The Beatles, Cream and the Grateful Dead. However, the band were not wholly pro-

drug use, and on their second album Paranoid they included two songs which explicitly warn against

abusing drugs, Hand of Doom and Fairies Wear Boots. Tony Iommi also avoided mentioning a

connection between the band and drug use in a 1972 interview; when questioned about their

dedication to the ‘COKE-Cola Company’ on the liner notes for their fourth album, he said ‘You can

take that Coke thing two ways. We did an advert for Coca Cola for the TV. I don't want to say more

than that actually. It can be taken two ways.’ 32 As it is now known that the band consumed more

cocaine during the production of Vol. 4 than the cost of recording the album (£80,000 not adjusted

30
Victor Kennedy, Strange Brew: Metaphors of Magic and Science in Rock Music, (Newcastle-upon-Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 55-6.
31
Black Sabbath, ‘Sweet Leaf’, in Master of Reality, (Vertigo, 1971).
32
Charles Shaar Murray, ‘Black Sabbath: Satan, The Bomb And Geezer's Dreams’ in NME, 28th October 1972
(London: IPC), <https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbath-satan-the-bomb-and-geezers-
dreams> (Accessed 24/08/18).

19
for inflation), Iommi’s statements can be seen as an attempt to maintain his public image as a

respectable musician, at the cost of his own freedom of expression and agency. 33

In the 1980s, White Stallions by Saint Vitus proclaimed that the titular stallions (a metaphor

for cocaine) ‘Took me to the promised land/Where everything is free’, whilst Witchfinder General

titled a song entirely about using various drugs Free Country.34 However, these discussions of drugs

were confined to lyrics rather than explicated in album artworks, in the era of D.A.R.E, the PMRC

hearings and moral panics centred on Satanism, with heavy metal often being linked to its practice.

However, by the early 1990s ‘stoner metal’ had emerged as a discrete subgenre within doom metal,

which combined the colourful and fantastical imagery of 1960s psychedelic and progressive rock

with the leaden tones of doom metal. The genre emerged at a similar period to the Second Summer

of Love of 1989, and the notion that drugs such as MDMA could be used as a tool to spread freedom

and community-building as well as a form of social rebellion was gaining traction within a

counterculture that was responding to the morally conservative attitudes of the Thatcher and

Reagan eras. Monster Magnet’s 1991 track Spine of God summed up this outlook with the line ‘My

mind is so free… Peace is what you get from the Chemical King’. 35 Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone

posits that the sounds of doom metal combined with cannabis use could be used for liberation with

the line ‘Vision through THC/Holy feedback, it will free’, whilst Sleep’s stoner metal epic Dopesmoker

refers to marijuana as ‘freedomseed’, which suggests that potential liberty is held inside the plant

and could be unlocked through its use. 36

33
Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler, in Heavy Metal Britannia, dir. Chris Rodley, (BBC4, 7th March 2010),
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpVVicUuQ8> (Accessed 24/08/18).
34
Saint Vitus, ‘White Stallions’, in Hallow’s Victim, (SST, 1985); Witchfinder General, ‘Free Country’, in Death
Penalty, (Heavy Metal, 1982).
35
Monster Magnet, ‘Spine of God’, in Spine of God, (Caroline, 1991).
36
Electric Wizard, ‘Dopethrone’, in Dopethrone, (Rise Above, 2000); Sleep, Dopesmoker, (Rise Above, 1999).

20
 Left-right: Monster Magnet, Spine of
God; Sleep, Dopesmoker.
Although psychedelic drugs have been advocated by many doom metal musicians as a

means of achieving personal and artistic freedom, there are factors which complicate such beliefs.

Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, the punk musician who arguably defined the ‘straight-edge’ movement

within punk, describes drug use as ‘a rather inert form of rebellion because you’re neutralising

yourself’ instead of dissenting through direct action. 37 For musicians such as MacKaye, one’s

freedom is actually reduced through drug use instead of expanded, although he speaks from within a

genre that places the onus upon positive instead of negative liberty which is a marked difference

from doom metal. Sludge metal group Eyehategod demonstrate the negative aspects of drug abuse

with lyrics such as ‘Through chemicals and meditation/I find myself/Denying society and the laws of

undoing/Our temple of denial’ and an album named Dopesick.38 Far from glorifying drug use, the

band’s violent and explicit imagery and sound attempt to convey a grim reality where drug use fails

to change the narrator for the better, instead using chemicals as a means of coping. However,

Eyehategod are almost alone in such statements within doom metal, thus limiting their impact.

Moreover, by purchasing and using illicit drugs doom metal musicians are still engaged in a

neoliberal system which often rests on an exploitative and criminal supply chain. Bongzilla’s track

37
Ian MacKaye, in Daniel Dylan Wray, ‘Ian MacKaye doesn’t do many interviews, but this is one of his most
enlightening’, Loud and Quiet, 66, (loudandquiet.com, 6th May 2015),
<https://www.loudandquiet.com/interview/ian-mackaye-dischord/> (Accessed 30/08/2018).
38
Eyehategod, ‘Pigs’, in In the Name of Suffering, (Intellectual Convulsion, 1990).

21
Prohibition (4th Amendment) cites the titular amendment in full as its refrain, whilst the verses list

various cannabis strains, which reflects home-growing culture in the United States; this song was

written before the recent changes in legislature in some states that have permitted personal

cultivation.39 However, acquiring harder drugs such as cocaine is an implicitly unethical act due to

the methods of creating, transporting and distributing the product. This leaves musicians who used

cocaine such as Black Sabbath or Saint Vitus in a compromised position, whereby they promote the

supposedly freedom-enhancing properties of drugs that are created through un-free and

exploitative means, echoing their incumbent society which markets products that enhance agents’

negative freedom (such as mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo for coltan, used in

smartphones) that are produced by exploiting the resources and labour of nations and people that

are decidedly more limited in their ability to exercise such liberties.

Another way in which doom metal has envisioned freedom is through imagery relating to

driving, particularly in the American desert, giving rise to a subgenre of doom metal known as

‘desert rock’. This has been notably employed by bands such as Clutch, Kyuss, Truckfighters and Fu

Manchu, who use images of classic cars in their album artworks and lyrics to portray a version of

negative freedom that borders on futurism. In many Fu Manchu songs the lyrical focus entirely rests

on the narrator, his car (and the speeds achieved), drug use and meeting women, culminating in the

lyric ‘I’m king of the road!’ in Seahag.40 This sentiment evokes a form of ‘manifest destiny’ whereby

the driver is in control of the vehicle, his substance use and relationships, with the demonstration of

agency deriving from one’s ability to expend available resources. However, although the agent in

question may feel that they are free to do as they please they are still bound to neoliberal ideals

through their use of consumer goods both legal and illicit, and their unwillingness to transform their

surrounding society. This leads to the conclusion that the more resources one is able to expend the

more ‘free’ one has become, albeit viewed primarily within the bounds of negative liberty.

39
Bongzilla, ‘Prohibition (4th Amendment)’, in Stash, (Relapse, 1999).
40
Fu Manchu, ‘Seahag’, in In Search Of…, (Mammoth, 1996).

22
Interestingly, desert rock has found favour in Europe with bands such as Greece’s 1000Mods and

Sweden’s Truckfighters adopting its aesthetic tropes, such as fast cars and scantily-clad women. This

appears to indicate the dominance of American aesthetics outside of its borders, to the extent that

even cultural apparatus considered to be rebellious such as metal music is still reliant on a cultural
Left-right: 1000Mods, Super Van Vacation; Fu Manchu, In Search Of….
hegemon for inspiration.

Use of desert imagery can also be seen as a continuation of the more general American

fascination with the Old West, traditionally envisioned as a place where individual freedom was

unabated. This imagery also encompasses that of the semi-heroic Western outlaw, developed in

American culture through films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the subgenre of

outlaw country. Kyuss’ track Freedom Run reflects this portrayal, with the narrator claiming that they

‘Walked hundreds of miles of desert sun… I’ll break through/I’ll steal for you’. 41 Bongzilla’s Stone a

Pig combines outlaw imagery with psychedelia in the lyric ‘Runnin’ fast and flying free/We just

wanna get stoned/Twenty-four more days to go/Texas justice is chasin’ me’, which further

emphasises the supposedly rebellious nature of psychedelic use whilst linking it to the image of the

American outlaw.42 Although the narrators’ self-portrayal is that of a lone wanderer, in order for

them to make a literary recording of their story through music the narrator implicitly must return to

41
Kyuss, ‘Freedom Run’, in Blues for the Red Sun, (Dali, 1992).
42
Bongzilla, ‘Stone a Pig’, in Gateway, (Relapse, 2002).

23
society, specifically one that affords modern recording equipment and the apparatus of record label

distribution. In this way, these musicians are following the patterns of the Hero’s Journey

investigated by Campbell, wherein the hero must make a return to normative society in order to

report their adventures.43 By focusing so prominently on negative liberty (the form of freedom

endorsed by neoliberal discourse) rather than advocating social change, these musicians are

revealed as perhaps more ideologically conformist than their public images as transgressive outlaws

would initially suggest. Some artists even border on performative and ironic uses of these tropes,

such as Bongzilla’s Amerijuanican, which deliberately conflates symbols of American heroism (the

flag, national anthem and military personnel) with cannabis use. However, the majority of such

artists maintain authenticity in their explorations of negative liberty, consistently returning to outlaw

aesthetics without irony.

Left-right: Bongzilla, Amerijuanican; Bort, Crossing the Desert.

The varied appeals to liberty made by doom metal musicians are contrasted with a

deterministic and resigned tone that pervades other songs, and is arguably the basis for the genre’s

name. Black Sabbath’s eponymous song, the track that incorporated the infamously dissonant

tritone as its main riff and inspired scores of musicians to explore darker tonalities, describes a

43
Joseph Campbell, ‘Monomyth (hero's quest or journey)’, Salem Press Encyclopedia (EBSCO Publishing, 2014),
Research Starters, EBSCOhost.org (accessed August 30, 2018).

24
nightmare experienced by bassist ‘Geezer’ Butler involving a ‘figure in black which points at me’.

When the narrator ‘Find[s] out I’m the chosen one’ and despairs with the following line ‘Oh please

God help me’, the band introduced concepts which have become common in doom metal; great and

unknowable power (often represented by fantasy monsters, gods or aliens), and a resignation to

one’s fate which is often in thrall to this power, accompanied by the knowledge that one’s agency

will be limited by this greater being. 44 This is particularly demonstrated by the genre’s abiding

interest in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos, which derives its horror not only from lurid descriptions of

the Great Old Ones, but also from the insignificance of human action or knowledge in the face of

these beings and their powers.45 On Pallbearer’s 2014 track The Ghost I Used to Be the narrator is

‘Accepting fate…No paths I see now…And with a spectral breath I’m begging to be freed.’ 46 These

lyrics explore the apparently total hegemony that has come to characterise neoliberalism, wherein

the ‘End of History’ has come to dominate collective narratives to the extent that genuine political

change seems far-fetched, and thus total liberty remains elusive. Challenges to the neoliberal order

have only re-emerged in the past few years, with the rise of authoritarian nationalists such as Donald

Trump on the right wing, and a revival of socialism emanating from the left in the form of Jeremy

Corbyn or Bernie Sanders. These resurgences from opposing ideological wings have been met with

stiff resistance from advocates of neoliberalism, such as Tony Blair’s repeated calls for the founding

of a centrist party that he claims would offer ‘an acceptable choice’ to the swing voters who were

critical to New Labour’s victories in 1997 and 2001. 47 In doom metal there are a greater number of

artists who advocate for negative liberty, with those arguing for positive liberty re-emerging

relatively recently. This suggests that the genre has absorbed a semblance of the larger ideological

zeitgeist.

44
Black Sabbath, ‘Black Sabbath’, in Black Sabbath (Vertigo, 1970).
45
David Burke, Esoteric Symbolism in Doom Metal... p. 14.
46
Pallbearer, ‘The Ghost I Used to Be’, in Foundations of Burden, (Profound Lore, 2014).
47
Tony Blair, in Jim Pickard and Henry Mance, ‘Tony Blair hints at creation of UK centrist party’, Financial
Times, (London: FT.com, 7th September 2018) <https://www.ft.com/content/24237acc-b270-11e8-8d14-
6f049d06439c> (Accessed 8/09/2018).

25
Social and political criticism

Although doom metal’s artists often focus on escaping society and attaining some greater degree of

agency or liberty, there also exists a tacit understanding that one cannot escape the neoliberal

conditions that control much of the industrialised modern world. This has resulted in many artists

developing lyrical material which is despondent, angry or grieving, but stops short of identifying the

specific cause of the narrator’s negative emotional responses. A passing example would be Cough’s

Crippled Wizard which describes ‘A once immortal reduced to ash/Broken throne/Dying alone’,

which avoids linking the darkness envisioned in the lyrics to a real-world institution or event in

favour of using allegory, in the process removing the writer’s own perspective from the work. 48 This

means that many songs’ intended meanings become subject to conjecture, making them more

flexible for doom listeners who can apply the lyrics to their own experiences whilst limiting the

potential for said songs to function as social critique. Other artists such as Melvins use assemblages

of phrases that border on nonsensical, using the sounds of the words to complement the

instrumentation rather than using language for its traditional function of transmitting meaning. 49

This is arguably an evasive manoeuvre that allows the band to refrain from making any form of

critical statement within their work. However, there also exists a group of doom metal artists who

have developed overt commentaries on the societies around them, often in bald, confrontational

terms that cross over into the lyrical style of punk musicians. The focus of these commentaries often

rests on social structures and class friction, pointing out inequalities that exist within industrial

society and criticising the powerful and wealthy for their privilege. Another recurrent topic is

48
Cough, ‘Crippled Wizard’, in Ritual Abuse, (Relapse, 2010).
49
Melvins, ‘Hooch’, in Houdini, (Atlantic, 1993).

26
criticism of warfare and the military-industrial complex, a theme that has been more commonly

associated with the thrash subgenre popular in the mid-1980s.

Perhaps the most prominent theme discussed by doom metal artists is that of social

exclusion, whereby aspects of the narrator’s society are critiqued in reference to their ostracization

from normative life and their inability (or unwillingness) to conform. This theme has existed as part

of the genre since Black Sabbath’s second album Paranoid which includes several songs to this

effect, most notably Iron Man, which is one of doom metal’s best-recognised tracks amongst wider

audiences. The song describes a figure who travels forward in time ‘for the future of mankind’ but

upon his return ‘nobody wants him/they just turn their heads.’ 50 By emphasising the moral duty that

the iron man performs and his subsequent ostracization, Black Sabbath again reinforce the

dichotomy of a protagonist or narrator that possesses some degree of higher knowledge that may

benefit society, against a wilfully ignorant or deceitful ‘them’. Unlike the examples of Black Sabbath

lyrics used in the previous section however, in Iron Man there is no mention of subsequent liberty;

instead there are threats of ‘vengeance’ upon the ‘people he once saved’, a retribution in response

for his social exclusion and the failure of society to heed his warnings.

Whilst this hints at a social conscience present in Black Sabbath that amounts to a form of

direct action, albeit in a fantastical fashion, Tony Iommi claimed in a 1971 interview that ‘We haven't

got the power to try and direct people in politics or anything else… [these songs] are just our

opinions.’51 However, Iommi was not the lyricist for the group and thus his statement requires

further interrogation. His more professional background as a guitarist (he had successfully

auditioned for Jethro Tull prior to joining Black Sabbath) compared to the other band members may

have caused this attempt to limit the critical potential of the band’s early work. Tellingly, in a 1973

interview he agrees with the interviewer that he is a ‘capitalist’ who ‘does not even see the need to

50
Black Sabbath, ‘Iron Man’, in Paranoid, (Vertigo, 1970).
51
Tony Iommi, in Richard Green, ‘Black Sabbath: Simple and Basic’, Hit Parader (Charlton Publications, July
1971), <https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbath-simple-and-basic> (Accessed
5/09/2018).

27
apologise for being rich and successful.’52 Contrasting this with Ozzy Osbourne’s statement that

‘most of our songs have messages’, Iommi comes across as disinterested in social commentary

entirely and willing to downplay controversy in order to maintain his personal credibility as a

musician, which is also reflected in the increasingly progressive style and complex instrumentation of

Black Sabbath’s albums in the mid-to-late 1970s, and his eventual commandeering of the band’s

name and rights following the departure of Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward.

Saint Vitus’ Born Too Late describes social exclusion as applied to the heavy metal subculture

itself, with lines referring to ‘my length of hair/and the out-of-date clothes I wear’, but the chorus

lyric ‘I will never be like you’ cuts to the core of the issue. 53 The metal subculture has been

repeatedly described as a safe haven for disenfranchised youth who are unable to conform to the

norms of industrialised societies, offering a sense of community and ‘protecting themselves from

social threats to their mental health and wellbeing’ that manifest within normalised discourses such

as schools and places of employment.54 In this way songs like Born Too Late which celebrate aspects

of the metal subculture carry the potential for infrapolitical resistance; by belonging to a non-

conformist community individuals are able to regain some degree of agency, to the point at which

they can form critiques against hegemony. 55 In their use of outlaw imagery desert rock artists

consciously identify themselves as outsiders, granting themselves the legitimacy to advocate for

their supposedly uninhibited lifestyles. Barbarian by Electric Wizard includes a refrain which

summarises this tension between normative social groups and those that come to identify with

heavy metal subcultures; ‘You think you’re civilised, but you will never understand.’ 56 The notion of

52
Tony Iommi, in Keith Altham, ‘Black Sabbath: Sabbath Days of Rest’, NME, 1st September 1973 (London: IPC),
<https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbath-sabbath-days-of-rest> (Accessed
7/09/2018).
53
Saint Vitus, ‘Born too Late’, in Born too Late, (SST, 1986).
54
Paula Rowe, ‘Becoming metal: narrative reflections on the early
formation and embodiment of heavy metal identities’, Journal of Youth Studies, 20:6 (Routledge, 2017) p. 713.
55
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, (Routledge, 1979) p. 80; Viren Swami, ‘Metalheads: The
Influence of Personality and Individual Differences on Preference for Heavy Metal’, Psychology of Aesthetics,
Creativity, and the Arts, 7:4, (APA, 2013), p. 381.
56
Electric Wizard, ‘Barbarian’, in Dopethrone, (Rise Above, 2000).

28
self-delusion also appears in this lyric, arguing that those who engage in normative social practice

are denying some ‘true’ part of their identity.

Doom metal musicians have also commented more directly upon the social structures that

caused this tension, such as in Black Sabbath’s Wheels of Confusion, which describes how inequality

is maintained in neoliberal society in its final verse: ‘So I found that life is just a game/But you know

there's never been a winner/Try your hardest, you'll still be a loser/The world will still be turning

when you're gone.’57 Harrison adds that ‘the last lines speak of the constant nature of modernity

which disregards those that cannot contribute’ within proscribed boundaries of economic output

and social conformity, whilst the metal subculture offers those that fall outside of these boundaries

a communal experience they may otherwise have been unable to access. 58 Witchfinder General

describes this on Invisible Hate, with the narrator firstly identifying socio-economic inequality with

the lyric ‘Economy it fills my mind/I don't know where to turn/The laws, the rights, the outta

sights/You know they all should burn’, but describes their feeling toward this injustice as ‘invisible

hate’, which reflects an inability to advocate social change due to ‘People saying…that’s none of my

concern’.59 Both of the above examples display an intuitive grasp of Marxist dialectics insofar as

understanding that one’s material conditions determine socioeconomic reality, and that wholesale

revolution (represented as ‘burn’ing by Witchfinder General) is necessary to dismantle the systems

that maintain these material conditions, despite the members of both bands lacking this surrounding

theoretical knowledge.

Other musicians that turn to doom metal as their preferred medium take influence from

other popular genres, with punk being a notable crossover point. The punk and metal scenes merged

regularly in the 1980s with bands such as Saint Vitus being signed to SST, the independent label

founded by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn, although the band’s sound and outlook were wholly
57
Black Sabbath, ‘Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener’, in Vol. 4, (Vertigo, 1972).
58
Leigh Michael Harrison, ‘Factory Music: How The Industrial Geography and Working-Class Environment of
Post-War Birmingham Fostered the Birth of Heavy Metal’, in Journal of Social History, 44:1, (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010), p. 149.
59
Witchfinder General, ‘Invisible Hate’, in Death Penalty, (Heavy Metal, 1982).

29
derived from heavy metal aesthetics. Both doom metal and hardcore punk remained relatively

independent throughout the decade, unlike other subgenres of metal which received major label

attention, and this ensured that doom metal musicians maintained their outsider status until the

early 1990s, when stoner rock had a brief moment of mainstream popularity in the wake of grunge’s

meteoric success. Sleep’s earliest release Volume 1 includes a track entitled The Suffering, which

details the ‘pain inside my head [which] tries to control my life’ discussed by Lears in his analysis of

Gramsci’s understanding of complicity.60 Other bands such as Corrosion of Conformity and Neurosis

originated as hardcore punk groups before gravitating toward a slower and denser sound. Corrosion

of Conformity’s fifth album Wiseblood includes tracks such as Long Whip/Big America, which

combine the sonic palettes of stoner rock and doom metal with a lyrical sensibility closer to punk in

lines such as ‘some D.C. suit trying to break away, said he lost another million… good thing he knows

his bible.’61

On Thou’s 2008 track The Work Ethic Myth, the sludge metal band describe the ways in

which economic inequality is perpetuated in stark and specific terms: ‘We have paved the roads that

have led to our own oppression. Fear of the unknown, of rejection, has put brutes and villains in

power…We are the accomplice class: footstools for our masters, spineless bastards all.’ 62 Singer

Bryan Funck has stated that the band ‘all come from punk’ backgrounds rather than originally

identifying within metal subcultures, resulting in a less allegorical lyrical style that uses a more

accusative tone on some of their songs.63 On their 2009 song Don’t Vote the lyrics discuss a

perceived lack of difference between Republicans and Democrats, arguing that ‘their party line

separation is a phantasm haunting reason’, and that ‘there won’t be any change’ as a consequence

of new elected representatives; this line suggests a suspicion of Barack Obama’s then newly-instated

60
Sleep, ‘The Suffering’, in Volume 1, (Tupelo, 1991); T. J. Jackson Lears, ‘The Concept of Cultural Hegemony’…
p. 569.
61
Corrosion of Conformity, ‘Long Whip/Big America’, in Wiseblood, (Columbia, 1996).
62
Thou, ‘The Work Ethic Myth’, in Peasant, (Autopsy Kitchen, 2008).
63
Bryan Funck, in Sean Reveron, ‘Heathen! An in-depth interview with Bryan Funck of Thou’, CVLTNation.com,
(6th February 2017), <https://www.cvltnation.com/heathen-depth-interview-bryan-funck-thou/> (Accessed
6/09/2018).

30
administration as continuing the neoliberal economic policies of their predecessors, instead of

tackling economic inequality directly.64 The band’s ire is thus directed at systemic socio-economic

oppression which cannot be removed through ordinary democratic processes, leading them to

instead advocate for direct action, claiming that ‘we will aim our rifles and fire at every statesman.’

Primitive Man are another example of this doom-punk crossover who employ a blunt lyrical

style to identify social issues in layman’s terms instead of using allegory, and like Thou their stance is

decidedly against neoliberal capitalism. On Commerce they describe ‘socio-economic slavery…a

system meant to fail us…paycheck to paycheck/Your essence is dead but slavery is forever’, which

focuses the sentiment of Wheels of Confusion into more incisive and tangible grievances. 65 Another

song argues for the existence of ‘the poor man’s burden…control them with financial suffering.’ 66

Both Thou and Primitive Man display a more attuned understanding of the mechanisms that

maintain socio-economic inequality than the doom metal musicians of an older generation

mentioned above. This more complex knowledge can be ascribed both to their punk backgrounds

where discussions of class and economics are more prevalent than in metal circles, and to the

comparative ease of accessing information in the twenty-first century in contrast to the twentieth as

a result of affordable computers and internet. The band has also approached racial inequality in their

music, which is derived from the singer’s own mixed-race background and experiences. 67 On their

track Disfigured Ethan McCarthy proclaims ‘Great grandmother a slave/Though light-skinned/I will

never be free…Eviscerated by race relations’, which explores a different form of tension to that

experienced by the majority of heavy metal fans, who are predominantly of European descent in the

industrialised West.68

64
Thou, ‘Don’t Vote’, in Degradation of Human Life, (Feast of Tentacles, 2009).
65
Primitive Man, ‘Commerce’, in Caustic, (Relapse, 2017).
66
Primitive Man, ‘Inevitable’, in Caustic, (Relapse, 2017).
67
Ethan McCarthy, in Vince Bellino, ‘Track Premiere & Interview: Primitive Man – “Commerce”’, Decibel,
(Decibelmagazine.com, 7th September 2017), <https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/09/07/track-
premiere-interview-primitive-man-commerce/> (Accessed 7/09/2018).
68
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture, (Da Capo Press, 2000) p. 99.

31
 Primitive Man, Caustic.

Following from the pacifist attitude of the hippie movement, doom metal bands have also

protested against warfare and criticised how those in power often exploit working-class labour in

military conflict. The most famous example of this is Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, which overtly

describes this relationship: ‘Politicians hide themselves away/They only started the war/Why should

they go out to fight?/They leave that role to the poor.’ 69 As with Wheels of Confusion, lyricist Butler

demonstrates a socio-political awareness that is based in class conflict, between those who ‘treat

people just like pawns in chess’ and the proletariat who are coerced through their poor economic

standing to serve this elite. Butler stated in a 2010 interview that he defined ‘War Pigs’ as ‘ the real

Satanists: all these people who are running the banks and the world, and trying to get the working

class to fight their wars for them.’70 On the same album, the track Hand of Doom focuses on heroin

69
Black Sabbath, ‘War Pigs’, in Paranoid, (Vertigo, 1970).
70
Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler, in ‘Paranoid’, Classic Albums, dir. Matthew Longfellow, (BBC & Isis Productions, 1st
May 2010).

32
abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, but also describes how soldiers underwent a process of

‘disillusioning’ during tours of duty, leading them to adopt drug use as a way to escape ‘the

bomb/Vietnam, napalm’.71 In the 1980s Saint Vitus claimed that War is our Destiny, describing a

period of increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union with lines including

‘These men…are like you and me/The only thing that’s different/Is their destiny.’ 72 The song also

focuses on how advancements in technology have enabled increased destructive power on both

sides, and acknowledges that in the event of the Cold War escalating into military conflict ‘we’re all

sucked into this unholy curse.’

M. Selim Yavuz has discussed how death-doom bands such as Anathema have included anti-

war sentiments in their work in the form of lamenting the death of soldiers. 73 This arguably takes a

more passive stance towards military conflict than that of bands such as Black Sabbath or High on

Fire, whose Rumors of War attacks the ‘tyrant’ responsible for ‘sacrificing sons and daughters’; these

tracks are more obviously critical of the power structures that enable large-scale military conflict to

occur.74 Yavuz argues that this passivity is reflected in fans’ understanding of death-doom music,

with ’83% of participants mentioning lyrics as a major factor’ driving their listening, but ‘none

mentioned the anti-war themes’ presented. 75 It appears that death-doom artists may be merely

employing the consequences of warfare as a portrayal of grief without attempting to form a social

commentary to discuss its ethical implications, but even if this is untrue, any critiques made are

being ignored by listeners. This likely stems from death-doom’s position as a subgenre ‘occupied

with the darker spectrum of human emotion’ as opposed to one concerned with material conditions

or fantastical narratives.76

71
Black Sabbath, ‘Hand of Doom’, in Paranoid, (Vertigo, 1970).
72
Saint Vitus, ‘War is our Destiny’, in Hallow’s Victim, (SST, 1985).
73
M. Selim Yavuz, ‘‘Golden Hatred’: anti-war sentiment and transgression in death doom metal’, Metal and
Politics Conference (Bournemouth University, 9th June 2016),
<https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:12969/> (Accessed 11/09/18), p. 3.
74
High on Fire, ‘Rumors of War’, in Death is this Communion, (Relapse, 2007).
75
M. Selim Yavuz, ‘’Golden Hatred’…’ p. 5.
76
M. Selim Yavuz, ‘“Delightfully depressing”: Death/doom metal music world and the emotional responses of
the fan’, Metal Music Studies, 3:2, (Leeds: Intellect, 2017) p. 201.

33
 Left-right: High on Fire, Surrounded By Thieves; Black Sabbath, Paranoid.

The various narratives shown above reveal some doom metal artists as having a strong

critical voice that is demonstrable within their work. However, it must be noted that such artists

form a relative minority within the genre as a whole, with a far greater number indulging in escapist

and fantastical themes over making social comment. Furthermore, the most vehement critics

developed their tone within punk subcultures before moving into heavy metal and thus arguably

form a subgenre within doom. These bands are also relative newcomers to the genre, with Thou and

Primitive Man’s discographies mainly residing within the 2010s. This can be seen to show a resistant

strain within heavy metal following the economic downturn of the late 2000s and increased

awareness of wealth inequality, combined with greater cross-genre collaboration within extreme

music.

Nihilism and environmentalism

Violent and shocking imagery is commonly used by doom metal musicians to convey the fatalism

that underpins the feeling of being ‘doomed’ and this fascination with the extremities of the human

condition has manifested in a variety of ways, most notably nuclear devastation. This arguably

34
reflects a nihilistic tendency within the genre derived from the artists’ feelings of social exclusion as

discussed above. This section will discuss this tendency toward describing brutal and horrifying

events which are often inflicted indiscriminately upon humanity including nuclear warfare and serial

murder, and contrast this fascination with what could be seen as its opposite; an interest in

nurturing and respecting natural environments. This theme appears to take influence from the

hippie movement of which stoner metal represents a dark inversion, relying on pagan imagery

including mother goddesses, symbiosis and cyclical models of environmental death and rebirth.

These narratives demonstrate that doom metal artists follow Walser’s ‘eclectic constructions of

power’ but use source material that is by turns darker and more esoteric than that used by bands

such as Iron Maiden, who were the subject of his analysis. 77

Black Sabbath’s Electric Funeral is the first example of such imagery in the genre, vividly

describing the effects of a nuclear bomb from the broad scale (‘burning globe of obscene fire’) to the

individual level (‘eyes melt into blood’). 78 Although the group took influence from the anti-nuclear

sentiments common amongst the hippie movement and the connected Campaign for Nuclear

Disarmament, rather than merely protesting the use of atomic weaponry they manifested their

fascination with ‘the darker side of life’ in attempting to convey the consequences of the weapons’

use.79 Robert Walser notes that resurgences in the popularity of horror films tend to coincide ‘with

periods of social strain or disorder’ as a reflexive means of commenting on these issues; Black

Sabbath transmuted this tendency within film into music through their use of gory details and

descriptions of a terrifying threat.80 However, the song offers no solution as to dismantling

international nuclear programmes, or even a consoling sentiment on the eventual triumph of peace

and love over war and hatred. This arguably forms the first foray into existential unease made by a

77
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, (Middletown, CT:
Wesleyan University Press, 1993) p. 168.
78
Black Sabbath, ‘Electric Funeral’, in Paranoid, (Vertigo, 1970).
79
Tony Iommi, in ‘Paranoid’, Classic Albums…
80
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil… p. 161.

35
doom metal artist, wherein agents are reconciled to living alongside dangerous aspects of society

and knowing of their dangerous potential without the ability to alter circumstances.

The imagery of widespread and irreparable destruction was repurposed by Electric Wizard

on Funeralopolis, which ends with the phrase ‘nuclear warheads ready to strike/the world is so

fucked, let’s end it tonight’ being screamed sixteen times over. 81 Rather than attempting to warn

listeners about the dangers of nuclear devices the band makes a direct call for their use, following

verses that claim the narrator was ‘condemned to die before I could breathe’, which directly

attaches mortality to the feeling of doom that typifies the genre. Singer Jus Oborn has said ‘Trust

nobody. Fuck everyone’ as a response to a question on the ‘single most important lesson’ he had

learned during his career as a musician, which although potentially hyperbolic still carries a degree of

authentic misanthropy.82 This tendency towards extreme statements regarding one’s outsider status

and ethical worldview was also identified by Deena Weinstein in her description of Black Sabbath as

‘the Milton of rock’n’roll… hyper-moralists’ who often used religious imagery as a way of portraying

absolute evil.83 Other bands such as Trouble actively promoted Christianity in their lyrics, such as an

album titled Psalm 9, rather than choosing to (performatively or genuinely) utilise satanic imagery as

was popular amongst other heavy metal bands of the early 1980s. Instead of moralising, Electric

Wizard’s early records are replete with references to negative emotion, destructive behaviour and

Lovecraftian monstrosities that ‘emit/Evil’s narcotic cyclopean pits’, in doing so extending Black

Sabbath’s exploration of existentialism into a darker, nihilistic sentiment. 84

Other groups that have explored this tendency include Church of Misery, who wrote a series

of songs documenting various serial killers, cult leaders and mass murderers. Their open fascination

with the dark extremes of human nature is combined with the determinism of doom metal through

their reliance on the past tense; instead of imagining a potential or imagined destruction of
81
Electric Wizard, ‘Funeralopolis’, in Dopethrone, (Rise Above, 2000).
82
Jus Oborn, in Mike Liassides, ‘Interview with Electric Wizard’, (Doom-metal.com, 20 th February 2018),
<http://www.doom-metal.com/interviews.php?entry=1542> (Accessed 13/09/2018).
83
Deena Weinstein, in ‘Paranoid’, Classic Albums…
84
Electric Wizard, ‘Weird Tales: Electric Frost/Golgotha/Altar of Melektaus’, in Dopethrone, (Rise Above, 2000).

36
humanity or human life, the group uses historical examples of catastrophe and often uses the figure

described as the narrator of the song, addressing their victims directly. Like Electric Wizard the band

also stops short of offering moral opinions on the figures chosen for their songs in favour of

describing their actions in vivid detail; in Where Evil Dwells (Richard Ramirez) the final line ‘Within us

all evil dwells’ implicates all of humanity indiscriminately. 85 By making sweeping negative

generalisations about all humans instead of forming particular criticisms, bands like Church of Misery

are emphasising the spectacular and performative aspects of violent misanthropy, giving the band a

defined outsider status by association.

Left-right: Electric Wizard, Dopethrone; Church of Misery, Master of Brutality.

Dopethrone’s video for their single Killdozer is one of the most complex artefacts within

doom metal that demonstrates a nihilistic streak. 86 The name derives from the modified bulldozer

used by Marvin Heemeyer to carve a swathe of destruction through the town of Granby, Colorado

following a protracted zoning dispute which led to Heemeyer shooting himself once the ‘killdozer’

was unable to move further. In notes written before the event he rationalised his behaviour, saying

‘sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things’; his intentions combined with his actions
85
Church of Misery, ‘Where Evil Dwells (Richard Ramirez)’, in Murder Company, (Man’s Ruin, 1999).
86
Dopethrone, ‘Killdozer’, in Transcanadian Anger, (Totem Cat, 2018), <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=SYfJuW282_I> (Accessed 14/09/2018).

37
suggest a striving to make some form of lasting difference to the people who he perceived as

wronging him, through blunt and destructive means. 87 The video also features a melange of public

nudity, property destruction, brawling, drug use and mocking of police officers, often relying on

CCTV footage or in-car cameras and shifting between clips every few seconds in a heightened

imitation of the 24-hour news cycle. Describing the album Killdozer is taken from, singer Vincent

Houde notes ‘Anger…misery…bad decisions in general’ as key influences, which certainly reflects a

nihilistic and bleak outlook.88 The video appears to celebrate the random acts of violence and

delinquency displayed, whilst also acknowledging their ultimate futility and meaninglessness as

there is no clear narrative, nor any moral dichotomy established between authoritative forces and

those revolting against authority. Instead, the video is an ‘eclectic construction’ of the most physical

and vulgar forms of power.

However, this dark narrative that explores the more depraved aspects of humanity is

represented by a small number of bands within doom metal, who often take influence from other

metal subgenres that explore these themes more frequently such as death metal. Their counterparts

are bands that explore a positive relationship between humanity and the external world, manifested

in a form of esoteric environmentalism that often uses cannabis as a form of sacrament. These

groups often take influence from the aesthetic of the 1960s hippie movement and psychedelic rock,

using bright colours and natural themes in their album artwork. The Sword’s High Country opens

with the line ‘Brothers, sisters, listen closely to the Earth’, echoing the sentiments of ‘peace and love’

between living things as espoused during the Summer of Love; the song celebrates nature’s sublime

aspects, describing how ‘clouds enshroud the mountainside’ but also mentions ‘raging storms/Dying

just as fast as they are born.’89 This balancing of natural elements arguably represents a form of
87
Marvin Heemeyer, in Associated Press, ‘Rampager was surprised his plans went unnoticed’, Spokesman
Review (Spokesmanreview.com, 10th June 2004),
<https://web.archive.org/web/20120322014323/http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?
ID=9810> (Accessed 13/09/2018).
88
Vincent Houde, in Vince Bellino, ‘Video Premiere & Interview: Dopethrone – ‘Killdozer’’, Decibel,
(Decibelmagazine.com, 7th May 2018), <https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2018/05/07/track-premiere-
interview-dopethrone-killdozer/> (Accessed 13/09/2018).
89
The Sword, ‘High Country’, in High Country, (Razor and Tie, 2015).

38
holism or ‘natural order’ whereby the various aspects of weather, flora and fauna are balanced

together in a unified system.

Gestation by Bongzilla refers to the earth as ‘she’ and describes a symbiotic relationship

between a cannabis grower and their plants with the line ‘We’re going to reap what we sow… [The

Earth] lets us grow what we grow.’90 This reveals a respect toward natural processes that is absent

from the artists previously discussed, for whom the world is damaged by negative human

intervention. On Salvation the group is more explicit in their condemnation of damage done to the

environment; ‘Look at what we've done to our world/Rape and pillage her like criminals/We must

change the wave of destruction/Or lose the glory of evolution.’ 91 Spiritual Beggars deliver a similar

warning against environmental destruction on Turn the Tide, asking ‘What did we do/To our

paradise?’ after describing how ‘Mother nature’ is ‘bleeding dry… all because of human greed.’ 92

Rather than merely describing natural devastation however, they also call for action, to ‘do what’s

right/Before we run out of time’, which counters any suggestion that the song is performative in its

statements. Interestingly, the album art that Turn the Tide is taken from features a nuclear

explosion, demonstrating
Left-right: that doom
Spiritual Beggars, Earth metal
Blues;musicians have utilised
Spiritual Beggars, its to
Sunrise destructive
Sundown.properties in both

critical and sensational senses.

90
Bongzilla, ‘Gestation’, in Stash, (Relapse, 1999).
91
Bongzilla, ‘Salvation’, in Apogee, (Ritual, 2000).
92
Spiritual Beggars, ‘Turn the Tide’, in Earth Blues, (InsideOut, 2013).

39
 Further criticisms of human action have been levelled by doom artists through a cycle of

growth, death and rebirth. Cloud’s Deus Ex Machina is an instrumental concept album, but the band

provides an extensive explanation of its sections on their Bandcamp profile. The album ‘focuses on

the hubristic nature of mankind’ and charts the progress of a man-made apocalypse up to the final

track, which is entitled ‘Neogenesis’, suggesting that once humanity has disappeared from the earth

there will follow a process of new growth in new forms. 93 Corrosion of Conformity similarly describe

‘A humbled rebirth/The green Earth now remains free’ on their 2018 song The Luddite, advocating

the destruction of ‘black industry’ that despoils natural environments.94 By invoking the image of a

cyclical process of rebirth as opposed to irreparable destruction, these groups are maintaining the

possibility of reconciliation between industrialised societies and the natural environments upon

which they have increasingly encroached.

As seen in Bongzilla’s example cannabis use has been linked by doom metal artists to

sentiments surrounding protecting and nurturing the natural environment. Other groups have

elevated this connection to a spiritual level, mixing naturalistic imagery with occultist themes.

Acrimony’s Tumuli Shroomaroom repeatedly uses mother goddess imagery combined with

references to Celtic druidism, with lyrics describing a ‘Dancin’ mother, up in the sky/As old as time’

who ‘brought from afar/A race of blue people…they worshipped the stone.’ 95 They also repeatedly

refer to forests and ‘the land’ alongside near-constant psychedelic imagery, demonstrating their

affinity to the natural world in a shamanistic, cult-like fashion. This can also be seen in the lyrics to

Dopesmoker by Sleep, which describes a procession of cannabis cultists across a fictionalised Levant

and includes the lyric ‘Seed of Eden fall upon the nurtured soil.’ 96 This line connects Abrahamic

religious imagery to the process of natural growth whilst implying that ‘Eden’, the garden in which

humans were innocent and pure, could be rediscovered through marijuana use.
93
Cloud, ‘Deus Ex Machina’, Bandcamp.com (cl0ud.bandcamp.com, 2018),
<https://cl0ud.bandcamp.com/album/deus-ex-machina> (Accessed 14/09/2018).
94
Corrosion of Conformity, ‘The Luddite’, in No Cross No Crown, (Nuclear Blast, 2018).
95
Acrimony, ‘Motherslug (The Mother of all Slugs)’ in Tumuli Shroomaroom, (Peaceville, 1997); Acrimony,
‘Hymns to the Stone’ in Tumuli Shroomaroom…
96
Sleep, Dopesmoker, (Rise Above, 1999).

40
 Like the destructive and violent strain of doom metal the environmentalist tendency also

uses eclectic constructions of power, in a form more recognisable to Walser’s original analysis;

historical and mythic themes have been bound together and recompiled into new pastiches which

address a contemporary issue. Of particular note is the way in which environmentalist doom songs

often discuss a cyclical process (growth/harvest/regrowth, death/rebirth) which contrasts against

the finality of nihilistic doom. Indeed this offers listeners some hope that although they might be

‘doomed’ by their lack of agency and socio-economic status, by viewing themselves as a part of a

holistic ‘natural order’ they can derive some sense of meaning in their lives outside of industrialised

society. This also explains the use of esoteric and religious imagery, which was gradually displaced by

scientific rationalism as a means of understanding complex processes such as those seen in nature.

Although in this way doom metal musicians are arguably simplifying and potentially misconstruing

environmental mechanisms, they do so in order to advocate for its conservation and a closer

relationship between humanity and nature.

Female representation and narratives

In Sarah Kitteringham’s thesis discussing the treatment of women in extreme metal genres (including

doom), she describes the genre as ‘somewhat exceptional when it comes to the number of women’

that hold active musical roles and notes that 1960s proto-metal band Coven included a female

vocalist.97 Her assessment of the genre is an overall positive one regarding female representation,

especially when compared to the attitudes and tropes promulgated in mainstream metal circles,

such as ‘hottest chicks in metal’ magazine articles. 98 Artists such as Rose Kemp and Chelsea Wolfe

97
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses… p. 72.
98
Kim Kelly, ‘The Never-Ending Debate Over Women in Metal and Hard Rock’, The Atlantic, (theatlantic.com,
3rd November 2011), <https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/the-never-ending-
debate-over-women-in-metal-and-hard-rock/247795/> (Accessed 14/09/2018).

41
have become respected and successful within the genre, whilst a host of bands such as Blood

Ceremony, Electric Wizard and Windhand (to name a few) have female members. However, unlike

the grindcore scene which has recently seen a rise in explicitly feminist lyrical material from bands

such as Olivia Neutered John, overt discussions of female empowerment are hard to find in doom

metal.99 This section will investigate the representation of women in the lyrics and artwork of doom

bands and discuss groups that include female members, evaluating whether their inclusion

constitutes resistance toward the male gaze.

As mentioned there are a comparatively sizeable number of doom metal bands that

incorporate female members, with some of the best-known groups including Electric Wizard and

drone band Earth. Kitteringham suggests possible reasons for this high level of representation as

being ‘the absence of misogynistic themes, or the genre’s affiliation with the self-empowering

nature of occultism.’100 It is certainly true that much of doom metal forgoes sexually explicit lyrics

from the male gaze as is common in glam metal or hard rock, and thus offers a more welcoming

atmosphere. Moreover, Kitteringham argues that a cumulative process occurs; ‘the increased

visibility and numbers of women on stage can be attributed to women being empowered by seeing

other women performing live,’ which has led metal as a whole from an overwhelmingly male-

dominated artistry to a position where all metal subgenres feature some number of female artists. 101

However, few bands that include female members discuss dismantling patriarchal

institutions in the way that social or economic barriers are examined, with some groups actually

participating in the perpetuation of stereotypes surrounding femininity. Electric Wizard’s most

recent album Wizard Bloody Wizard not only features a female midriff as its album cover, but also

includes lyrics describing ‘Her wicked caresses/And obscene kisses/Her serpent body writhes… I

99
George Parr, ‘Olivia Neutered John: Fighting Injustices with Feminist Pornogrind’, Astral Noize,
(astralnoizeuk.com, 12th February 2018), <https://astralnoizeuk.com/2018/02/12/olivia-neutered-john-
fighting-injustices-with-feminist-pornogrind/> (Accessed 14/09/2018).
100
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses… p. 72.
101
Sarah Kitteringham, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses… p. 94.

42
 need her evil but she’s so cold.’102 This image of a seductive female demon carries connotations of

feminine power, but also maintains a perspective that women are to be seen as innately sexual

objects for a male gaze; it is important to consider that the song is sung by a man. Guitarist Liz

Buckingham is married to singer Jus Oborn and although they collaborate equally in recording and

designing the band’s aesthetic, by including lyrical material that discusses the female form in these

compromised terms she could be seen to be reinforcing patriarchal portrayals of women, even if it is

done so in a knowing or ironic tone.103 Examples of these portrayals are displayed below.

Left-right:
Samsara Blues
Experiment,
Long Distance
Trip; Electric
Wizard,
Wizard
Bloody
Wizard.

Some groups which feature female singers merely omit feminist discussions from their work,

despite being well-placed to make such commentaries. Bands such as Ruby the Hatchet and Acid

King have made no mention of female perspectives in their output, with Acid King’s Lori S. saying in

interview ‘I don’t have many thoughts on females in bands; if you love music and you want to play,

that’s awesome!’104 Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s lyrics are unknown to the male members of

the band, with guitarist Paul Davies stating ‘We like the listener to make up their own stories to the

102
Electric Wizard, ‘Wicked Caresses’ in Wizard Bloody Wizard, (Spinefarm, 2017).
103
Rhys Williams, ‘A Conversation with Electric Wizard’s Liz Buckingham’, Invisible Oranges,
(invisibleoranges.com, 2nd November 2017), <http://www.invisibleoranges.com/interview-liz-buckingham/>
(Accessed 15/09/2018).
104
Lori S., in Mike McPadden, ‘4 Badass Women of Stoner Rock Talk Shop and Give Props’, Kindland,
(thekindland.com, 1st September 2016), <https://www.thekindland.com/women/4-badass-women-of-stoner-
rock-talk-shop-and-give-2057> (Accessed 15/09/2018).

43
tracks,’ which potentially mitigates any feminist discourse that might occur in the songs. 105 With the

rise of ‘female-fronted doom metal’ as a discrete subgenre, there is reason to suggest that a form of

tokenism is occurring wherein female singers are being treated as a novelty in offering a different

vocal tone or merely for being a woman in a metal group, rather than being understood as actively

challenging sexism in a genre traditionally seen as masculine. 106 Dana Shechter of Insect Ark

comments upon this in the same interview as Lori S.’ quote above; ‘It still does feel like a fight at

times… I’d like to see women get the same opportunities as men based on their work and merit, not

on their gender.’107

As has been seen in previous sections doom metal is ideologically contested ground, and in

other doom metal groups female perspectives are considered lyrically, in some cases through the

use of designating characters as ‘she’. Whilst many doom songs address ‘you’ when making criticism

toward society at large and use ‘I’ to indicate a personal narrative or opinion, gendered address is

used less frequently, with male designators often used in describing religious figures such as Satan or

God, which in these cases confers respect in the form of a capitalised Him. Windhand and Messa

incorporate female characters into their songs that are described without mentioning their physical

appearance or sexual allure; instead the listener must understand these characters based on their

actions and relationship to the narrator.108 Although this is a relatively subtle commentary upon

gender in metal music, by introducing female characters that cannot be objectified these groups are

removing a commonly-used technique for reducing women’s achievements or status. Windhand’s

singer Dorthia Cottrell also eschews wearing revealing clothing when performing live, opting instead

for items that might be considered more masculine, such as plaid shirts and jeans. 109 Jex Thoth’s
105
Paul Michael Davies, in Vince Bellino, ‘Full Album Stream: Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – ‘Y Proffwyd
Dwyll’’, Decibel, (decibelmagazine.com, 28th September 2016),
<https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2016/09/28/full-album-stream-mammoth-weed-wizard-bastard-y-
proffwyd-dwyll/> (Accessed 15/09/2018).
106
‘Female fronted doom music’, Last.fm, <https://www.last.fm/tag/female+fronted+doom/artists> (Accessed
15/09/2018).
107
Dana Shechter, in Mike McPadden, ‘4 Badass Women of Stoner Rock Talk Shop and Give Props’…
108
Windhand, ‘Evergreen’ in Soma (Relapse, 2013); Messa, ‘Hour of the Wolf’, in Belfry (Aural, 2016).
109
Personal attendance at Windhand, Inter Arma, Witchsorrow concert at O2 Islington Academy, 16 th April
2014, <http://www.metalgigs.co.uk/event/7941/Windhand> (Accessed 16/09/2018).

44
Obsidian Night and Separated at Birth use the term ‘sister’ instead, which adds a close connection

between female singer Silas Maine and the character described, implying female solidarity which is

absent from the previous examples.110 On Blood Ceremony’s Daughter of the Sun the mythic figure

of Circe is celebrated for her ‘power’ and ‘will’, even claiming ‘The seas crash down upon/Those who

do not tremble’ at her abilities.111 By reflecting upon a powerful female of legend rather than the

usual trope of a powerful male character (such as the band Conan’s namesake) the group are

addressing a gender imbalance in fictional portrayals of power and influence.

Other bands have adopted a more overt and critical stance towards female narratives in

doom metal, notably SubRosa who include three female members among their five-piece lineup. The

lyrics to Christine describe a woman who suffers physical and implied sexual abuse from a male

figure; ‘He beat you til you were raw/Then he took something more.’ 112 The track ends with the line

‘Never giving in/Never again’, suggesting that the character has learned from her experiences and

will resist such abuse in the future. Christine grapples with a painful issue that is scarcely mentioned

in doom metal outside of SubRosa’s work, but the group are not limited to discussing abuse against

women. Their 2016 track Troubled Cells was inspired by changes to Latter Day Saints praxis that

deliberately excluded the children of same-sex couples from Mormonism. Singer Rebecca Vernon

stated that she ‘deliberately, unashamedly made this [accompanying music] video to try and get

people to be aware of what’s happening’ and to show solidarity with members of ‘LGBTQI people in

any religious communities.’113 This confrontational and activist attitude positions SubRosa closer to

bands such as Olivia Neutered John in terms of their ideological convictions which is surprising

within doom metal, a genre better known for escaping into fictional themes than social campaigning.

110
Jex Thoth, ‘Obsidian Night’, in Jex Thoth, (I Hate, 2008); Jex Thoth, ‘Separated at Birth’, in Jex Thoth.
111
Blood Ceremony, ‘Daughter of the Sun’, in Living with the Ancients, (Metal Blade, 2011).
112
SubRosa, ‘Christine’, in Strega, (I Hate, 2006).
113
Rebecca Vernon, in Louise Brown, ‘SubRosa's Rebecca Vernon Speaks Out About Her Mormon Faith and
Support for LGBTQI Rights’, Noisey (noisey.vice.com, 25th August 2016),
<https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/bnm9p3/subrosa-interview-mormon-lgbtqi> (Accessed 15/09/2018).

45
 SubRosa, For this We Fought
the Battle of Ages.

Another method by which doom metal musicians have challenged conventions surrounding

female representation in metal subcultures is through performing in non-vocal capacities. Adrienne

Davies, the drummer for drone metal pioneers Earth, is described by one author as ‘oft overlooked

but absolutely essential’ to the group’s performances, over which ‘She’s in control.’ 114 By avoiding

the spotlight and working as an instrumental performer, Davies demands that male listeners form

their opinions of her based on her musical proficiency; an effect which is pronounced given that

drumming is considered perhaps the most ‘masculine’ of the instruments usually used in a metal

band due to the muscular endurance required for its use. Discussing her playing style she

acknowledges that ‘You don’t want it to be like, ‘Oh, that’s the girl that plays really slow’’, which

shows her concern of being portrayed as technically unskilled and the subsequent potential of

inviting speculation that this is due to her gender. 115

114
Chris O’Connell, ‘Adrienne Davies: Earth’s Core’, Bandcamp Daily (daily.bandcamp.com, 15th September
2016), <https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/09/15/adrienne-davies-interview/> (Accessed 15/09/2018).
115
Adrienne Davies, in Chris O’Connell, ‘Adrienne Davies: Earth’s Core’…

46
 The most blatant way in which females in doom metal have challenged gender stereotypes

outside of lyrical content is by performing as a solo act. Chelsea Wolfe and Rose Kemp are the best-

known artists of this type, both known for combining doom metal with folk and alternative rock

elements. Both artists also recall Delta blues-era musicians for their focus on solo vocal

performance, with Rose Kemp in particular writing some songs without other instruments entirely.

Instead of fetishizing the female voice in contrast to abrasive, deep guitars, this requires listeners to

pay attention to the technical quality and emotional power of Kemp’s singing, just as Son House

records place all of the attention upon his evocative delivery of the blues. 116 Although their sonic

palette shifts between doom metal and other genres they have become respected in doom metal

circles. Chelsea Wolfe has toured with post-metal group Russian Circles and other metal bands

including Ministry and A Perfect Circle, and has also had her work used in television score, which

eclipses most doom metal musicians in terms of potential reach to new listeners. Whilst their lyrical

material only briefly touches upon themes of female representation, such as Rose Kemp’s Sister

Sleep, by performing as a solo female they present a confrontational position to sexist elements

within doom metal.117 Critics cannot claim the quality of the music is elevated due to the presence of

male musicians, and neither can they be considered a novel addition to an existing doom metal

formula. Instead, both artists effectively demand that they are received in terms of their ability and

innovation as musicians, and in doing so help to establish a more equal reception of future female

artists that utilise doom metal.

116
Son House, ‘Grinnin’ in Your Face’, in Death Letter, (Edsel, 1985).
117
Rose Kemp, ‘Sister Sleep’, in A Handful of Hurricanes, (One Little Indian, 2007).

47
Chelsea Wolfe,
Apokalypsis.

As seen in previous sections, doom metal is able to accommodate a range of narratives

surrounding female representation. Although the number of women producing doom is still smaller

than the number of men in the genre, in comparison to other extreme metal subgenres the scene is

relatively progressive in terms of gender balance. Moreover, there are a few groups who deliver

explicit commentary on female narratives in their work. However, the genre’s aesthetic still relies

heavily on high fantasy, horror and exploitation movies, all of which contain objectifying descriptions

and depictions of the female form, and some female artists are complicit in maintaining these

portrayals of women within the genre. There still appears to be a struggle for women in doom metal

to assert their place within the scene beyond being ‘treated merely as glamorous appendages of

males’, but one that is incrementally being overcome. 118

118
Keith Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal… p. 74.

48
Contextualising doom metal

The sections above have established that there exists a broad spectrum of ideologically-motivated

voices within doom metal, with some narratives being more central to the genre than others. To

clarify the reasons for these narratives’ emergence this section will explore the geopolitical contexts

that surrounded doom metal musicians, focusing on the industrialised west with some attention

given to eastern Europe, particularly following the fall of the Soviet Union. The aim is to reveal how

shifts in ideological climate have resulted in changes within doom metal, with the genre acting as a

reflection of wider cultural patterns in neoliberal society.

Andrew Cope’s study of Black Sabbath and their origins notes that ‘musical processes take

place within a particular space and place and are shaped by both specific musical practices and by

the pressures and dynamics of political and economic circumstances.’ 119 Both Cope and Harrison

place emphasis on the ‘congested, industrial landscape and the noise of heavy industry’ in post-war

Aston, where the members of Black Sabbath grew up, but the political atmosphere of the period

should also be considered given the level of engagement present in the band’s early work. 120 The

early 1960s was marked by fears of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union,

most famously in the form of the Cuban Missile Crisis. By the late 1960s, the antiwar and hippie

movements had culminated in both cultural events such as Woodstock, and identifiably political

events including the Moratorium March on Washington, which featured thousands of protestors

singing Give Peace a Chance led by folk singer Pete Seeger. In Britain not only did the Wilson

government offer tacit support for American operations in Vietnam, ‘economic difficulties remained

intractable’ whilst the housing developments that sprung up across the country (including in central

Birmingham) ‘intensified class inequalities’; by 1970, ‘unemployment was higher and economic

growth was slower than when the Conservatives left office’ six years before. 121 This reveals Geezer

Butler to be conscious of major anxieties of the period and motivated by his working class
119
Andrew L. Cope, Black Sabbath and the Rise of Heavy Metal Music, (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), p. 27.
120
Leigh Michael Harrison, ‘Factory Music’… p. 145.
121
Eric Shaw, The Labour Party since 1945, (John Wiley and Sons, 1996) pp. 72-105.

49
background to advocate for social and economic change, hence tracks such as Wheels of Confusion

and Into the Void.

During the 1970s, the optimistic visions of social welfare that had typified campaign

promises from Labour in the UK and Lyndon Johnson’s Democrats began to collapse in the minds of

the Western public. Economic crises instigated by rising oil prices led to widespread industrial action,

the three-day week and eventually the Winter of Discontent in Britain, whilst American cities were

host to violent riots and stagflation, whereby inflation and unemployment rose together. By the end

of the decade both nations saw a drastic political shift away from what were seen as the interfering

mechanisms of Keynesianism, towards a deregulated market capitalism now recognised as the

fundament of neoliberalism.122 Both Thatcher and Reagan promised a move away from ‘big

government’ and a reduction in social programmes, which helped to establish the pre-eminence of

negative liberty in Western society, whereby fewer regulations and ‘red tape’ would allow

individuals to operate in their own best interests, following the theories of Friedrich Hayek and

Milton Friedman.123 This was exacerbated by Reagan’s vehement anti-Soviet position and the

association of socialist politics with the ‘Evil Empire’, which effectively displaced the notion of

freedom delivered through social or economic transformation out of the realm of acceptable

discourse. For many in the conservative establishment, this was not merely continuing the

oppositional status of the Cold War, as historical precedents had now been set. The most extreme

form of the tyranny of positive liberty as described by Berlin had come to pass in Cambodia under

Pol Pot, whose Khmer Rouge eliminated millions of ‘enemies of the revolution’ including teachers,

doctors and artists. For those in the West it was a damning indictment of both socialism and

revolutionary politics.

122
Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010), p. 48.
123
Ronaldo Munck, ‘Neoliberalism and Politics, and the politics of Neoliberalism’, in Neoliberalism: A Critical
Reader, ed. Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston, (London: Pluto Books, 2004) p. 61.

50
 This shift in discourse surrounding liberty, combined with pre-existing American dispositions

towards ‘rugged individualism’ saw doom metal musicians in the United States increasingly cleave

toward advocating for negative freedoms in the 1980s and 1990s. This was delivered in rebellious

contexts by condoning illicit drug use and through more conformist channels as seen in the

fetishisation of cars by stoner rock artists. The tendency of doom acolytes towards self-identification

as social outsiders also began to emerge explicitly in this period, instigated in part due to the critical

attention the genre received in the 1980s, particularly in the United States. Walser comments

extensively on the way in which institutions such as the Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC)

called for ‘the imposition of official values and the elimination of cultural difference’, supported by

academics with ‘sensational claims’ about heavy metal music and culture, intended to inflame the

sensibilities of ‘right-thinking’ citizens into hysteria. 124 Against such inflammatory positions it is of

little surprise that the heavy metal community became more distinct, having a direct social force

against which to resist; indeed, in the era of the ‘moral majority’ the shift in doom metal discourse

towards negative freedom seems logical, with musicians asking merely to be left alone by critical

hegemonic voices.

By the early 1990s however, the resilience of metal subcultures appeared to outlast their

critics. The enormous success of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Alice in Chains led to a renewed

interest in heavy metal, particularly those subgenres which favoured similar aesthetic styles to

grunge, among which were sludge metal and stoner rock. This led to bands such as Melvins being

signed (albeit briefly) to major labels and receiving widespread distribution, thus bringing doom

metal to mass audiences for the first time since Black Sabbath. In the same moment, the

conservatism of the 1980s was being eroded in the political sphere, following the election of Bill

Clinton in 1992 and the repeated scandals that dogged John Major’s cabinet until the return of

Labour under Blair in 1997. Although both Clinton and Blair maintained the neoliberal economic

order, both saw an opportunity to deliver a ‘socially conscious market globalism’ that included

124
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil…pp. 153-160.

51
‘moderate social welfare provisions’; a modest form of leftist politics that shifted politicians away

from making radical changes to society in favour of acting as managers of extant social and

economic systems.125 This was borne out in Blair’s removal of Clause IV from Labour’s constitution

and Clinton’s declaration that ‘the era of big government is over.’ 126 Following the end of the Cold

War and the reopening of ex-Soviet nations to Western culture and politics, this globalist stance

seemed to offer the centre-left a method of achieving international co-operation, peace and

economic stability. The spreading of neoliberal culture to Eastern Europe also greatly expanded the

range of musical forms available, leading to doom metal scenes coalescing from the 1990s onward

before becoming prominent in the West during the 2010s, thanks to the interconnectivity offered by

social media.

However, the vision of a ‘Third Way’ and its maintenance of neoliberal economic policy

faced increasing challenges. Arestis and Sawyer argue that ‘it is undeniable that inequality has

dramatically increased in the United Kingdom since the 1970s’, and point to politicians’ faith in the

free market as a key cause; ‘Whatever outcomes were generated by the market were viewed as

right and proper, and those’ that had the capital to invest ‘gained at the expense of those

without.’127 Despite the establishment of a minimum wage and attempts to maintain the welfare

state the Labour administrations failed to create a more equal society, and in utilising market

techniques in public services the issues became exacerbated, leading to a degree of alienation. 128 In

America, George Bush’s presidency was dominated by a neoconservative foreign policy resulting in

troops being stationed in both Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a ‘war on terror’. Whilst both British

and American governments enacted legislation that encroached on civil liberties in order to maintain

security and order against terrorism, this did not result in critical discourse emerging from

contemporary doom metal artists. With neoliberalism now embedded as the de facto style of

125
Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction… pp. 75-6.
126
Ibid.
127
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer, ‘The Neoliberal Experience of the United Kingdom’, in Neoliberalism: A
Critical Reader… p. 206.
128
Adam Curtis, ‘The Lonely Robot’, in The Trap, (BBC2, 2007).

52
Western government, ‘the horizon of political possibilities dramatically closed in’ to a point where

the major parties in both the UK and the US were differentiated mainly on their social policy, and to

what extent each party favoured further deregulation of the markets, creating the illusion of a lack

of ideological alternatives and arguably leading to a sense of unchanging existentialism. 129 This

sentiment was captured and developed upon in Electric Wizard’s nihilist fantasy, the speechlessness

of drone metal and the psychedelic escapism of Sleep’s Dopesmoker.

By 2008, the underlying issues presented by excessive deregulation were coming to light in

disastrous fashion. The bursting of a speculative housing bubble combined with failures to regulate

the investment banking sector, leading to a global financial crisis. In response, governments

including the United States and Britain opted to bail out some of the worst-affected banks and

financial institutions on the grounds that they were ‘too big to fail’, at massive cost to taxpayers. This

was done in order to maintain the neoliberal economic order, despite it being a contradiction of

neoliberal policy to avoid free market intervention and let the markets right themselves. Following

the collapse, a Conservative government was elected in the UK that advocated for economic

austerity, leading to a vast reduction of public services, rising unemployment and an overall

economic benefit to the elderly and wealthy whilst economic inequality became more

pronounced.130 In the United States, Barack Obama faced immense pressure from divisive

Republican movements and commentators throughout his terms as President, including conspiracies

surrounding his birth and nationality and stiff opposition against his legislative proposals, resulting in

a diluted version of the Affordable Care Act being passed. Obama was also unable to fully withdraw

troops from the Middle East, leading to criticism from an increasingly dissatisfied left-leaning portion

129
Ronaldo Munck, ‘Neoliberalism and Politics, and the politics of Neoliberalism’, in Neoliberalism: A Critical
Reader… p. 64.
130
Jenni Cauvain, Bruce Stafford and Ruth Lister, ‘Blue Collar Conservatives on ‘Welfare’ and Housing – Who
really benefits?’, Discover Society (discoversociety.org, 2nd November 2015),
<https://discoversociety.org/2015/11/02/blue-collar-conservatives-on-welfare-and-housing-who-really-
benefits/> (Accessed 17/09/2018); Matthew Whitaker, Adam Corlett and David Finch, ‘Shape shifting: the
changing role of the state during fiscal consolidation’, Resolution Foundation, (resolutionfoundation.org, 10th
November 2015), <https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/shrinking-pains-the-size-and-functions-
of-the-state-over-the-parliament-and-beyond/> (Accessed 17/09/18).

53
of the United States. It was against this backdrop that bands such as Thou and Primitive Man

formed, vocally criticising the neoliberal economics that had caused the recession and demanding

systemic change.

The growing dissent against neoliberalism took on political expression in the mid-2010s,

manifested in nationalist and protectionist movements across Europe and America, Brexit and the

election of Donald Trump. Whilst many responsible for this political shift have actively criticised

established political orders, the suggested replacement has often taken the form of right-wing

populism. A growing number of doom metal musicians have reflected this with increasingly critical

sentiments, targeting not only economic and social inequality but also areas of social policy that are

contested by the alt-right, such as LGBTQI rights and human impacts upon the environment. This

indicates that a portion of doom metal musicians represent contemporary leftist politics, although a

greater number of bands have declined to form social critiques, which indicates the continued

disillusionment and apathy felt by many in the West regarding the possibility of genuine societal

betterment through ideological politics, either from the left or the right.

54
Conclusions

This study has shown that doom metal contains a diverse range of ideological stances, derived from

geopolitical, temporal and socio-economic circumstances of the artists involved. The repeated

themes of personal liberty (achieved via positive or negative means) and social exclusion are often

set against societies which fail to understand or accept members of heavy metal subcultures, leading

to the musicians’ desire to escape through a number of different means. This remains the dominant

narrative with the genre, with the aim often being a form of separation from the narrator’s old life,

or a process of personal reinvention or discovery. When this is combined with the way in which

much of doom metal is mixed and performed, which can often leave the precise nature of lyrics

obscured behind dense instrumentals, the implication emerges that doom metal is more often a

genre where listeners attempt to avoid political discourse, instead embedding themselves in the

fantastical aesthetic without considering its potential ideological connotations. In comparison to

other extreme metal genres, doom is relatively non-confrontational in the majority of artists’ lyrical

and artistic content, compared to the gore of death metal, the strong punk influences of grindcore or

the far-right associations held in some black metal circles.

However, there also exists within doom metal a smaller current of social consciousness that

perceives social inequality in addition to understanding the musicians’ own position as excluded

from mainstream society. This tendency has remained within the genre since the 1970s and is

maintained by artists that combine the aural styles of doom metal with the lyrical approach of

modern hardcore punk, but is also present to a lesser extent in the work of musicians whose

influences are wholly within metal subcultures. The genre has also been utilised to comment on

specific policy issues and has been identified as a strong example of progressive gender

representation within extreme metal, a style of music which has struggled to repudiate allegations of

sexist discrimination on a communal level in the past. It is perhaps harder to confirm whether these

narratives are disseminated widely throughout the subculture as a whole, and indeed these specific

55
critiques remain in a small minority of the vast total of doom musicianship, but future sociological

studies would be well-placed to analyse how closely fans of doom metal follow the ideological

beliefs of the musicians they prefer.

What can be definitively claimed is that doom metal acts as a flexible and powerful means of

communicating dissent against oppression, social exclusion and social apparatus which limit agents’

individual liberty. The ideologies of the artists often differ, with some identifying strongly with leftist

beliefs whilst others prefer to eschew political discourse entirely, but the genre easily

accommodates such a spectrum as the unifying themes are more grounded in musicianship and

aesthetic. This places doom metal in somewhat ambiguous ideological territory overall, but

simultaneously offers musicians opportunity to deliver critiques that are incisive, bold and specific

without fear of being silenced by the scene they have come to inhabit and enjoy.

56
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60
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61