Professional paper

https://doi.org/10.32728/studpol/2021.10.01.08

Beyond the Expression of Nihilism in Black Metal

Tiziano Suran orcid.org/0000-0002-5471-8929

Abstract

As Heavy Metal music’s most extreme subgenre of, motives of
destruction, death and darkness are largely characteristic of Black Metal.
A frequently anti-Christian message and commercially driven aim to shock
the audiences have led to the impression that Black Metal is an expression of
nihilism, Satanism, or simple transgression. However, this stigma does not
capture the entirety of the concepts musically embodied in this genre with
its distortion and screamed vocals. The aim of this work is to show that
there is more to this genre, and to provide a description of the dual nature
of the original motifs in this genre, how they are expressed using archetype
and myth, and an alternative to nihilism. It will be seen that destruction is
a prerequisite for rebuilding, death a precursor of rebirth, and darkness a
call to courage so that one may conquer fear by facing it.

Keywords

Black Metal; nihilism; paganism; mythology; duality

Hrčak ID:

271292

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/271292

Publication date:

19.1.2022.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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