Studia Polensia, Vol. 10 No. 1, 2021.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.32728/studpol/2021.10.01.07
Milton Goes (Progressive-Power) Metal: Symphony X and Milton’s Paradise Lost (Critique and Textual Analysis)
Krešimir Vunić
; Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is twofold: that Heavy Metal is a genre
of popular music is simply a given, so the author begins by exploring some
of the aporia should one attempt to research such a form of music in an
academic context. Making the claim that popular music (and this includes
heavy metal) involves multiple aspects that are outside the aesthetics of
music, yet conceding that the genre of Heavy Metal (following Deena
Weinstein) follows a ‘code’ which includes much which informs some of
the more submerged facets of the self and the wider culture, the author
has decided to explore how Symphony X has incorporated John Milton’s
‘Paradise Lost’ for the purposes of their album of the same name. The
author proposes that although Symphony X’s album is an expression of the
‘Dionysian’ side of Heavy Metal, the band has incorporated those aspects
which are most likely to attract the common reader and does not attempt
an engagement with Milton’s wider concerns.
Keywords
aesthetics; heavy metal; common reader; Satan; John Milton
Hrčak ID:
271291
URI
Publication date:
19.1.2022.
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