Studies in Popular Music \r,r ir,,, I rlilors: Alyn lilriptrln, lct:turer in.jazz history at the Royal Acad- r,nty ()l Mllsi(, lontlorr. arrd at (.ity University, London; and Christopher l',rr lr rr 111t,, l'roli.'ssor rll llcligious Studies, l.ancaster University I rorn iazz l(, rcgUile, bhangra to heavy metal, electronica to qawwali, irrrtl lrtitn protlrrr:tion l.o consunlption, Studies in Popular lAusic is a rtrrrlti tlirr iplirrlry serics wltich aims to contribute to a comprehensive HEAUY ItlETAt rrrrrh'rstirrrtlirrl.i of pollullr nrusic. lt will provide analyses of theoretical lrr.f\l)('( trvcs, a lrroarl range of'ca!;e studies, and discussion of key issues. CONTROVERSIES AND COUNTERCULTURES Published (l1tn 11r, tht Doors: Music in the folodnn Church Mark Evans Trrh n o n md: Global Raving Countercultures Ciraham StJohn l)uh irt lktbylon: l|ndcrstanding, the Euolution and Significance of EDITED BY t)ult tlql!:flt'in Jamaica and Britain KingTubby to Post-Punk TITUS from HJELM, KEITH KAHN-HARRIS AND MARK LEVINE (-hristopher Partridge Soul in thr Clones: A Cultural Study ofTribute Bands (ieorgina Cregory I fu I ott Wontt:n oJ' Rock l\usic: Female Musicians of the Punk Era (second edition) llelen Reddington tilolutl lriht li'chnolog, Spirituality and Psytrance Graham St John Nilk ('rrtt': A 5turly of Love, Dmth and Ayocalypse lloland Boer eeutnox SI'IFFFIFI D rrx BlllSTOl- r:r l'rrlilished by Iquinox Publishing Ltd. List tributors t lK: l(t:llram l'louse, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield' Sl 8AF ln t l5A: l5t), 7O tnterprise Drive, Bristol, CT 060'1 0 Heayy as controversy and counterculture www.t:quinoxPub.com Titus Keith Kahn-Harris and Mark LeVine I irsr puhlished 201 3 Part l: (olittlslljclm,KeithKahn.Harris,MarkLeVineandcontributors20l3 ', or transmifted in Suicide solution how the emo class of 2008 we to All rights rcserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced photocopying' record- contest their ization, whereas the gers, rn.y liirm t:r h.y any means, electronlc or mechanical, including permission in writ- burnouts or'ch ZoSo' generation were irrii or ilny informition storage or retrieval system, without prior Andy R. Brown in1; tronr thc Publishers. Brltlsh Llbrary CataloguinS-ln-Publication Data 'Howyou gonna see me Acnt'aloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. Recontextualizing metal a Brad Klypchak Llbrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data c;untercultures edited by Titus Hjelm, Keith I lclrvy iuetal : conrroversies a;d / Triumph of the maggots? and Mark LeVine. Kahn"ilurris Valorization of metal in the cm. -- (Studies in popular music) l)ilges Hilrne Laurin Irtr'ltttles bibliographical references and index' (pb) lsuN e/8"'1 84s53-940-5 (hb) -- ISBN 978-1-8+5fi-941-2 (Music)--History and Dworkin's nightmare: L l lrlvy nretal (Music)--Social aspects' 2' Heavy metal lll. LeVine' Porngrind as the sound .r.itrt:isrri" l. gielm, Iirus, editor. ll. l(ahn-Harris, l(eith, 1 971- editor' Lee Barron Mi[k, 'l 9t;6" editor. t't.lt6 Jt14:t 201 3 Mt ie1 The'double of Christian l()t;.4'11416-dc2l 20120++70+ Marcus Hellfest Th that should not be? Local pe Catholic rses on metal culture in France ltrl[.]: ,)/tt I t.t4553 940 5 (hardback) and Jedediah Sklower l,illN' ',/lt 1 tt4t'i i 941 2 (paperback) lylrr:rci hy (. A Iyln'seltilll; Ittl, www.publisherservices'co'uk and t,rinrc,l ;rrrtl S,rrrrl i. the ttt( hy tigtrtning Source tJK ttd., Milton Keynes \otlr(tt lrl( , I;t Vr'rgne, IN t ililrttrttrg louto support local metal': theory of metal scene formation .lffnny Wullarh and Ak:xnndra Lrvinc 117 Black metal soul music 183 While Walser allows the blues to shirnmer behind the remainder of his book without further comment, I want to note the ways in which black (African-American) hearry metal musicians confront the reality that, as Walser Black metal soul music and other heavy metal scholars such as Deena Weinstein readily acknowl- edge, heayy metal is a genre with an audience that is 'mostly young, white, metal class' (Walser 1993:.3). Stone Vengeance and the aesthetics of race in heavy male, and working Moreover, black hear4y metal musicians must also confront the practices of a music indusrry that bases its decisions about marketinS, artist development Kevin Fellezs and genre configuration on that realiry. These assumptions cum practices inadvertently silence black rock musicians by reinforcing tautological links Columbia University, USA between genre and race that ensure audiences, critics and music industry per- sonnel identify certain musical sounds and gestures with particular rypes of the global reach of contemporary metal complicates Walser they bodies. While i told the guy, that's not what we are' I can understand' know, and Weinstein's assertions about the core constituency for heayy metal, the hear the sible [ferences-but that's the bluesl That's from the overarching racialization of rock as a 'white' genre remains, particularly in the blues.l.mjustcarryingonltheblackmusical]traditioninrock'n,roll. States, black African metal bands notwithstanding.2 It's a code, you kn6w,"and a part of who I am" United -mit . Coffey, leader of Stone Vengeancel Robert Walser asserts, Near the beginning of his incisive study of heary metal, A heavy metal genealogy ought to trace the music back to African' American utues, uut th"is is sildom done. Just as histories of North America begin with the European invasion, the histories of musical point genres such as rock and heavy metal commonly begin at the of.,hit.dominance.ButtoemphasizeBlackSabbath'scontribution ofoccultconcernstoroc[<istoforgetRobertJohnson,sstrussles withtheDevilandHowlin'Wolf.smeditationsontheproblemof evil (1 993: 8). Coffcy, does African-American guitarist and Stone Vengeance founder, Mi[<e from the bluesl not hesitate to trace rock music and by extension, hearry metal, '20s. Jefferson' I listen to stuff from the Charley Patton, Blind Lemon who's Blind Blake, Robert Johnson from the '30s' Lonnie Johnson' just as good, probably a little better than Robert Johnson' Robert iot nsoi just got popular because Eric Clapton put his stamp fof approvati on t im. But you ask BB King and all those guys' [they'll trti yo, thatl Lonnie Johnson's bad as hett, man' Skip James That's what happens when you put the drums and the bass behind the guitar, iis rockin' now! You can't get heaty metal-*if you don't havc "that drums guiur, it'll be somethingelse.Youcan have a loud bass and but without that guitar, it's anothcr rnttsic' lJtr grlitrrr is yrinmry rilarkr) (i) hftdu\t'ill th( hlttr\. ,itonc Vrngtflnr'* {l,f: Mlke I ult*y, lr;r116'n lomlkinl, Antlxrtty l9:I$ l'attl lraltini Black metal soul music t 85 184 Heavy Metal African Amer- rituals, practices, territories, traditions, and groups of people'(Holt 2007: 23,19, Stone Vengeance is a heavy rnetal band whose members are all added emphasis). lt is reasonable to assume that the 'cultural values, rituals, ican and, while enjoying i primarily white male audience, formed their aes- practices, territories, traditions and groups of people' associated with thrash thetic in recognition, erien celebrat'ion, of their blackness' lnitially formed in metal do not normally call to mind African-American musicians or black 1978, Stone Vengeance have remained a cult favorite for a small if dedicated as Coffey musical traditions. Yet, as Stone Vengeance effectively posits, despite working core audience who can be found 'on every continent but Antarctica', moni- within a genre discursively constructed as a space for the expression of white boasts' Their fans have named them theLords of Hea4r Metal soul' a masculinity, thrash metal can be thought of as part of a black American musi- ker, while clearly meant to praise, that speaks to stone Vengeance's racialized cal tradition. positioning outside the inner sanctum of metaldom, pointing as it does to a 'soul', Before allowing Coffey's narrative to center my discussion, I want to be iong fristory of primitivist tropes concerning black Americans' a non* explicit about not taking his comments at face value. However, throughout inte'ilectuai body-oriented essence that opposes the figuration of thrash metal while all my work (and not exclusively for this book), I aim to highlight musicians' as a complex musical form. As John sheinbaum warns rock schotars, musi- voices in order that we might gain knowledge from their perspective. Too rock's increasingly canonical historical narrative presents white rock 'race-based construc- often musicians'voices are muted or muffled by scholars, critics and fans with cians as artists and black sout musicians as craftspeople, that a real loss in the ways in which historical narratives, aesthetic choices and tions of difference we may hear should not lead us, unthinkingly, to assert possesses different music industry practices are framed. By giving ample space to Coffey, I hope to Imusic produced by whiie or black musicians] somehow and there- serve as an interested interlocutor of Stone Vengeance's working aesthetic in Lvels oi valu e' (2002:1 27). Sheinbaurn's point-that an unspoken that heavy metal as an articulation of a black aesthetic. ln this way, I mean to fore- fore often unacknowledged idea lurking behind criticaljudgment holds 'soulful ideal ground Coffey's role as musician-both agentive and reactive, both expressive exemplary black musiciinr ,r. unschooled performers' while and constitutive-in negotiating musical discourse, audience desire and critl- white musicians are highlytrained 'skillful artists'-reveals the predetermined cal