MMS 1 (1) pp. 69–85 Intellect Limited 2015

Metal Music Studies Volume 1 Number 1 © 2015 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/mms.1.1.69_1

Samir Puri Cambridge University

The Trooper or the Sandman? ’s conservatism versus Metallica’s experimentalism in their philosophies towards musical creativity

Abstract Keywords This article considers the differing philosophies towards artistic expression of heavy metal Metallica and Iron Maiden, two defining bands in the heavy metal genre. It explores creativity the contrasting mentalities that have seen Metallica adapt their musical style on experimentation numerous occasions, while Iron Maiden have stuck doggedly to a particular musical authenticity path. This article has two aims. First, it sheds light on why two of the heavy metal Metallica genres most load-bearing creative and commercial pillars are so unevenly fashioned Iron Maiden in terms of creative ethos. Second, it extrapolates wider insights into notions of authenticity in . What are the implications of a band relying on a self-referential sense of how its music ought to be fashioned, versus welcoming in outside influences to reshape one’s artistic core?

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The discourses of ‘authenticity’ and ‘selling out’ in heavy metal From where does the wellspring of musical creativity flow? Can it be thought of as originating from internally reflective impulses? To what extent do external forces buffet this flow? This article examines contrasting philosophies towards artistic expression. It considers the balance that is to be struck between jealously guarding one’s creative vision as it was initially conceived, versus encouraging this vision to be reshaped over time by new influences. It considers Iron Maiden and Metallica, two heavy metal bands that have played a major role in defining this genre through the influence of their music and scale of their appeal, selling around 200 million records between them over careers spanning three-and-a- half decades. During this time their respective artistic inclinations have proven quite different to one another. This article inquires into the contrasting mentali- ties that have seen Metallica readily update and adapt their musical style on numerous occasions, while Iron Maiden have stuck more doggedly to an iden- tifiable musical path. Whereas Metallica’s creative journey has involved repeat- edly seeking inspiration from new sources, Iron Maiden’s creativity has been based on a relatively fixed, albeit wide, series of reference points. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it sheds light on why two of the heavy metal genres most load-bearing pillars are so unevenly fashioned in terms of creative ethos. It examines the extent to which Iron Maiden’s creative conservatism has become synonymous with notions of ‘authenticity’ in heavy metal music, whereas Metallica’s creative adventurism has been equated to ‘selling out’ their original fans and founding principles. When it comes to authenticity in the heavy metal genre, debate can and does unfold in refer- ence to these poles. As such, the second aim of this article is to explore Iron Maiden and Metallica’s emblematic roles in demarcating creative parameters within the discourse of the genre. What are the implications of relying either too heavily on a self-referential sense of how heavy metal ought to be fash- ioned, versus welcoming in too enthusiastically outside influences in order to refresh and refashion one’s artistic core? It is not the purpose of this article to proclaim one path as more worthwhile or deserving of respect than the other. Rather, its aim is to explore what each path tells us about the other by focus- ing on two of the genre’s most influential bands. Such a binary portrayal of ‘internal’ artistic impulses and ‘external’ influ- ences runs the risk of presenting the creative process in abstraction. For musicians, the creative process is the outcome of many things: of talent, self- expression, clashing personalities and of musical vision colliding with sponta- neity. Nor does this creative process occur in a vacuum, since heavy metal is itself a genre constituted from many musical reference points. By appropriat- ing from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concert hall music, now deemed ‘classical’, and from folk and blues, so the heavy metal sound was forged – origins explained by Walser (1993) and Weinstein (2000). At the outset of this article, therefore, the claim that a contrast can be observed between creativity that verges towards the self-referential, and creativity that relies on repeated influxes of fresh inspiration, requires qualification. The first qualification relates to the difference between the creativity of individuals, as opposed to groups of artists. For artists who create as indi- viduals, such as some painters, writers or solo musicians, it is relatively simple to envisage how they might wall themselves off from outside influences. For groups of artists in a band, however, creativity will always be tied to human

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interaction. The artistic vision of any one member will be filtered through the preferences of other members, and perhaps also a , unless an individual is so dominant as to carry much of the creative weight of the band on their own shoulders. Therefore, the ‘internal’, self-referential impulse referred to here is of creativity internal to the band in question. It is internal inas- much as it builds on the band’s existing reference points, and with collabora- tors who are trusted to guard this vision and trademark sound, rather than introducing influences from outside of this group identity. It is not strictly an impulse that is internalized within any one individual – it is internalized within the institutions of Iron Maiden and Metallica, each a collective body with its own musical history, traditions and existing artistic reference points. The second qualification refers to the reality of symbiosis between the internal and the external. It is certainly not either/or. No artist, whatever their medium, can create by focusing solely on an internal dialogue, having insulated themselves entirely from the outside world. All creative processes involve, to a greater or lesser extent, influences that are external to the consciousness of the artists. Long-held creative reference points will continually be challenged by newer sources of inspiration that exist outside of an established artistic identity. The question, therefore, is of balance. How do artists balance their ingrained creative senses with the impact of outside and untried influences? In Iron Maiden and Metallica, the contrast between assiduously guarding one’s artistic vision as conceived early on, versus inviting one’s vision to be repeatedly refashioned over time, is sufficiently stark so as to clearly facilitate the comparative study that follows.

The differing creative paths of Iron Maiden and Metallica Creative genius involves a clash between design and accident. As such, it is a largely inexplicable phenomenon, perhaps even to those who create, let alone to outsiders. While it is not possible to presuppose with certainty why something created has taken its particular form and shape, one can discern contrasts over time in the successive creative outputs of a given artist. This is the purpose of this section: to consider what it is that has defined and, over time, differentiated Iron Maiden from Metallica in their respective fostering and sustaining of musical creativity. Both bands have a common point of departure, at least in terms of reflect- ing heavy metal orthodoxies. It is true that neither is credited as inventing the heavy metal genre – that accolade tends to be reserved for Black Sabbath’s 1970s works, as Dunn and McFayden (2005) explain. In the 1980s, Iron Maiden and Metallica would hone the heavy metal genre’s sound and aesthetic with an influence that few of their peers managed. While influence is not quanti- fiable, commercial success is: Iron Maiden have sold 85 million records and Metallica 120 million. That Metallica’s tally is greater partly reflects the rewards in popularity reaped through their willingness to grasp new musical styles – something examined in detail as this article progresses. This adaptability has widened Metallica’s appeal amongst casual music fans, something attested to by their number of Facebook ‘likes’ relative to Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden’s official Facebook page had nearly 13 million ‘likes’ as of July 2014 – Metallica’s had 38 million. Although far from a scientific measure of appeal, the casual act of ‘liking’ a Facebook page does suggest a much wider awareness of Metallica than of Iron Maiden. This is, however, a difference in magnitude. Both bands have huge global appeal, the scale of which is also conveyed by their touring:

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Iron Maiden has played around 2,000 concerts in their career and Metallica around 1,600. In terms of sustained global appeal, Iron Maiden and Metallica exist in exclusive company in the heavy metal genre, if one excludes hard rock oriented bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, whose influence on the heavy metal genre has also been great, but who have not tended to self-identify as belonging to the heavy metal genre (Walser 1993: 6). There are similarities in the stories of how Iron Maiden and Metallica became such well-established bands, and differentiated themselves from others in the pack. Work ethic, good management and good fortune have played a role for each band, as biographies of their respective careers attest (Wall 2001; 2011). But the capstone accomplishment, upon which all else would be built, was early musical creativity. In this regard, while each band may play heavy metal, they do not sound alike. Iron Maiden formed in the 1970s and rooted their sound in a blend of the heavy metal and progres- sive rock values of that decade, combining influences like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath with Yes and Genesis. Metallica formed in the early 1980s and, inspired by Motorhead, Iron Maiden and – perhaps above all others, Diamond Head – added unprecedented speed to herald ‘thrash metal’. As each band released a string of consistently well-received in the 1980s, and became known for incendiary live shows, each came to define a particular subgenre of heavy metal: Metallica and thrash metal, and Iron Maiden and progressive, traditional heavy metal. This points to the different musical space that each band occupied within the wider heavy metal genre. It also conveys how early creativity implied some measure of novelty. Both Iron Maiden and Metallica built their early musical reputations by merging previously separate ideas in unique ways, with each band crafting a coherent and identifiable musical style of its own (Kaufman and Sternberg 2010). Despite their evident sonic differences, in the 1980s, both bands played music that conformed to certain identifiable conventions of the heavy metal genre. This was especially noticeable in their use of lyrical themes and an aesthetic that invoked the Romantic period of European artistic expression. It is worth considering Iron Maiden and Metallica in light of Bertrand Russell’s depiction of the Romantics:

[The Romantics] liked what was strange: ghosts, ancient decayed castles, the last melancholy descendants of once great families, practitioners of mesmerism and occult sciences, falling tyrants and Levantine pirates. [Whereas others] wrote of ordinary people in circumstances that might have occurred […] to the Romantics such themes were too pedestrian; they felt inspired only by what was grand, remote, and terrifying […] The ‘Ancient Mariner’ [poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in 1798] is typical in this respect. (Russell 1972: 678–79)

This is apt a description of the aesthetics of Iron Maiden and Metallica (at least, in the latter’s first decade of existence). The mention of Coleridge is notable: Iron Maiden released a thirteen-minute musical synopsis of this poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1984). While Metallica played a speedier, more discordant musical style, they too visited dark and epic themes in the 1980s, like Biblical plague in ‘Creeping Death’ (1984), and H. P. Lovecraft in ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’ (1986). Such songs captured a feel that was at once passionately musical yet otherworldly. Even when both bands addressed

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contemporary themes, most notably war, a dark and at times fantastical sound and atheistic proved to be a continual reference point. Why is it, then, that over time, these bands have chosen such different creative paths? Separating them is the sense of duty, allegiance and constraint each has felt towards their original art form. Metallica have been adventurous, sticking to the thrash metal template they helped invent for just a few albums, before branching out into stadium rock, ballads, alternative rock and even discordant, experimental noise-oriented metal. Even country and western made an imprint on ‘Mama Said’ (1996) from Load. Along the way, Metallica have collaborated with artists as diverse as Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Their group identity has evolved in tune with their changing tastes, with their desire for greater popularity and acceptability outside of the heavy metal world, and to provoke their audience out of complacency. In doing so Metallica has made prophetic an early state- ment of intent from their song ‘Motorbreath’ (1983): ‘Those people who tell you not to take chances / They are all missing on what life’s about / You only live once, so take hold of the chance / Don’t end up like the others, same song and dance.’ Conversely, Iron Maiden has stuck rigidly to a plan of battle, releasing fifteen studio albums that have evolved within an identifiable template: of shorter anthems combined with longer, more complex, progressively tinged epics, often staying within sonic and lyrical traditions the band had established for itself. Creatively doctrinaire, Iron Maiden have certainly experimented, but only within the parameters of a musical template of their own devis- ing. This reliability has been intrinsic to their appeal, invoking a timelessness that is inadvertently summarized by their song ‘Caught Somewhere in Time’ (1986): ‘Make you an offer you can’t refuse / You’ve only got your soul to lose / Eternally... let yourself go!’ In displaying such stylistic focus, Iron Maiden have embodied a set of values that have come to be core to the heavy metal genre itself: of a self-referential creative self-sufficiency; of walling oneself off from trends; of being true to values and reference points that transcend any particular time or place; and of taking pride in an outsider status. These char- acterizations, of the creative philosophies of Metallica and Iron Maiden, will be qualified in detail below.

Building on early creativity: Platonic ideal and Hegelian dialectic The divergent creative paths of Iron Maiden and Metallica are reflective of alternative approaches to a common dilemma: that of building on early crea- tivity. The musical reputations of each band were forged by the consistency of their albums in the 1980s (Iron Maiden’s first seven studio albums, from their debut Iron Maiden [1980] to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [1988], and Metallica’s first five albums, from Kill ’Em All [1983] to … And Justice For All [1988]). Having built their reputations on these albums, each band faced a dilemma with regards to future creativity. Consider this passage from the chapter ‘Early creativity as a constraint on future achievement’:

A highly creative idea will constrain future creativity because all subse- quent ideas will be framed narrowly from the perspective of the initial idea […] Frustrated attempts to recreate the positive affect associated with early success can lead to a downward spiral of positive affect and

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creativity over time […] [This can make] creativity is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a highly creative idea may bring fame and fortune to the creator, but over time, a highly creative idea may cast a very long shadow. (Goncalo, Vincent and Audia 2010: 120–1, 127)

This is the precise challenge each band has faced. Iron Maiden has chosen to embrace the role identity generated by their early creativity. Initially, Iron Maiden’s sound was forged by blending a range of influences, includ- ing jagged punk tempos (thanks partly to the style of singer Paul Di’anno), and 1970s heavy metal and progressive rock orthodoxies, creating music that was aggressive, melodic and epic in scope. After two albums, Iron Maiden and Killers (1981), , a more traditionally operatic rock singer, replaced Di’anno on The Number of the Beast (1982). Thereafter their sound began to freeze in form. (1983) and (1984) carried on Iron Maiden’s consistency of quality. Even ‘experimental’ albums, Somewhere in Time (1986) and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, saw novel use of guitar synth and keyboards to add textures to the patented Iron Maiden sound, rather than reinvent their sound in wholesale fashion. Related to this consistency has been the unchanging tone of the band’s artwork, always featuring zombie mascot ‘’ in various guises that visually convey their grandiose song themes, and their use of a particular font for Iron Maiden’s logo – a font that has become synonymous with the heavy metal genre. This approach exemplifies what Theodor Adorno (2001: 171) described as art that relies on the predictability of anticipated audience response: ‘since stereotypes are indispensable to the organisation and anticipation of emotional experience, preventing us from falling into mental disorganisation and chaos, no art can entirely dispense with them.’ This is an axiom from which Iron Maiden have reaped reward with heavy metal audiences the world over: of provoking predictable responses from their listeners, year in, year out. Adorno (2001: 86) has written (disparagingly) of mass marketed art made in accordance with the strict conventions of certain genres, so that as pop songs play out, or as film plots unfold, they provoke a near-choreographed series of emotional responses. That said, some predictability is not necessarily a nega- tive characteristic. Indeed, Adorno (2001: 127) writes of how artists are ‘plan- ning the non-planned’ as they balance creative spontaneity with their overall vision. One can consider the importance of proper orchestration, sequencing and arrangement for songs and albums to be captivating. Iron Maiden are certainly accomplished in this regard, being highly inventive within their style, while still playing to the expectations of their audience who have come to expect the band to sound a particular way, and to always present a particular aesthetic. Doing so has endeared the band and its brand to heavy metal fans of all ages, securing an enduring fan base across all corners of the world. It may have also limited their appeal beyond this genre. Iron Maiden can be criticized of self-plagiarism – of continually producing slightly varied versions of their own past work. When pressed on this subject, founder, bass player and main answered: ‘whether you like a song of ours or you hate it, you have to admit that it’s a good song of its type’ (Ling 1998a). To Iron Maiden’s critics, this attitude exempli- fies why he is stuck in a rut of creative repetition. To their adherents, he is proudly circling the wagons to protect his creative vision against fickle trends. Whatever judgement one comes to, in comparing Iron Maiden songs from

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one era to another, evolutions in style are certainly evident, but so defined are the parameters within which their songs are composed, that each reflects an inventive arrangement of the same essential set of ideas. Iron Maiden have fully embraced the role identity they have created for themselves, even if this may constrain the band’s ability to generate ideas inconsistent with this iden- tity (Goncalo, Vincent and Audia 2010: 123) To create such a vast body of well-received work, there is a certain skill of inventive repetition being employed by Iron Maiden. It is a philosophy of creativity that can be understood in Platonic terms. This is not because Plato wrote specifically with music in mind, but because of his concept of ideal forms. For Plato, there is an ideal form of everything in the world, of which all others are repetitions. This is how Plato, writing in classical Greece, saw the universe. It is how he explained the relationship between the one and the many. For example, we may never have seen a truly perfect circle, yet the ideal of a perfect circle exists, and means we are able to recognize a circle when we see one. The same might be true of a chair, or of a play, or of anything, each representation of which derives from an ideal form. This ideal form is an abstraction from which actual representations will converge with or diverge from. While there is no ‘ideal’ Iron Maiden song, such is the stylistic coher- ence between their fifteen studio albums it is sensible to consider the succes- sive iterations in their catalogue as deriving from something of an ideal type (Plato 1993). Conversely, by wilfully undermining their association with the style and feel of metal, Metallica branched out to attract a substantial additional audi- ence, many of whom might otherwise have never countenanced listening to metal. Emphasizing their chameleonic nature, Metallica steadfastly rejected a singular role identity, resulting in a series of creative outcomes that convey a sense of incoherency. This was especially pronounced in the 1990s, a decade during the course of which heavy metal and its associated aesthetic lost commercial viability. To evolve with the times, Metallica melded a succession of different styles of music to their core sound. They did so in a manner that invokes a dialectic progression, explained by Hegel as the coming together of opposites to produce a synthesis. For Hegel, writing in early-nineteenth- century , the dialectic was his model for understanding time, change and the necessity of development and transition from one stage to the next (Hegel 1977). This notion, of development involving a clash between contrasting styles, is discernible in Metallica’s output. Their self-titled 1991 was produced by hit-maker Bob Rock, who had produced mainstream rock acts like Motley Crue, and who adroitly blended Metallica’s trademark heaviness with simplified song structures, memorable choruses, steadier drum beats and studio polish. With 20 million copies sold, it ranks amongst the biggest selling albums in history. In Metallica’s next iteration the band underwent a stylistic U-turn, as members cut their long hair in tune with the mid-1990s Zeitgeist, and – again working with Bob Rock – refashioned their sound into a more alternative-rock friendly style on Load and Reload (1997). These were certainly Metallica albums, but they would not have sounded overly out place next to grunge acts like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Absent were the staccato thrash riffs, intensity and traditional heavy metal imagery with which Metallica had made their name, replaced by alternative rock sounding riffs, introspective, softer moments, and album covers reminiscent of abstract modern art.

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From the late 1990s, Metallica’s creative decisions came to baffle even their most loyal fans. An album of covers, Garage Inc. (1998), spelled out how diverse their influences were (Black Sabbath, Motorhead and Diamond Head covers sat alongside Bob Seger and Nick Cave songs). Next, a live album of Metallica backed by a symphony orchestra, S&M (1999), was released. Their chameleonic tendencies were in display on their next studio album, the discordant St Anger (2003) – an album of convoluted songs that partly acknowledged the prevailing trend for angst-ridden, guitar-solo free nu metal of Korn and Slipknot. Next, as traditional heavy metal and rock regained its commercial standing, Metallica revisited their former epic thrash metal style on Death Magnetic (2008). Guitar solos were reintroduced. Some band members began to regrow their hair and dress in a manner to recapture their former image. The goodwill this restored amongst fans disappointed by Metallica’s recent experiments dissipated, however, when a rambling, inco- herent collaborative album with Lou Reed – Lulu (2011) – emerged. Based on a nineteenth-century German expressionist playwright’s work, Lulu was regarded as stylistically odd and musically poor, with Reed’s spoken word delivery sitting awkwardly with Metallica’s heavy riffs. So bitter was fan reac- tion to this release (and so big a commercial flop was Lulu) that the Beyond Magnetic (2011) EP was rushed for release just one month after Lulu, featur- ing four Metallica songs with a traditional metal sound (Metal Hammer Official 2011). Regardless of fan response, Metallica have seemingly revelled in the para- dox of clashing musical styles. In Hegel’s dialectic view of progress, ideas are seen in relational terms. Opposing ideas impact upon one another – what prevails is the outcome of a synthesis between opposing ideas. For Metallica, artistic progression has seemingly arisen from the clash between their estab- lished thrash metal identity, and their appropriation of contrasting musi- cal styles. This is not to suggest Metallica are heading towards some kind of Hegelian climax – rather, the dialectic is a useful device with which to portray the development of their musical ideas. The only real certainty in later Metallica albums has been that of considerable stylistic change. Iron Maiden began the 1990s with a different strategy: to dig in. While No Prayer for the Dying (1990) and Fear of the Dark (1992) featured a stripped down sound, The X Factor (1995) featured labyrinthine heavy metal tracks drenched in images of war and darkness, with galloping rhythms and guitar solos. This, in combination with a change of singer, led to a steady collapse of their market share. Dickinson left the band in 1993, partly in frustration at Iron Maiden’s rigid musical template, to be replaced by , whose deeper, less operatic voice failed to find universal acceptance with Iron Maiden fans. After one more Bayley album, Virtual XI (1998), Iron Maiden rehired Dickinson and guitarist , who had left in 1990. The Smith, Dickinson and Harris triumvirate had been Iron Maiden’s most active in the 1980s. With a six-man line-up (the band retained Smith’s replacement, Janick Gers, as third guitarist), Iron Maiden rebuilt their reputation with a run of albums (Brave New World [2000], Dance of Death [2003], A Matter of Life and Death [2006] and Final Frontier [2010]). These albums tilted towards longer, progressive songs, featuring folk influences on tracks like ‘Blood Brothers’ (2000) and ‘Dance of Death’ (2003) – influences heard in Bayley-era songs like ‘The Clansman’ (1998). At heart, however, the reunion albums reflected Iron Maiden’s time-tested musical values, albeit with the restored vigour of their best-loved singer, clearer production than the band had enjoyed since

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the 1980s, and other refinements to bring out the best in their style. No matter the vicissitudes of fashion, Iron Maiden continued to represent the musical style they always had, albeit more effectively than during their creative and commercial dip of the 1990s. In sum, Iron Maiden cannot reach Platonic perfection. Each additional chapter to their musical catalogue, cherished though it may be by their fans, further dilutes the number of times their particular style has been used. Nor can Metallica arrive at any kind of Hegelian artistic climax. Each further musical experiment further dilutes the most identifiable aspects of their sound. Rather, the philosophies of Plato and Hegel are tools with which to frame the creative paths of each band. They move us beyond simple narra- tives of failures to evolve, or of evolving too chaotically. While Iron Maiden has striven to be better at what they are known for, Metallica has striven to challenge, modify and provoke. The next section considers why this has been so.

The impact of personality and maturation on musical creativity Creative genius is an expression of personality. Individuals use their talents to project, through their chosen medium, original works of self-expression. Such a spontaneous act requires the artist to tap their own influences and blend them with outside sources, including with collaborators like band mates and record producers. Creativity, therefore, stems from individuals and from interactions between individuals: from their tastes and influences as already configured; and from how these tastes interact with those around them. As such, the play of personality has been key to shaping the creative paths trodden by Iron Maiden and Metallica. Within both bands there exist those forces favouring musical conservatism and those forces favouring forays into the musical unknown. In Metallica, the adventurers have charted the band’s ultimate course, but in Iron Maiden, the conservatives have ruled. Closely related to this has been matter of ageing, and of how the maturation of band members has affected their creative inclinations and, correspondingly, the creative dynamics within each band. Iron Maiden’s music is the creative vision of its founder, bass player Harris, who, alongside , manager of the band since 1979, has kept Iron Maiden afloat through times of commercial favour and disfavour. Iron Maiden’s stylistic consistency is the product of Harris’s musical focus. His favourite bands have barely changed over the years: he cites Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull and King Crimson as progressive bands that inspired the unex- pected time changes in his songs, and the influence of the twin guitars of Wishbone Ash, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy (Wall 2001: 19–31). Adding these to UFO, Purple and Sabbath, ‘we wanted to get all the ingredients in there so that we could do something different’, says Harris (Bowler and Dray 1996: 14). Dickinson, while sharing these influences, has tried to vary how they have been used by Iron Maiden, and has tried – sometimes in vain – to bring in other styles of music. The first discernible clash came in 1986 when Dickinson believed the band to have reached a creative fork in the road. He suggested they experiment with folk-based acoustic material, which he submitted for band approval. His material was rejected outright, and Dickinson withdrew into himself, registering a slight that found expression when he quit the band in 1993 (Shooman 2007: 102).

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Retrospectively explaining why he left Iron Maiden, Dickinson provided insights into his philosophy of creativity to Norway’s Harstadkonferansen conference:

The reason I [quit Iron Maiden] was to find out whether or not anything else in the world I was useful for doing. It may seem odd to people. Why not just sit on your ass and say ‘same day, different album’. But the thing I found out is nobody is going to tell you if you’re rubbish. When you’re really successful and making a lot of money nobody is going to tell you that you suck […] The reason I left Iron Maiden was because I really wanted somebody to tell me the truth […] Part of it was that I needed a little bit of chaos in my life. Because with a little bit of chaos comes a little bit of creativity. You have to be creative, because if you are not being creative, you are going to drown. (Jensen 2013)

Back in 1993, Iron Maiden would seemingly rather lose a key band member – its most renowned singer – than deviate from its established creative path. Left to his own devices, Dickinson’s solo output would be capricious in style. His albums varied from light-hearted rock (1990’s Tattooed Millionaire) and modern metal (1994’s Balls to Picasso) to alternative rock (1996’s Skunkworks), before these commercially unsuccessful efforts gave way to tradi- tional metal (1997’s and 1998’s Chemical Wedding – both albums also featuring Adrian Smith). By independently returning to histori- cal and literature-inspired heavy metal, Dickinson and Smith sowed the crea- tive seeds of their joint return to Iron Maiden. That said, in 1998 Dickinson described the William Blake-themed Chemical Wedding as claiming a middle ground between the progressive metal of old, and the heaviness of late 1990s metal: ‘Stick it on after Soulfly and it’ll more than stick up for itself, but melod- ically and vocally it’s there with the biggest concept albums’ (Ling 1998b). In his desire to incorporate modern and unexpected influences, try new styles and accept the risk of failing in his creative experiments, Dickinson’s impulses mirror the perpetually unsettled creativity of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Both seem to give weight to the notion that openness to new experi- ences is a crucial feature of their creativity (Kaufman and Sternberg 2010: 402). Dickinson and Ulrich would perhaps both subscribe to the observation that some measure of ‘divergent thinking is often tied to the potential for crea- tive thought’ (Cropley 2010: 18). For Dickinson, this divergence has expressed itself as a reaction to Iron Maiden’s conformity to its own heavy metal iden- tity, resulting in him leaving the band to explore new musical styles. For Ulrich, who enjoyed great creative sway in Metallica, this has involved divert- ing Metallica’s style away from thrash metal. With such creative wanderlust, one is left to wonder what might have been if Ulrich and Dickinson would have been in the same band. Tellingly, in 1999, Dickinson remarked that had Iron Maiden at their 1980s peak chosen to make a different series of creative decisions, they too could have expanded their appeal to the extent of Metallica (Berelian 2000). Yet, early in his career, Metallica’s Ulrich openly admired Harris’s focus in Iron Maiden. As Ulrich told Harris, when the two met in 1996:

For me, Iron Maiden were the best in the world for at least seven years. But it wasn’t just the music. You put ten minutes more

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music on albums than any other rock band, you had the best packag- ing, the coolest t-shirts, everything. There was a depth to your whole organisation that was great for fans like me, and it was a big inspiration for us in Metallica. I wanted to give the same quality to kids who were into our band. (Ulrich 1996)

This influence would not guide Ulrich’s long-term vision. Ulrich has traversed a very different creative path to Harris, exhibiting an attention span that has consisted of intense short-term fascinations. Originally an obsessive fan of Iron Maiden’s ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ peers Saxon and Diamond Head, by the early 1990s, Ulrich would profess a love of Guns ’n’ Roses. In the mid-1990s he would reference Oasis. And in the 2000s he sought to tour with the nu metal bands of the day. Wall (2011: 289, 355) portrays Ulrich as keen not to be left behind by the leading rock bands of the day. Consequently, these influences have infiltrated Metallica’s sound and aesthetic, morphing it over the years, and have dictated the kinds of bands Metallica have chosen to associate with as touring partners. While one will never truly know the manner in which creative tensions arose and were resolved in Metallica, its flitting between styles seems reflec- tive of power relations between its members. Wall (2011), a Metallica biog- rapher, ascribes their mid-1990s tilt towards alternative rock to Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett bonding over bohemian lifestyles and drug experi- mentation, and this as fostering the creative headspace of Load and Reload (1997). Crucially, singer/guitarist James Hetfield was alienated by this stylistic tilt (Wall 2011: 359). Jason Newsted (bass, 1986–2001) observed divisions in the band based on lifestyle tastes: ‘dressing-room-wise, Kirk and Lars [shared a] room, James and I [shared the other] dressing room – for years. We were brothers. We were like-minded. We liked trucks, guns, the outdoors, the mountains. We were like-minded people’ (Sywala 2013). After the death of Cliff Burton (bass, 1982–86), Metallica’s artistic axis had come to rest on Ulrich and Hetfield. In the opinion of Wall (2011: 290), Hetfield learned to live with Ulrich’s ‘passing fancies’ when it came to creative direction setting. At the heart of this is the matter of maturation and change: Metallica and Iron Maiden have existed for decades. The passage of time has been a crucial factor in the evolution of their creative faculties. For metal musicians, the ageing process can complicate artistic expression, notably as members lose some of the reckless abandon of youth. This is because heavy metal can be, at its essence, an adrenalin-channelling art form in which a youthful lack of impulse control may well be an asset (Puri 2011). This is often implicitly recognized in the critical opinion of heavy metal fans when they complain that a band’s best-loved work is produced early in its career. Other factors can explain this: as bands age song writing ideas dry up, or the lure of commer- cial success might encourage the tempering of one’s initial musical values. Underlying these matters, however, is an ageing process that none can avoid and that all are beholden to. Thus, it can be argued that those elements of heavy metal’s sound that convey urgency, speed and aggression are intrinsi- cally tied to youth. In terms of ageing and creativity, it is useful to consider the following observation by Nietzsche:

The true period of arrogance for talented men comes between their twenty-sixth and thirtieth year; it is the time of ripeness, with a good

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bit of sourness still remaining. On the basis of what one feels inside himself, one demands from other people, who see little or nothing of it, respect and humility; and because these are not at first forthcoming, one takes vengeance with a glance, an arrogant gesture, or a tone of voice. This a fine ear and eye will recognise in all products of those years, be they poems, philosophies, or painting and music. (Nietzsche 2008: 25)

These are certainly qualities that heavy metal bands call upon in generating high tempo and aggressive music. Walser (1993: 2) identifies as key traits of the genre the ‘loudness and intensity of heavy metal’ and the ‘circulation of energy at concerts’. Creating such a storm might come more naturally to the young than the middle aged. For the members of Iron Maiden and Metallica, ageing within the confines of an established artistic role identity has resulted in very different outcomes. As tastes have changed and band members have aged, Metallica’s members have reflected the vicissitudes of their own lives through their musical output, sometimes readily baring their emotions. As depicted in the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger and Sinofsky 2004), Hetfield’s alcoholism and rehab stint influenced the musical approach on St Anger. And Ulrich’s increasing fascination with abstract, modern art may have had more than coincidental impact on St Anger and Lulu: music designed to challenge and provoke, and to do the opposite of playing to the expected set of audience assumptions as posited by Adorno. When The New York Times asked how his interest in painting related to his profession as a musician, Ulrich explained:

I’m fascinated by a creative moment, trying to guard the moment from contrived infiltration. So most of what we’ve been trying to do musi- cally has been to be faithful to what comes to you in the moment. Those are the same basics I find myself connecting to in specific painters, or in outsider art by guys that are institutionalized. The same thread runs through it. (Ulrich 2002)

Latterly, Iron Maiden’s Harris has let his emotions more obviously shape the lyrics and feel of his music. The first real evidence of this was The X Factor, an album featuring darker, introspective lyrics, something Harris attributed to his marital breakdown, as well as Dickinson’s departure. Wall calls it ‘the darkest, most adult-oriented’ album of Iron Maiden’s career, and notes the irony of it taking Dickinson’s departure for Harris to starting to write about his feelings (Wall 2001: 311–12). On balance, however, Iron Maiden has accom- modated the changing tastes of band members not in Iron Maiden albums, but by encouraging outside creative outlets. That Dickinson has seemed more settled after his 1999 return to Iron Maiden perhaps rests on the array of extra curricular activities he is immersed in: radio presenting, piloting a Boeing 757, becoming an aviation entrepreneur and making the horror film Chemical Wedding (Doyle and Dickinson 2008). Dickinson’s appetite for experimen- tation and risk taking appear assuaged by this multitude of endeavours. Divergent musical ideas have also been expressed in solo albums. Dickinson’s solo career has continued with Tyranny of Souls (2005). Harris’s British Lion (2012) showcased a softer, 1970s inspired hard rock style. Most divergent of all

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was Adrian Smith’s aggressive and industrial album, Primal Rock Rebellion’s Awaken Broken (2011). Ultimately, the creative identity of each band has rested on its composition of unique personalities. In Metallica, Hetfield anchors Ulrich’s restless person- ality. In Iron Maiden, the stoic personality of Harris has, in the cavalier spirit of Dickinson, met an ideal foil. When functioning at the peak of their creative powers, each band has balanced the contrasting tendencies of their compo- nent parts so as to draw the best from each, while hedging against the worst tendencies and excesses that Ulrich and Harris are prone to. These excesses are mirror opposites of each other: of too radical a tendency towards spontane- ous adventurism for Ulrich, and of too great a tendency towards conservatism for Harris. For each band, the challenge has been to harmonize its existing musical values with injections of experimentation, and to strike some kind of balance. It is on this theme of balance that conclusions will be drawn.

How much musical change is ‘too much’ in heavy metal? Both Iron Maiden and Metallica are, to an extent, prisoners to their own illustrious musical histories. Neither can avoid the self-referential manner in which their creative output is perceived and judged. One suspects that neither band is immune from the weight of audience expectation that past glories be respected. And yet, while Iron Maiden seem happy to revel in their musi- cal past and particularity, Metallica seem ill at ease with their past, creating a sense of tension in their attempts to reconcile old and new artistic reference points. For neither band, however, was the outside world ever entirely shut from the creative process, nor was it invited in to sweep away all that came before. Neither path – conservatism or adventurism – was followed exclu- sively. Nor has either path necessarily proved superior. Both have merits and demerits in how they have fostered the development of musical creativity. The reality is that both Iron Maiden and Metallica have had to strike a balance between consistency and innovation. This article has shown that, by consid- ering one in light of the other, the rewards and pitfalls of verging too far in either direction become apparent. This is important to consider in relation to the heavy metal genre, which can be a musical culture of conservative fan expectations. Yet, heavy metal fans also tend to agree on the importance of musicians being instinctive and follow- ing their hearts. As such, the creative instincts of Iron Maiden and of Metallica each convey a different message as to what it might mean to be true to oneself. If one is being unsympathetic, Iron Maiden and Metallica are, respectively, bywords for reactionary conservatism, or ill-advised misadventure and ‘sell- ing out’. If one instead pays a compliment to Iron Maiden, then they embody consistency, focus and commitment, while Metallica can be complimented for a pioneering spirit. In each instance, notions of authenticity and honesty are being ascribed: to Iron Maiden for sticking to their guns in the face of criticism; and to Metallica for honestly reflecting their changing feelings and tastes in their music, regardless of the ridicule that this might invite. These are an important range of reactions to consider. Iron Maiden may well have come to embody a certain notion of artistic purity in heavy metal, but not all metal artists follow their path. Heavy metal bands, from many subgen- res, can and do express frustration at being criticized for drawing inspiration from outside heavy metal. They have a point. Without bringing in newer, outside influences, heavy metal risks losing its ability to innovate. Metallica

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may not have always been applauded or been musically successful in foraging for input from further afield, but the criticisms they have attracted for doing so ought not to jeopardize the importance of drawing inspiration from new and different sources. The argument can be taken further: in a genre known for ‘its commitment to transgressive themes and musicality’ (Hjelm, Kahn- Harris and LeVine 2012), perhaps the ultimate acts of transgression are to be committed against the very expectations of the heavy metal genre itself. Whether Iron Maiden have been too sclerotic in their evolution, or Metallica too fickle and inconsistent – of these opinions, only individual taste can judge. What can confidently be said is that there is no correct path, and no path is necessarily purer or truer than the other. Which approach merits the greatest credit will depend very much upon which exigency is accorded the greater predominance – that of adherence to existing creative values, or of adventurism. To judge one way or another may well come down to temper- ament-based preferences. For example, Nietzsche, were he alive today and a heavy metal fan, might sense greater merit in Metallica’s approach:

Why do we admire the man who remains faithful to his conviction and despise the one who changes it? I fear the answer must be that every- one assumes such a change is caused only by motives of baser advan- tage or personal fear […] But if that is the case, it bears bad testimony to the intellectual meaning of all convictions. Conviction is the belief that in some point of knowledge one possesses absolute truth […] [and this] presumes that the perfect methods have been found. (Nietzsche 2008: 39–40)

Conversely, the dialogue of Plato’s Republic (1993: 60) presents it as axiomatic that people ought to specialize their output according to the best utilization of their talents, and that they should use this talent throughout their lives. For Iron Maiden, a creative path set upon early in their career has become the focus of their artistic specialization, whereas for Metallica, creative restless- ness has driven frequent stylistic changes. More generally, debate over creativity in heavy metal can and does unfold between the poles of ‘changing too much’ and ‘changing too little’. This discourse is related to that of boundary setting; of which music can be consid- ered heavy metal, and the perennial debate about the genre’s boundary lines (Weinstein 2000: 15). Yet the discourses of change and evolution in heavy metal deserve attention for their own sake. Metallica and Iron Maiden hardly monopolize or define these debates, but their differing creative philosophies are indeed emblematic of a tension that plays out time and time again across the genre. Indeed, ‘what binds metal together is a relative stable canon of artists [that are] particularly revered […] and a core of themes and preoccupations that are pursued across metal sub-genres’ (Hjelm, Kahn-Harris and LeVine 2012: 14). Iron Maiden and Metallica are chief amongst the most revered heavy metal bands for fans of the genre, and amongst the most well known by the wider public. As such, the extent to which they have embraced themes that are closely identified with heavy metal is a matter of importance not only for their fans, but also for the genre and how it is perceived more widely. The creative journeys of Iron Maiden and Metallica can be judged in terms relative to their respective start-points. This notion – of creativity over time involving points of departure – is useful in heavy metal, since it is a genre with established roots, and well-known musical and aesthetic tenants. Heavy metal

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artists are often judged by how far their latest musical forays have departed from their perceived start-points. The discourses of authenticity, quality and originality in heavy metal can be shaped by such judgements. How much change is ‘too much’ in heavy metal is important to consider in terms of violating creative parameters. These parameters are not uniform across metal subgenres, nor are they binding. Indeed, innovation in heavy metal relies on bending or breaking these parameters. And yet, for heavy metal artists across subgenres, playing towards or away from the musical and aesthetic expecta- tions that they themselves may have helped to create is a recurrent theme. The examples of Iron Maiden and Metallica make clear that temperament, taste and circumstance can be crucial determinants as to whether artists verge espe- cially far in one direction or another, as their creative identities seek to navigate the vicissitudes of maturation, and the changing worlds they inhabit.

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Suggested citation Puri, S. (2015), ‘The Trooper or the Sandman? Iron Maiden’s conservatism versus Metallica’s experimentalism in their philosophies towards musical creativity’, Metal Music Studies, 1: 1, pp. 69–85, doi: 10.1386/mms.1.1.69_1

Contributor details Samir Puri completed his Ph.D. in International Studies at Cambridge. He also holds an MA (distinction) in War Studies from King’s College London, and has worked at RAND and the Foreign Office. This is his third contribu- tion to the field of metal studies. It follows chapters on representations of war in metal (2010), and how aggressive male impulses can relate to the creative process for metal bands (2011). E-mail: [email protected]

Samir Puri has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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Journal of Fandom Studies

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