1 THIS ISN’T PARADISE, THIS IS HELL: DISCOURSE, PERFORMANCE AND IDENTITY IN THE HAWAI‘I METAL SCENE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AMERICAN STUDIES DECEMBER 2012 By Benjamin Hedge Olson Dissertation Committee: Kathleen Sands, Chairperson David E. Stannard Vernadette Gonzalez Roderick Labrador Helen J. Baroni Keywords: metal, popular music, popular culture, religion, subculture, Hawai‘i 2 Abstract The island of Oahu is home to probably the most ethnically diverse metal scene in the United States. Contemporary Hawai`i prides itself on being a “model of multiculturalism” free of the racism and ethnic strife that is endemic to the continent; however, beneath this superficial openness and tolerance exist deeply felt class, ethnic, and racial tensions. The metal scene in Hawai`i experiences these conflicting impulses towards inclusion and exclusion as profoundly as any other aspect of contemporary Hawaiian culture, but there is a persistent hope within the metal scene that subcultural identity can triumph over such tensions. Complicating this process is the presence of white military personnel, primarily born and raised on the continental United States, whose cultural attitudes, performances of masculinity, and conception of metal culture differ greatly from that of local metalheads. The misunderstandings, hostilities, bids for subcultural capital, and attempted bridge-building that take place between metalheads in Hawai‘i constitute a subculturally specific attempt to address anxieties concerning the presence of the military, the history of race and racism in Hawai`i, and the complicated, often conflicting desires for both openness and exclusivity that exist within local culture. The metal scene in Hawai`i is perceived by participants as an idealized community that transcends the limitations and social tensions of dominant culture. Heavy metal allows participants in the Hawai`i scene to use cultural fragmentation to their advantage; to stay one-step ahead of dominant cultural authorities, and disrupt the ways in which they are perceived by others. The contentious, emotionally charged community that metalheads 3 have built for themselves in Hawai`i does provide a profound sense of belonging and identity, even if such feelings are unstable and always in contest. The knowledge that one belongs to such a community, that one retains membership in an underground world that most people are ignorant of, does carry over into participants’ everyday lives, making those spheres of life that metalheads have less control over seem less imposing and intimidating. 4 Table of Contents 1. Abstract …………………………………………………..…………….... 2 2. Introduction: Ethnography in Context……………………………………. 5 3. Chapter One Scene and Subculture: Constructing Authenticity……………………… 46 4. Chapter Two Within the Perpetual Pentagram: Religious Discourse in the Scene……..83 5. Chapter Three The Military Factor……………………………………………………..122 6. Chapter Four Gender, Power and Performance in the Scene…………………………160 7. Conclusion Ambiguity, Misdirection, and Postmodernity…………………………200 8. Bibliography …………………………………………………………....228 5 Introduction: Ethnography in Context “You say this is paradise, to me it's a living hell.” --- Die Slow, This Isn’t Paradise, This is Hell I am standing in Mad Dog Saloon’s crowded main room in the heart of Waikiki on a muggy April night in the spring of 2009. Several of my friends have come with me this evening; humoring me as they occasionally do by accompanying me to a local metal event that they have very little interest in for their own sake. We are surrounded by a fairly diverse, multiethnic crowd: local metalheads, Mad Dog regulars, military personnel, friends and girlfriends of the band, and tourists who have wandered in from the street. Most of the locals are of Asian and Pacific Islander decent; most of the tourists and military personnel are haoles. All have come to witness the much anticipated (by me at least) live debut of local black metal titans Majestic Tyranny. I harbor a deep, abiding love of black metal music and have experienced it live many times on the continental United States. I am familiar with its aesthetics, rhetoric, ideological peculiarities and sonic affect. It is safe to assume that most of the people at Mad Dog Saloon this evening, even the metalheads in attendance, are not very familiar with black metal and probably have, at best, a vague sense of what Majestic Tyranny are attempting to achieve. The majority of the crowd is slightly older and whiter than is typical for a metal show on Oʻahu, although haoles make-up at most half of the crowd. Many of the younger local 6 scene members either cannot get into Mad Dog Saloon or shun Waikiki on basic principal. Before us, crammed onto a small stage in the corner of the room stand Majestic Tyranny themselves and a bizarre, incongruous apparition they are. Dominating center stage is Majestic Tyranny’s singer; well over six feet tall, muscular, bearded, long-haired, looking like an undead Conan the Barbarian who has just shambled in from some fantastic battlefield. He is wearing the traditional Norwegian-style face paint known as corpse paint, usually consisting of black around the eyes and mouth with white covering the rest of the face. The effect is intended to be demonic and inhuman, and black metalers usually succeed in this impression. The Majestic Tyranny vocalist is no exception in this regard; he looks genuinely menacing and bestial. From a certain perspective corpse paint can be seen as a kind of “white face” although this interpretation would probably never occur to the vast majority of black metalers. It must also be noted that the majority of black metal bands are of white, European ancestry, the vocalist for Majestic Tyranny included. He is wearing black from head to toe, with spiked bracelets and an impressive bullet belt. Around his neck hangs a necklace of the hammer Mjölnir, symbol of the Old Norse God Thor and a favorite accoutrement of both Old Norse Pagans and metalheads. The rest of the band are from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and reflect a more toned-down version of the vocalist’s visual style. Speaking in a low, guttural, highly theatrical voice the vocalist greets the crowd by observing, “There are so many children of Satan here tonight!” The crowd responds with appreciative howls before being drowned out by the barrage of dense, frenzied black metal unleashed by the band as they begin their first song. 7 How can we make sense of this brief snapshot of an unusual black metal performance? What is the purpose of invoking Satanism and the Old Norse Gods in the heart of Waikiki while drunken haole tourists look on confusedly and local Christians mutter suspiciously to one another about devil worshippers, and multiethnic metalheads hurl one-another around the pit? What sorts of identities are being constructed or contested by this strange half menacing, half humorous performance? How many people in Mad Dog Saloon that night enjoyed being referred to as children of Satan, and where would such pleasure come from? Why might a multiethnic individual from West Oʻahu, without any particular connection to Scandinavia, feel attracted to and empowered by a symbol like Thor’s hammer? In many respects Hawai‘i is the least metal place on Earth. Majestic Tyranny were attempting to evoke images of icy Norwegian mountains and forbidding, primordial forests populated by demons and werewolves. Such imagery could not be more in contrast to the neon-lit sleaze of Waikiki on a Sunday night, and this is exactly the point. Metalheads in Hawai‘i are attracted to metal culture because of its radical otherness. It does not just seem like something from another place, but something totally removed from the mundane world. Metal envisions a mysterious, magical, romantic world that is simultaneously deeply hostile to many facets of dominant culture. In presenting a pummeling, abrasive, largely inaccessible form of extreme heavy metal music to a mixed, multiethnic crowd of observers while glorifying Satanism and vilifying both Christianity and modernity, Majestic Tyranny create a deeply unstable, ambiguous cultural space in which pleasure can be derived from the discomfort and bewilderment of others, as well as from awareness of one’s unique subcultural knowledge and identity. It 8 is this chaotic, enigmatic affect that gives metal culture in Hawai‘i much of its power to disrupt the identities of participants and confuse the expectations of outsiders. Metal in Hawai‘i brings myriad facets of contemporary American culture into contact, which rarely confront one another under normal circumstances. White, twenty- something Military guys fresh from Afghanistan drink alongside middle-aged, working- class Filipinos having a beer after a long-day’s work. Morbidly obese haole tourists from Omaha or Dallas accidentally find themselves warily observing an exuberant circle pit populated by local, multiethnic teenagers at places like the Hard Rock Café or Mad Dog Saloon in Waikiki. Local moms and dads who have come to see their teenage son’s metalcore band at Pipeline Café find themselves baffled by the spectacle of straight-edge military haoles with giant black X’s on their hands apparently beating each other senseless in the center of the auditorium. Far more so than the vast majority of other manifestations of contemporary youth culture, metal in Hawaii‘i forces disparate cultural elements into confrontation with one another, creating a liminal cultural space filled with tension, confusion and ecstasy. This uncertainty, disorientation, and chaos create an entropic realm in which power can be contested. Participants in the Oʻahu metal scene express an intense desire for the divisions and inequalities that characterize their everyday lives to be dissolved or overcome through participation in the scene. This desire usually goes unrealized, although the Oʻahu metal scene does provide an important venue for these desires and anxieties to be explored, challenged, and disrupted.