CNN.com:

Heavy metal and violence: More than a myth?

Story Highlights
Heavy metal used as a scapegoat according to anthropologist

Storytelling and drama important, not violence, says Iron Maiden singer

Heavy metal is pantomime compared to torture-porn films says NME journalist

Iron Maiden accused of being Satanists in 1980s
By James Donkin for CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Violence and heavy metal seem to have been inextricably entwined since the dawn of the metal genre.


Judas Priest, Marilyn Manson and Black Sabbath are just some of the household metal names to have come under public fire for supposedly inciting teenagers to commit murder and suicide.

It's a fire the international media has been happy to flame, quick to draw links between various acts of savagery and heavy metal even if, as in the case of the Columbine shootings and Marilyn Manson, evidence points to the contrary.

For anthropologist, documentary filmmaker and self-confessed "Metalhead" Sam Dunn, heavy metal is often used as a scapegoat to distract from the thoroughly more complicated societal problems surrounding such incidents.

"I think people look at heavy metal and label it for all sorts of things because we need easy answers to complex questions," Dunn says.

"I think that it's easy to target a heavy metal band for inciting violence or making kids turn to a cult than it is to actually look at real problems in the real world."

It's easy to see where the journalists, parents and religious groups get their ideas from.

A quick scan of the lyrics of any heavy metal band worth its salt will often reveal some gasp-inducing subject matter.

For instance in his film "A Headbanger's Journey," Dunn quotes some of his favourite lyrics by a metal band called Autopsy: "Burning from the inside out, bloody foam spews from your mouth, smell the putrid stench of flesh, as it burns you to your death."

Not the sort of poetry to be quoting to grandmother over lunch, but can such ludicrous gore really incite people to violence, not to mention murder?

As one young Norwegian metal fan told the UK's Guardian newspaper: "It's all fantasy, none of this is real, you can't take this seriously, it's just like a movie."

But compared to some of the images filling our cinema screens -- The Devil's Rejects, Wolf Creek, The Passion of the Christ to name a few -- even Autopsy's lyrics seem a little tame.

"I have listened to enough metal for me to essentially be a serial killer," says James McMahon from UK music magazine NME.

"But there's something in me that says no, that's not what I believe life is about. Serial killers existed before Slayer, you know."

"I'm a big fan of horror movies but Hostel, Saw, those torture porn films, I found myself repulsed -- metal is pantomime comparatively."

As Alice Cooper quips: "There's more blood in 'Macbeth' than in my shows and that's required school reading."

For metal musicians, death, blood and mayhem, in its various guises, are all simply part of the act, part of "the show."

"I think it comes from being a child of the '70s," says Iron Maiden's lead singer Bruce Dickinson. "I was brought up on Hammer horror movies and things like "The Devil Rides Out," classics like that."

"So while we do the devil type things, it's done... I wouldn't always say in a tongue-in-cheek way, but there is an element of it. It's done with a view to storytelling and drama, with a bit of dressing-up going on."

Iron Maiden has also endured its fair share of controversy. The title of its 1982 album, "The Number of the Beast," and repeated use of "666" in the titular track's chorus had America's religious right up in arms.

They accused the band of being devil worshippers, Satanists and of "trying to pervert our kids."

"When I play that song I think, well, ok, this isn't glorifying the devil, because that's certainly not what I would do," says Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, a born-again Christian.

"It's making an awareness that yes he's out there, and you've got to be aware. There is a man with 666 tattooed on his noggin somewhere."

Ironically, the fundamentalist reaction to "The Number of the Beast" packed out Iron Maiden tour gigs in every American town they visited. Kids squeezed into arenas desperate to see what was scaring their parents so badly.

Despite this marketing draw, Dickinson is keen to distance Iron Maiden from the violence for violence's sake approach practiced by some of his contemporaries, such as musicians from the extreme Black Metal and Death Metal sub-genres.

"We're not interested in being extreme," he says.

"We're interested in being interesting and in animating people's imaginations with the stories that we tell and the songs."

It's an approach that chimes with what one female Iron Maiden fan, Ruth, tells us, "I really don't see any violence in the fans and I have been to loads of their gigs," she says.

"I am in a tiny minority of women, in a room full of men wearing black -- which should seem scary, but it totally isn't. The men hold doors open for me and apologize if they bash into me. They are basically really meek and polite."

So while upside-down crucifixes, homicidal zombies and lashings of blood might continue to fuel our preconceptions about heavy metal music, it's worth remembering, appearances and reality can be very different beasts indeed.

I can believe it!!!!!!!

That hard/heavy metal can set off some evil feelings in people..... ESPECIALLY IF LISTENING TO STERILE DIGITAL STUFF!!!!

No good for anyone really.......

I believe there is some substance to it, but I think the narrative is too often twisted by people trying to make a particular point.

Can music with hard driving riffs incline someone towards "edgy" behavior? I think so.

Does it justify suspension of good judgement? Absolutely not!! Civilized people are still responsible for proper behavior. (no matter how edgy they might feel)

I always thought the claims that heavy metal inspires violence were total bunk, until I had the opportunity to observe otherwise thrust upon me.

I've got a flock of about 50 geese that have become habituated to me presence. All I have to do is go sit out near the riverbank in my back yard, and within a half hour I've been spotted, and they all gravitate towards me. Don't even have to feed em. They are just as happy to roll up in a ball and go to sleep gathered around me, as anything else. They find comfort in my presence.

Often I'll take a radio out with me.....and one day I was back there listening to the Moody Blues, and all was peaceful and serene .....Idyllic, like a Currier and Ives post card. Then, Kiss Detroit Rock City came on, and in under a minute several "spite fests" had broken out among the geese. The dominant males had been provoked into displaying their dominance.

This happens all the time, so the behavior itself is natural...there is no lapse of "judgement". But it is highly irregular for all the dominant males in the flock to all go off at once.

So, it was a real epiphany for me, "hey, that's what those folks criticizing heavy metal are talking about."

So, it inspired me to do a little research. I started taking cassette tapes of various artists out with me. Now I am sure that some would feel compelled to dismiss my findings as insufficiently scientific..."anecdotal rubbish" they always seem to thrill on claiming.

Fine, but the results I obtained are hard to ignore. There is an immistakable pattern.

The geese even seemed to enjoy Black Sabbath Vol 4, not a feather was ruffled, But once I put on Masters of Reality...within just a moment or two, IT WAS ON!!

So, I'm confident there is at least some merit to the claims

Interesting distinction between two diametrically opposed Black Sabbath albums:

One is considered to be the defining album of Black Sabbath in their classic era, full of its purest heaviness (in contrast to 'Paranoid'). Yet there was a certain "druginess" to their third album. But on the album following it, they were full on into a certain druginess and stoner rock approach. They became a little softer while remaining heavy.

Sometimes I, as an afficianado of heavy music and metal, have to admit that a visceral music which requires a reaction, may not absolve itself from blame if people take it a little too far. But this is true of just about anything requiring a certain response. Religion can be good, but it can go too far.

What IS metal music asking for?

The funny thing about it is, right up until I had that experience, I was very anti-Tipper Gore, I thought the whole "let's censor evil music" mentality was a totally fabricated solution in search of a problem,....and then I witnessed the geese's reaction, and I was like "DAYAAMN!".
Of course I'm still not in favor of censoring music....but I have to acknowledge there is some definite cause and effect going on.

Of course with geese there is always a potential for hostility, they've always got the "pecking order" thing going on...so it's not like the music inspired them to do anything that didn't come naturally for them...it just provoked their natural aggressive side...lit their fuse, so to speak.