Distortion, restriction and instability: Violence against the self in depressive suicidal black metal

Abstract

researches violence, ambiguity and mysticism in popular music, particularly in relation to extreme music and noise. His monograph, Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018, and, in addition to contributing several articles to Metal Music Studies his work has appeared in

Psychosocial risks and benefits of exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes: Current theory and evidence

“…Some sub-genres of heavy metal music such as depressive suicidal black metal contain overt descriptions of violence against the self, and perhaps not surprisingly have been characterised and investigated as risk-factors for suicide and selfharm (Coggins, 2019;Hughes et al, 2018;Martin et al, 1993). An early and politically influential study used an indirect approach to assess the relationship between heavy metal music listening and suicide.…”

Harmonic structures in twenty-first-century metal music: A harmonic analysis of five major metal genres

“…The virtuosic, eccentric build-ups towards climactic cadences in power metal (Christe 2003;Sharpe-Young 2007;Weinstein 2011;Herbst 2019) help to evoke the lyrical themes, for example, embarking on quests, marching into battle and other heroic themes, as they provide the music with a focus on this "end goal", just as the end goal in the lyrics is often to slay the dragon or reach one's destiny. This approach contrasts with black metal's use of harmony, with the ambiguous tonality and eerie, repetitive chord progressions reflecting the darker lyrical themes of hell, depression and suicide (Coggins 2019). To summarise the difference between the two: power metal focuses on the destination, and everything builds inexorably towards a point, whereas black metal focuses on the journey, with each new chord change adding to its sinister aesthetic.…”