The power of the imagination of historical distance: Melechesh’ ‘Mesopotamian Metal’ as a musical attempt of solving cultural conflicts in the twenty-first century

Abstract

As an interdisciplinary but distinct field of cultural research, metal music studies is, as a research discourse, structurally interwoven with post-modern and post-colonial cultural history. In this article, the author examines the ways the music of the Middle Eastern extreme metal band Melechesh, called ‘Mesopotamian Metal’ by the artists themselves, constructs a hybrid cultural pattern that could help us solving cultural conflicts in the globalized world of the twenty-first century. Mesopotamian Metal constructs an innovative cultural discourse, hybridizing fragments of different ‘Western’, ‘Eastern’ and ‘Oriental’ streams of culture. Its main power lies in its way of historical storytelling: it uses the logic of hybridization, via the imagination of historical distance, to provide us with an innovative historical narrative, fashioned in the globally understood cultural outfit of extreme metal music. Explaining this empirical case by post-colonial hybridization theory adds new aspects to current research debates on the interconnections between global extreme metal discourse and regional/local cultures in metal music studies.

Teutonic Metal: Effects of Place- and Mythology-based Labels on Record Production

“…Focusing on place-based labels and the mythologies surrounding them, this article examines 'Teutonic metal' from a record production perspective. With its unconventional method and data, it differs from previous studies that have drawn on metal magazines (Karjalainen, 2018), interviews with musicians (Dunn, 2004;Kahn-Harris, 2000), historical and mythological analyses (Boyarin, 2019;Helden, 2010;Manea, 2016;Pichler, 2017;Spracklen et al, 2014;Trafford, 2013), musical analyses (Avelar, 2003;Deeks, 2016;Hillier, 2018), statistical analysis of bands per metal subgenre (Berkers & Schaap, 2017) or scene analyses (Ekeroth, 2019;Kahn-Harris, 2007;Lucas et al, 2011;Purcell, 2003) to explain place-of-origin references. This study was undertaken in collaboration with one of the primary record producers of 'Teutonic metal', Karl 'Charlie' Bauerfeind, who has worked with some of Germany's best-known metal bands in his more than thirty-year-long career: Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, Rage and Primal Fear.…”

“…Imagined communities serve a purpose for their members (Spracklen, 2017: 407); in the case of metal, the entirety of metal fans and the various imagined communities organised by subgenre, location or other distinguishing variables. Location language can imply the nation with its characteristics and stereotypes, place-based sounds like Sweden's 'Gothenburg sound' (Hillier, 2018), historical references like 'Mesopotamian metal' (Boyarin, 2019;Pichler, 2017), or ideological and (false) ethnic references as in the case of Northernness and pagan metal (Spracklen et al, 2014). These references can be meaningful for fans as they help 'associate the band with a bigger cultural picture by rendering some generally recognized characteristics or peculiarities of the respective countries and areas' (Karjalainen, 2018: 3).…”

“…These references can be meaningful for fans as they help 'associate the band with a bigger cultural picture by rendering some generally recognized characteristics or peculiarities of the respective countries and areas' (Karjalainen, 2018: 3). Metal magazines convey rich information, aid fans in navigating the vast market and provide means of identification (Pichler, 2017;Spracklen et al, 2014). Therefore, they have historically been an important part of communicative leisure and 'culture-asleisure' (Spracklen, 2011) in popular and metal music.…”

Views of German Producers on ›teutonic‹ Metal: Production Approaches and Generational Effects

“…In the 1980s, metal spread from Britain and the USA to Central Europe and Japan. Over time, geographically associated labels emerged around the globe, such as ›Viking metal‹ for Scandinavian bands (Heesch 2010) or ›Mesopotamian metal‹ for artists from the Middle East (Pichler 2017). German bands introduced a different take on the genre, which became known as ›Teutonic‹ metal (Elflein 2017;Herbst 2019bHerbst , 2020a.…”

“…Even if titles such as Sounds and Origin in Heavy Metal Music (Karjalainen 2018) suggest that they deal with the sonic domain of the genre, this is rarely the case. Most research on geographically labelled metal genres tends to focus on stage presentation, music videos, artwork (Heesch 2010;von Helden 2015), historical storytelling (Pichler 2017) or lyrics (La Roca 2017). This chapter is part of a larger research project dedicated to ›Teutonic‹ metal, a style of music that has received relatively little academic attention so far.…”