Metal Jew

Metal in Capitals

Okay this is spooky: I had planned to write a post this week announcing to the world that hereby I would cease writing Metal in capitals. I don't know why I've always capitalised metal genre names. When I published my book my editor told me not to use capitals but I still carried on using them on the blog. Anyway, a great post on exactly this topic appeared today on the Invisible Oranges blog. Here's an excerpt:

I'm trying to understand why people use such capitalization. Other genres don't do this. One doesn't see Techno or Jazz, or subgenrewise, Minimal or Bebop. Even in metal, one doesn't see Grindcore or Thrash Metal. Why are black metal, death metal, and heavy metal special? Is capitalization insufferably pompous?

Perhaps I can understand the reverence. I don't subscribe to it, though. I have problems capitalizing deities that supposedly created the universe. Western music forms that arose in the last few decades hardly constitute religions to me.

He's probably correct that pomposity is part of the reason for the frequent capitalisation of metal genres - Manowar-style invocations of the power of metal seem to beg not just capitals but immortalisation in stone. In my defense I don't think it was reverence that led me to capitalize for so long, just simple ignorance of basic rules of good writing.

Henceforce I declare Metal Jew to be a non-capitalization zone (to be pedantic, excepting when I'm writing the name of the blog or at the start of sentences).

Great Josh Silver interview

Metal Israel has a great interview with Josh Silver of Type O Negative. It's probably the most detailed interview with a Jewish Metal musician that I've read. Aviva grills him pretty hard on his Jewish identity and his views on Israel. Apparently his great grandfather was a rabbi. Silver himself is an athesit but identifies pretty strongly (he has a mezuzah). On Israel, I had previously thought his views were similar to Aviva's (ie Kahanist) but he appears to be more conventionally right-wing with some ambivalent touches. The most interesting stuff is on his relationship to Pete Steele and his near-fascist leanings. Silver is maddeningly vague on the subject but kudos to Aviva for pushing him...

Haredi concert banned

There's a fascinating debate going on in the Haredi world at the moment about the acceptability of Haredi pop concerts, following the 'banning' of a concert by several Haredi stars such as Lupa at Madison Square Gardens. Y-Love - an Orthodox rapper who I greatly respect - has an excellent post on the subject.

'Black' Metal

I just got back from a great week with the family in Barbados (thank you benevolent father-in-law!). I can't say I had a terribly deep exposure to Bajan culture but all the local music I heard was reggae, soca or calypso. No rock at all. Looking in the CD shop at the airport only confirmed this.

Since getting back I've been thinking about the complete invisibility of Metal in the black Caribbean and black Africa (as opposed to South Africa, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Cuba etc).  I simply have never heard any mention within the global Metal scene of bands or even fans from these areas.  I did some digging around on the net and only found one black Caribbean act of any significance - Orange Sky from Trinidad who have apparently toured with Yngwe Malmsteem. I also found a homemade video from a Barbados Death Metal band called Zenobite (pasted at the end of this post).  As I wrote on this blog before,  Botswana does appear to have a black-dominated scene and it has produced at least one globally-connected band called Wrust.

Am I missing something? Are there other scenes in these places? The absence of Metal from black Africa and the black diaspora is something I have never adequately explained. I've resisted doing so partially out of a fear of resorting to racial stereotyping; partially because of a fear that there is more going on that I know about.

Anyway, here's the video:

Miscellaneous stuff

Some miscellaneous stuff:

Metal Jew friendly Guardian blog posts on Nu Metal's Anniversary and on 'Outing' Jewish musicians.

More on Hassidic Metallers Teihu (from Teruah Jewish Music )

David Draiman of better-then-I-expected act quasi-Nu Metal act Disturbed is not only Jewish but attended yeshiva (hat tip: Skroohead).

Books out soon in the always intriguing 33 1/3 series on Black Sabbath's Masters of Reality and Slayer's Reign in Blood

Y'all take care now.

Women in metal

Just discovered a cool site, to which I'm adding a link in my sidebar, called Blood Sisters which promotes women in metal and extreme music. The links are interesting too.