Metal Jew

Transvestite Metalhead Zine

Spurzine from Australia got in touch and sent me a beautiful zine he made called 'Travesty: Musings on Being a Transvestite Metalhead'. He also sent a couple of other mini metal-related zines as well that were equally cool. You can find out more about the man and his zines here and 'Travesty' can be bought here.

Brief Thoughts on Heavy Metal and Gender Conference

I was priveliged to attend the Heavy Metal and Gender conference in Cologne last week. It was a great occasion and Florian Heesch did a great job organising it. It was great meeting up with old and new eggheadbanger friends - it feels that a community of serious, committed metal scholars is starting to emerge.

Ill health and lack of time prevents me recording my thoughts on the conference in more detail but one thing I've been thinking a lot about is my relationship to the metal scene. Would I still describe it as 'ambivalent'? I still have real difficulties with certain aspects of metal - the persistent sexism for one thing. The beercentricism of metal culture also bores me (although I would drink more regularly if my health was better).

I can't deny that I am much more comfortable with the hipster-end of the metal continuum and I sometimes cling to Sunn0))) like a drowning man to a liferaft. Sometimes I feel like an apologetic metaller. Maybe I'm a self-hating Jew and a self-hating metaller?

Yet at the same time, the emerging eggheadbanger community is beginning to convince me  that perhaps metal is important, perhaps it has lessons for all.

Gay metal rumour

Whilst I am concerned not to post lashon hara on this blog, the comments on a recent post on Invisible Oranges publish an interesting rumour about a possibly gay member of a prominent death metal band. I can't substantiate it, but it seems to me that the necessity of making life easier for gay metallers - who are by and large hidden - seems to override the risks in 'outing' someone in this way.

2009 - the year of the eggheadbanger

Looks like 2009 is turning into the year of the eggheadbenger:

1) October 8-10 sees the 'Heavy Metal and Gender' conference in Cologne . I'll be speaking and I can't wait for the vocal masterclass featuring Angela Gossow!

2) November 10-12 sees the second 'Heavy Fundamentalism' conference in Salzburg. I won't be there and I think it is a shame that in such a small academic field it was scheduled so soon after the Cologne conference (the Cologne conference was annouced first). Still, I really hope it is a success - the 2008 conference was a brilliant experience.

 

3) December 12 sees the 'Hideous Gnosis'  Black Metal Theory Symposium in New York. This is an unapologetically out-there fest of mind-duck theorising about mind-fucking black metal. Nicola Masciandaro, one of the organisers and speakers, presented a virtually inpenetrable paper at Salzburg last year and his blog verges on the incomprehensible - and is all the better for it.

Spin magazine articles on eggheadbangers and yeshiva metallers

The latest (August) issue of Spin magazine has a short article on metal in academia, including a quote from me and a number of other 'Eggheadbangers'. The article can be found on p42 of the digital-edition. 

Rather belatedly, I was informed that the June edition of Spin had an article on how nu metal band Disturbed, fronted by David Draiman who has an orthodox background and publicly identifies as a Jew, has a big following among American Yeshiva students. The article can be found on p38 of the June digital edition. I'm not sure how far the phenomenon is real or simply an isolated set of cases, still its interesting to think that there might be an underground metal community in the yeshiva world. There's already an underground Lubavitch black metal band.

Thanks to Brian Hickam for help in tracking the links down.

Faceless middle eastern metal performance piece

This sounds fascinating (hat tip: Nicola), hope fully it will come to the UK at some point:

Egyptian artist Nader Sadek will be displaying a new performance piece entitled B’doun Wag’h (”Faceless”), this piece will incorporate a mixture of Middle Eastern culture and death metal music. The following musicians will be performing said piece.

Steve Tucker (formerly of Morbid Angel)
Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy)
Nick McMaster (Krallice)
Mike Lerner (Behold… The Arctopus)

Admission price to witness B’doun Wag’h will be a suggested donation of $5 and proceeds will go toward victims of the Darfur crisis. B’doun Wag’h will take place during an afternoon event called “It’s All Yours Now” on March 15 at:

SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City
New York, 11101
718.361.1750

For more detailed information on “It’s All Yours Now“, check out the official press release:

http://www.sculpture-center.org/pressSpecific.htm?id=12577

More on metal band names

I blogged here and here on the book All Known Metal Bands. Now Jack has sent me a wonderful pentagram-shaped diagram that categorises metal band names. Can't tell who created it though.

Truly transgressive metal

I've long been annoyed by the way in which metal's transgressive tendencies stop when confronted with issues of gender and sexuality. Rob Halford and that bloke from Accept aside, metal culture is heteronormative to the max. However, recently I've heard about 3 examples of a more transgressive attitude:

1. I can't believe I didn't blog about this before but Gorgoroth frontman Gaahl recently came out. As one of the few black metallers that genuinely scares people this is exciting news. 
2. At the recent metal conference in Salzburg, a paper by Finnish scholar Mikael Sarelin discussed two Finnish black metal bands Enochian Crescent and  Black Dawn,both of whom play with transgendered imagery.
3. John Stevens from Oz contacted me to tell me about the delightfully named Filthy Maggoty Cunt , who are/were led by Oz transexual Jade Starr .John also forwarded me the playlists for his now defunkt 'queer alt/metal show' Cake and Sodomy.

Okay it's only a handful of examples but it's a start!

Article on metal conference

The first ever international academic conference on metal starts on Monday in Salzburg. I will be there and I'm really looking forward to it. There's a piece on the  Guardian website about the conference that quotes me:

Heavy metal scholars flock to Salzburg | Education | guardian.co.uk.

Home Of Metal

Home of Metal is a fascinating new project that seeks to document and celebrate the metal heritage of Birmingham and the West Midlands in the UK. The 'about' page on their website begins with the words:

For too long Birmingham and the West Midlands have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of “heavy metal”.

This reticence isn't just confined to the West Midlands. With the exception of Finland, I don't know of anywhere that publicly celebrates its metal history. I love the idea of metal becoming an integral part of the work of local history and local cultural politics...