Mythology in Metal

[hannaugh]

Most forms of popular music generally stick with a few very everyday living kind of themes.  Love, sex, money, drinking, being happy, being sad, nostalgia, violence, sticking it to the man; these are the themes for most modern pop music (excluding fringe and indie people who come up with all kinds of weird stuff to write about, as we all know because of people like Frank Zappa and Ween).  And it makes perfect sense, these are all things that we have to deal with in our daily lives. 

Then there's metal.  You see a lot of the aforementioned stuff in there, but for some reason there are also a lot of songs about mythology... especially Norse mythology.  Now, I personally think mythology is badass, and I think it's kind of cool to write about it.  But my question is: when did the metal + mythology thing start and why?  I really don't know that much about the genre.  I mean, I'm guessing maybe Led Zeppelin started it.  It seems like half of their songs revolve around Lord of the Rings.  But that's really just a guess, I was just wondering what thoughts you metal heads had on the matter.

BTW, I was thinking about this because I stumbled across the video for Holy Diver and had to watch it again in all of it's insane Dungeons & Dragons glory. 

 

[llmtelecaster]

When I think of mythological metal I think of the type of metal from Scandanavia. From what I understand, the metal there is heavily influenced by the pagan ideas and traditions. I don't know much about religions either, but it seems like almost all of them contain some element of mythology as a means to make sense of its origins.

 

[AGWAN]

Yep, a lot of Metal is from Northern Europe. where the genre is accepted as a part of mainstream culture and therefore embraces other popular mainstream interests... such as mythology.

 

[JimBeed]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhvL8_C1TY[/youtube]
It may not be directly based on any mythology, as i dont know what the lyrics mean  :-\ need to find out.
But the pipes and the overall feel of it make me think of mythology and such.

 

[Miskatonic]

Nile uses Egyptian myth and lore as the basis for their lyrics. Quite a few "extreme" metal bands that use mythology as well.

 

[Miskatonic]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhvL8_C1TY[/youtube]
It may not be directly based on any mythology, as i dont know what the lyrics mean  :-\ need to find out.
But the pipes and the overall feel of it make me think of mythology and such.

Moonsorrow and Finntroll are great.  :headbang:

 

[Miskatonic]

Most forms of popular music generally stick with a few very everyday living kind of themes.  Love, sex, money, drinking, being happy, being sad, nostalgia, violence, sticking it to the man; these are the themes for most modern pop music (excluding fringe and indie people who come up with all kinds of weird stuff to write about, as we all know because of people like Frank Zappa and Ween).  And it makes perfect sense, these are all things that we have to deal with in our daily lives.  

Then there's metal.  You see a lot of the aforementioned stuff in there, but for some reason there are also a lot of songs about mythology... especially Norse mythology.  Now, I personally think mythology is badass, and I think it's kind of cool to write about it.  But my question is: when did the metal + mythology thing start and why?  I really don't know that much about the genre.  I mean, I'm guessing maybe Led Zeppelin started it.  It seems like half of their songs revolve around Lord of the Rings.  But that's really just a guess, I was just wondering what thoughts you metal heads had on the matter.

BTW, I was thinking about this because I stumbled across the video for Holy Diver and had to watch it again in all of it's insane Dungeons & Dragons glory.  

I think metal lends itself more to escapism than other genres, and Mythology and Fantasy type lyrics/themes fit hand in hand with that. I know that I'd rather listen to music that had the esoteric or mysticism as the focus of the lyrics as opposed to everyday topics dealing with issues people face every day, at least most of the time. I have an appreciation for Blues musicians but that is one genre I have never been able to get into as it doesn't speak to me on a deeper level at all. Might just be a cultural thing. Jazz is a similar situation.

If people are going to write about things we experience throughout our lives I'd rather have it wrapped up in an allegory and not just spelled out in no uncertain terms. I think that lends itself more to the creative process.

I write quite a bit and as I learn how to play different instruments I've started working on songs and lyrics, etc. and I try to make an effort not to preach the opinions I have by leaving room for interpretation since that's what most people will do with your lyrics anyway. I like the challenge of weaving philosophical/political/religious ideas into a scenario that plays itself out throughout the song.

 

[stubhead]

There are at least a couple of people who have done doctoral dissertations on this, and then turned them into books:
http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Metal-Music-Culture-Revised/dp/0306809702/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301305424&sr=1-9

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Devil-Gender-Madness-Culture/dp/0819562602/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

They make for some dry reading, lotsa sociological terminology substituting for regular English, if you know what I mean. There's another one like these on Led Zeppelin alone, but I can't seem to dig it up (it's IN there, I know...)

The thing that strikes most people is the strong resemblance to a religion, including the sacraments, churches, and gods. Somewhere in America there's probably one person who thinks that way about The Captain and Tenille and the Bangles, but metal is a much bigger church, with interdenominational sects, rivalries and authenticity tests. There are a few bands who alone seem to have merited serious attention for their quasi-religious following: the Grateful Dead (of course), Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and, I hate to say, KISS. Apparently the Japanese take this stuff way overboard, compares to us staid American audiences.

 

[Miskatonic]

There are at least a couple of people who have done doctoral dissertations on this, and then turned them into books:
http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Metal-Music-Culture-Revised/dp/0306809702/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301305424&sr=1-9

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Devil-Gender-Madness-Culture/dp/0819562602/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

They make for some dry reading, lotsa sociological terminology substituting for regular English, if you know what I mean. There's another one like these on Led Zeppelin alone, but I can't seem to dig it up (it's IN there, I know...)

The thing that strikes most people is the strong resemblance to a religion, including the sacraments, churches, and gods. Somewhere in America there's probably one person who thinks that way about The Captain and Tenille and the Bangles, but metal is a much bigger church, with interdenominational sects, rivalries and authenticity tests. There are a few bands who alone seem to have merited serious attention for their quasi-religious following: the Grateful Dead (of course), Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and, I hate to say, KISS. Apparently the Japanese take this stuff way overboard, compares to us staid American audiences.

Loudness is a perfect example of the Japanese taking metal to another level. Those guys have pumped out so many albums it's crazy.

 

[mayfly]

I think it's all the axes.

 

[Jusatele]

I think it is the anti society thing
remember Black Sabath's sabbath bloody sabbath, pure shock factor
and going into mythology has a dark side to it, you are talking about gods and evil things and demons and such
kind of gives them a way to both shock those who do not approve, and a fantasy world to explore.
I have always enjoyed the Norse mythology since I was a teen, and bands that had covers or lyrics about it really were attractive to me
Now that I am much older, I still get off on the Mythology, I have a collection of swords and axes, a curio cabinet full of Pewter wizards and dragons, More books on Norse Mythology than some libraries but I do not chase Heavy Metal the way I did when I was younger.

 

[AndyG]

The raison d'être for metal was to explore the darker side of everything.  The flat 5 was considered the devil's tone, so what better place to start!  Besides, the metal genre really started to pick up steam (especially in England) when disco was in its heyday in North America, and all music was too happy for its own good. 

 

[m4rk0]

Thin Lizzy has some great songs with some Irish Mythology in it...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENy7MQIYJs

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

It really depends where and what of the 8 million sub genres of metal you're looking at. It's mostly, in my opinion, black and death metal that seems to use a bit of mythology in their stuff, which usually comes out of places like in northern Europe. Looking at stuff in the US and Aus, sometimes they try to incorporate mythology part and don't really understand it well enough, so they fail. Which may be why most recent metal is about tormented souls and revenge and random massacres and disembowelment of prostitutes and other f****ed up random stuff.  :laughing7:

 

[elfro89]

yeah, some of the other's nailed it. I'm not keen on mythology and even less keen on having it screamed in my face.  :icon_jokercolor::

I don't mind mythology put into historical context when learning about Viking culture for example, but outside of that, werewolf's, vampires, witches... isn't my thing.

 

[hannaugh]

Me looking at Magic the Gathering Cards:  "Hey, this one looks like an album cover for a metal band.  Hey, this one looks like that too... wait, all of them look like that!"

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have to agree, there is a lot of mythology in most of the metal.  From the days of pre metal, to extreme versions.  My current personal favorite is from the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, Týr.  OK, the videos are cheeseball, but who has money for these things.  They really do the Viking/mythology thing to it's fullest.  Anywho, they are a lot of fun and sing a lot of their tunes in Faroese.  Good luck following along, the time changes are brutal.
Patrick

 

[Miskatonic]

Then you have bands like Mercyful Fate and King Diamond that use mythology but also create their own stories/plots.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

Most forms of popular music generally stick with a few very everyday living kind of themes.  Love, sex, money, drinking, being happy, being sad, nostalgia, violence, sticking it to the man; these are the themes for most modern pop music (excluding fringe and indie people who come up with all kinds of weird stuff to write about, as we all know because of people like Frank Zappa and Ween).  And it makes perfect sense, these are all things that we have to deal with in our daily lives. 

Then there's metal.  You see a lot of the aforementioned stuff in there, but for some reason there are also a lot of songs about mythology... especially Norse mythology.  Now, I personally think mythology is badass, and I think it's kind of cool to write about it.  But my question is: when did the metal + mythology thing start and why?  I really don't know that much about the genre.  I mean, I'm guessing maybe Led Zeppelin started it.  It seems like half of their songs revolve around Lord of the Rings.  But that's really just a guess, I was just wondering what thoughts you metal heads had on the matter.

BTW, I was thinking about this because I stumbled across the video for Holy Diver and had to watch it again in all of it's insane Dungeons & Dragons glory. 

The Scandinavian bands are huge on Norse Mythology, basically because that was their religion prior to christianity.  They're very much into writing about the religious wars, and basically how the christians slaughtered all the people who believed in Norse Mythology, hence all the "Satanism" in the music.  Read into it a bit more, and it's not Satanic, just anti-christian.

 

[stubhead]

Read into it a bit more, and it's not Satanic, just anti-christian.

The mythology itself isn't anti-christian, more just "Pre-christian - for that area." Same with Jesus's conquering African mythology, American Indian mythology, Hawaiian and all the others - we White Anglo-Saxon Protestants have a real habit of trying to convert "the natives" with tea & crumpets, and if that didn't take real fast we'll switch to cannonballs and smallpox blankets.... especially if those darn natives were sitting on top of some nice juicy resources that God needs quick. And then we wonder why they don't welcome us with flowers. Substitute the words "free market capitalism" for "christianity" - hmmm. (?) :icon_scratch: