Men & Moshpits HOW FEMINIST CAN METAL BE?

Written by: Lily Dorranian

Music has always been an aspect of revolution and political ideology. Metal, punk and alternative music of any kind are movements in themselves. Not necessarily all political, but all started as a rejection of conservative fascist ideals such as rejecting what is socially considered “taboo”. However, extreme metal is a genre of music that has produced controversy of all kinds since its rise in popularity.

Now personally, I love all kinds of music, particularly heavy metal and extreme metal. The violent imagery and art that comes along with it, it is all part of a culture rooted in anti-fascism, and above all is just another form of storytelling through a vulgar medium.  

As a radical feminist and a woman, finding my place within the extreme metal community is very hard considering the state of the lyricism, artwork and just the general attitude towards women and social justice today. While many older metal elitists claim nothing is wrong, the exclusion goes far beyond being targeted in violent mosh pits, but the behaviour and attitude of men in the metal/alternative scene as well, particularly in Australia. This does not go for every person involved, but it is extremely common. The dynamic between gender is barbaric, women are the fuckdolls of a perverted metalhead fantasy, she can’t name three songs of the band performing tonight so she must be here to serve my violent, sexualised perception of alternative women.

As a butch lesbian, I present outwardly masculine and usually wearing my masculinity on a sleeve is a way to put myself in danger, in a scene and community like this one it acts as a shield, I am no longer the subject of a fantasy. It allows me to act as an observer, and what I have gathered is that while for the most part the community is lovely, considerate and present for gigs for no reason other than a genuine captivation and awe of artistic expression or to crowd-kill, it is an undeniable fact that misogyny is rampant throughout the community, whether it is conscious or subconscious.

I haven’t known a single woman involved in the scene that hasn’t been harassed or treated as a fantastical trophy to achieve. The stories of women being taken advantage of at concerts, being groped while crowd surfing, targeted in a mosh pit, or sexually assaulted in a crowd are endless.  Now, it would be wrong to assume that violent music fosters violent individuals, this has been proved wrong countless times.

So where are the overwhelming amounts of conscious and subconscious misogyny flowing into the scene coming from? 

Heavy and extreme metal is a culture and genre largely based on theatrics and performance. The violent imagery, lyricism and overall mind-fuckingly jarring and abhorrent form of artistic expression is what makes metal extreme (aside from the actual music itself). It is shock value, and the violence is a novelty of the genre. It is well of untapped creativity, where bands and artists pride themselves on how far they can push the boundaries of acceptance, social norms and artistic expression. Technicality and individual talent of artists aside, the criteria or standard for “extremity” within this genre is largely based on how vulgar, disgusting and visceral a story can be.

Most often, violence is the subject of disgusting story telling. There are different kinds of depictions of violence in heavy and extreme metal. One of the most popular kinds is imagined violent art. This is art on album covers and subsequently a band or artist’s merch. You have all kinds of scenarios, most often related to the mutilation, dissection, or depiction of a dying, dead or decomposing body. Devourment’s 1999 album ‘Molesting the Decapitated’ captures this quite well, or any one of Cannibal Corpse’s records.

Fabricated and imagined violence is a staple of the genre, however when you delve deeper into the extremity, you are presented with violent art that is less imagined and more real. Infamously, Mayhem’s bootleg 1995 black metal album, ‘Dawn of the Black Hearts’, depicting the real deceased body of Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin, frontman and vocalist of Mayhem, after he had committed suicide. Then you have other bands such as Last Days of Humanity’s ‘Horrific Compositions of Decomposition’ 2021 album of what seems to be a man eating the corpse of a woman. Additionally, any of the album covers by Pissgrave. These album covers are again the theatrics playing their performative role of shock horror/value. 

So, you have general violent imagery, art, album covers. When do women become the subject, and when does this become a problem?

Preteen Deathfuck - Nattefrost (2005, Terrorist Nekronaut Pt. 1)

“Seven years old with two bleeding holes

Fucked her for days in every thinkable ways

Her innocent cries couldn't milden my heart

I stabbed and stabbed, and I cut her apart!!!!”

Fucked With a Knife - Cannibal Corpse (1994, The Bleeding)

“Tied tight to the bed

Legs spread open

Bruised flesh, lacerations

Skin stained with blood

I'm the only one you love

I feel her heart beating

my knife deep inside

Her crotch is bleeding”'

Devirgination Studies - Whitechapel (2007, Somatic Defilement)

“Send the slut back to hell,

Another whore to seek, fondle and misuse”

Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation - Whitechapel (2007, Somatic Defilement)

“Raping her and hacking, slashing, violated

Raping her and hacking, slashing, violated

I'm not sorry, I don't care at all for what I did

You deserve everything you get”

Fair Fray - Whitechapel (2007, Somatic Defilement)

“Now you’re begging me to let you go

I laugh at such pitiful cries

Sodomizing (...mizing) your orifice

Now you crawl (You crawl) away

….
Worthless, wretched, foul slut”

• Cemetery Rapist (a literal band name).

There is also a trend amongst bands to include lines from old horror movies about killing women, hurting women, kidnapping or assaulting and most commonly raping women (Skinless, Dystopia, Mortician etc).

______________

There are a lot more. These are just the few handpicked examples from different bands/artists that are famous. This isn’t just limited to the one genre, but it’s infested and hidden in almost every genre of metal, particularly slam, goregrind, deathcore and death metal, but most commonly the culprits are extreme brutal deathcore bands. 

Many ignorant male metal elitists spit the same baseless defences “it’s just a fantasy”, “its just channeling anger”, “it’s artistic expression”, “it’s not real”, “if you don’t like extreme metal, don’t listen to extreme metal”, “metal is supposed to be offensive” and whatever other variation used to cope with the fact that this is an actual problem, and they are actively part of it.

THE ART AND AUDIENCE

There are many reasons why this is problematic. The issues lie within both the art and the audience. 

The “art” itself, i.e violent album covers depicting women being cut up, mutilated, hung, dissected etc. There is simply no creativity in repeating misogynistic fantasies at such a visceral level. On a “technical level” it is shallow, unimaginative, repetitive, and just boring. When every second band are screaming rape fantasies or other violently misogynistic lyrics into a microphone, its not shock value anymore, there is no way for it to even possible be a symbol of creativity without indicating serious issues with an amused listener.

There is also a point to make that since this type of lyricism and violent misogyny is most commonly found in more extreme subgenres of metal, the vocals aren’t always audible. For example, the lyrics in Whitechapel’s ‘Somatic Defilement’ album, despite how violent they seem, are not audible. Similar with Devourment, Autopsy, and almost every other extreme metal death core or slam band. While the vocals are low grows or gurgles and you cannot hear the lyrics, this almost acts as a shield. The misogyny is hidden in the music, which only makes me question even further why bother telling such a violent fantasy about killing women or raping their dead bodies if the words are not audible? Again if not for their own amuse and or pleasure, there quite literally is no reason for this misogyny.

For a genre that prides itself on being experimental and motivated to constantly push boundaries of acceptance, why has it peaked with misogyny? Why does it keep returning back to the same idea, if not for their own amusement and or pleasure? You want to portray the most fucked up and abominable imagery you could ever evoke. But when you live in a society that is dominated by male narrative and presence, in shows, media and crime statistics, women become the subject of the violent and sexualised fantasies and these issues are subsequently humiliated in a rape word vomit praised by perverted redpilled teenagers.

“A sickish race to paint the violence and sufferance of women as a caricature presented for a perverted teenage boys engagement or twostep”  Jill Mikkelson (2016)

There is a difference between the violence depicted in metal. Killing an entire family, eating maggots or sacrificing people in vats of boiling acid or decomposing a body while performing satanic rituals are ideologically very performative, they aren’t happening every day and they don’t foster systemic injustice. But rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, necrophilia, gang-rape, domestic violence, femicide and others are things that happen all the time. It is not imaginatively scary, it is realistically scary. When

•  1 in 5 women experience sexual violence from the age of 15 (AIHW),

• intimate partner violence contributes to more to the death, disability and illness in women aged 25 to 44 than any other preventable risk factor (OUR WATCH)

• 97% of all recorded sexual assaults from 2010-2018 were committed by men (AIHW) 

• 11% (1.1 million) experience at least one incident of sexual violence by a male intimate partner since the age of 15

• 2.1% (203,000) experience at least one incident of sexual violence by a male family member since the age of 15

• 11% (1.1 million) experience at least one incident of sexual violence by another known male since the age of 15

• 6.1% (605,000) experienced at least one incident of sexual violence by a male stranger since the age of 15 (ABS 2023c).

It is not just shock value, it’s a reflection of how normalised rape culture is, it is painting the sufferance of women and children to be a caricature for male amusement. It is shitty, unimaginative storytelling that serves no purpose other than humiliating and glorifying violence against women and using it as a tool for your own “artistic expression”.

Metal stops being a theatrical performance when it begins fostering misogynistic attitudes and perceptions of women. It begins with jokes and humiliation but it ends with rape, murder, femicide. It is rape culture in action. It’s undeniable that media influences ideology, so do these misogynistic theatrics have the capability to create, found and perpetuate misogynistic attitudes unbeknownst to its listeners? Absolutely. And we are seeing it happen in real time.

However, it’s extremely important to note that this is not an issue with every single band. While the community, the music and most bands and artists for the most part are genuine, harboring some of the kindest people you could meet, there is no shame in speaking on an issue that is hardly spoken about.

METAL IN RECENT TIMES

As for metal in recent times, most albums and songs are amazing. Technically, lyrically, the community is one that is ever evolving that has some of the most important and beautiful works and compositions ever created. There are even artists that actively speak out against violence against women and even incorporate this narrative into their works, such as Restricted (R18+) by Alpha Wolf that tells a story of hurting an abuser/predator, “Hurt you like you’ve hurt me”, or even Apnea by Currents.

There are also plenty of feminist, female dominated or entirely female extreme metal bands.

Castrator, Abnormality, Emasculator, Bolt Thrower, Dæmonesq, Crypta, Nervosa, Konvent, Oathbreaker, Sisters of Suffocation, Putrescine, Arch Enemy, Feminazgul. 

Death metal, black metal, doom metal, all kinds. This list is not exhaustive. It goes to show that thinking the assault of women and children being the only indicator of greatness within heavy metal is a truly retired standard when there are thousands of great and extremely talented feminist extreme metal bands.

There is a lot of work to be done within this genre, and simply saying “if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it” will not fix the problems that are being created. Even if you are mindlessly listening to songs, the cognitive dissonance still makes you complicit in the oppression of women.