Trollheart

Welcome back Engine! Good to see you writing again!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Engine

Thanks!

now on to

HEAVY METAL HIPPIES

Part 1

Not musicians that are from the actual hippie era and are sometimes regarded as heavy metal. Rather, actual purveyors of extreme music who embrace hippie ethos in the pejorative sense. Heavy musicians who are vegetarian/vegan, or environmentalists, or embrace some kind of mystical beliefs. Stuff like that. These people are peppered throughout the world of heavy music.

Now, many people who make music of every sort make the decision to become vegetarian. On the surface that may seem antithetical to metal but it's really not. For instance, it's pretty common in the death/grind scene and has been for many years. Bands like Carcass are outspoken about it and it makes a lot of sense when you think about it because they are obsessed with gore, rotting flesh, and disembowelment - common themes of death metal. These things are glorified and are disgusting and... why would you want to eat stuff like that?

Here is a song they recently made about a tool for killing livestock


Naturally, younger bands have run with the idea. Cattle Decapitation like to equate human murder with the killing of animals for food. This video for their song called "A Body Farm" makes their point crystal clear.


And some of their peers love animals so much that they prefer to use their pets as vocalists than to do their own growling. Caninus is a band that was fronted by their two pit bulls..


So, yes, it's kind of a scene thing in death/grind to rail against meat and for animal rights. But other seemingly unlikely suspects are also animal lovers. Everybody's favorite gay black metal vocalist, Gaahl, is a vegetarian or possibly vegan, he doesn't go on about it in the press and generally doesn't share his lyrics.


Again, this is not really strange considering that many black metal musicians do what they do in order to completely reject modern Judeo-Christian society, and everything that it stands for. Giving up meat is a good way to say Fuck You, You Are Wrong. After all, meat is generally considered good and wholesome but is mostly derived from cruelty and arrogant disregard for life. Those are things that many sensitive black metallists refuse to abide. This is serious business, not to be made fun of, but this Black Metal Vegan Pad Thai recipe is too precious to keep to myself..

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Like an arrow,
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Anteater

If I were a heavy metal hippie, I'd probably be satisfied simply doing blastbeat-riddled interpretations of the Grateful Dead's catalogue....but whateverz, Cattle Decapitation and Carcass are all we need! \m/

Also, are you aware that there is a great metal band out there named after you hombre?

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The Batlord

Gaahl's gay? I'm sure that went up a storm in the Norwegian black metal scene. Even if a lot of their right wing crap is just a pose I imagine that a gay musician isn't going to get much love up there.

And great thread BTW.

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Engine

Thank you, sir. And, yes, Gaahl is homosexual. He also bankrolled a line of women's clothing and had a romantic relationship with his collaborator, Dan DeVero.


I'm not sure how this effected his black metal cred. I've read some hate on the internet but well.. it's the internet. Gaahl's own thoughts on the matter are predictably laconic.


No, I was not aware of that band. It's not really my cup of tea but I see that Armored Saint's bassist is involved so that's cool. And this is probably a good time to add that the thrust of this journal will not always be extreme music that is widely considered unlistenable (although I do expect it will mostly be that). For instance I like early Armored Saint. To me they fit my criteria (heavy/good).

ARE YOU IN THE MOOD FOR SOME CRAZINESS TONIGHT?!

__________________

Like an arrow,
I was only passing through.