9/14 - Zack Olander - Musings on the Aesthetics of Heaviness in Music

As I sit here and listen to the latest single from Electric Wizard, I can't help but wonder why I enjoy music that sounds overwhelmingly heavy and includes grotesque lyrics. Electric Wizard is a well-known band within Doom Metal circles, utilizing catchy and slow guitar riffs with fuzz that would peel the paint off walls if played too loud, deep booming bass, and psychedelic effects while singing about summoning demons and the impending doom of the listener. I'm forced to admit that I love this kind of music, but I'm still not sure how to articulate why.

Since this is my first blog post of the semester, I hope to continue this discussion with myself and as time goes on, perhaps be able to intelligently say why I like this music. Everything about it is dark, evil, and horrible. So why do I like it?

I think it's because it's novel. Most things that people enjoy are meant and designed to be enjoyed, whereas Doom Metal is not. It's the opposite. Yet at the same time, I find beauty in that darkness, again, because it's so uncommon. But maybe I'm just a weirdo. I'll come back to this topic after some more time in class.

Comments

  1. BradySeptember 16, 2017 at 12:03 PM

    Not to but in on your conversation with yourself, but since there is a "comments" feature, and this is supposedly a discussion-oriented class, well... just let me know if you'd prefer abstention from participation. Until then, I'd like to offer my (albeit inexperienced) speculations:

    I wonder if fans of this kind of music perhaps enjoy it because they take solace in the experience of looking the grim, grotesque, demonic, and outright horrifying right in the face and living to tell about it. That is to say, perhaps one senses a certain underlying truth to the lyrics and the soul-grinding sounds, a certain recognition of the horrors that do exist and permeate the world in which we live (death, torture, etc.) and those which invasively burrow in one's very mind, dreams, and the shadowy back of one's secret consciousness (dark spiritual things and so on). They sense this, perhaps, and, like a young lad who dares to come within inches to tease a chained dog, they get close enough to see it without getting hurt. Or even more than that, perhaps the pleasure is in facing one's fears, embracing them, and maybe even becoming them. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Sort of appropriating something horrifying and becoming acclimated to it so that it no longer horrifies. Anyway, this is a crude expression of my thought, which stems from extremely limited observation and mostly abstract speculation, but perhaps it adds to the conversation.

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