Table Of ContentHardcore, Punk, and Other Junk
Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk
Aggressive Sounds in
Contemporary Music
Edited by Eric James Abbey and Colin Helb
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Published by Lexington Books
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Copyright © 2014 by Lexington Books
Amorphis. All Amorphis lyrics used with permission courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records and
Amorphis.
Eluveitie. All Eluveitie lyrics used with permission courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records and Eluveitie.
Korpiklaani. All Korpiklanni lyrics used with permission courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records and
Korpiklanni.
Stone Vengeance Lyrics. All lyrics used with permission courtesy of Michael Coffey.
Stone Vengeance Epigraph. All lyrics used with permission courtesy of Michael Coffey.
Hellmouth. All lyrics used with permission courtesy of Jay Navarro and Hellmouth.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hardcore, punk, and other junk : aggressive sounds in contemporary music / edited by
Eric James Abbey and Colin Helb.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-7605-4 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7391-7606-1 (electronic)
1. Hardcore (Music)--History and criticism. 2. Punk rock music--History and criticism.
3. Heavy metal (Music)--History and criticism. 4. Noise music--History and criticism. 5.
Popular music--Philosophy and aesthetics. 6. Popular music--Social aspects. I. Abbey,
Eric James, 1976- editor of compilation. II. Helb, Colin, editor of compilation.
ML3534.H373 2014
781.66--dc23
2013050231
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
For those who struggle with aggression.
Contents
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1 Food For Thought: On Sid Vicious’s Cannibalization of “My Way” 1
Evan Ware
2 Let the Shillelagh Fly: The Dropkick Murphys and Irish –
American Hybridity 21
Sean Ahern
3 Am I Evil? The Meaning of Metal Lyrics to Its Fans 35
Mika Elovaara
4 By Demons Be Driven? Scanning “Monstrous” Voices 51
Marcus Erbe
5 Heavy Metal Music in the Caribbean Setting: Politics and Language
at the Periphery 73
Nelson Varas-Diaz, Eliut Rivera-Segarra
6 No Fun: Noise Music, Avant-garde Aggression, and
Sonic Punishment 91
Ross Hagen
vii
viii
7 The Last Report: Throbbing Gristle and Audio Extremes 107
Brian Cogan
8 Black Metal Soul Music: Stone Vengeance and the Aesthetics of
Race in Heavy Metal. 121
Kevin Fellezs
9 “The Time is Right to Set Our Sight on Salvation”: The Strange Tale
of How the Hare Krishnas Came To Play Hardcore Punk 139
Colin Helb
10 The Cult of Hellmouth: The Success of Contemporary Hardcore 169
Eric James Abbey
Afterword 181
Bibliography 185
Contributors 195
Index 199
Foreword
Jeremy Wallach
Aggressive music was not supposed to change the world. At the outset it was
imagined more as a rearguard action, a cathartic outlet. It was what frustrated
young men and women turned to when the world didn’t go their way, when it
instead attacked them from all sides. Loud guitars and forceful drums drove
back the all-out assault on one’s humanity, on dignity, on the right to have a
good time. Aggressive music in all its stripes, from the most hedonistic heavy
metal to the most politically strident grindcore to the most orthodox punk, is
what Lester Bangs called “unarguable affirmation.” It exhorts its listeners to
claim their essential humanity in the face of the dehumanizing forces—
deindustrialization, dictatorship, deindividuation, whatever—that threaten to
overwhelm them on a daily basis. We can add the searing pain of imperialism,
racism, sexism, and homophobia to that list, for as improbable as it may seem to
those who adhere to stereotypical notions of rock as the exclusive domain of
straight white, Western males, the weight of the empirical evidence collected by
the authors of the following essays as well as a whole host of other ethnog-
raphers, sociologists, and other qualitative researchers over the last decade is
undeniable. This is a party to which everyone is invited.
All over the world, the musics aggression gave kids a way to say to them-
selves: we’ve got a right to be angry, we’ve been lied to, it’s not us, it’s them.
The list of thems is extensive and, as my co-editors and I found out in our global
metal study, varies considerably across time and place. It ranges from the time-
less—lousy, booze-addled parents—to the timely—the latest corrupt, hypocriti-
cal politician or cleric to scapegoat young people for social ills created and per-
petrated by adults. If all the music did was help people survive adolescence, that
would be no mean feat, but in certain times and places it did much more. Ag-
gressive music has played a role in some of the most dramatic social uprisings of
the last quarter century, from the 1990s democratic revolutions in the former
Soviet bloc to the Indonesian overthrow of the Soeharto regime in 1998 to the
2011–13 Arab Spring. Aggressive music was not supposed to change the world,
ix
Description:Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk: Aggressive Sounds in Contemporary Music, edited by Eric James Abbey and Colin Helb, is a collection of writings on music that is considered aggressive throughout the world. From local underground bands in Detroit, Michigan to bands in Puerto Rico or across Europe, thi
