Classic Metal Class Session 14 — Meta-Metal Songs and Metal Identity
heavy metal songs that thematize the musical genre, lifestyle, and community
Like most sub-cultures oriented around a distinct genre of creative activity, heavy metal music didn’t take all that long to develop a plethora of things that we can call, from a technical standpoint, self-referential and performative, or if you like, “meta-”.
Perhaps one of the most illustrative examples of this from the early 1980s was Quiet Riot’s 1983 Metal Health, the first heavy metal album to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It’s heavy metal music, solidly located in the L.A. metal scene and sound, but it’s also an album taking as its material key aspects of heavy metal music, fandom, lifestyle, and the concert experience.
The title track, “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)”, starts with a verse in which the lyricist and frontman vocalist describes himself, inviting the listeners to sing along and identify their own selves with a rough, tough persona. He’s an “axe grinder,” a “piledriver,” who has “no brains,” is “insane” and is “one big pain”. Then the similes come in. He’s “like a laser”, a “six-string razor” (transforming the guitar into a dangerous weapon), and as a vocalist, has “a mouth like an alligator.”
The anthemic chorus, meant for singing or shouting along, consists of an imperative: “Bang your head!” It tells the listeners to engage in what, by that time, was arguably the most characteristic kind of bodily reaction to and engagement in the music. And then a paradoxical statement: “Metal health will drive you mad.” The suggestion is to replace mental health with heavy metal, which then will push a person towards insanity, or at the very least being perceived as crazy by the larger society.
There’s more that could be unpacked from the lyrics of just this one song, but I don’t want to belabor the point here. It’s enough to note that this is a heavy metal song that takes, at least in part, heavy metal music itself and all that goes with it, as the subject-matter for its lyrics. It is one of many examples of a band performing (and one might say living) the very thing they are singing about, and through those vocals articulating a rich message to their listeners and fans about what it is that they’re involved in.
This “meta-metal” thematic and its connection with a continually developing heavy metal identity — viewing and presenting oneself as a metalhead, a headbanger, a rocker — is something that Scott and I both lived through in our formative years in the 1970s and 80s, and found coming up consistently in our conversations. So, we decided to dig into this thoughtfully in a session of classic metal class focused specifically on that topic. I do have to give some credit where it is due as well — this is a topic Deena Weinstein examines in considerable depth in her classic sociological study Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture.
Here’s the session recording if you’d like to watch or listen to it!
In addition to coming up with a list of 15 particularly emblematic “meta-metal” songs to examine and discuss (which you’ll see below), we also ranged over a number of connected topics.
One of these is the similarities and relationships with other genres of music. Classic heavy metal is far from the only genre whose songs characteristically possess a “meta-“ thematic. There are many blues songs about the blues, rap songs about rap, and most notably rock songs about rock itself. In fact, given that heavy metal, at least in its classic 1970s-1980s forms, can be viewed as a sub-genre of rock (and roll), it isn’t surprising that a good bit of meta-metal lyrics will often speak of “rock” rather than “metal” itself.
Another matter we discussed not just in this session, but in others as well, has to do with that very “metal identity”. What are the lyrical themes or stances that help to constitute this, that metalheads identify with and take their guidance or suggestions from? Or put another way, what is there in the lifestyle associated with metal that singles out people as headbangers? We weren’t trying to come up with an exhaustive list, but among the features we highlighted are:
- Toughness, rebellion, criminality, fighting, aggression
- Hedonism, drugs, drinking, partying, having sex
- Romance, desire, eros, love, longing, and loss
- Magic, the mythical, occult, and of course rainbows
- Demons, the devil, and other horror elements
- Being misunderstood, solitude, alienation
- Reaction against a world gone mad, and destroying itself
- Playing and losing self in the music itself — a locus for the fan-band connection
There’s also the theme of solidarity with other metalheads within a coherent and meaning-providing movement, perhaps most clearly articulated by Saxon’s anthem and album Denim and Leather. The first verse references the matrix of fandom and listenership with music magazines, concerts, the radio, record stores. The second verse shifts to the dream of playing any of the key roles in a metal band: guitar, bass, drums, vocals. And the chorus consolidates an imaginary worldwide metal community: “denim and leather/brought us all together/it was you that set the spirit free.”
We noted that in addition to songs, there are entire albums that centrally reference metal, like the aforementioned Quiet Riot Metal Health, including Krokus’ Metal Rendevous (1980) and Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac (1983). There were also a variety of metal-named bands, including Metallica, Metal Law, Heavy Metal Kids, and multiple versions of Metal Militia and Metal Force (multiple). We might widen the list to other metal-themed band names, like Iron Maiden, Chrome Molly, Anvil, and Tank.
We also pointed out that just using the term “metal” wasn’t quite enough to pull off producing meta-metal. One of the more egregious examples of this was the movie Heavy Metal, which does feature some solidly metal songs by Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, and Trust. It also includes Sammy Hagar’s song “Heavy Metal,” which Scott and I agreed is really a sheep-in-wolf’s clothing. It has interesting lyrics from the meta-metal perspective, but it doesn’t really manage to pull off masquerading as real metal.
The 15 meta-metal songs whose lyrics we decided to examine in detail were:
- Blue Oyster Cult — Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll (1972)
- Motorhead — Overkill (1979)
- Judas Priest — Metal Gods (1980)
- Iron Maiden — Running Free (1980)
- Saxon — Denim and Leather (1981)
- Raven — Rock Until You Drop (1981)
- Venom — Black Metal (1982)
- Anvil — Metal on Metal (1982)
- Accept — Shake Your Heads (1982)
- Twisted Sister — You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll (1983)
- Quiet Riot — Metal Health (Bang Your Head) (1983)
- Metallica — Metal Militia (1983)
- Manowar — All Men Play On Ten (1984)
- Anthrax — Metal Thrashing Mad (1984)
- Dio — Rock and Roll Children (1985)
We did also mention a few other songs that have “metal” in their titles: Accept’s “Metal Heart”; Twisted Sister’s Heavy Metal Christmas; Helloween’s “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)”; Judas Priest’s “Metal Meltdown”; Manowar — “Metal Daze”; Lee Aaron’s “Metal Queen”; and Acid’s “Hooked on Metal”.
There’s a LOT more to be said about the topics raised during this session, and I’ll likely explore some of them again in more detail in some additional posts down the line, here in Heavy Metal Philosophy. But that’s enough for now!
I’m Greg Sadler, the Heavy Metal Philosopher. I’m also the president of ReasonIO, a speaker, writer, and a producer of highly popular YouTube videos on classic and contemporary philosophy. I teach at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and offer classes to the wider public in my Study With Sadler online academy. I also produce the Sadler’s Lectures podcast and co-host the Wisdom for Life radio show
If you’re relatively new to classic heavy metal, and looking for some suggestions where to get started, then you’ll want to check out this set of solid recommendations!
