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Ideology and Symbology in European Metal Music: In Search of ContextA Pedagogical Project for MUS 7007Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran

Goal and ProcessGoal Teach a seventy-five minute class to MUS 6002 students on March 27, 2018 about nuances of ideology and symbology which may be found in European metal music along with the ways audiences receive and interpret these.

Process Introductory Lecture

o Define potentially unfamiliar terms such as expressive culture, ideology, Neopaganism, polysemy, scene, symbology, and white nationalism.

o Situate the ideological implications of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s work against the European metal discussion to follow, paying careful attention to the ways these are inflected against each other.

o Introduce Satanism in the context of 1990s Norwegian Black Metal.o Introduce Northern European Neopaganism in the context of 1990s Norwegian

Black Metal. Discussion and Music

o Discuss Ross Hagen’s “Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal.”

o Play examples of early European Black Metal and later European Metal that both inherits and responds to Norwegian Black Metal’s stylistic and ideological elements.

o Discuss the examples alongside relevant literature and other supplementary materials. Emphasize the ideologies represented in them, the expressive culture and scene created by the bands and their audiences together, the polysemic nature of symbols referenced in the music, album covers, etc., and interpretations of any imagined pasts presented by the examples.

Conclusiono Conclude with a brief note about the necessity for nuanced interpretations of

European metal music, which is achieved by carefully situating the musicians, music, concerts, scenes, and symbology in context.

o Encourage students to offer comments, challenges, and final thoughts.

Outline Housekeeping

o Ask for student introductions.o Offer a reflexive personal introduction.

PhD Folklore student, Neopagan, and metal fan.o Offer a content warning for material discussed in the class.

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Introductory Lectureo Indicate the goal of the lecture to students; namely, that I plan to introduce

nuances of ideology and symbology which may be found in European metal music along with the ways audiences receive and interpret these in the hope students will come away with a more nuanced understanding of them.

o Definition Slide : Provide definitions to help students understand the lecture, and encourage them to ask questions about anything they don’t understand.

Discuss definitions, mentioning Feintuch’s Eight Words for the Study of Expressive Culture and Wallach, Berger, and Greene’s Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World as resources for further reading on expressive culture, scenes, and metal music in general.

o West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Slide : Relate the present discussion to the students’ study of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Remind students that they have already encountered an intersection of ideology and music via their study of this orchestra.

Ideology and the Music: Explain that music itself can express ideologies in various ways (hymns and national anthems, for example). However, the playing of certain kinds of music by certain people in or from certain places can also have ideological implications (Israeli West-Eastern Divan Orchestra musicians playing Wagner, for example, as Wagner was anti-Semitic and his work was a significant influence upon Hitler).

Ideology and the Musicians: Explain that the Israeli and Palestinian musicians in the orchestra come from different places and bring various ideologies with them from home.

Ideology, the Musicians, and the Orchestra: Explain that the coming together of Israeli and Palestinian musicians creates a space where ideologies are expressed, contested, and changed.

Ideology, the Musicians, the Orchestra, and the Audience: Explain that the orchestra’s audience brings its individual and collective ideologies to performances, which creates another space for ideological work to happen.

Conclude by saying that there are many opportunities for ideological inflection here, and the same may be said for metal music, musicians, and audiences.

o Satanism and Black Metal in Norway Slide : Introduce students to the intersection of Satanism and Black Metal in Norway.

Explain that Charismatic Christianity paints the development of Satanism in two ways; as a historical phenomenon that begins in the Garden of Eden and points toward Armageddon and as a social problem created by contemporary adherents of a theistic Satanism (devil worshippers). This

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religious perspective and these ideas find their way into Norway during the 1970s.

Explain that In the 1990s, a countercultural music emerges that utilizes the most provocative aspects of Satanism in its aesthetic presentation and lyrics, combining these with an aggressive musical style. This comes to be known as Black Metal. Some of these musicians and their fans also commit crimes; arson directed at churches, assault, and murder.

Explain that Asbjørn Dyrendal’s discussion of Satanism in Norway and Moynihan and Søderlind’s interviews of Black Metal musicians and scene members point to the rise of a militant resistance against what they viewed as oppressive Christianity and in some cases, anger at what they perceived as the forced conversion of their ancestors.

o Speculate that Black Metal musicians were throwing the most frightening (to Christians) aspects of Christian theology in the faces of adherents.

Remind students that in the article they read, Ross Hagen distinguishes between theistic Satanism as a countercultural response to Christianity and atheistic Satanism as espoused by Anton LaVey but indicates that most Norwegian Black Metal musicians favored at least the façade of theistic Satanism even if few of them were actual practitioners.

o Discuss the mention of theistic Satanists in Moynihan and Søderlind’s interviews. These practitioners are characterized as few and private.

o Discuss the mention of Black Metal musicians wearing the façade of theistic Satanists as mentioned in Dyrendal, Moynihan and Søderlind, and Hagen. These were more numerous.

o Discuss the relationship between Satanism and Neopaganism as described by Moynihan and Søderlind and indicated in their interviews; namely, that musicians and scene members began with theistic and atheistic Satanism but traded it for Northern European-inspired Neopaganism.

Discuss the Satanic Panic of the 1990s and supply relevant details.o Mention that it was an international moral panic largely

centered in North America that began with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a now-debunked book written by a Canadian psychotherapist and his patient.

o Mention that moral panics involving Satan have recurred throughout the last thousand years.

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o Mention that the panic in question resulted in the exploitation of alleged victims of Satanic ritual abuse by mental health professionals and the arrest and conviction of innocent people for alleged cult-related crimes.

o Northern European Neopaganism and Black Metal in Norway Slide : Introduce students to the intersection of Northern European Neopaganism and Black Metal in Norway.

Remind students that Hagen cites Moynihan and Søderlind’s assertion – rooted in interviews of scene members - that some Norwegian Black Metal musicians shifted their interest in Satanism to an interest in Norse or Viking themes, creating a new kind of metal music called Viking Metal. Some of these musicians espoused white nationalist ideology while writing and playing this new kind of metal, while others did not.

Discuss the tolerance of intolerance Harris Berger writes about in Chapter 11 of his 1999 book Metal, Rock, and Jazz as it relates to this shift, specifically as it regards his informant Dann Saladin’s assertion that “There is so much tolerance [in the scene], things that ordinarily would be not tolerated become tolerated.”

Relate this to the above discussion of ideological expression in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra:

o The Musician: Explain that in “tolerance of intolerance” cases, the musician espoused white nationalist ideology on and/or off stage.

o The Music: Explain that the music evoked a mythological and/or imagined Pagan Viking past.

o The Concert: Explain that the concert offered a platform for the transmission of the musician’s white nationalist ideology and the music’s mythological and/or imagined Pagan past to an ideologically mixed audience.

o The Scene: Explain that the scene tolerated the intolerance expressed by the musician and members of the audience for the sake of the music and the opportunity to share the concert experience with others.

Emphasize that the word “some” is important here, since other Black/Viking/Folk Metal musicians specifically decried white nationalism.

o Skim the following excerpt from Enslaved’s (1991-Present) 2004 interview in the “Maelstrom” online zine:

Maelstrom: What do you think of all these intolerant bands that align themselves under the Pagan label?

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Ivar Peersen: I think it contradicts itself. I think the whole idea of Paganism is beyond segregation. That would be like using religion to decide which kind of music is best. It’s different, that’s the whole point. As I see it, You’re free to prefer whatever you want. As Crowley said - he’s in many ways the ultimate modern Pagan - “do what thou wilt,” but in that sense allowing others to do what they want.

Of course you will find all kinds of intolerant people in any political or religious groups. Just because there are racists within the Pagan movement, it doesn’t make the movement racist. I think it’s great when you ask the question. Enslaved always does things straightforward. We never tread silent. We don’t want to whisper all this stuff: our pride and the culture. If people misunderstand, that’s sad, but in a way it’s good, too, because it’ll provoke somebody to actually confront us. And we can answer them, and we’ll have told another person what we mean. I think the real destructive thing is the apathy; that people might say, “this might be intolerant.” And they don’t do anything about it.

Conclude that much as the matter of Satanism in Black Metal was nuanced, the matter of Neopaganism in Black/Viking/Folk Metal was nuanced and remains so two and a half decades later. Of course, this means the symbology used in Viking Metal, such as Thor’s Hammer and the Elder Futhark runes, must also be viewed with a nuanced gaze.

Discuss the Thor’s Hammer symbol in its various contexts. Explain that over a thousand small, Viking Age amulets made of

various metals have been found all over Scandinavia from Norway, to Sweden, to Denmark, to Iceland, and these have been positively identified as replicas of Thor's Hammer from Northern European pre-Christian cosmology. It's widely held among scholars that these Thor's Hammer amulets served a protective function of some sort for Northern European Pagans during the Viking Age.

Touch on Thor’s Hammer as it is used in Marvel comics, by Neopagans, by white nationalists, and in Northern European cultural and commercial applications.

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Conclude that Thor’s Hammer is polysemic, which is to say that it can mean various things to various groups and should be situated in context before it is interpreted.

Discuss the Elder Futhark in their various contexts. Touch on historical uses of the runes on cliff walls, gravestones,

boundary markers, religious and magical inscriptions, day-to-day writing, etc.

Touch on mnemonics used for remembering these twenty-four runes, which appear in three pieces of historical literature; the Icelandic Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem. These poems suggest meanings for each letter that transcend its phonemic use in language.

Conclude that because of these extra-alphabetical meanings, the runes have also been adopted by various groups for various reasons (i.e., they are also polysemic); among them Scandinavian metal musicians, Neopagans, Nazis, contemporary white nationalists, and Scandinavian corporations.

Discussion and Musico Discuss Ross Hagen’s “Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian

Black Metal.” Explain that this article provides insight into Norway’s Black Metal scene

in the 1990s, but while we’ll be listening to music made during that time, we’ll also be listening to music made in the two decades since, which both inherits and responds to Norwegian Black Metal’s stylistic and ideological elements.

Discuss the idea of the imagined past as expressed on Pgs. 192 and 193 of the article. Emphasize that while Hagen makes a good case for the Neopagan, white nationalist, Black Metal musician’s idealization of a romantic/heroic imagined past, most Neopagans make use of the romantic/heroic imagined past without invoking Nazism at all, and some Black Metal musicians of the period did as well.

Ask students to share their insights and questions about the foregoing material and about the article.

Limit the discussion to 15 minutes, and promise time to discuss the musical examples after listening to each one.

o Darkthrone: “Natassja in Eternal Sleep” Slide : Listen to half of the piece. Point out that:

Darkthrone is imagining a past where a Satanic witch is burned at the stake by the Christian church.

Natassja is possessed of “pure feelings” and “flaming hate,” but she has “worked for the noble in man.”

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The singer asks for her unholy crafts and feels her spirit resurrected in him, presumably with her pure feelings, her flaming hate, and her desire to work for the betterment of man intact.

To my eye, this song expresses an atheistic Satanism but wears a theistic Satanic façade.

Ask students for their thoughts. o Absurd: “Germanien Über Alles” Slide : Introduce Thomas Goldberg’s excellent

translation of the lyrics from German and listen to the first two minutes of this piece.

Point out that: This is a straightforwardly Neopagan National Socialist song

written and performed by a straightforwardly Neopagan National Socialist band whose audience is primarily comprised of white nationalists who still buy and listen to the EP.

It imagines and connects two pasts; an ancient Pagan past where Greater Germany stretched “from the East to England, from the Arctic and its sea of ice down to the south edge of the Alps” and a more recent past where the singer’s “forefathers unwaveringly united for the Reich against the enemy” and accomplished “heroic deeds.”

Northern European cosmology is invoked in the use of the term “Alföðr” to mean Odin, in the use of the word “Thunder” in reference to Thor, in references to runic magic, and elsewhere throughout the song.

Ask students for their thoughts. o Týr, Moonsorrow, and Eluveitie Refute Allegations of Racism in 2009 Slide :

Watch the statement. Point out that:

Heri and Villi situate their use of the runes in a historical and cultural context, not a political or racial context.

Heri Joensen, founder of Týr, is an atheist. So his use of Thor’s Hammer, the Elder Futhark, etc. is not related to religion either and is in line with the use of these symbols by Scandinavian people as mythological artifacts.

o Týr: “Hold the Heathen Hammer High” Slide : Watch the video in its entirety. Ask students what they make of this video before commenting on it. Explain that much of the reason behind the selection of this video has to

do with the explicit removal of Nazism from a song that still expresses a negative view of Christianity and idealizes a heroic, imagined past.

Mention that because Heri is an atheist and the songwriter of this piece, he is also endeavoring to sell atheism via mythology, as he asserted in a 2013 interview on the Norse Mythology Blog.

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o Wardruna: Raido Slide: Watch the video in its entirety. Explain that while this piece is not as “metal” as the others, the band’s

founder, Einar Selvik, was the drummer for Black Metal band Gorgoroth before he began the Wardruna project, and he brought Gaahl with him, whom students will remember from the article as having been convicted of assault in Norway.

Explain that Wardruna’s musical style has been called “Doom Metal” but has also been called “Dark Folk,” “Ambient Folk,” and “Pagan Folk.”

Describe Wardruna’s instrumentation, performance style, and music as it relates to the Elder Futhark.

Tell students that Einar Selvik sings about the Elder Futhark as cosmological and/or spiritual symbols and has spoken out against their use as racist and/or white nationalist symbols, saying that:

“The image of the Runes has been tarnished by some right-wing racist idiots who have no business using them and only did so for their own gain. I want to give the Runes a voice and let them speak for themselves! A lot of these songs have universal themes about man communicating with nature and the universe. I think people from all cultures can be inspired by that (Keefy 2013).”

Ask students what sort of imagined past is being presented here, and invite their other thoughts.

Conclusiono Show students the lecture points timeline to situate the material temporally. o Show students the final slide on nuance and context, and discuss the necessity

for nuanced interpretations of European metal music, which is achieved by carefully situating the musicians, music, concerts, scenes, and symbology in context.

o Encourage students to offer comments, challenges, and final thoughts.

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BibliographyAbsurd. 1999. Germanien Über Alles. Adlerskerbe Studio: IG Farben Produktion.Berger, Harris M. 1999. Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and the Phenomenology of Musical

Experience. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.Darkthrone. 1993. Natassja in Eternal Sleep. Kolbotn: Peaceville Records.Feintuch, Burt, ed. 2010. Eight Words for the Study of Expressive Culture. Urbana, Chicago, and

Springfield: University of Illinois Press.Hjelm, Titus, Henrik Bogdan, Asbjørn Dyrendal, and Jesper Aagaard Petersen. 2009. “Nordic

Satanism and Satanism Scares: The Dark Side of the Secular Welfare State.” Social Compass 56 (4): 515–29.

Kahn-Harris, Keith. 2004. “The ‘Failure’ of Youth Culture: Reflexivity, Music and Politics in the Black Metal Scene.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 7 (1): 95–111.

Keefy. 2013. “Return To Yggdrasil - An Interview With Wardruna.” Ghost Cult Magazine (blog). August 29, 2013. http://www.ghostcultmag.com/interview-return-to-yggdrasil-wardruna-einar-selvik-rune-trilogy.

MacCath-Moran, Ceallaigh. 2018a. “Heathen Women United.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/258460597923877/permalink/431707270599208.

———. 2018b. “The Heathen Culture Forum.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/heathenartsandhumanities/permalink/1413250765487554/.

Martinelli, Roberto. 2004. “Interview With Enslaved.” Maelstrom, 2004. http://www.maelstromzine.com/ezine/interview_iss14_10.php.

Moonsorrow and Týr Are NOT Nazis or Racists! (Paganfest 2008). n.d. Accessed March 8, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRsSamI1MLs.

Moynihan, Michael, and Didrik Soderlind. 2003. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Los Angeles: Feral House.

Seigfried, Karl E. H. 2013. “Interview with Heri Joensen of Týr, Part Three.” The Norse Mythology Blog (blog). November 6, 2013. http://www.norsemyth.org/2013/11/interview-with-heri-joensen-of-tyr-part.html.

Southern Poverty Law Center. n.d. “White Nationalist.” Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed March 7, 2018. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist.

Týr. 2009. Hold The Heathen Hammer High. Faroe Islands: Napalm Records.Wallach, Jeremy. 2011. Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World. Edited by

Harris M. Berger and Paul D. Greene. Durham and London: Duke University Press.Wardruna. 2016. Raido. Oslo: Indie Recordings.

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Ideology and Symbology in European Metal Music: In Search of Context HandoutDarkthrone: Under a Funeral Moon (1993)Natassja In Eternal Sleep

Alcohol is in my veins.Tears fall as I think of you.The true memory you left me withis a key to the wine of melancholy.

I drown myself in the deepest of sorrows.As you burned on that stake they burntmy soul as well.Your pure feelings, your flaming hate;it was not enough.

Natassja, my beloved satanic witch,The power in your eyes and yourselfWorked for the noble in man.Pass the bottle, pass the knife,Pass me your unholy crafts.

I shall never forget you, the bestof all there is, I lick your cold lips,I embrace your coffin as I sigh in woe.You never kissed the priest, you neverDrank the blood of Jesus. Weird, they say, well, turn it upside down like you did,and they kill, kill, and they take you away.

Now, centuries later, I do yours and my sign.You live in me, like you moved in with my soul.Your resurrection is the spirit of you Installed in me. So now, your thoughtsand your pains are my wine; and Natassja:I'll get these goddam angels drunk.

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Ideology and Symbology in European Metal Music: In Search of Context HandoutAbsurd – Asgardsrei (1999)Germanien Über Alles

Like an eagle on a black shield, sword firmly in hand,We, the Warriors, are standing proudly for our nation.A huge burning sun cross1 shows us the way into battle.The ravens are flying ahead of us through the dark pagan night.

In the divisions "Wiking" and "Nordland"2 our forefathersUnwaveringly united for the Reich against the enemy.For them honor meant loyalty3 and Aryan blood ran in their veins.Their heroic deeds shall live and encourage us forever.For aeons, Greater Germany has stretched from the East to England,From the Arctic and its sea of ice down to the south edge of the Alps.One united people, one faith in ancient pagan powers,In ravens and the hammer, in victory in every battle!

One people, one faith, ancient heathendom,Germany above all else – now and forevermore!

Aryan blood runs in our veins, pure and unalienated.Our friendship, our brotherhood shall last forever.Alföðr is watching over us all in Asgard,And if we should fall in battle, the Valkyries will carry us to Valhalla!

Thunder is raging over us, and like our ancestors we are chargingFor our nation, for our brotherhood, for loyalty – our glory.Newly strengthened by the magic of the Runes we are standing in the midst of the fire,And the enemy’s army that brought war upon us will be smashed by our strong hands.When the ground is red with blood and the smoke has settled,Our nation will be restored to glory and the enemy will be gone.Hail to victory4, hail to cold steel which defends Germany!Our great German army will forever stand united in brotherhood!

One people, one faith, ancient heathendom,Germany above all else – now and forevermore!

Translation by Thomas Goldberg

1 could also be a synonym for the Swastika2 two divisions of the Waffen SS3 „Meine Ehre heißt Treue“, slogan of the Waffen SS4 Reference to „Sieg Heil“, the Nazi salute11

Ideology and Symbology in European Metal Music: In Search of Context HandoutTýr – By the Light of the Northern Star (2009)Hold the Heathen Hammer High

Heathen heartPagan prideFaring farSword by SideTribal timesNorthern nightsHidden highRunic rites I was told

Hold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer high

Hold the heathen hammer high with a battle cryFor the pagan past I live and one day will dieHold the heathen hammer high, never turn awayEver true unto your forefathers stalwart stayHold the Heathen Hammer high with a battle cryFor the pagan past I live and one day will dieHold the heathen hammer high, never turn awayDown the wayward way so far faring strangers stray

Hold the heathen hammer high

Weather wildBlackened bladeAngry eyesRuthless raidHeathen heartPagan prideFaring farSword by Sidehard and cold

Hold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer high


Hold the heathen hammer high

From a pagan past that only the heathen holdFrom the far end of the world and of times untoldI bring message to your midst of the ways of oldWays reluctantly abandoned if truth be toldWays abandoned for a scavenger of our soulsLiving on malicious lies, hiding in the holesCruel and credible as any our tale of trollsHold the heathen hammer highest of all your goals


Hold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer highHold the heathen hammer high

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Ideology and Symbology in European Metal Music: In Search of Context HandoutWardruna – Runaljod Ragnarok (2016)Raido

Dark clouds drift withinThe longing lurespulls my mindWill you carry me?I want to go

Fair foal, I bid youSacks rich with gold of the fieldsFare swiftly on flying hoofsCarry me, and I promise youRide outRaido

The storm is stilled, the mind it fliesThe drum of hoofs lay the beatThe heart, it follows, two are oneSets me loose with speedy feetRidingRaido

Wild I rode and ranFair foal I spentThe ride is for the horse the worsePleasant and swift for the sittingRaidoRaido

If I ride youI ride moreAs one is two,where knots are tiedIn bonds are boundthe whole worldIf I bond you I can journey

If you carry meYou carry moreAs one is twowhere chains are forgedIn bonds are boundthe whole worldIf you bond meYou can journey

Svarte skyar rir i megLengten lokkar, hugen dregBer du meg?Vil i veg

Fager fole byr eg degSekkar aud tå åkergullFara svint med flyg-før hovBer du meg, eg lovar degRi utRaido

Stormen stilnar, hugen ferHovslagtromma takten slærHjartet fylgjer, tveim blir einRir meg fri med raske beinRidandeRaido

Vilt eg rei og rendeFager fole sprengdeReiden er for drøsul verstSælt og snar for sitjandeRaidoRaido

Rir eg degSå rir eg meirFor ein er toDer knutar knytastI byrd er bundeHeile verdaOm eg bind degKan eg ferde

Ber du meg Så ber du meirNår to vert einDer lenkjer smiastI byrd er bundeHeile verdaOm du bind megKan du ferde

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