Lecture

Join us for LCANE's Spring Seminar Series highlighting new research. This week's speaker is Dr Ben Dewar (UCL)

Scribes of Xul: History, Horror, and the Occult in Death Metal Receptions of Ancient Mesopotamia, Archaeology G6 LT, Gordon Square (31-34) & (14) Taviton St 

This talk analyses aspects of the reception of ancient Mesopotamia in extreme metal music, with a particular focus on the 1977 hoax grimoire, the Simon Necronomicon, as a source for these receptions. This topic has been highlighted in previous literature but has been received little in-depth analysis. The use of elements from this book (which combines early Assyriological scholarship, pulp fiction, and modern occultism) in the lyrics of early extreme metal innovators Celtic Frost and some of death metal’s most popular bands, such as Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Behemoth, has resulted in much of its terminology entering the general vocabulary of extreme metal, often divorced from its original context. As a result, explicit representations of the distant Mesopotamian past in death metal are caught between competing forms of authenticity: a historical authenticity grounded in academic scholarship, and a genre authenticity that prizes a knowledge of the tropes and vocabulary of extreme metal, horror, and the occult. How do bands negotiate the tension between historicity and genre authenticity in their representations of Mesopotamian antiquity? I approach this topic through case studies of three death metal bands that have frequently written material on the Mesopotamian past, Morbid Angel, Nile, and Devangelic. Using a theoretical framework of “reconstructionist” and “eclectic” reception that I adapt from studies on neopagan religions, I explore how these bands recontextualise and present their sources (both academic and esoteric) to construct authenticity for their death metal receptions of the Mesopotamian past.

Online participation should be possible. Please sign up to receive a link via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lcane-seminar-series-new-research-tickets-1980393071989?aff=oddtdtcreator