This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

Heavy Metal

  • Black Sabbath (1976)
  • Disturbed (2005)
  • Godsmack (2003)
  • Guns'N'Roses (1987)
  • Korn (2003)
  • Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
  • Marilyn Manson (2003)
  • Metallica (1991)
  • Metallica (2003; 2004)
  • Mudvayne (2002)
  • Ozzy Osbourne (1995)
  • Slipknot (2004)
  • Staind (2001, 2003)
  • System of a Down "Toxicity" (2001)

    From MIM Notes #58
    MIM'S HEAVY METAL HANGUP by MC18

    Heavy metal has developed through the 1980s, with artists encompassing a wide variety of social and political views. As producers and recording labels began to realize the market value of this subspecies of rock, hundreds of "genetically engineered" bands flooded the market. Marketability rules over image, sound and lyrics. So-called "glamour" metal arrived, epitomizing the manufacturing process for the music product. Elaborate and expensive stage shows and layers of make-up thinly cover reactionary ruling-class ideology on sex and money. Still, some aspects of heavy metal are not without integrity, and it is possible to find pieces of accurate analysis among a variety of artists.

    Metal origins

    Both the hard rock legacy of the 1960s and 1970s-including Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and many others-and the later anarchist hard-core "punk" movement of the 1970s and 1980s have contributed to the definition of modern heavy metal. While metal has developed several distinctive images, the basis for the sound was set down much earlier.

    Any semblance of progressive politics-typically anarchist critiques of militarism and authority-can usually be traced back to hardcore origins-Sex Pistols, the Clash, Dead Kennedys and dozens of others. The artists most influenced by this tradition are typically those with the highest degree of political integrity, and the least "manufactured" product. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, a fast metal group with a history of more political lyrics, reflects on the typical decadent lifestyle: "That's megalomania to me ... I want to stay at the street-level, because then I don't have any pretentious values in life, and I don't start writing music just for the dollar sign."(1)

    Examples of relatively politically advanced metal bands are not hard to identify, but the analysis is usually superficial. Metallica's anti-militarism of "Disposable Heroes"(2) and "For Whom the Bell Tolls"(3) focuses on the uselessness of war deaths, especially for soldiers, but there is no analysis of imperialism. By far the most advanced analysis of settler imperialism came from Steve Harris of Iron Maiden in 1982, in "Run to the Hills," which discusses the Euro-Amerikan invasion of North America and genocide of the Cree nation: "Murder for freedom, the stab in the back."(4)

    Anti-power

    Ultimately, heavy metal does not provide revolutionary inspiration. It despairs of the lack of control white youth have over their lives, and descends to nihilist anti-authority positions. Lemmy of Motorhead explains the attraction: "It's fast and it's aggressive and it's rebellious and their parents hate it. That's always been the mark of good rock and roll-if your parents hate it, it's good."(1) Metallica's "Escape" is an excellent tribute to this sentiment: "Feed my brain with your so called standards / Who says that I ain't right / ... Life is for my own to live my own way."(3) The socially escapist position of many of the groups does nothing to help this problem, a trait clearly displayed even by the more politically-oriented bands.

    Notes: 1. "Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years," RCA/Columbia Pictures, 1988. 2. Metallica, "Master of Puppets," Elektra Records, 1986. 3. Metallica, "Ride the Lightning," Elektra Records, 1984. 4. Iron Maiden, "The Number of the Beast," EMI Records, 1982.