Shameless discussion of what I did in the tute.

Given I am doing metal as the subject for this blog, and just today I gave my tutorial presentation on...metal, it seems somewhat silly for me to not talk about the article I poured over for so long.

To begin with, I very much enjoyed reading Kahn-Harris's work, and found the application of scene theory and its comparison with traditional CCCS subcultural theory one of the more illuminating discussions of metal I have seen so far in my reading of literature. Though, as always as a metalhead I want to display my metal cred by arguing with his definitions of various genres and the way he describes the music and culture, I found little to disagree with, indeed, if anything I found my understanding of the extreme metal scene expanding as I read on.

One thing I was particularly interested in, especially given my last blog topic, was the ways in which he described the EM scene almost exactly align with the ways in which Asatru is described in the scholarly religious writing I have read on the topic. Asatru, especially extreme and radical Asatru is a very close-knit and isolated socially, but quite globally diffuse spirituality, relying mostly on the internet and small, committed groups to survive. As Kahn-Harris, and indeed Rob Zombie mentioned today, Asatru, much like EM, is rarely a passing interest - those who develop an interest in them, even if they do have non-scenic or non-spiritual outside social obligations tend to continue being involved somehow in their respective scenes.

This is made all the more interesting by the consideration that a large portion of Black Metal fans and artists would definitely consider themselves at least pagan, if not members of Asatru, something that I know not only from my own metal knowledge, but from interviews and analysis within Lords of Chaos. Indeed, Varg in particular identifies quite strongly with Asatru, and if anyone is the posterboy of extreme metal, surely it is him. On the other hand however, conventional Asatru groups often seek to disassociate themselves from Varg and his black metal buddies, seeing them as latching onto a spirituality they do not necessarily understand. But like it or not, the links between extreme metal and alternative spiritualities are there.

What then is the meaning of this relationship? Where does it stem from? Doubtless, both of these groups are much maligned and misunderstood by mainstream culture, if indeed mainstream culture is aware of them at all (Kahn-Harris seems to think it isn't), they are made up of similarly insular and committed groups, and they both undertake some sort of transgressional practice - be it religious or crazy metal.

I think to answer this, I probably would need to do some reading and research above my level, but I hope I've at least raised an interesting comparison, and thus some questions about the way non-musical groups interact with various music-based scenes.