ABSTRACT
In order to understand metalheads and the heavy metal subculture, some familiarity with heavy metal songs is essential. This chapter provides a brief history of the genre, describe typical characteristics of the songs, and presents numerous lyrical examples. Metallica and Megadeth developed a startlingly dark and energetic sound, and they used it to convey gloomy lyrical themes of religious and political hypocrisy, alienation, and existential emptiness. In addition, electrification made possible new sounds on the guitar, sustained and distorted sounds, which opened the way to new musical forms. In fact, the only one of the 115 songs concerning drugs or alcohol, Ozzy Ozbourne's "Demon Alcohol," is, if anything, an anti-alcohol song. Heavy metal music has been said by its critics to be characterized by songs of hatred and violence. Fourteen of the songs in the analysis involved legends or myths, that is, figures with supernatural powers.
