CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Adam W. Darlage and Paul “Hoagy” Burton
Jump in The Fire
In 1985, Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) convinced the U.S. Senate to hear testimony that rock music was dangerous for kids because lyrics about sex, drugs, and violence supposedly influenced them to engage in risky behaviors. At the same time, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution,” Metallica’s “Fade to Black,” and the alleged subliminal messages of Judas Priest’s album Stained Class (1978) were held accountable for the tragic suicides of several young people in the mid-1980s. Metallica’s protagonist is pretty clear about what he has in mind: “I have lost the will to live / Simply nothing more to give.” At the Senate hearing, opposing witnesses Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snyder railed against Parental Advisory stickers, which they considered a form of censorship. It wasn’t just about heavy metal, of course, but glam rock and hair bands too; nine of the dreaded “Filthy 15,” the songs deemed most offensive by the PMRC, were by bands such as Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe in addition to heavier acts like Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and W.A.S.P.
Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and W.A.S.P.1
Heavy metal music bore the brunt of this criticism because many of its lyrics reference sex, drugs, and violence. As sociologist Deena Weinstein has pointed out, the lyrical and performative themes of heavy metal music represent both “Dionysian” and “chaotic” impulses within ordered society—sex, drugs, evil, death, abandonment, trauma, insanity, war, and the devil.2 According to Weinstein, “the devil is frequently mentioned in heavy metal lyrics because he serves as shorthand for the forces of disorder.”3 Metallica’s “Devil’s Dance” is indicative of this trope, as it plays on biblical imagery from the perspective of the snake in the Garden of Eden: “Snake, I am the snake / Tempting, that bite you take.” “Jump in the Fire” takes the devil’s perspective as well: “The summons bell will chime / to join our sinful kind.” The devil beckons you to “Jump in the fire!”
Many heavy metal artists write their own lyrics, and their own struggles with these forces of disorder make their music intensely personal. Metallica’s lead singer James Hetfield has either written or cowritten all of the band’s songs, and he has been very forthcoming about his trauma after his parents’ divorce and his mother’s death.4 A Christian Scientist, she rejected traditional medicine on the basis of her faith; the lyrics of “The God That Failed” lament that choice: “The healing hand held back by the deepened nail / Follow the god that failed.” Moreover, in 1986 the band lost their bassist Cliff Burton in a tragic bus accident while touring through Sweden during their Damage Inc. Tour. Metallica was also known as “Alcoholica” throughout their early years because of their heavy drinking, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett notes that the name “became part of our legend.”5
The band has been open about their internal issues as well. The documentary Some Kind Of Monster recounts Metallica’s near implosion between 2001 and 2003 after the departure of bassist Jason Newsted and James Hetfield’s time in rehab. The band hired therapist/life coach Phil Towle to help facilitate communication between band members, most notably Hetfield and his fellow cofounder, drummer Lars Ulrich. The movie portrays a raw band searching to rediscover itself despite personality conflicts and differences over creative control. The album St. Anger (2003) emerged from these dark days in the Metallica camp, and the band also found a new bassist, Robert Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne.6
Heavy metal concerts represent the physical, ritualistic expression of these Dionysian and chaotic impulses. Thunderous volume and pyrotechnics as well as alcohol and drug use fuel the aggressive behaviors typical of young (mostly male) crowd members looking for a “release” from the inhibited and routinized behaviors of respectable social interaction.7 Many attendees whip themselves into a frenzy as they bang their heads in unison to their favorite songs, while others jump into “mosh pits” or go “crowd surfing.” Both the personal lyrics and the Dionysian and chaotic themes of the music cannot be separated from their ritual performance at concerts and other venues.
Like heavy metal concerts, mental illness can be considered a form of social chaos. The “forces of disorder” within the culture of heavy metal certainly reflect mental health issues that society finds uncontrollable and threatening. These issues include addiction, depression, anxiety, paranoid schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and suicidal ideation. Violence is a chaotic theme in heavy metal culture as well, and like the young male “head-bangers” at heavy metal concerts, those who suffer from mental illness are more likely to be identified as aggressive or violent. The stereotype of the “madman” or “deranged lunatic” persists in American pop culture despite corrective efforts by the mental health community.8 Band names such as Suicidal Tendencies, album titles like Ozzy Osbourne’s Diary of a Madman, and song titles like Slayer’s “Criminally Insane” play to this common stereotype.
The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) decision to implement Parental Advisory stickers in 1985 only inspired heavy metal bands to play to these negative stereotypes about morality and mental health even more, as shock value—and identifying stickers of explicit content—certainly helped album sales. Today, death metal, black metal, and other subgenres of heavy metal have taken that logic to disturbing extremes.9 As such, heavy metal music and mental illness suffer from an image problem exacerbated by groups like the PMRC who contend that correlation (listening to heavy metal and engaging in risky behaviors) invariably means causation (heavy metal causes these behaviors). Scholars have tested these claims scientifically with respect to mental health and explored whether those who listen to heavy metal music are more likely to have these kinds of issues compared to their peers who do not listen to heavy metal. Most studies end with some variant of the claim that “more research needs to be done in this area,” although there has been promising new research on the potential benefits of heavy metal as a way for listeners to process their anger in healthy ways.10
This essay addresses the connection between heavy metal and mental health by examining the music of perhaps the biggest heavy metal band of all time, Metallica. Rather than focus on the elusive question of causation noted above, I examine what Metallica’s music says about mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, paranoia, and suicidal ideation. While the band’s sound has changed over time, there is nonetheless a core ethic that pervades its music. Insofar as my analysis resonates with the experiences and expectations of others who listen to Metallica, I hope that it sheds light on the issue of mental illness within American pop culture.
Some Kind of Monster
Metallica is one of the most influential heavy metal bands all time, with sales of over 50 million albums in the United States and over 90 million worldwide since their debut album in 1983. With fellow American bands Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer, the band is considered one of the “big four” of thrash metal, heavy metal’s largest subgenre. Thrash is aggressive and fast, with driving beats and lengthy guitar solos. The lyrics address personal and social issues such as addiction, institutional greed, and personal trauma. For many die-hard Metallica fans, their first four albums—Kill ‘Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984), Master of Puppets (1986), and … And Justice For All (1988)—represent the “canon” of Metallica’s music. Despite its departure from thrash, the band’s self-titled release Metallica (better known as the “Black Album”) from 1991 is responsible for over 16 million domestic album sales alone.
Metallica has proven resilient to the changing musical tastes of America’s youth, and retains a fandom of loyal “head-bangers” dominated by young men between the ages of 12 and 25. The most hard-core listeners of this genre reject the “softer” music favored by the majority of their peers (Top 40, hip-hop, country). Metallica’s rigorous touring schedule has certainly helped them maintain fans despite charges that they have “sold out” to mainstream American culture. Few bands can rival the number of live shows that Metallica has performed. New generations of fans can hear classics such as “Seek and Destroy,” “Master of Puppets,” and “One” alongside newer tracks such as “St. Anger” and “Cyanide.” Radio stations across America have instituted segments known as “Mandatory Metallica,” during which only songs by Metallica are played.
Metallica’s ability to adapt to changing musical tastes has also contributed to their staying power. During the commercial success of the 1990s grunge scene, Metallica survived in part by cutting their hair and incorporating elements of grunge, Southern rock, and country music into Load (1996) and Reload (1997). Some fans decried these moves as “selling out,” but these albums both displayed the band’s versatility and ability to bring in new audiences. The “new wave of American heavy metal” (NWOAHM) rose to prominence in the early 2000s through bands like Slipknot and Korn. Instead of rejecting these new acts, Metallica embraced them. Metallica’s Summer Sanitarium tours of 2000 and 2003 featured Korn, System of A Down, Kid Rock, and Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, respectively. Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, and only four other bands in the Hall represent the heavy metal genre as it emerged from the 1970s “new wave of British heavy metal” (NWOBHM): Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC. Along the way, Metallica has released Death Magnetic (2008) and the EP Beyond Magnetic (2011). Both represent a return to the band’s roots in thrash metal.
Disposable Heroes
Driven by Hetfield’s distinctive downpicking (or “chugging”) on rhythm guitar, Metallica’s music revels in unbridled masculinity and energy. Metallica’s lyrics tell stories of young men who are tested to the limits of human endurance through forces of disorder that include war, imprisonment, mental illness, or addiction. The victim in “Trapped Under Ice” fights his desperate condition: “I am dying to live … I’m trapped under ice.” “The Judas Kiss” speaks of the chaos of addiction, encouraged by the devil: “Venom of a life insane / Bites into your fragile vein.” The aggressive thrash tempo only heightens the sense of chaos in the lyrics.
Metallica may channel the Greek gods of Dionysus and Chaos, but the band does so through an existentialist ethic modeled on the Homeric virtue of arête. In the Iliad and Odyssey, “arête” means “excellence,” especially with respect to bravery, and it is measured by the hero’s effectiveness in a martial world of chaos. Metallica’s arête, however, is the existential excellence of willpower and solitary endurance of suffering in the midst of horrific circumstances. The “whipping boy” of “The Unforgiven” decides “That never from this day / His will they’ll take away.” Similarly, “Broken, Beat & Scarred” recounts one who endures abuse and keeps getting back up despite the fact that “They cut and rape me,” because “What don’t kill ya make ya more strong.” In “Eye of the Beholder,” the protagonist takes pride in his ability to endure: “Endurance is the word / Moving back instead of forward seems to me absurd.” These protagonists may not be Greek heroes, but they nonetheless achieve a kind of excellence through their willpower. These young men gain a measure of autonomy, if only through their ability to endure visceral suffering in a world beyond their control.
Unlike the world of Homer’s Iliad, Metallica’s arête of endurance speaks to the absurdity of wars and the consequences for the men who fight them, and their lyrics include elements that speak to PTSD. Both “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Disposable Heroes” lament the futility of war and excoriate government policy makers. Yet both also present the soldiers in a positive, if tragic, light. In “Disposable Heroes,” the hero who must go “back to the front” realizes the ruse in a haunting lament and accepts his fate: “I was born for dying!” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” makes both the cynicism and heroism palpable. The soldiers described in the song should not have to experience this trauma and suffering, and yet they do. “Hero of the Day” recounts the PTSD of a soldier who comes back wholly different. His symptoms include the nightmares born of his experiences: “But now the dreams and waking screams.” True to Metallica’s arête of endurance, the soldier claims that while others try to “break” them, they go on. “One” recounts the plight of a wounded soldier, a mind trapped in his own body and cut off from the world, begging to be killed. The landmine he stepped on has left him with “life in hell.” He will never be the same, and the trauma is his alone to bear.
Metallica’s heroes campaign through battlefields of Dionysian addiction as well. Willpower is paramount, as these lyrics from “Frantic” demonstrate: “My lifestyle determines my deathstyle.” “Master of Puppets” points to the crippling power of addiction from the perspective of the substance itself: “Come crawling faster / Obey your master.” Addiction destroys everyone around the addict, as expressed in the dark “Harvester of Sorrow,” which chronicles an addict’s treatment of his family. “The House Jack Built” tells of the temptation of escape into Jack Daniels. “Sad But True” and “Sweet Amber” speak to the power of addiction that completely takes over the life of the addict: “I’m your only true friend now.” True to the band’s arête, the addict must conquer the addiction alone or be defeated by it. The substance in “Master of Puppets” claims that “I will occupy / I will help you die,” a solution alluded to at the end of “The House Jack Built.” There is no one to help the Homeric protagonist of a Metallica song; he stands alone to vanquish his demons or to fall deeper into addiction.
Frayed Ends of Sanity
Chaos of the mind may be precipitated by war and addiction, but also by experiences of fear, anger, or hopelessness. Like other heavy metal artists, Metallica often lumps different diagnoses of mental illness together under the terms “madness,” “insanity,” or “lunacy.” The aptly titled “The Unnamed Feeling” may reference anxiety or panic or something else with lines such as, “Can’t you help me be uncrazy?” and “I’m frantic in your soothing arms.” In the space of three lines, “The Shortest Straw” mentions hysteria, megalomania, and dementia. In both cases, the connection to mental illness is there, but it is amorphous. One of Metallica’s most haunting songs, “The Thing That Should Not Be,” takes up the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Following the plot of The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936), the song depicts a man’s descent into madness through the “thing that should not be,” an ancient immortal monster that “drains you of your sanity.” The song ends by reminding the listener that, “in madness you dwell.” This “madness” is inchoate and terrifying.
True to its testosterone-fueled thrash tempo, the band often connects mental illness to acts of violence. The refrain of “Whiplash” is “Acting like a maniac,” and the song implores concertgoers to bang their heads against the stage “In a frenzied madness.” Members of the “Metal Militia” exude “Metal madness.” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” is the story of one who claims that he is wrongly locked up because he is “labeled mentally deranged.” The patient claims that his captors toy with him by continually telling him that he is indeed insane. To escape his prison, he decides that he must kill, perhaps warranting his placement there in the first place. In addition, one of Metallica’s most popular songs, “Battery,” is a veritable anthem of anger and aggression.
Certain songs deal more explicitly with specific diagnoses. “Frayed Ends of Sanity” recounts the protagonist’s struggle with what the lyrics suggest is paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, however, is also referenced alongside dementia in the space of two verses: “Twisting under schizophrenia / Falling deep into dementia.” The song mentions depression as well. Mental health professionals treat schizophrenia, dementia, and depression as different, if sometimes related, forms of mental illness. The band uses these diagnoses to portray a man descending into mental chaos. True to the arête of endurance and masculine willpower, he must face his own fear because, as he admits at the end of the song, “Myself is after me.”
Metallica’s arête of endurance does not always mean that the hero wins the day. Songs about suicidal ideation suggest that sometimes the pain is just too much to endure. In “Just a Bullet Away,” the protagonist contemplates suicide, perhaps because of a relationship gone wrong. Here, suicidal thoughts are juxtaposed with auditory hallucinations, the “voices” in his head. There is no resolution, as the listener is left to his or her imagination. Suicidal ideation appears most prominently in “Fade to Black.” Grounded by late bassist Cliff Burton’s deep driving riff, the lyrics deal expressly with suicidal ideation through the protagonist’s feelings of worthlessness. As the song continues and becomes progressively heavier, our hero stands forth on the lonely precipice of suicide. A failed hero; if only he could have saved himself.
St. Anger
The lyrics of much of Metallica’s music suggest that addiction and mental illness are forms of chaos that must be endured through willpower. Metallica’s protagonists stand against absurd physical, mental, and emotional forces and exert the only control that they can. Through this, they attain a kind of excellence, or arête, that honors their sacrifices. Still, a few songs hint at alternate coping mechanisms. “My Friend of Misery” suggests that those who wallow in their misery, those “smothered in tragedy,” need to get over themselves. Here, dwelling on the pain is a foolhardy strategy, not an opportunity to prove oneself. “St. Anger,” which references Hetfield’s alcohol addiction, holds out hope that anger can be channeled in a positive way. Here, the arête of endurance is replaced by a desire to channel his anger in a positive way.
Despite these exceptions, much of Metallica’s music is about disposable heroes of the day besieged by the forces of disorder. This is precisely what makes the band’s music so powerful. Fans are drawn to Metallica’s music because they can identify and empathize with the protagonists of songs like “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Frayed Ends of Sanity,” “Hero of the Day,” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” “Fade to Black,” “Disposable Heroes,” and “One,” and fight alongside them in their minds as they listen to the music. For those fleeting moments, listeners become a part of the “Metal Militia”: “We are as one as we all are the same / fighting for one cause.”
Within the music of Metallica, the struggle for wholeness, mental health, and even life itself is both a solitary quest and a communal endeavor born of the relationship between the music and the listener. This heroic quest, defined by the cultivation of an arête of endurance, inspires an emotional release that can be witnessed at any heavy metal concert by observing the frenzy of the “head-bangers.” Drawing upon the concept of “tragic pleasure,” or “catharsis,” as articulated by Aristotle in the Poetics, Robert Fudge adds that “we are instinctively drawn to such music, because of the emotion it elicits. By arousing our anger, our anguish, or our resentment, music helps us deal with our emotions and get over them sooner.”11
Metallica’s exalted place in American pop culture compared to other heavy metal bands is in no small measure due to the band’s ability to inspire this kind of emotion through the combination of an aggressive musical style and quasi-Homeric lyrics that speak of tragic heroes fighting against forces beyond their control. People are drawn to the music because they can relate to issues of addiction, psychological trauma, war, and death, the forces of chaos they desperately want to control in their own lives.
Notes
1. On the PMRC and continued concerns about media violence, see Steven J. Kirsh, Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence: A Critical Look at the Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2012).
2. Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture (New York: Da Capo Press, 2000), pp. 35–43.
3. Weinstein, Heavy Metal, 41.
4. For an account of Hetfield’s early days, see esp. Mark Eglinton, James Hetfield: The Wolf at Metallica’s Door (Church Stretton: Independent Music, 2010).
5. MTV Icon interview, May 2003, cited in William Irwin, ed., Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), 30.
6. Director Joe Berlinger wrote about this process with Greg Milner in Metallica: This Monster Lives: The Inside Story of Some Kind of Monster (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004).
7. On masculinity and heavy metal, see Robert Walser, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1993), and Glenn T. Pillsbury, Damage Incorporated: Metallica and the Production of Musical Identity (New York: Routledge, 2012).
8. On this stereotype, see esp. Otto F. Wahl, Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995).
9. See Gavin Baddeley, Lucifer Rising (London: Plexus, 1999), and Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (Los Angeles, CA: Feral House, 2003).
10. Leah Sharman and Genevieve A. Dingle, “Extreme Metal Music and Anger Processing,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9, no. 272 (May 2015), doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00272.
11. Robert Fudge, “Whisper Things into My Brain: Metallica, Emotion, and Morality,” in Metallica and Philosophy, A Crash Course in Brain Surgery, ed. William Irwin (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007).