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Abstract

Ever since its inception into the realm of music during the mid-70, heavy metal has been hailed as one of the most extreme genres in terms of loudness, machismo and lyrical content. Throughout its existence, heavy metal has been mired with controversies; critics slighted the music by shunning it off as being riddled with overblown adolescent theatrics, and conservative groups have accused the genre of being provocative due to its evil lyrical content. Inspite of all those adversities, heavy metal has held its stance as one of the most consistent forms of rock music. Metal music, through its efforts has reinstated the “ancient Indo-European spirit of vir”1 through a Romantic, Faustian form of music culture. This has staggered the general concept of mainstream music and has hence, since long, remained controversial. Heavy metal has never been popular with the mainstream masses, primarily due to the nature of the music. Amongst other things, lyrical content of the songs is one thing that is largely frowned upon and often considered to be one of the primary reasons why metal music has never struck a chord with the masses. But such allegations, while partly true, remain biased to a large extent. Clearly, such thoughts have been nurtured and brought up in the mind of people, who have never bothered to delve deeper into the aesthetics of this kind of music and unravel the plethora of literary influence in it. This paper studies how English literature has influenced the metal genre. I have dealt with the incorporation of 18th, 19th and 20th century English poetry in metal music, and how the songs in turn have added to the essence of the literary themes. This paper shows how famous poems/novels have been adapted to suit the ideals of specific bands and genres, how literary works from these centuries have inspired songs and concept albums.

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