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Community at the extremes: The death metal underground as being-in-common

2016; Intellect; Volume: 2; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/mms.2.3.341_1

2052-4005

Nathan Snaza, Jason Netherton,

Gothic Literature and Media Analysis

Abstract This article asks what the early death metal underground teaches us about the relations between community and aesthetics. After tracing the emergence of death metal as a genre, the article examines the accounts of musicians, artists and recording engineers collected in Jason Netherton’s Extremity Retained (2014). Drawing on contemporary theories of non-human agency, research in animal studies, and Continental philosophies of community, the article focuses on ‘brutality’ as a crucial marker of death metal’s political significance, arguing that this involved experiments with new ways of embodiment that outstrip humanist presuppositions about what a body can do. Then, the article examines how international tape trading networks allowed for the emergence of forms of ‘being-in-common’ that cannot be understood in merely human terms. Finally, the article argues that the death metal underground’s particular importance lies in its linking of more-than-human practices of community with a focus on death and negativity.