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The power of the imagination of historical distance: Melechesh’ ‘Mesopotamian Metal’ as a musical attempt of solving cultural conflicts in the twenty-first century

2017; Intellect; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/mms.3.1.97_1

2052-4005

Peter Pichler,

Music History and Culture

Abstract As an interdisciplinary but distinct field of cultural research, metal music studies is, as a research discourse, structurally interwoven with post-modern and post-colonial cultural history. In this article, the author examines the ways the music of the Middle Eastern extreme metal band Melechesh , called ‘Mesopotamian Metal’ by the artists themselves, constructs a hybrid cultural pattern that could help us solving cultural conflicts in the globalized world of the twenty-first century. Mesopotamian Metal constructs an innovative cultural discourse, hybridizing fragments of different ‘Western’, ‘Eastern’ and ‘Oriental’ streams of culture. Its main power lies in its way of historical storytelling: it uses the logic of hybridization, via the imagination of historical distance, to provide us with an innovative historical narrative, fashioned in the globally understood cultural outfit of extreme metal music. Explaining this empirical case by post-colonial hybridization theory adds new aspects to current research debates on the interconnections between global extreme metal discourse and regional/local cultures in metal music studies.