2013/01/01 by Joseph Norman · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Themes in Literature Analysis
paper · doi:10.1057/9781137320964_11
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Mythical and mythopoeic references permeate the lyrics, imagery, and music of “extreme metal,” an umbrella term that collects heavy metal’s most subversive subgenres: “death,” “black,” and “doom.” While there are other prominent mythopoeias in extreme metal, such as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the “Cthulhu” Mythos, originally instigated by H. P. Lovecraft, is one of the most significant. Keith Kahn-Harris’s observation that “the stories of H. P. Lovecraft … have provided inspiration to many across the extreme metal scene” (41) has been echoed by several other critics (Smith 153–154; Baddeley 264; Hill 43; Collins 61). The official H. P. Lovecraft website lists 127 musical artists from around the world who have referenced Lovecraft in their releases; a survey at Rateyourmusic.com adds approximately another 100 artists to this list. Both websites list the overwhelming majority of the artists as “metal” and many could be regarded as “extreme” metal, due to their use of highly unconventional song structures, radical tempos, bizarre and offensive lyrics, and harsh and abrasive sounds. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.