The energy and synergy of horror and heavy metal

The devil is in the riff

Horror cinema has been around a while. From Lon Chaney's early and silent forays into the genre back in the 1920s (who can forget the unmasking of the eponymous protagonist in Phantom of the Opera, portrayed by the Man of a Thousand Faces, Mr. Chaney himself), to Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and every creature, monster, and witch in between, the cinematic hall of fame is littered with the heads of those who fell foul of the killer's blade. And going further back in time, a reader with a keen eye for detail could infer that some classic literary works did indeed include a touch of horror, too. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in late 1865, for instance. Prime example of that peculiar genre of literary nonsense as it may be, the story does slide into horror territory at times. Off with their heads, the Red Queen nonchalantly proclaims. Much later, Paul W. Anderson's ill-advised version of the classic horror video game series Resident Evil would include a reference to the wicked queen.

And how about Hansel and Gretel's tale, which features a cannibalistic witch. Be he fat or lean, the witch says as she prepares to eat Hansel, something that does qualify as a bona fide horror in my book. And mine is a very select book, I tell you.

In any case, the storytelling aficionado within us can say without fear that horror has been around almost as long as art itself, be it in written form, celluloid, or paintings (Francisco Goya's Saturn devouring his son is a prime example of the latter).

Heavy metal music, on the other hand, is a much more recent affair. One can argue that metal music as such did not exist until the 1970s. If one wants to get even more technical about it, heavy metal was born out of the depths of Black Sabbath's dense guitar riff for the song Iron Man, released at the start of the decade.

The point of when exactly was heavy metal born would be up for debate, of course, but what's beyond denial is that the New Wave of British Heavy Metal -with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Led Zeppelin leading the charge- brought about a cultural shift in terms of musical taste, and a brand new street look to boot, which proliferated throughout the late 70s, and especially in the 80s.

Heavy metal is loud, fast, aggressive, and totally in your face, much like Jason Voorhees's hatchet or Leatherface's mallet. The metal landscape is full of quick, savagely sharp riffs that pull no punches, and much like horror tropes, the genre's take-no-prisoners attitude leaves little room for niceties. It is thus no surprise that the horror genre slowly opened its creaky crypt doors to adopt heavy metal music as a means to express its own perverted visions. And vice versa, of course.

The relationship between horror cinema and heavy metal is a synergistic one. Both elements copulated to form a perfect union, combining visually striking imagery with a loud and fast soundtrack to punctuate the onscreen savagery.

Origins: blame the four boys from Birmingham

Cast your mind back to 1969, if you will. The hippie movement reigned supreme. Flower Power was in its halcyon days. LSD, and rock festivals were de rigueur. Free-spirited love was in full bloom. But back in rainy England, a bunch of young musicians had a somewhat darker note to paint the world with.

Tommy Iommi formed Black Sabbath in the British city of Birmingham in 1968. Heavily industrialized, Birmingham was a dark, dingy, and ugly place. A far cry indeed from the colourful 60s over in the US. Iommi himself worked a dead-end job in one of the city's many factories. In his spare time, he played music in rock bands. He and three other boys from the city (Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bill Ward) got together to make music history, though they didn't know it yet. It would be two years before the nascent band released their eponymous first album. Notably, the band's name was taken from a 1963 film of the same name, starring Boris Karloff -a staple of classic horror cinema-. The boys from Birmingham introduced a darker, moodier sound that was in stark contrast with the psychedelic tunes of the contemporaneous musicians, the Beatles, for example, and in a collision course altogether with the spaced-out spirit of the 60s.

Sabbath's debut album was released on February, Friday 13, 1970 (see a pattern starting to emerge here?) While it did poorly in the domestic market, it took off overseas big time, giving the band a chance to get more studio time to record a second album. The rest, as they say, is history. Black Sabbath pioneered the crossover swing between horror and the yet unnamed musical genre they were heralding. “Heavy metal” music was not yet a 'thing.' The term had been used as far back as 1962 in William Burroughs’ novel The Soft Machine without any musical connotations. The debate still rages as to who (and when, exactly) did the "heavy metal" moniker become associated with Black Sabbath's incipient sonic revolution.

In any case, it matters little. Soon, heavy metal music became a thing, and more bands jumped onto the metal bandwagon. Led Zeppelin were already rocking since 1969. Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water, released in 1972, featured another classic metal riff. Judas Priest appeared on the metal scene in 1974. Heavy metal took off throughout the 70s, and particularly the 80s. And it's all down to those four boys from the Black County.

Six strings of hell: two genres intertwined

With the advent of the synchronized soundtrack in the mid-1920s, music became an integral element of films of all genres, including horror, of course. Would Jaws be (or sound!) the same without that dreadfully ominous tone created by the legendary composer John Williams, for example? Even though the melody itself is a simple combination of two notes, the density and intensity of its meaning elevated it -and the movie itself- to classic status. Or, if we think about another cinematic landmark, 1973's The Exorcist, the symbolism evoked by Mike Oldfield's iconic Tubular Bells melody sticks in the viewer's mind long after the movie's shocking finale.

Back in the 1970s, heavy metal as a genre was in its infancy. And moreover, it was an almost exclusively European movement. The United States had not yet been widely exposed to this new sound hailing from the Old Continent. It wouldn't be until the 1980s that horror and metal music became inextricably linked.

But why this wholly synergistic, almost symbiotic, relationship? What makes these two genres complement each other so well? There are no easy answers to these questions, and one must consider the sum of the parts of this unholy equation to arrive at anything resembling a proper reason.

Why does horror work, and why does metal music work?

At a basic level, horror works because it appeals to primordial emotions within the human mind. Fear, for sure. Anxiety, certainly. But also curiosity. And crucially, voyeurism. We humans enjoy watching, and if the subject does not know he or she is being watched, the thrill level grows exponentially. Watching horror movies is a largely voyeuristic experience, is it not. How will she meet her end? How much blood will there be when the blade cuts the flesh? Who is the killer? We've all asked ourselves these questions while watching scary movies. We want to see, to find out, to know. And directors have the exploitation of such human traits down to an art.

Equally, horror films seek to elicit an emotion from the viewer. This can be achieved in many ways, but one key element of a horror fest is its soundtrack. We have come to associate certain movies with their soundtracks to such an extent that we cannot think of one without the other. Those alternating notes in Jaws, the hauntingly beautiful organ in The Exorcist, and Ave Satanis from The Omen are amongst the most recognizable haunting melodies in the history of cinema.

All these, and many more, were conceived in the pre-metal era. And once those four humble boys from Birmingham came into the picture, everything changed. Much like horror, metal music is an assault on the senses. Its riffs and drum beats wrap around you with an electric coil, eliciting feelings and thrills not unlike a good horror movie.

There is a lot of crossover between genres, too, in terms of themes, imagery, and more importantly, audiences. Many young males in the 14-25 bracket listen to heavy metal and watch horror movies. It makes perfect commercial sense to combine the two. The formula works almost every time.

Abigail et al: ghostly children, falsetto chorus, and horror festivals

King Diamond is the stage name of a Danish vocalist who launched the conceptual heavy metal album Abigail back in 1987. The album tells the story of a ghost child, the eponymous Abigail, and its desire to live again through an unwitting surrogate mother, Miriam.

Abigail is full of common horror tropes (haunted mansions, ghostly forebodings, reincarnation, etc.) But what made it stand out was King Diamond's distinct vocal range, turning out an outstanding product that sold well worldwide.

Kirk Hammett, Metallica's guitarist, is said to be an avid fan of the horror genre. He even has his own annual festival, Fear FestEvil. The gathering features performances by fellow metal bands, horror memorabilia, and even a horror-themed murder mystery dinner.

Alice Cooper (the moniker itself taken from an Ouija session, if the apocryphal legends are to be believed) has had more than its fair share of connections with the horror world. From the band's early on-stage antics, featuring crypts, crosses, and many other such props, to his cameos in films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Death (as Freddy's abusive stepfather, no less), Alice Cooper's cosy relationship with horror is well documented.

Back in 1987, American rock band Dokken wrote Dream Warriors, which plays during the closing credits of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

More recently, the band Slipknot regularly uses dark imagery, both in their personal appearance and their stage antics.

Crossover examples abound, as we can see.

Metal legacy

Horror is here to stay. Metal music perhaps saw its heyday back in the 80s and early 90s, only to be slowly replaced by the grunge phenomenon, pushing sales of traditional metal on a terminally downward spiral. The genre has had a resurgence in later years in the form of the so-called 'nu-metal', but most of the old charm is certainly gone.

Nevertheless, when we think of Freddy Krueger, for example, we think of aggression, fear, and burnt, gloved hands with knives attached (a prop that, incidentally, is said to have been inspired by Wes Craven's cat). And we hear rock music playing in the background as Freddy dispatches one teenager after another.

Whether you are a fan of either genre or not, it is hard to deny that both have evolved together, fusing gore with riffs in a melting pot of pure, sonic, voyeuristic fun.