Niall Scott

In the past few years the music and culture of heavy metal has drawn attention to itself in its relationship to mysticism, religious practice and theology. In this paper I aim to show that heavy metal, giving specific attention to the extreme subgenre of black metal, can function in terms of liturgy. I claim that it can carry with it the sense of duty ascribed to the Greek origin of the term, but also be seen as having a parallel with liturgy in terms of a spiritual rite and invoke deeper metaphysical associations with liturgy as engendering an insight into the transcendent. This metaphysical understanding of liturgy is borrowed from Catherine Pickstock, who I contend opens up the case for heavy metal to be considered in liturgical terms, but not without criticism of her assumptions regarding art and spectacle which she holds to offer only a pseudo liturgy in the context of modernity. In this piece I aim to speak of an encounter between black metal with an apophatic liturgy; a liturgy of negation, where one can use words and structures to annul meaning and structure. This apophatic liturgy provides an opportunity to explore the possibilities that can provide insights into the relationship between mysticism and liturgy by challenging what liturgy refers to; in the case of black metal it refers to a meaningless void, rather than an object of worship.

Abstract:This article looks at what anarchism has to offer in debates concerning health and healthcare. I present the case that anarchism’s interest in supporting the poor, sick, and marginalized, and rejection of state and corporate power, places it in a good position to offer creative ways to address health problems. I maintain that anarchistic values of autonomy, responsibility, solidarity, and community are central to this endeavor. Rather than presenting a case that follows one particular anarchist theory, my main goal is to raise issues and initiate debate in this underresearched field in mainstream bioethics.

In this chapter, I wish to explore some conceptual issues regarding metal and community. Community is one of those words that is widely used and applied to a range of social contexts, but quite hard to pin down. Metal too is notoriously difficult to define. To discuss community in the context of metal music and its culture then will require some concessions to the multiple ways in which community can be conceived. I will first briefly discuss issues concerning the defining community, then move on to explore some aspects of community as understood in Aristotle’s writings and Immanuel Kant’ political philosophy as means of illuminating and clarifying problematic issues in speaking of metal and community together in one breath. To explore the nature, or even the very possibility of metal and community, one can approach it from a purely theoretical perspective, or one can simply satisfy oneself by going out and observing metal culture in practice at music events for example; or do empirical work on certain questions pertaining to the subject as is presented in other chapters in this volume. I would like to present something somewhere in between and look into the notion of how community might be understood in the context of metal, by delving into conceptual offerings from Aristotle’s and Kant’s ideas on community and using these to unpack three examples from the world of metal music and its culture.

To the unfamiliar eye the relation between metal music and community might seem like a contradiction. After all, how can community emanate from practices that to outsiders seem to foster loudness, extremity and violence? Those individuals that have enjoyed this musical genre at some point in their lives will probably have a very different appreciation of metal music and its culture in terms of community. In fact, many aspects of metal music point towards the importance of community as part of its practices. Some salient examples can be provided just to illustrate this argument. These include shared experiences (e.g. concerts, listening to music together), dress codes (e.g. use of recognizable band shirts), behavioral expectations (e.g. protection during mosh pits), use of collective information outlets (e.g. magazines, websites), and jointly discussed significant events (e.g. death of a musician). The central idea is that when these experiences are shared and valued by many persons, they can provide individuals with a sense of meaning and purpose that allows them to come together as a community. Although this may sound simple enough, it is actually quite a complex process. Beyond being a mere association of people, the complexity involves processes that concern exploring the expanse and the limits of the metal community and even dealing with paradoxes where although the music may be held in common, values such as political, artistic and ethical ones can be extremely diverse. Yet these are all held together under the banner of ‘metal’.

This paper addresses the need for more attention to be paid to altruism as fundamentally underpinning any bioethical enquiry. I argue along with Bernard Williams that altruism is necessary for morality and if this is the case it is necessary for bioethics. In following a Kantian line on altruism, I take issue with the consequentialist component of Beauchamp and Childress' treatment of beneficence and argue that altruism paired with sollidarity is a better match. However, even here it is my contention that altruism is required to give solidarity normative force.

Emerging from depths comes a series of papers dealing with one of the most significant creations that reflects on and critiques human existence. Both a warning and a demonstration, the monster as myth and metaphor provides an articulation of human imagination that toys with the permissible and impermissible. Monsters from zombies to cuddly cartoon characters, emerging from sewers, from pages of literature, propaganda posters, movies and heavy metal, all are covered in this challenging, scholarly collection. This volume the third in the series presents a marvellous collection of studies on the metaphor of the monster in literature, cinema, music, culture, philosophy, history and politics. Both historical reflection and concerns of our time are addressed with clarity and written in an accessible manner providing appeal for the scholar and lay reader alike. This eclectic collection will be of interest to academics and students working in a range of disciplines, such as cultural studies, film studies, political theory, philosophy and literature studies.