The recent murder of Dimebag Darrell was an event that raised an entire line of questions concerning values and moral foundations of the Extreme Metal community. It doesn’t happen often (on the contrary!) that all reactions, be it from fans, musician colleagues, zines, labels, organizations, and regardless if it’s from Thrash, Death, Black or some other genre, carry one and only the same message. It was sadness and grief over the loss of a great artist, musician and person. I have not followed the work of the deceased so closely and therefore I will not write anything about that. But, I would rather like to focus on sentiments expressed and what lies behind them.

Before moving on I should describe my view of the basic Metal movement ideas. If there’s any group of words that can summarize the essence of it then "Infernal Eternal", "Under a Steel Sky", "Darkness it Shall Be" should have a very high ranking. Put simply, it’s all about painting a picture full of darkness, pain, anger and hate, might and power. That’s what I guess all Metal bands are delivering either through their lyrics or music. And, consequently, because of such things we are in love with this musical chaos. Also worth of mentioning and easy to see is that Metalheads hate heaven and heavenly images, but not because they think this version of heaven is not good enough and need detailed face lifting, but they hate it 'cause Heaven should burn and Hell is forever and mandatory! This is one more brick that binds us together.

And then you get a question about how to fit together the above described genre together with its member’s reaction towards the murder of Dimebag Darrell? Well, if you ask me, there’s no common ground and no obvious connections between the two, except maybe some hypocrisy. On the contrary to a scene full of audio/visual cruelty with foundations deep in the darkest parts of the human soul you get emotional and unified reactions exemplary to, let’s say the Brit pop scene, or some other similar. I haven’t found one single reaction that would be different and I read many statements from many relevant people/organizations. All of them contained pain and grief for the loss of a guitarist many called a genius. I instantly have to wonder why does the image of the scene and its reactions differ so much?

If you’d follow strictly the way of expression found in lyrics and other, the only logical reaction would be something like: “Who gives a fuck?”. If the vast majority of metalheads spit on Christianity, 'cause it, as Nietzsche taught, supports the weak and failures then the obvious ideal of ‘our’ community is ‘domination of the strongest’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. So, according to this, Darrell, guitarist genius and a great artist would prove weak and failure, 'cause he was unready for the ever ongoing battle. And, the murderer, although mentally ill, and probably misfit with no important achievement in life, would prove stronger and be chosen for further breed. It doesn’t matter who is the genius and who is the nobody, all that counts is who is ready for battle and who’s not. So, according to rules set by the community they both belonged to, the assassin comes out from a duel victorious and the artist as a defeated one. But, the most interesting thing comes now in place. Although this outcome would be in strict line with the ‘unwritten laws’ of the genre/community nobody reacted that way, but all opposite. Instead of either ignoring the duel, or celebrating the victorious, the defeated one is celebrated in a way that offers no clues about the musical scene's standards.

My opinion is that this event should open a discussion, so uncharacteristic to the Metal scene, and rethinking of at least two things. One would be is it possible that Metalheads tend to talk one way and act in another? Which means are they actually posers that create a false image of themselves from reasons unknown? And another is even more basic, should we continue to propagate a fairytale ("Heaven Shall Burn When We Are Gathered", right after we drink this beer) whose outcome is placement of a victorious murderer on the pedestal of ‘model of society leader’, only because he won thanks to factors of surprise and firepower supremacy. I guess the first question can be answered, with some certainty, that the entire image is mostly pose due to reasons it’s creators are hardly conscious, but the 2nd question wouldn’t stand any other answer than ‘Hell no!’. Any other answer would lead to self-destruction of the scene, one way or another, which, in that case, would be a minor damage 'cause it’s furthermost achievement would be partial healing of the listeners' neurosis and complexes. But, if that’s so, what other tale is left to the Death/Black scenes?

Editor's comment: No views or opinions expressed in this article reflect the views of Tartarean Desire.