Abstract
As spirituality and religion are among metal music’s main topics, John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1874) is a major source of inspiration for bands of the genre. The themes of power and powerlessness personified in Milton’s Satan, and the communal experience of the fallen angels as they reject the heavenly establishment resonate energetically with metal music fans. The scrutiny includes thirteen songs by twelve bands, plus two full albums by two other bands inspired by Milton’s work. Mirroring the lack of critical consensus on the interpretation of the poem, metal transformations of Paradise Lost propose differing overall messages on good and evil. The instances analysed avoid direct verse quotations, tend to become first-person narratives by way of the technique Gérard Genette coined transvocalisation, and do not make use of specific musical resources beyond those typical in the subgenre to which each band belongs. The variety of national origins and presence of extreme metal bands seen in previous chapters is confirmed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Throughout this chapter I will refer to Gordon Teskey’s Norton 2005 edition, based on 1674s revised edition of the poem.
- 2.
In this case the album was not named directly after Milton’s poem, but after the Milton-inspired band’s name, to celebrate its being their tenth studio recording (Blabbermouth 2005).
References
Discography
4th Dimension. 2011. Angel’s Call. Track 9 on The White Path to Rebirth. Crash & Burn Records C&B 013. CD.
———. 2014. White Logic. Track 6 on Dispelling the Veil of Illusions. Power Prog 4 260115 032259. CD.
Abandoned by Light. 2016a. Paradise Lost as Harmony Breaks. Track 10 on The Angel Experiment. Black Lion Records. CD.
Advent. 2003a. Paradise Lost. Track 1 on The Dawn. Golden Lake Productions GOLD CD0011. CD.
———. 2003b. Landscape. Track 7 on The Dawn. Golden Lake Productions GOLD CD0011. CD.
Atrocity. 2013. Pandæmonium. Track 1 on Okkult. Napalm Records NPR 472. CD.
Blind Guardian. 2010. Control the Divine. Track 7 on At the Edge of Time. Nuclear Blast NB 2287-2. CD.
Burnt Church. 2012. Paradise Lost. Track 9 on Embracing the Void. Self-released. CD.
Carnal Agony. 2015. Rebel’s Lament and Rebellion. Tracks 3 and 4 on Preludes & Nocturnes. Sliptrick Records SLP 014 0108. CD.
Cirith Ungol. (1991) 2016. Paradise Lost. Metal Blade Records 3984-15462-2. CD.
Cradle of Filth. 2003. Damnation and a Day. Sony Music UK 510963 2. CD.
Draconian. 1999. The Closed Eyes of Paradise. Self-released. CD.
———. 2005. The Apostasy Canticle. Track 3 on Arcane Rain Fell. Napalm Records NPR 158. CD.
Forest of Shadows. 2001. Wish. Track 2 on Where Dreams Turn to Dust. Rage of Achilles ILIAD017. EP.
Forsaken. 2009. Tenebrarum (Intro). Track 1 on After the Fall. I Hate Records IHR 023. CD.
———. 2017a. Pentateuch. Mighty Music PMZ232CD. CD.
In Tha Umbra. 2000a. Fumes She Holdeth. Track 1 on Midnight in the Garden of Hell. Hibernia Productions HB02CD. CD.
———. 2000b. Crescent. Track 3 on Midnight in the Garden of Hell. Hibernia Productions HB02CD. CD.
———. 2005. Linger Venom. Track 2 on Nigrium Nigrius Nigro. Agonia Records ARCD 027. CD.
Morgana Lefay. 1993. Paradise Lost. Track 5 on The Secret Doctrine. Black Mark Production BMCD 42. CD.
Necronomicon. 2019. Paradise Lost. Track 3 on Unus. Season of Mist SOM525. CD.
Night Screamer. 2019. Paradise Lost. Track 7 on Dead of Night. Stormspell Records SSR-DL-250. CD.
Paradise Lost. 2005. Paradise Lost. BMG 82876 67189 2. CD.
Salem’s Childe. 2016. Paradise Lost. Self-released. EP.
Silent Planet. 2014. First Mother (Lilith). Track 8 on The Night God Slept. Solid State TND000039. CD.
Symphony of Sorrow. 1999. Paradise Lost. Midgård Records MIDCD 015. CD.
Symphony X. 1997. The Divine Wings of Tragedy. Inside Out Music IOMCD 009. CD.
———. 1998. Through the Looking Glass. Track 5 on Twilight in Olympus. Inside Out Music IOMCD 012. CD.
———. 2002. The Odyssey. Inside Out Music IOMCD 109. CD.
———. 2007. Paradise Lost. Inside Out Music IOMCD 259. CD.
Theory of Chaos. 2015. Paradise Lost. Track 6 on Gateway to Madness. Self-released. EP.
Timeless Necrotears. 2016. Paradise Lost. Self-released. CD.
Valdes, David. 2002. Paradise Lost. Heavencross Records HRCD007. CD.
Warlord. 2002. War in Heaven. Track 5 on Rising Out of the Ashes. Drakkar Records DRAKKAR 032. CD.
Videography
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2016. Paradise Lost. Directed by Wendey Stanzler. Written by George Kitson and Sharla Oliver. Aired April 12, 2016, on ABC.
Silent Planet. 2015. Silent Planet | The Night God Slept | Track-By-Track Analysis. YouTube, February 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni-3w6HH2mg. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 1996. Paradise Lost. Directed by Reza Badiyi. Written by Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Aired January 8, 1996, on CBS.
Stargate SG-1. 2003. Paradise Lost. Directed by William Gereghty. Written by Robert C. Cooper. Aired January 8, 2003, on Sky One.
Bibliography
Abandoned by Light. 2016b. The Angel Experiment (3rd LP), Bandcamp, February 1. https://perpetua.bandcamp.com/album/theangel-experiment-3rd-lp. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Allen, Russell. 2007a. Interview by Dimitris Kontogeorgakos. Metal Temple, July 28. http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/musicians/russell_allen_symphony.htm. Accessed 27 November 2022.
———. 2007b. Interview by John Stefanis. Get Ready to Rock, October. http://www.getreadytorock.com/pure_metal/symphonyx_interview.htm. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. 1996. Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation. Boulder: Westview Press.
Barton, George A. 1891. Ashtoreth and Her Influence in the Old Testament. Journal of Biblical Literature 10 (2): 73–91.
Bicego, Andrea. 2014. Interview by R. Lewis. Metal Storm, July 22. http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=707. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Blabbermouth. 2005. TAPPING THE VEIN Singer Records Backing Vocals for New PARADISE LOST Album. Blabbermouth, January 13. https://blabbermouth.net/news/tapping-the-vein-singer-records-backing-vocals-for-new-paradise-lost-album. Accessed 7 January 2023.
Blake, William. (1793) 1906a. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Boston: John W. Luce and Company.
———. 1906b. In The Poetical Works of William Blake, ed. Edwin J. Ellis, vol. 1. London: Chatto & Windus.
Bolay, Jordan. 2019. ‘Their Song Was Partial; but the Harmony […] Suspended Hell’: Intertextuality, Voice and Gender in Milton/Symphony X’s Paradise Lost. Metal Music Studies 5 (1): 5–20.
Bush, Douglas. (1967) 2005. From John Milton: A Sketch of His Life and Writings. In Milton, 476-81.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. (1819) 2005. “Unassigned Lecture Notes”. In Milton, 391-92.
Cradle of Filth. 2017. Band. Cradle of Filth. The Official Website. https://www.cradleoffilth.com/band. Accessed 30 December 2020.
Eliot, T. S. (1943) 1961. On Poetry and Poets. New York: The Noonday Press.
Filth, Dani. 2002. Getting Filthy with Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth. Interview by Peter Atkinson, KNAC.com, June 11. http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=958. Accessed 27 November 2022.
———. 2003. “Exclusive Interview! Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth”. Interview by Chris Hawkins, KNAC.com, March 20. http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=1868. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Flesch, William. 1992. Generosity and the Limits of Authority: Shakespeare, Herbert, Milton. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Forsaken. 2017b. Biography, Forsaken, August 1. https://forsakenmalta.com/biography/. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Forsyth, Neil. 2014. Satan. In The Cambridge Companion to Paradise Lost, ed. Louise Schwartz, 17–28. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Genette, Gérard. (1982) 1997. Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree. Trans. Channa Newman and Claude Doubinsky. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press.
Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. 2012. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. 8th ed. New York: Norton.
Gross, Kenneth. (1988) 2005. Satan and the Romantic Satan: A Notebook. In Milton, 420–24.
Gross, Robert L. 1990. Heavy Metal Music: A New Subculture in American Society. Journal of Popular Culture 24 (1): 119–130.
Jacobsson, Anders. 2005. Interview, The Gauntlet. http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/1064/23280/Draconian-Interview. Accessed 27 November 2022.
———. 2006. Interview by Ekaterina Fyodorova and Anna Babicheva, Dark Side, August 15. https://www.darkside.ru/interviews/interview.phtml?id=309&dlang=en. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Knoppers, Laura Lunger, and Gregory M. Colón Semenza, eds. 2006. Milton in Popular Culture. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. 2007. Introduction. In Paradise Lost, by John Milton, xv-xxix. Malden, MA, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell.
Lewis, C.S. 1969. A Preface to Paradise Lost. London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Milton, John. (1674) 2005. Paradise Lost, ed. Gordon Teskey. New York: Norton.
———. (1671) 2014. Paradise Regained. Toronto: HarperCollins.
Pullman, Philip. 2005. Introduction. Paradise Lost, by John Milton, 1–13. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Purcell, Natalie. 2003. Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company. Ebook.
Rajan, Balachandra. (1947) 2005. The Problem of Satan. In Milton, 407–413.
Reisner, Noam. 2011. John Milton’s Paradise Lost: A Reading Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Ricks, Christopher. (1963) 2001. Milton’s Grand Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Romeo, Michael. 2007a. Interview by Greg Shackles, Metal-Rules.com, July 9. https://www.metal-rules.com/2007/07/09/michael-romeo-of-symphony-x/. Accessed 27 November 2022.
———. 2007b. Interview by Ivan Chopik, Guitar Messenger, August 9. https://www.guitarmessenger.com/michael-romeo-interview-symphony-x/. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Romeo, Michael, Michael Pinnella, Jason Rullo, and Michael Lepond. 2007. Interview by Jason Ritchie, Get Ready to Rock. http://www.getreadytorock.com/10questions/symphony_x.htm. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Russell, Garrett. 2015. Interview by Justin Sarachik, Breathe Cast, July 13. http://www.breathecast.com/articles/silent-planet-vocalist-reveals-next-record-will-focus-on-mental-illness-says-songs-are-empty-without-a-narrative-interview-29637/. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Schwartz, Howard. 2004. Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Scott, Niall. 2014. Seasons in the Abyss: Heavy Metal as Liturgy. Diskus: The Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions 16 (1): 12–29.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. (1840) 1904. A Defence of Poetry. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Simon, Edward. 2017. What’s So ‘American’ About John Milton’s Lucifer?. The Atlantic, March 16. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/03/whats-so-american-about-john-miltons-lucifer/519624/?fbclid=IwAR2oTNSleaKVbnfFMBiIkwy3nRwmQhyAH5MRxfbawntTwQSuVv9xid59unI. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Skipwith, Grey Hubert. 1906. Ashtoreth, the Goddess of the Zidonians. The Jewish Quarterly Review 18 (4): 715–738.
Teskey, Gordon. 2005. Introduction. In Milton, xv-xxx.
Tsamis, William J. 2002. Interview by thanos. Grande Rock. https://www.grande-rock.com/interviews/warlord. Accessed 17 December 2020.
Waldock, A. J. A. (1947) 2005. Satan and the Technique of Degradation. In Milton, 413–417.
Walser, Robert. 1993. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.
Weinstein, Deena. 2000. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Rev. ed. New York: Da Capo Press. Kindle file.
Woodhouse, A. S. P. (1972) 2005. From The Heavenly Muse: A Preface to Milton. In Milton, 492-497.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mora-Rioja, A. (2023). “Myself Am Hell”: Metal Music and Paradise Lost. In: Poetry in English and Metal Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29183-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29183-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-29182-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29183-8
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)