Metal likes to be scary. At its core, metal in all its forms is about primal reaction and the drama of the truth; the power of fear lies behind both of these principles. As such, metal musicians sometimes feel like the performers at a haunted house, leaping out in masks of history’s horrors, society’s underbelly, or the ills of the world, for the sheer excitement of watching the hot lice gasp in fright. The extremes to which this has been taken are predictable if at times alarming, with death and black metal artists confronting the most horrific crimes imaginable in the hopes of getting a gut reaction from their audiences. But perhaps even more eerie and unpleasant is when music we don’t consider immediately “scary” strikes a terrifying chord. With metal,...
