Oversimplification of heavy metal

[firecat]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/how-heavy-metal-is-keeping-us-sane/8443/2/
"How Heavy Metal Is Keeping Us Sane: Dark and disturbing, the music is honest about human nature"
By James Parker

I do admire the audacity of equating heavy metal with Frazer's The Golden Bough. But the rest of the article is an embarrassingly overwritten (with hipster ironic pretentions) misunderstanding of heavy metal.

Oversimplification #1:
"Black Sabbath created heavy metal."

Oversimplification #2 (perhaps not an oversimplification per se. More of a...BUH???):
"heavy metal is cosmic protest music."

Oversimplification #3:
"The metalhead, quite counter to stereotype, is floridly pretentious."

Comments

[cereus]

Oversimplification #3 makes me go "whaaat?"

But comparing metal to The Golden Bough does equal awesome. Of course, I listen to a lot of epic metal with pagan-ish content, so maybe I'm biased.

[firecat]

epic metal with pagan-ish content

Ooh! Recommendations?

[cereus]

One I listen to (a lot) is Therion, and Nightwish has some evocative lyrics even if they aren't strictly Pagan-themed.

Also, here's a thread about the subject on e-cauldron:

http://www.ecauldron.net/forum/index.php?topic=11802.0

[firecat]

Thanks much!