Religion and ambiguity in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and its metal music afterlives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21876013 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arturo Mora-Rioja (0000-0003-2291-3321, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 201-215 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Metal Music Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2052-3998 • E-ISSN: 2052-4005 |
| Publisher | Intellect (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/mms_00141_1 |
| OpenAlex | W4406731610 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) exemplifies his Romantic view of religion as a personal spiritual expression while sarcastically critiquing extreme religious stances like those of his contemporary Emanuel Swedenborg. This article examines three metal music transformations of Blake’s work: A Plea for Purging’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (2010), Virgin Steele’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – Part I and Part II (1994, 1995) and Ulver’s Themes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998). The analysis finds parallelisms between Blake’s take on religion and rebellion in the Romantic era and metal music’s treatment of the same topics, particularly in terms of opposites: heaven and hell, good and evil, authority and freedom. Since both Blake and the albums under scrutiny challenge institutionalized religion and embrace creative liberty as a means of resistance, metal music preserves Blake’s vision of art as a vehicle for raising awareness and driving societal change. Moreover, this study not only highlights the enduring relevance of Blake’s work to contemporary audiences and its profound resonance within the metal genre, but it also illustrates how metal music, often seen as radical, can produce nuanced reflections on individualism and social dynamics, much like Blake’s own balancing of opposites
Ambiguity · Art · Heaven · Linguistics · Literature · Modern American Literature Studies · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
|---|