None so vile? Towards an ethics of Death Metal

Abstract

Much work in cultural and communication studies tends to validate affective experience only insofar as it can find unanimity with the field's commitment to political and structural transformation. Consequently, cultural forms invested in affectivities less readily assimilable into these 'interventionist' agendas are more likely to be viewed as ethically and politically problematic. Exploring this tendency in relation to recent research on death metal music, I will problematise conventional ethical criticism of the genre by arguing for an ethics derived not from a predetermined set of principles, but one arising immanently from the affective specificities of aesthetic practice.