Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 11/24/09 Section: Music

Media Credit: Courtesy of Rudra fan club Heavy Metal was born in places like Los Angeles, but its power has spread to Asia, creating bands such as Singapore's Rudra, a Vedic Metal group.

Around here at Minnesota State, a random person sporting a Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath t-shirt is nothing to take a second look at. But thousands of miles away, where people wear Kurtas and turbans; you do take a minute to turn around and take a good look at the guy who walked by in tight jeans and a band shirt.

Despite its more commercial, mass audience-oriented wings, nu and alternative, heavy metal has always been the music of the oppressed. The angry, inside voice within the men and women of the working class that screams out loud against low wages, social instability and the power and authority of "The Man."

The forefathers of all heavy music, bands such as Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, were born from the dust and ashes of industrial Birmingham, England, giving birth to a whole new, very angry genre of music that has remained quite static throughout the years, voicing the same kind of people, making the same kind of statement and still prevalent and loud as ever.

Heavy metal in Asia was born the same way. It wasn't just another commercial tactic of multibillion-dollar companies shoved down the throat of developing countries to choke and suffocate on. In fact, it was born as the bastard child of war, poverty, corruption and political and economic instability to grow into a ferocious beast and become the rebellious voice of the frustrated youth and the working class.

Slayer recorded and released "War Ensemble" (from the album "Seasons in the Abyss") in 1990 in suburban L.A. Several years later, I went to high school in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a beautiful, tropical island below India. While I was there, Sri Lanka was war-torn and suffering under severe political corruption before I left to come to the U.S for education.

"How did I find a way to relate to Slayer?" might seem a sensible question to ask.

My country was neck-deep in a war against terrorism a couple of years before I left. My high school had bomb threats and even public transportation was not safe at all as bombs were exploding everywhere. I had friends living in terrorist-occupied areas, living in the fear of getting their brains blown out by a terrorist sniper. Not only Slayer, but most heavy metal bands catered to the innermost fears I had to live with on a regular basis. And it sure did for a lot of other people too. This is how heavy metal in Asia was born.

So the music that was born in Birmingham, England infiltrated the Asian music industry in its pure, angry and raw form, rough and unfiltered. But as the beast grew, it transformed into a more mature and complex being as heavy metal's more complicated elements were beginning to be explored by many musicians starting to fuse metal with Asian music.

Rudra, a heavy metal group from Singapore, are a notable band for that. Rudra fuses traditional Carnatic music from the Indian sub-continent with a very, raw thrash sound. Rudra derives its lyrical content from ancient Indian mantras and Hindu/Vedic literature.

While European bands like Korpiklaani, Finntroll and Amon Amarth produced metal influenced by Viking and Celtic culture and music and gave birth to Viking metal and folk Metal, bands such as Rudra pioneered the birth of what is known as Vedic metal.

Aside from the obvious differences in the sound and musical qualities, Asian heavy metal also relishes and enjoys the tribal feeling of metal, the quality that separates metal from other forms of music. "Seven countries, three continents, one tribe," said Canadian anthropologist Sam Dunn in his documentary about global heavy metal.

The tribal feeling is what brings metal heads together. The cultural diversity within the continent of Asia is immense, but this music that is considered a less valid form of music by some and a vulgar display of violence and obscenity by others somehow manages to bring people together no matter the color, race, religion or social status.

As metal fans step into the mosh pit, the music brings people together and makes them forget war, poverty, financial problems, etc., and celebrate life.


Mithila Mangedarage is a Reporter staff writer

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools