Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
David Burke is a writer and critic.
In this conversation, we explore: heavy metal as a critical response to late capitalism and industrial society; the idea of the original metalheads as dark hippies, and what metalheads have evolved into; shamanism, esotericism and occultism; lyrical explorations of death, mortality and hedonism; black metal, terrorism, fascism and the aesthetics of death and occult iconography that often inform these movements; whether metal has a coherent political or theoretical project within it; heavy metal fashion and its roots in 60s, working class and gay culture; the self-mythologisation of metal as a reaction to postmodernity and the loss of cultural meaning; the sacred and the profane; a comparison between heavy metal and hip hop and their connections to class; the fluidity of performers and audiences within underground genres; metal concerts as postmodern shamanic circles; the Deleuzian notion of intensity as difference, and how this is reflected in metal; how heavy metal as an aesthetic of late industrialism and machinery is transposed into digital and the internet age; and how "heaviness" has become culturally canonized, and overflows into other genres and objects.
Support Technosocial
patreon.com/technosocial
Music by Salvatore Schiano
salvatoreschiano.com
Also on
https://anchor.fm/technosocial
Find David's writings here
https://soton.academia.edu/DavidBurke
astralnoizeuk.com
David Burke is a writer and critic.
In this conversation, we explore: heavy metal as a critical response to late capitalism and industrial society; the idea of the original metalheads as dark hippies, and what metalheads have evolved into; shamanism, esotericism and occultism; lyrical explorations of death, mortality and hedonism; black metal, terrorism, fascism and the aesthetics of death and occult iconography that often inform these movements; whether metal has a coherent political or theoretical project within it; heavy metal fashion and its roots in 60s, working class and gay culture; the self-mythologisation of metal as a reaction to postmodernity and the loss of cultural meaning; the sacred and the profane; a comparison between heavy metal and hip hop and their connections to class; the fluidity of performers and audiences within underground genres; metal concerts as postmodern shamanic circles; the Deleuzian notion of intensity as difference, and how this is reflected in metal; how heavy metal as an aesthetic of late industrialism and machinery is transposed into digital and the internet age; and how "heaviness" has become culturally canonized, and overflows into other genres and objects.
Support Technosocial
patreon.com/technosocial
Music by Salvatore Schiano
salvatoreschiano.com
Also on
https://anchor.fm/technosocial
Find David's writings here
https://soton.academia.edu/DavidBurke
astralnoizeuk.com
