EP. 656: WHAT’S LEFT OF METAL ft. DAVID BURKE

2024-10-24

FIND REVOL PRESS BOOKS HERE: https://www.revolpress.com/ In this episode of THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast, we delve into the intricate and often contradictory relationship between heavy metal and the political left. For decades, heavy metal has been both celebrated for its rebellious ethos and criticized for tolerating reactionary practices, from casual misogyny to far-right ideologies. Yet, as David Burke's compendium from Revol Press, What’s Left of Metal, argues, there exists within metal a powerful current of leftist social critique, challenging capitalist systems, authoritarian structures, and the co...

FIND REVOL PRESS BOOKS HERE: https://www.revolpress.com/

In this episode of THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast, we delve into the intricate and often contradictory relationship between heavy metal and the political left. For decades, heavy metal has been both celebrated for its rebellious ethos and criticized for tolerating reactionary practices, from casual misogyny to far-right ideologies. Yet, as David Burke's compendium from Revol Press, What’s Left of Metal, argues, there exists within metal a powerful current of leftist social critique, challenging capitalist systems, authoritarian structures, and the commodification of culture. Metal, Burke and his contributors assert, is more than an outlet for rebellion; it is a space where leftist politics and radical critiques of power can thrive.

As the compendium notes, “metal is a space where the contradictions of modern life—alienation, repression, and exploitation—are confronted head-on, yet it is also a culture that has often been co-opted, commodified, and neutralized by the very systems it seeks to challenge.” (What’s Left of Metal). This duality raises important questions: how does metal retain its radical potential while being recuperated into mainstream culture? Is there a leftist core to metal’s ethos of resistance, or is the genre too compromised by its reactionary tendencies? And as metal becomes more culturally legitimate in the Global North, what’s truly left of metal’s subversive edge?

Our conversation today with David Burke will explore these questions, focusing on the intersection of metal and leftist politics, the genre’s potential to contribute to revolutionary praxis, and how metal’s critique of society can be weaponized for the left in the contemporary moment of permanent crisis. Burke’s collection challenges us to think critically about the role of extreme music in leftist organizing and cultural production, as well as how left commentators, metal musicians, and scholars can engage more deeply with metal's revolutionary potential.

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