Page - 75 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

Heavy Metal Bricolage | 75www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 65–85 A Comparison An example can be found of almost every combination of religious and re- ligionized images, even if we restrict ourselves to music videos. Based on their typological similarity, individual images can be assigned to one mo- tif category for later analysis of its variations through comparison. To ex- emplify the variety in which the same motifs with more or less religious connotations can be placed in bricolage, I will look at two music videos of the same period with comparable footage. The two videos were chosen for the striking similarities in visual motifs even as they are situated in funda- mentally different scenes within extreme metal – hardcore and black metal respectively. Venom Prison is a British death metal/hard core band founded in 2014. Their themes and lyrics examine social injustice, misogyny and rape cul- ture, homophobia and racism.50 They primarily use religious allegory to explore socio-political issues.51 The music video for the single “Asura’s Realm”,52 from their second album, Samsara, mixes two scenarios against the backdrop of a single landscape: a musical performance by the band and a narrative with archetypal figures. Some of the individual pieces of visual staffage are red water, moving with the tides, figures in black and red cowls, a woman in white, a knife, a crown of thorns, a desolate landscape and church ruins. Uada is an American black metal band formed in 2014. Like their fellow Portlanders, Wolves in the Throne Room,53 Uada bring a dark romanticism of landscapes and gloom to the table, rather than the gorefest of other black metal bands. Black metal as a generally misanthropic scene is far more pre- occupied with personal or interpersonal strife than with societal systemic problems. In short, cultural pessimism and the symbolic rejection of the music industry are typical for black metal.54 The themes of black metal echo 50 Everly 2019. Ruskell (2019) writes, “What Venom Prison have done is humanised this music by holding up a mirror to a cruel world and viewing people as more than simply walking dummies full of guts, but sentient beings worthy of life, rather than a grisly, gory death.” 51 Guitarist Ash Gray has stated, “No one ever wants to say anything about religion […] It’s the same when you talk about rape culture”, see Mills 2019. 52 Asura’s Realm (Venom Prison, Tom J. Cronin, UK 2019). 53 Pöhlmann 2012. 54 Hagen 2011, 196.