I’ve been pretty lax with the Monday Metal entries as of late. My weekends have been pretty busy and that has interfered with my traditional Sunday metal hunts. But I plan to make up for my slack by combining two of my favorite things: metal and anarchism.
Arch Enemy is a pretty awesome death metal band. Its actually one of the few death metal bands with a female vocalist that I enjoy listening to (no, I’m not sexist, I just tend to find women growling less than pleasant to listen to). But the awesome doesn’t stop there. Themes of anarchism run deep through the many of the band’s songs. This post will preset three of those songs from the Khaos Legions album.
First of all, we know that anarchists fly a black flag. The black flag is a sort of joke. It doesn’t represent an actual flag but the absence of a flag. By flying a black flag anarchists declare themselves without obedience to any country, which is the theme of Under Black Flags We March:
A common phrase used by anarchists is “No gods, no masters”. The phrase, at least in English speaking countries, gain popularity through pamphlets handed out by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). For those of you who don’t know, the IWW is a radical anarcho-syndicalist labor union. Unlike most of the labor unions we’re familiar with, the IWW actually practices what it preaches. All the talk about empowering workers is nothing more than lip service give by most unions in an effort to line the pockets of union bosses. The IWW doesn’t play such games. It only has a handful of (low) paid staff. While anarcho-syndicalism isn’t my thing, I respect the IWW for being principled. But I digress.
“No gods, no masters” isn’t a slogan I go by. As far as I’m concerned you can have as many gods as you want. My primary goal is to abolish masters. But the phrase is fun to say and makes for some great music:
The last video is about rebellion. Yesterday is Dead and Gone shows what most people think of when they hear the word anarchist. While violent revolution isn’t my thing it makes for some awesome videos:
Perhaps I’m partial to Arch Enemy because of their anarchist theme, but I really enjoy listening to the band. Its fast, loud, and has a message I can relate to.