American Fiction in Metal

[ZPX_Javel1n]

So i'm fortunate enough to have convinced one of my college professors to let me do an independent study which investigates the influence of American fiction on Metal and it's various sub genres, as well as how these genres and artists handle the literature in their music. I got the idea simply because I love both things, and also Mastodon's Leviathan is one of my favorite albums.

So i'm using that album as the primary element of my study, but i was wondering if anyone here could think of other artists/songs/albums that have a connection to themes/authors/novels of American fiction. It would be extremely helpful to me.
So far I have the following:

Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls = Hemingway novel
Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick (Obvious i would think)
As I Lay Dying = Name of one of William Faulkner's more famous novels

Any others you guys can think of?!

 

[General Zaroff]

Ahab is a Moby Dick themed Funeral Doom Metal band.

 

[RodneyMunch]

Not sure if this counts, but Iron Savior did a song about the movie The Omega Man which was based off a novel (i think).

Iron Savior - The Omega Man

 

[Draehl]

Just American fiction? Damn, you could have had a hell of a time if it were European. I see a larger emphasis on it in European metal TBH.

 

[ZPX_Javel1n]

Just American fiction? Damn, you could have had a hell of a time if it were European. I see a larger emphasis on it in European metal TBH.

Well, the focus is on American, but it wouldn't hurt to tie in some European stuff just for background on exactly how influential literature in general is within the music. Any specific examples that you were thinking of?

 

[damnromulans]

Is this for English class? See if you can't expand it to English language classics, you could have a HELL of a time with Dracula and Frankenstein.

Though Moby Dick is a good one, how could you come up with an original thesis based on concept albums?

 

[Einherjar86]

Metallica also wrote "The Call of Ktulu" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" which were both inspired by Lovecraft.

Catacombs (funeral doom) also released an album called In the Depths of R'lyeh that features several Lovecraft-inspired songs. Plenty of metal bands have found inspiration in Lovecraft.

 

[RedFox742]

Demons and Wizards' "Touched By the Crimson King" is mostly a concept album about Stephen King's Dark Tower series. There's also a L. Frank Baum-themed song.

And if you comb the inspiration for many Blind Guardian songs, I bet you'd find allusions to American writers. "Otherland" off of their latest album is about Tad Williams novels.

 

[Cythraul]

Krieg - Patrick Bateman

inspired by Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.

 

[unknown]

I love the audio clips from American Psycho on that album

Mekong Delta have had a bunch of Lovecraft's stories as themes for songs and whole albums (i.e. The Music of Erich Zann)

 

[waif]

Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls = Hemingway novel

Having read the book, I would say that any connection is tenuous at best.

 

[Einherjar86]

Actually, I think it specifically references the book. One of my teachers said that at some point.

 

[Vilden]

Lots of bands are inspiered by Lovecraft, pretty much everything by Thergothon for example.

 

[waif]

Actually, I think it specifically references the book. One of my teachers said that at some point.

Yeah, it does specifically reference the book. In the chorus.

Make his fight on the hill in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun on they run through the endless grey
On they fight for they are right, yes but who's to say?
For a hill men would kill why? they do not know
Suffered wounds test their pride
Men of five still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Take a look to the sky just before you die
It's the last time you will

Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goals fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now are his eyes to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn all is gone except the will to be
Now they see what will be blinded eyes to see

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

I read the book about a year ago. I can't see any clear specific references. Also, the point of the book and the point of the song are pretty damn different.

 

[Einherjar86]

The part about "men of five, still alive through the raging glow" refers to a specific part of the book, I think.

 

[ZPX_Javel1n]

Post have been extremely helpful so far! Would love if they could keep coming.

 

[Billenzimmer]

Iron Maiden- Murders In The Rue Morgue, based on the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name (though the connection is fairly tenuous)

 

[Doomguy]

A lot of Electric Wizard's material is heavily influenced by H.P Lovecraft.

 

[challenge_everything]

Poe is a common one. Tristania has a song "My Lost Lenore". Cradle of Filth draw heavily on Poe's rhythm and alliteration and specifically reference him at times. Arcturus' 'Alone' is a musical adaptation of Poe's poem of the same name.

Iron Maiden's album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is based on the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card.

 

[waif]

The part about "men of five, still alive through the raging glow" refers to a specific part of the book, I think.

Oh fuck, I just remembered. The song is about one specific scene in the book where some dudes are chased by the fascists onto some hill and they fight.
They're not great lyrics in terms of capturing the power of that scene, but they do prove that Hetfield read Hemingway, so go ahead and use it.