Skull and Bones: Ethics and Aesthetics of Death in Heavy Metal Culture

Abstract

The image of death is one of most representative symbols on the outfits and accessories of the Heavy Metal culture. Their representation is intimidating and provocative. It is about a fleshless death, looming from the dark in form of bones and skulls; a violent reaper as the one depicted in medieval and renaissance art. It is a macabre and apocalyptic image associated with the negative and demonic in the Christian tradition.

Theories of identity expose the importance of the aesthetics in the processes of social interaction; since in the ethical positions of groups are meant and anticipate the ways of interact and acknowledge. In this article a series of testimonies are exposed about death, collected between the social actors of Mexico City who self-recognize as Heavy Metal fans.

The aesthetic portability of death states a position on society; a differencing and provocative statement that emphasizes a series of attitudes that have been the reason of interest from the social sciences; denial, inhibition or rejection. The heavy metal death is a symbol of distinction and therefore an identity flag, an emblem that unites and breaks apart and that allow us to talk about identifications and differentiations.