Turkish Metal: Music, Meaning, and Morality in a Muslim Society 1409438481, 9781409438489

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Turkish MeTal

“They’re scared, man.” “They’re not scared of you. They are scared of what you represent to them.” —Easy Rider, 1969

Turkish Metal Music, Meaning, and Morality in a Muslim society

Pierre hecker Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

© Pierre hecker 2012 all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Pierre hecker has asserted his right under the copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identiied as the author of this work. Published by ashgate Publishing limited Wey court east union road Farnham surrey, Gu9 7PT england

ashgate Publishing company suite 420 101 cherry street Burlington VT 05401-4405 usa

www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data hecker, Pierre. Turkish metal : music, meaning, and morality in a Muslim society. -- (ashgate popular and folk music series) 1. heavy metal (Music)--social aspects--Turkey. 2. heavy metal (Music)--Moral and ethical aspects--Turkey. 3. Music--religious aspects--islam. 4. Music and youth-Turkey. 5. Muslim youth--Turkey--attitudes. i. Title ii. series 781.6’6’088297’09561-dc23 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data hecker, Pierre. Turkish metal : music, meaning, and morality in a Muslim society / Pierre hecker. p. cm. -- (ashgate popular and folk music series) includes bibliographical references and index. isBN 978-1-4094-3848-9 (hardcover) -- isBN 978-1-4094-3849-6 (ebook) 1. heavy metal (Music)--social aspects--Turkey. 2. heavy metal (Music)--Turkey--history and criticism. i. Title. Ml3917.T9h43 2012 781.6609561--dc23 isBN 978-1-4094-3848-9 (hbk) isBN 978-1-4094-3849-6 (ebk)

2012001650 III

Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group, uk.

contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements

vii ix

introduction

1

1

closing in …

5

2

Turkish Metal

37

3

children of satan

79

4

Media Manipulations

109

5

Towards the extreme

129

6

Metal and Gender

155

7

Metal Matters

181

Appendix: List of Interviews Discography Bibliography Index

205 209 213 221

This page has been left blank intentionally

list of Figures

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6

I Feel Like Nick Cave, Volume 4 Aptülika’s Grup Perişan in Hıbır, No. 13, 27 July 1989 Venom as caricatured by aptülika Laneth, No. 17, 1992 Şebek, No. 3, ca. 1996 Wall painting in Kemancı

4.1

Soul Sacriice, promo photo

116

5.1 5.2 5.3

Marduk live in istanbul cenotaph live in russia satanized, promo photo

131 141 142

6.1 6.2 6.3

The cover of Kırmızı’s İsyan The Pigskins, promo photo Comic strip from Aptülika’s Grup Perişan, Hıbır No. 27, 2 November 1989

176 177 179

Comic strip from Aptülika’s Grup Perişan, Hıbır No. 69, 23 July 1990

182

7.1

44 49 50 51 53 76

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acknowledgements

The present book is the inal outcome of a PhD dissertation submitted to the Department of Oriental studies at leipzig university, Germany, in early 2009. There are so many people who helped and supported me throughout the process of preparing and writing this book that I ind it dificult indeed to write these acknowledgements. Therefore, allow me do it in the classical way. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Jörg Gertel at the Department of Oriental studies in leipzig. he accepted my PhD subject at a time when most other professors would have considered it too “odd” and irrelevant. Without his seminars and advice, i would probably never have thought about metal from an academic perspective, let alone about writing a dissertation on Turkish metal. i am also deeply indebted to asef Bayat. his positive feedback on my PhD proposal and his invitation to participate in a workshop at the international institute for the study of islam in the Modern World (isiM) in leiden gave me the boost i needed at a time when i felt fed up with the indifference of some other institutions toward my research. The discussions in leiden moreover forced me to critically relect and improve my research design. They also helped me to get in contact with other researchers, whose comments then also helped in my work. I further wish to thank Jan-Peter Hartung at the School of Oriental and African studies (sOas) in london. he provided me with a job when i needed it most, and lent me his intellectual and moral support throughout the whole dissertation process. Thanks! i am also very grateful to ines Braune at the center for Near and Middle east studies (cNMs) in Marburg, for not only sharing her thoughts with me and commenting on my manuscript, but above all for providing her moral support at times when i thought this project would never come to an end. i am also indebted to ayhan kaya for welcoming me to istanbul Bilgi university and allowing me to use the university’s library and newspaper archive. a lengthy discussion with him at the early stages of my research turned out to be very helpful in critically rethinking my own position in, and perspectives on, the ield. I would further like to thank the Evrensel newspaper ofice in Şişli for giving me free access to their newspaper archives. i am also very grateful to the German academic exchange service (DaaD) for granting me a ive-month research fellowship. Without the DAAD’s inancial support, i would not have been able to conduct the research for this book! i was also pleased to see that the DaaD’s award process is not linked to political or religious criteria, as appeared to be the case with other institutions in Germany. Finally, i would like to thank albrecht Fuess at the Department of islamic studies at Marburg university for granting me the time and freedom to completely

x

Turkish Metal

revise my dissertation and prepare the present book, as well as sonya angelica Diehn for proofreading and commenting on the inal manuscript. Moving beyond the academic context, it is of course the many Turkish metalheads who contributed to this study whom i have to thank the most! Without their support and commitment, it would have been pointless to try and study Turkish metal. People shared not only their experiences and knowledge with me, but also spent many hours showing me around, explaining, discussing, and helping me to establish further contacts. There are many people i am very grateful to—for instance, the guys from Deli Kasap magazine—and i cannot name all of them. however, there are a few people i would like to thank in particular, namely: Taylan Bilgiç for his lessons on Turkish politics and, of course, for sharing his intellectual thoughts on rock and metal music with me; Melih Bakırtaş for his patience in teaching me Turkish and our endless discussions on Turkish society and culture; eda Özyurt for the lengthy discussions on Turkish gender issues and for introducing me to the metal scenes in Eskişehir and Ankara; and Maksim Kırıkoğlu for introducing me to the Bakırköy Crew. Thanks for your support and—above all else—thanks for your friendship, guys!!! Without your help, this book would not have been possible!

a Few Words by Way of introduction

in late summer of 1999, only one month after a devastating earthquake had struck the region of izmit and Bodrum, Turkish police recovered the naked, half-buried body of a young woman from a cemetery in the Istanbul neighborhood of Ortaköy. The girl’s head had reportedly been smashed in with a stone and her body showed signs of rape. By the time the newspapers published the story, the police had already arrested two young men and a young woman who unanimously confessed to murdering 21-year-old Şehriban Çoşkunfırat on the night of 13 September. When pictures turned up showing the long-haired perpetrators dressed in black and holding the remains of a dismembered cat, rumors of necrophilia and satanic rituals dominated the news. in the days and weeks that followed, media coverage snowballed into a major moral panic with rock and heavy metal music at the forefront of public concern. The public discourse surrounding these events forms the backdrop for my investigations into cultural change, the production of new social spaces and identities, and the individual meaning of metal music and culture in young people’s lives.

Rationale of the Book relying on more than 70 in-depth interviews, longstanding direct observations in istanbul, and documentary analysis, including the use of daily papers, lyrics, lyers, booklets, and comic strips, Turkish Metal journeys deep into the heart of the Turkish heavy metal scene, uncovering the emergence, evolution, and especially the social implications of this controversial musical genre in a Muslim society. in doing so, the book provides information on almost every aspect of this genre—its history and development, along with the people, places and events involved, as well as its dissemination within Turkish society. The overall aim, however, is not to create an encyclopedia of metal in Turkey, as has been done in comparable studies on local music scenes. rather, the book applies the approach of “thick description” in order to study social and cultural change in a Muslim society that is stricken with conlict over the religious versus secular nature of the state. Taking an ethnographic approach, the study is situated within the ield of cultural studies: it provides proof of how modern media and communications systems—especially through the advent of the internet and evolution of technological means to convert sounds and images into digital data iles, which can then easily be sent along on a worldwide data highway—facilitate the global availability of cultural resources and their appropriation at a local level. Turkish

2

Turkish Metal

Metal examines how these cultural resources assume meaning, generate conlict, and initiate transformation in an urban Muslim context. Throughout this process, the book seeks to let the “subalterns” speak for themselves. it places emphasis on individual narratives, enabling the reader to come as close as possible to the protagonists of Turkish metal. it digs deep into young people’s everyday lives, revealing that metal matters: metal functions as a metaphor for what is individually considered meaningful in life—whether it be freedom, rebellion, excess, or emancipation. as has been the case in other parts of the world, the sonic, visual, and verbal representations of heavy metal culture were seen as an offense to an array of national, religious, and cultural sensibilities in Turkish society. Beyond the abovementioned, highly imaginative media reports—including accounts on satanism, suicide pacts, and perverted sexual practices—Turkish metalheads do indeed violate traditional concepts of morality. Their love for violent music, long hair, beer, and blasphemy has led to widespread conlict and resentment amongst the Turkish public. Turkish Metal explores how Turkish metalheads, against certain odds, manage to successfully claim public spaces of their own, thereby transforming the public face of the city; the book raises the question of how and why youth dare to rebel against the prevalent social and moral restrictions in Turkish society, and it examines whether they succeed in asserting their individual freedom in a society that is still well-known for sanctioning any kind of behavior deviating from the norm. above all, the book investigates the Turkish metal scene’s potential for contesting Islamic concepts of morality, its relevance within the ield of female emancipation, and its capacity to foster social relations that transcend national, religious, and ethnic boundaries.

Structure of the Book The book comprises seven sections. chapter 1 outlines the study’s empirical approach, provides an initial insight into the ield, and refers to the sociopolitical settings that have been crucial for the emergence of Turkish metal. it, moreover, provides a brief introduction into metal music and culture and into the newly evolving ield of metal studies. In addition, Chapter 1 contains descriptions of the scene’s urban settings in istanbul, insights into how the author negotiated access to the ield, and—on a related note—conceptual discussions around the notions of “culture” and “boundaries.” All in all, the irst chapter aims to provide the necessary background information for understanding the emergence and evolution of heavy metal in Turkey. chapter 2 examines the emergence, evolution, and global connectivity of Turkish metal from its beginning in the early 1980s until the late 2000s. Due to inancial, economic, and political hardships, the dissemination of heavy metal music and culture had to initially rely on informal practices, such as selling

Introduction

3

bootlegs on the streets, connecting with fellow bands and fans abroad via post, trading tapes, spreading lyers, publishing fanzines, and broadcasting metal programs on independent radio stations. accordingly, the second chapter tells the story of Turkish metal by focusing on these informal mechanisms of cultural dissemination. chapter 3 analyzes a series of moral panics over metal and satanism revolving around the suicides and murder of several Turkish teenagers. The chapter chronologically outlines the events, explores the main narrative behind the news, and illustrates how metal came to be perceived as a moral threat to the very fabric of Turkish society. chapter 4 aims at revealing the mechanisms in the invention of moral panics over metal and satanism. Based upon interviews with Turkish newspaper journalists, it investigates how the Turkish media manipulated the news. On a related note, it portrays the reactions of the Turkish metal press toward allegations of Satanism, suicide pacts, and murder, and tells stories of repression and conlict in the direct aftermath of the moral panics. Chapter 5 explores the extremes of black metal, and exempliies how its cultural representations take on meaning in a Turkish context. This includes asking questions such as: why do Turkish black metal artists use anti-christian symbols in a Muslim context? how does the Turkish public react towards the usage of these symbols? Does Turkish black metal—similar to black metal in Norway, sweden, or Germany—also refer to an imaginative pagan past? With regard to the aboveoutlined rationale of the book, chapter 5 further concentrates on black metal’s potential for contesting islamic concepts of morality. in addition, it analyzes early relationships between the Turkish and Norwegian black metal underground. chapter 6 focuses on metal and gender. it explores how metal in Turkey can be perceived from a gender perspective, asking the questions: does metal contest dominant concepts of masculinity and femininity in Turkish society? can metal possibly provide a means of female emancipation? associated with this, chapter 6 investigates and critically addresses the much-cited concepts of honor and shame, which in academia are often assumed to dominate the “Turkish way of thinking.” chapter 7 revisits the public discourse over metal by focusing on different realms of conlict in everyday life. This, once more, illustrates how metal assumes meaning in a Turkish context and, at the same time, provides a chance to investigate the biographical effects of being and doing metal. in brief, chapter 7 ultimately seeks to explore why metal matters—not only as regards people’s lives, but also in relation to further academic discussion. The expression “doing metal” has been directly inspired by candace West and Don h. Zimmerman’s landmark approach “doing gender,” as published in an article of the same title in Gender and Society in 1987. consequently, i assume that metal is the product of social doings. Doing metal, in that sense, means to perform particular sonic, visual, and verbal practices that—as a whole—constitute the fabric of metal culture (see chapter 1). The ways of doing metal are, however, not immutable. They are dynamic and prone to change, sometimes competing

4

Turkish Metal

with each other. Doing metal, therefore, is also closely related to questions of authenticity and difference. all citations quoted in this volume, unless otherwise indicated, are derived from interviews conducted by the author between 2002 and 2009. a complete list of interviews with detailed information on date, place, and persons involved can be found at the end of this book (see appendix: list of interviews). in a very few cases, the names of the interviewees have been deliberately omitted, particularly when revolving around actions punishable under Turkish law. Details on these interviews do not appear in the appendix. One could argue that the list is therefore incomplete and does not fulill academic standards. However, I wanted to avoid getting anyone into trouble for their speaking frankly about particular actions or events. Furthermore, the author is personally responsible for all translations of interview excerpts or newspaper articles from Turkish and German into english. all translations have been clearly indicated throughout the book—either in the footnotes or in the appendix (see list of interviews). Some readers may disagree on particular aspects and indings in this volume, particularly with regard to historic matters on how the scene evolved. The present book can provide only an incomplete study of Turkish metal. Neither does it mention all Turkish metal bands that have ever existed, nor does it treat all musical styles and genres lengthily and equally. as i have already said elsewhere, it is not the purpose of this book to write an encyclopedia of Turkish metal. however, i hope that Turkish metalheads will ind something of themselves in this book, and maybe also receive new insight. in the end, this book is for you!

chapter 1

closing in …

The Field “all of society was against us,” seyda, a female metalhead from istanbul explains. “Many of my friends were beaten up for their long hair or earrings,” she continues. as has been the case in so many places around the world, metal in Turkey has been blamed for being subversive by posing an affront to moral and religious sensibilities. Yet against all the odds, metal has attracted a strong and passionate following, and, on an individual level, has become a means of self-empowerment, emancipation, and resistance. These essential if unsurprising indings were certainly not so clear at the beginning of this investigation. The initial phase of research was characterized by very general questions of how to approach metal from an academic perspective: how would it be possible to negotiate access to the ield, how to systematically analyze collected data? And, even ahead of data collection, what is metal culture anyway? How can it be deined? How did it evolve? and how does it assume meaning in a Turkish context? in order to cope with these questions, i chose an ethnographic approach. Seeds of Hatred: Initial Encounters with Turkish Metal My initial encounter with Turkish metal took place years before i began thinking of metal from an academic perspective. By the time i learned about the existence of a Turkish scene, i had just completed my second semester at university, and felt crushed by the task of studying arabic while at the same time having to pass courses in geography and politics. in fact, i was much less concerned about my academic “career” than i was about music. i had been busy with my own band, and the weekly rehearsals, gigs, and sometimes studio sessions consumed most of my time away from university. in addition to rehearsing and playing live, we promoted our music by sending demo tapes to clubs, fanzines, distributors, radio stations, and record labels. This, however, was more a rather vague strategy towards musical and, hopefully, commercial success. at a time when the internet was still in its infancy, spreading as many tapes as possible also meant exchanging music and getting in touch with like-minded people from around the world. In spring 1996, I came across a lyer from an underground newsletter and distributor from the Turkish city of Bursa called Seeds of Hatred. The lyer had been enclosed with one of the many letters i used to receive from other bands and friends. it was still common then to promote each other’s music or publications by enclosing lyers with every letter or package you sent. Like many other distributors,

6

Turkish Metal

Seeds of Hatred offered reviews and distribution to underground metal bands that were typically happy with any kind of support. i responded to the ad, and soon received an answer from serkan, who had just commenced in preparing the newsletter’s irst issue. Although our correspondence was short-lived, I learned from his letters about the existence of a small but deeply committed scene in Turkey that was eager to get more information on bands from abroad. Over the following years, my priorities and interests gradually shifted away from music to my studies—and although i can hardly remember a single day that i didn’t listen to metal music since the time i had been initially infected by the sounds of accept and iron Maiden at the age of twelve—i abandoned my band and pulled out of the global metal underground. it would be an exaggeration to claim that this short-lived encounter with Turkish metal in 1996 triggered the present research. in fact, i had just learned about the existence of a Turkish scene, and for years i did not spare much thought about the global metal underground. The impulse for the present study came from a research initiative on youth and youth cultures in the Muslim world, which had been launched by my supervisor Jörg Gertel at the Institute of Oriental Studies at Leipzig University. Related seminar discussions and the reading of anthony Giddens’s Consequences of Modernity, in which the author points to the “lifting out” of social relations from local contexts in modern societies (1990: 21), made me think anew about global metal and its informal networks of social relations cutting across national, ethnic, and religious boundaries. The initial interest in the subject was further added to by thoughts on possible representations of metal in a Muslim context, particularly since american sociologist Deena Weinstein in the 2000 revised edition of her book Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology still assumed that “the pull of islam seems to be strong enough, even outside the Middle east, to preclude metal from getting a foothold among Moslem youth” (Weinstein 2000 [1991]: 120). Feels Like Home: Negotiating Access to the Field When i commenced research in istanbul, i was no longer participating in the global metal underground and, after more than ive years of silence on my part, was unable to revive my previous contacts to Bursa. hence, i decided to negotiate access to the ield directly by searching for public places where Istanbul’s metalheads used to meet. From a previous visit, i knew that the city’s nightlife concentrated on an area surrounding the İstiklal Caddesi, a long pedestrian road in central Beyoğlu, which leads from Tünel Square and the entrance of Istanbul’s historic subway line in the south, to central Taksim square in the north. While the road itself is packed with expensive boutiques; music, book, and media stores; pastry shops, banks, and local branches of foreign cafés; and fast food chains like Gloria Jean’s, McDonalds, and Burger King, the neighboring side streets host hundreds of small restaurants, bars, cafés, and clubs where one can ind all kinds of nightlife. Particularly during the weekends, the streets remain crowded until early morning hours. Music plays a crucial role in people’s nightlife activities, and

Closing In …

7

most bars and clubs offer live music, sometimes throughout the whole week. One can ind all kinds of bands and music, ranging from Anatolian folk sounds to blues, jazz, reggae, hip-hop, rock, and—of course—metal. Consequently, it did not take long to ind a rock bar where exclusively metal was played. located on a pedestrian side street between the British consulate and Beyoğlu’s Balık Pazarı (“Fish Market”), and surrounded by local shops selling vegetables, fruits, and ish, the entrance to Istanbul’s Caravan rock bar was hard to notice when passing by. The sign over the door hardly caught the eye, and the staircase, visible from the street, looked more like an entrance to one of the old residential buildings typical of that area, rather than leading to a rock bar. Nevertheless, one could recognize the caravan rock bar from the groups of long-haired guys who were entering or leaving the building from time to time. The bar itself was shabby, windowless, and therefore dark, stretching over two loors. It comprised one single hall equipped with a bar, DJ cabin, wooden chairs, some tables, a small stage, and metal posters on the walls. The second loor partly overlooked the irst loor, and visitors could get a view from above at the stage or video screen, which was set up to show video clips when there was no live music. When I irst entered, the bar was packed with people who had come for a concert by several local metal bands. Young men and women were enjoying themselves by banging heads to the music, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and shouting at each other in order to communicate over the noise. Poor equipment and terrible acoustics turned the music into an infernal cacophony of sounds, though this did not stop the bands from playing their shows with great enthusiasm. all in all, the place and atmosphere reminded me very much of similar places where i had spent much of my youth. in other words, i felt like i was coming home. This statement necessarily raises the question of neutrality and the observer’s personal position in the ield. The danger of “going native” and losing the ability to observe the setting and its actors from a distant and unbiased position is one of the key challenges of ethnographic research. sociologists and anthropologists alike underscore the importance of establishing a relationship of mutual trust between the researcher and the researched (Giddens 1997: 543, Brewer 2000: 85, Delamont 2004: 224, Rapley 2004: 19–20). Being accepted at the ieldwork site is a necessary precondition to having “a chance of getting close to the multiple realities in the ield” (Brewer 2000: 85). Due to my appearance and personal afiliation with metal culture, access and acceptance luckily proved to be easy. Though I was a stranger, I felt familiar with the ield—the music, the settings, the social practices, and even many of the experiences reported to me during the research. Many of the actors were of a similar age to me (or only slightly younger), had been socialized into metal through the same albums, and, in a few cases, had even visited the same festivals in holland and Germany. Two of my later interviewees, who had been involved in global tape trading,1 had even been

1

For details on “tape trading,” see chapter 2.

Turkish Metal

8

in contact with metalheads in France and israel, whom i knew personally from participating in the global metal underground.2 During ieldwork, I never felt treated like an outsider in terms of being openly rejected or having the impression of disrupting people’s routines and day-to-day practices. With my long hair, goatee, and style of dress, i was welcomed as a part of the scene. In fact, my appearance, for the irst time in my life, proved to win me respect and credibility. To still have long hair at my age—i was aged 28 when i irst entered the ield—was regarded as a sign of authenticity and commitment to metal. authenticity, during other occasions, appeared to be an important issue in terms of deining who is metal and who is not. Therefore, it is likely that without my personal background, i would not have been able to conduct in-depth observation and interviewing. Many of my later interviewees turned out to be highly suspicious about outsiders who want to learn about the scene. This was partly due to negative experiences in connection with a series of moral panics over metal and satanism, and partly due to the general assumption that an outsider would misunderstand, and therefore misinterpret, the meaning of metal. Moreover, several factions of young black metal adherents used to display a rather elitist attitude towards those considered outsiders, drawing a clear line between themselves and their social surroundings. During conversations and interviews, my personal experience and afiliation with metal further enabled me to draw on particular knowledge concerning bands, events, musical trends, and album releases. This frequently proved helpful in terms of being able to relate given information or statements to a particular context. album releases, for example, were often used as time markers when reporting about a particular event or incident. accordingly, a statement like “Metallica came here after they’d released their black album” indicates that Metallica did not play in Turkey until as late as autumn 1991. similar references were made during biographical narrations. Furthermore, to know about the release of a particular album, or about the features of a particular subgenre and its protagonists, was a matter of credibility and respect. since quite a number of my interviewees were pretty dogmatic about metal in terms of valuing authenticity, knowledge represented an indicator of personal commitment to the scene. accordingly, some people openly tested my knowledge by asking speciic questions about metal history or by referring to particular albums, bands, and songs. in this sense, my personal afiliation and familiarity with the subject proved to be a great advantage. The ideal of unbiased neutrality, however, turned out to be much more dificult to fulill than the requirement to establish a necessary degree of familiarity and mutual trust. On the one hand, i needed to become familiar enough to learn about Tanju, vocalist of the Turkish bands UÇK Grind and Asafated, had been in close contact with Philippe de l’argilière of the French band Misanthrope, who is also founder of the record label holy records. The Turkish metal label hammer Müzik has been cooperating with Yishai swearts from israeli metal label raven Music for years. Back in the mid- and late 1990s, i had been tape trading with both Philippe and Yishai. 2

Closing In …

9

how people act, feel, and think, but, on the other hand, i had to avoid going native in order to keep the critical distance necessary to ensure adherence to academic standards. The danger of becoming too much of an insider, thereby losing the perspective of an outside observer, was constantly present throughout my research. sometimes it proved tough to maintain the ability to observe a setting and its actors from a distanced, and preferably neutral, position. Many of the social practices in the ield were so familiar to me—so “normal”—that it was dificult to reach the level of abstraction that would enable me to observe their meaning objectively. Recurrent periods of absence from the ield, however, helped me to detach myself from the scene and regain analytical distance. The research process was also accompanied by frequent presentations of my indings at workshops, seminars, and conferences. subsequent discussions coming out of these presentations, critical remarks by friends and colleagues, and inspiration from a series of other metal and hip-hop studies (Walser 1993, kaya 2001, Forman 2002, kahn-harris 2007) helped me to overcome that sense of “normality” and closeness, which had been immanent to the situation in the ield, and to work out an analytical approach that would provide me with a suficient degree of abstraction and analytical distance. Embedded with the Underground: Collecting Data from Within From my position within the ield, I gained insight into the day-to-day practices and routines of Turkish metalheads. It was further possible to study daily conlicts and experience the transgression of boundaries in various realms of life. Briely speaking, the process of qualitative data collection, from the very beginning, involved extensive participant observation. The area of research concentrated on Beyoğlu and its various locations of nightlife entertainment (bars, cafés, concert halls), but also included public settings like record stores, rehearsal studios, festival venues, and a few places in the open where particular groups of metalheads would meet during the summertime. The bars relevant for my research were caravan, Katarsiz, DoRock, Gandalf, Bronx, Arka Sokak, and the old and new Kemancı on Sıraselviler Street. Some of the places closed during the ieldwork, while new ones opened. Over the last couple of years, the inancial situation of bar and café owners had become increasingly volatile, particularly since the conservative government sharply increased alcohol taxes, and real estate prices have been skyrocketing. Nevertheless, the rock bars and cafés in Beyoğlu are still the most important places of gathering for the scene. For local metalheads, they provide a personal space of their own, where they can meet and socialize, especially in the evenings and during weekends, when they are free from work or university. Besides rock bars, Beyoğlu hosts the largest concentration of music stores in all of istanbul, and probably all of Turkey. Mostly small music stores are situated around Tünel square at the southern end of the istiklal caddesi, as well as alongside the road leading down the slope from Tünel towards the new Galata Bridge and the Golden Horn. Today, musicians can ind all kinds of musical equipment in these stores, ranging from traditional instruments like the saz or ney, which are usually

Turkish Metal

10

produced in Turkey, to electric (bass) guitars, ampliiers, synthesizers, or drum kits, which—except for cymbals—are mostly imported from europe and North america.3 Fieldwork also took place in other parts of the city, particularly in Bakırköy, Kadıköy, and Bostancı. Bakırköy, a densely-populated middle-class neighborhood on the western shores of istanbul, is located approximately 15 kilometers from the city center. Kadıköy, Istanbul’s oldest neighborhood, on the Eastern shores of the Bosporus, is home to numerous cafés, bars, cinemas, and prestigious public and private high schools. akmar, a shopping arcade, which hosts several record labels and record stores, is also located in central Kadıköy. Both districts separately spawned Istanbul’s irst local metal scenes. As of today, many musicians and scene members still live (or rehearse) in these areas. regular visits to both districts were not only helpful, but inevitable. Bostancı, a middle-class neighborhood further east from Kadıköy, was similarly important for my ieldwork, as its waterfront was a popular place to hang out during summer evenings. For young metalheads from that area who could not ind time to undertake the nearly one-hour bus ride to Taksim on the other side of the Bosporus, or—more importantly—did not have the money to buy beer at one of the bars, they would often spent time at the Bostancı waterside promenade, chatting, listening to music, and drinking canned beer. Moreover, i spent several weeks in other Turkish cities—namely ankara, Eskişehir, Izmir, and Antalya—in order to gain an at least limited insight into the local metal scenes there. i also conducted a series of interviews with metalheads from other parts of Turkey while they were visiting istanbul for festivals and concerts. since the local scenes were interconnected, i frequently had the occasion to meet and talk to people from outside istanbul. The process of participant observation, in addition to closely observing local settings and social practices, watching, and talking to people, also involved constantly keeping record of what had been observed. Therefore, detailed ield notes were made throughout the process. Moreover, I was busy collecting documents like fanzines, lyers, photos, concert posters, tapes, cDs, and booklets, which were analyzed at a later stage of research. a second method of qualitative data collection was documentary analysis. The documents principally derived from two sources: Turkish daily newspapers, and the metal scene itself (fanzines, webzines, lyers, lyrics, booklets, comic strips). Newspapers were particularly important in terms of studying the public perception of metal within Turkish society (see chapter 3). access was rather easy, since the newspaper archives were either available online or accessible through libraries and archives in istanbul. as far as scene-related documents were concerned, 3

istanbul is famous for the production of cymbals, even outside Turkey. The original company, which used to produce cymbals under the brand name istanbul, dissolved after the death of one of its founders, agop Tomurcuk, and has since been succeeded by two separate companies: istanbul agop and istanbul Mehmet (named after the original company’s founders Agop Tomurcuk and Mehmet Tamdeğer).

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access was more complicated. No library or public archive collects or keeps a record of these mostly unoficial publications, wherefore I had to rely on small private archives. As a consequence, it was impossible to deine and analyze the complete body of scene-related publications. especially with regard to the early phase of metal in the 1980s, when the number of publications was still small, it turned out to be very dificult to ind articles, lyers, posters, or other documents. Nevertheless, i was able to collect a variety of material granting insight into the emergence and development of Turkish metal. The largest body of qualitative data, however, is derived neither from participant observation nor from documentary analysis, but from in-depth interviewing. Between November 2002 and september 2009, i conducted 72 narrative (thematic and biographic) interviews, as well as several dozen conversational interviews. This was done to gain insight into how individuals ascribe meaning to metal and to reconstruct the emergence and development of the Turkish metal scene through individual memories and experiences. My interview partners were between 17 and 43 years old, and mostly male.4 All of them had an afiliation with metal and actively participated in the scene, either by editing a fanzine, playing in a band, running a record label, or regularly visiting concerts and rock bars. Thematically focused narrative interviews, on several occasions, were conducted as group interviews. This was particularly the case when questioning musicians from the same band. except for a few email interviews, the questioning took place in face-to-face situations, mostly in the evening or at night, for most interviewees had regular jobs or were studying at the university. Turkish employees usually work a six-day week from Monday to Saturday, wherefore in a few cases it was dificult to arrange a date for conducting or continuing the interview. Depending on the particular situation and needs of the interviewees, meetings were arranged in a variety of public and private spaces: in cafés, at concert venues, in parks, at private homes, or in ofices. The narrative interviews ranged in length from 35 minutes to four hours, and were conducted in three different languages: english (41), Turkish (26), and German (5). all but a few of the thematic and biographical interviews were recorded on minidisc and later transcribed. The remaining ones were recorded through extensive ield notes, as was the case with conversational interviews. The transcription phase took several months and, in the end, resulted in hundreds of pages of interview material. One of the big names shaping biographical research methods in recent years is that of the German sociologist Gabriele rosenthal. Based upon earlier works by her mentor Fritz schütze, she has developed a systematic approach towards biographical interviewing, which, irst and foremost, promises two things: an insight into the biographical meaning of social phenomena (rosenthal 2004: 49), and an insight into the social meaning of particular events, incidents, and actions by drawing from the biographical experiences of individuals who had 4

For a complete list of interviews, see appendix.

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been witnessing them. To deploy rosenthal’s approach implies the assumption that metal has a biographical meaning to those who identify with its music and culture, as well as a social meaning with regard to how metal is perceived by the surrounding society. Following this line of argument, socialization into metal is further assumed to have an impact on how people’s lives are shaped. in accordance with rosenthal’s approach, biographical interviews either aimed at covering a person’s life story—in the form of conducting thematically open biographical interviews—or concentrated on a particular phase or moment in a person’s life—in this case, applying thematically focused biographical interviews. While the full life stories gave information about the wider context of individual socialization, the focus on particular periods or moments in life provided information on speciic events, incidents, and (re)actions. It is a typical feature of biographical interviews to commence with an opening question that prompts an initial narrative in which the interviewee tells about his or her experiences. While the initial question of thematically open biographical interviews is supposed to be free from thematic restrictions, the initial question of thematically focused biographical interviews needs to be more precise in order to address a particular phase or moment in the life of the interviewee. consequently, i prepared a set of initial questions corresponding to the particular interview context. concerning thematically open biographical interviews, the initial question sounded as follows: as you already know, i am interested in the life stories and personal experiences of Turkish metalheads. Would you please tell me about your life and the experiences you have had? You may start from wherever you want, and proceed up to now. Please take your time and feel free to talk about everything you consider relevant to mention.

Thematically focused biographical interviews, however, addressed the biographical experiences of individuals in connection with particular events, incidents, or social actions, and were addressed by more speciic questions. With the intention of learning more about the impact of the moral panics on the lives of istanbul’s metalheads, i then asked: i am interested in your personal experiences during the satanic panic of 1999, when Ömer and his friends killed that girl at the Ortaköy cemetery. Could you tell me (more) about the situation following the incident? as i said, i am interested in your personal experiences during that period.

Questions needed to be as precise as possible in order to avoid misunderstanding and confusion. The question outlined above aimed at studying personal experiences during the moral panic of 1999. in fact, there had been a series of moral panics within a relatively short period of time, and when i commenced interviewing metalheads in istanbul, i had only learned about one particular incident. During interview sessions, i consequently questioned my interlocutors about the “satanism

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case” (Satanizm olayı) without adding any further precision. and though they were ready to share their thoughts and experiences without hesitation, i was left in confusion. it took me several weeks and a series of interviews to realize that they were referring to separate incidents and different persons. in addition to biographical interviews, also playing an important role were thematic interviews with musicians, record company owners, fanzine editors, journalists, and radio hosts. interviews in those cases were directed at particular aspects of Turkish metal culture and history (tape trading, the privatization of public radio, and so on). accordingly, initial questions addressed particular developments, events, trends, or social and cultural phenomena. The following question, for instance, focused on the early years of Turkish metal: i am interested in the emergence of the Turkish metal scene. Based upon your own experiences, could you tell me about the early years of Turkish metal? i am interested in whatever comes to your mind, so please take your time and feel free to talk about everything you consider relevant to mention.

in many respects, particularly concerning the history of Turkish metal, i had to start from scratch, for which exploratory questions, as the one outlined here, provided me with the necessary information to structure and rethink the process of further research. in addition to these rather practical considerations on empirical research, conceptual considerations on the study’s key terms, “culture” and “boundaries,” were also of importance. Getting Started: Making Meaning in Everyday Life The term “culture” or “cultural resources” appears on many occasions throughout this study, for example in connection with phrases like “cultural representations” or “metal music and culture.” it seems then imperative to clarify what is meant by talking about culture in the present context. as a variety of studies dealing with the conceptualization of culture have shown (sewell 1999, Mitchell 2000, reckwitz 2000, edles 2002, spillman 2002), culture turns out to be an ambiguous, diffuse, and volatile category full of analytic confusion. scholars across multiple disciplines relate culture to different meanings, sometimes without even giving an explanation on its context-speciic usage. This, however, contributes to the vagueness of culture as an analytical category. in view of the myriad meanings of “culture” in contemporary academic discourse, a number of works in cultural sociology aim to bring analytical clarity into what American historian and sociologist William H. Sewell, Jr., has described as the “cacophony of contemporary discourse about culture” (1999: 35). authors like laura Desfor edles, lyn spillman, and andreas reckwitz make culture an analytically tangible category by tracing the prevalent lines of thought that have shaped discourse over the past decades. in doing so, they make distinctions along similar lines.

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lyn spillman, in the introduction to her book Cultural Sociology (2002: 2–4), identiies three main theoretical options concerning the usage of the term: culture as a feature of entire groups and societies, culture as a separate realm of human expression, and culture as processes of meaning-making. In the irst case, culture stands for an entire way of life of a particular group, society, or people—spillman describes this as the “anthropological sense of the term” (ibid. 2). The second theoretical option, which she identiies as “the core of several forms of scholarship now considered ‘humanities’” (ibid. 3), describes culture as a purely aesthetic realm of art, music, and literature, which is separated from other, mundane realms of social life. The third option refers to culture as processes of meaning-making. laura Desfor edles’s notion of culture broadly coincides with that of spillman. in her study, Cultural Sociology in Practice (2002), she similarly differentiates between three concepts: an ethnographic, an aesthetic, and a symbolic one (ibid. 2–6). The ethnographic deinition refers to culture as an entire way of life. That is to say, culture includes all elements of social life, as a result of which it is no longer possible “to distinguish the cultural realm from other dimensions of society. There is a complete fusion of the social and the cultural realms” (ibid. 4). culture is everything but nature, and therefore lacks analytical precision. The second, aesthetic, deinition refers to culture as “high culture.” This elitist conceptualization presupposes a dichotomy of a superior high culture and an inferior low culture. herein edles’s notion of culture slightly differs from that of spillman, who takes a more neutral position. For spillman, in contrast to edles, the question of aesthetics does not necessarily relate to an elitist notion of culture, but also comprises the realms of popular culture, folk culture, or even mass culture (spillman 2002: 3). The third, symbolic, notion of culture, according to edles, regards culture as systems or patterns of shared meanings. andreas reckwitz in his lengthy investigation into the emergence and transformation of cultural theory in modern academic thought, Die Transformation der Kulturtheorien: zur Entwicklung eines Theorieprogramms (2000), identiies four major concepts of culture (ibid. 61 et seq.). unlike spillman and edles, he further differentiates between a normative notion of culture (“normativer Kulturbegriff ”) and a totality-oriented notion of culture (“totalitätsorientierter Kulturbegriff ”). Together, both concepts comply with what spillman and edles describe as the “entire way of life” of a particular group or society. The normative notion of culture, however, implies the existence of a universally desirable, ideal way of life. This contrasts with the totality-oriented, holistic notion of culture, which implies a neutral, context-speciic study of people’s lives and societies. With reference to differentiation theory, reckwitz outlines a third concept of culture (“differenzierungstheoretischer Kulturbegriff ”), which widely corresponds to the aesthetic notion of culture as depicted by spillman and edles. culture, in this sense, relates to the production, dissemination, and administration of intellectual and artistic activities (ibid. 79–84). The fourth and inal concept he describes as the meaning and knowledge oriented notion of culture (“bedeutungsund wissensorientierter Kulturbegriff ”). herein, culture is neither normative,

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nor holistic, nor aesthetic. it refers to processes of meaning-making. The study of culture, following this perspective, investigates how people attach meaning to reality. culture (that is, meaning) is collectively shared and enables members of the same social group to communicate with and understand each other (ibid. 84–90). all of the above-outlined notions of seeing culture as collectively shared systems of meaning, or processes of meaning-making, are rooted in what has come to be known as the cultural turn in humanities and social sciences. The cultural turn marks a change of paradigm in a variety of academic disciplines, which inally led to abandoning the hitherto prevalent ideas of understanding culture either as an entire way of life, or as a separate sphere of artistic expression. although it is not possible to attribute the shift in emphasis towards meaning to a single text or author, it is clifford Geertz’s famous essay Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture (1973), which has been named over and over again as a major starting point for the cultural turn (see, for instance, Bonnell and hunt 1999, reckwitz 2000, spillman 2002). conceiving the analysis of culture as a search for meaning, Geertz states: “The concept of culture i espouse … is essentially a semiotic one” (Geertz 1973: 5).5 inasmuch as the present study investigates processes of meaning-making, culture will be treated as collectively shared systems of meaning. correspondingly, it is further important to note that culture is a collective phenomenon (edles 2002: 2). Meanings are shared and provide human beings with a sense of identity. it gives them a notion of who they are and to whom they belong. Members of the same social group interpret the world in broadly similar ways and understand each other on the basis of shared meanings (hall 1997: 2, 5). Processes of meaningmaking are, therefore, closely related to drawing boundaries in everyday life. The mostly american literature on symbolic boundaries stands in a Durkheimian tradition (Zerubavel 1991, lamont 1992, Nippert-eng 1996). in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, emile Durkheim asserted the division of the world into two separate spheres, one that is sacred and the other that is profane. according to him, this distinction is essential to all forms of religious thought (Durkheim 1965 [1912]: 52). Durkheim’s conceptualization of the world, along the categories of the sacred and the profane, is closely connected with the idea of collective representations, which symbolically mark and sustain the boundaries between the two spheres. On the one hand, collective representations such as religious beliefs and ritual practices afirm the boundary between the sacred and the profane. On the other hand, they are essential to constituting the collective identity of social groups. consequently, we can maintain that: 1) collective representations operate

Other inluential texts that fostered the breakthrough of meaning-oriented studies of culture have been h. White’s Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in NineteenthCentury Europe (1973), P. Bourdieu’s Outline of a Theory of Practice (1972), and M. Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975). 5

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as signiiers of what is sacred and what is profane; and that, 2) the individual appropriation of collective representations marks social membership. One of the scholars to adopt Durkheim’s conceptualization is the americanisraeli sociologist eviatar Zerubavel. in The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life (1991), he points to the human need to arrange the world in categories. consequently, human beings constitute social reality with the help of classiicatory systems that make them perceive their surrounding in a distinctive manner, and behave accordingly. every “thing” they see, feel, hear, taste, or smell—be it a physical object, an act of behavior, or the sound of music—only assumes meaning by being assigned to a certain category (Zerubavel 1991: 5). This cognitive process, which Zerubavel also describes as “breaking up reality into discrete islands of meaning,” relates to how human beings make distinctions in everyday life by drawing mental boundaries (ibid. 74). Differently speaking, human beings chop up reality by creating mental contrasts which are based upon binary patterns such as the moral and the immoral, the permitted and the forbidden, the dangerous and the safe, the good and the evil, or (in direct reference to Durkheim) the sacred and the profane (ibid. 2, 9). In the present research context, Zerubavel’s indings can be exempliied as follows: if we listen, for instance, to a song by the american band slayer, most of us would probably assign it to the categories “rock” and/or “metal,” without even knowing the band or the song in particular. in the interplay of sensory and mental perception, we notice the typical sound of music made by ampliied guitars, drums, and bass, and classify it according to the cognitive categories available to us. in conducting this cognitive task, we need not be able to track every single note of the song or understand the lyrics. Based upon knowledge, which we have acquired in previous socialization processes, we relate it to something with which we are familiar. Besides classifying the song and band as “metal,” further associations may pop up on our mental screens such as long hair, noise, or aggression. We attach positive or negative meanings to the song and musical genre, depending on our personal experiences and knowledge. Generally speaking, this cognitive process of categorizing and attaching meaning to what we perceive makes us understand the world around us and cope with the enormous input we are confronted with in everyday life. The cognitive categories that human beings adopt in a lifelong process of socialization emerge from the systems of meaning surrounding them. Through getting socialized into the same systems of meaning, human beings acquire and share the same knowledge. This is in any case essential to being able to understand and communicate with each other. in other words, people who have been socialized in the same way interpret the world through the same categories, attach the same or similar meanings to what they perceive, and learn to decode “reality in a socially appropriate way” (Zerubavel 1991: 77). shared knowledge and the ability to communicate and decode the world in a socially appropriate way provide human beings with a state of mental security that enables them to cope with the social challenges of everyday life. socialization provides human beings

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with the social lens through which they may decode and ascribe meaning to their environment. if we regard metal music and culture as one particular, distinct system of meanings, the previous example of listening to a song by slayer has further implications: listeners socialized into metal would mostly identify the song as “slayer,” categorize it as “thrash metal,” and recall memories of seeing slayer live on stage or on TV. They may further think of particular discourses on slayer concerning anti-christian sentiments or alleged National socialist tendencies. Moreover, they probably associate certain emotions with the music, which are either roused by the sound, the memories, or the discourses attached to the song. it is the song’s sonic and verbal aesthetics that initiate this cognitive process. Differently speaking, the experienced listener attaches meaning to the song and, at the same time, draws a cognitive boundary marking it off from other metal subgenres. This, however, relates to a particular knowledge, which is based upon experience and shared among many metalheads. Perceiving the world in boundaries enables us to better understand the ways in which human beings attach meaning to metal, and how they deine their individual and collective identities by making distinctions and demarcating themselves from others. Moreover, it provides an analytical perspective for investigating why metal music and culture so frequently collide with the dominant norms of surrounding societies.

The Music The present study neither aims to repeat, nor to rewrite the history of heavy metal. rather, it intends to explore the rise and meaning of metal in Turkey. consequently, the following pages provide only basic information in order to better understand the discourse over Turkish metal as outlined in chapters 2 to 7. The text commences with an overview of previous metal studies, followed by a historical summary of the emergence and development of global metal. A third section briely refers to the phenomenon of moral panics, which seem to accompany metal wherever it goes. The fourth and inal part deals with cultural representations and signifying practices of global metal. Particularly with regard to analyzing the meaning of metal in a local context, this section will be an important reference point for the following chapters. as the empirical part of the study will show, the global context is crucial, for it inds relection at a local level. Metal Studies eavy metal, unlike other genres of popular music and culture, for a long time drew only limited interest among academic researchers. andrew Bennett in his study on Cultures of Popular Music (2001: 42) went so far as to speak of a state of indifference on the part of academics. The irst full-length monographs on heavy metal were written by the american sociologist Deena Weinstein (1991) and the

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american musicologist robert Walser (1993). Only after these studies had been published did things slowly begin to change. Weinstein’s and Walser’s research, however, exclusively concentrated on heavy metal’s commercially successful mainstream manifestations, and did not pay much attention to informal networks of the global metal underground. This also means that their studies almost entirely focused on representations of us-american and British heavy metal, since the most popular bands of the time were either British or american. The emergence of metal in other parts of the world—for instance, in Germany, scandinavia, Brazil, or Japan—was widely neglected (Weinstein 2000 [1991]: 117–9, Walser 1993: xiii). Yet, Weinstein’s and Walser’s writings represent milestones in the study of metal. Previous to their works, heavy metal had not been taken seriously, neither as an artistically relevant form of music, nor as a distinct system of meanings. Walser, for instance, commences his investigation by comparing the atmosphere of the underground rehearsal spaces commonly used by young metal musicians with that of a music conservatory. in other words, he pays respect to the musical skills and courage of the young metalheads, who put all of their efforts into the music (ibid. ix–x). Moreover, Walser places emphasis on developing a clearly academic approach toward heavy metal. in accordance with Michel Foucault, he examines it as a discursive practice. The seriousness of his study, accordingly, helped to stir academic interest in heavy metal. Over the past 20 years or so, metal has been the subject of studies in various academic disciplines, namely sociology (Weinstein 1991, kahn-harris 2007), musicology (Walser 1993, Ellein 2010), psychology (Arnett 1996), media and communications studies (straw 2001 [1983], klypchak 2007), anthropology (Wallach 2003, 2008), religious studies (Moberg 2009), and philosophy (scott 2010). some researchers even began to pay attention to the local manifestations of heavy metal at the global peripheries of the subcultural underground: keith kahn-harris (1999, 2002) focused on extreme metal in israel; Magnus Nilsson (2007) wrote on metal in Botswana’s capital Gabarone; Ted swedenburg (2000) covered a moral panic over metal and satanism in egypt; emma Baulch (2003, 2007) investigated the identity politics of death and thrash metalheads in Bali; and Jeremy Wallach (2003, 2008) studied the “modern noise” of the Indonesian metal underground. Mark leVine in his book Heavy Metal Islam (2008) gave an insight into several local scenes from Morocco to iran. Beyond the academic realm, the publication output on heavy metal has been diverse and of variable quality. The spectrum ranges from religiously motivated polemics such as ulrich Bäumer’s Wir wollen nur deine Seele (“We just want your soul,” 1984), Jeff Godwin’s Devil’s Disciples: The Truth about Rock Music (1986), robert l. Powers and Thomas W. Wedge’s The Satan Hunter (1988), or ahmet Güç’s Satanizm girdabı ve sahte metaizik akımlar (“The satanic vortex and false metaphysical movements,” 2003), to a myriad of noniction writings that aim to present speciic historic, artistic, or thematic aspects of heavy metal to a wider fan audience. since the list of non-academic publications is long and many of them display a lack of adequacy, only those texts that i personally considered

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helpful in writing the present study are to be named here. a general insight into the history of heavy metal is given by ian christe in Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal (2004 [2003]). Detailed overviews on particular metal subgenres, their historic roots and cultural codes include Natalie J. Purcell’s Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture (2003), albert Mudrian’s Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore (2004), John Tucker’s Suzie Smiled: Tales from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (2006), and Garry sharpe-Young’s Thrash Metal (2007). With regard to the rise of Norwegian black metal and common allegations of satanism, the works of Michael Moynihan and Didrik soderlind, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (2002) [1998], and of reto Wehrli, Verteufelter Heavy Metal: Skandale und Zensur in der neueren Musikgeschichte (“Demonized heavy Metal: scandals and censorship in Modern Music history,” 2005), provided a good starting point for my investigation. Metal History even today, the geographical origins of heavy metal as much as the question of when the term “heavy metal” was irst used to describe a distinct genre of popular music remain disputed. robert Walser (1993: x), though he agrees that heavy metal almost simultaneously took off in the united states, locates the origins of heavy metal in england: “if metal could be said to have gotten started in any single place, it would be Birmingham, england, the industrial city whose working class spawned Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest in the late 1960s and early 1970s.” Other sources relate the beginning of heavy metal to the American rock bands Iron Butterly, Steppenwolf, or Blue Cheer (see Weinstein 1991 [2000]: 14–5). undoubtedly, however, the pioneering bands of heavy metal—Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Uriah Heep—all formed in the late 1960s and were British. Their early commercial success highly depended on the american and British markets, where they managed to establish a strong and lasting fan base. Though they had their roots in classic rock music, the above-mentioned bands came up with a new sound that drew them away from the musicians who had inspired the summer of love in 1967 and the subsequent hippie movement. hard, distorted guitar riffs met strong, seemingly insanitydriven vocals, creating an unknown sound so far. The term “heavy metal” is commonly agreed to be derived from steppenwolf’s biker-anthem Born to Be Wild of 1968 (Weinstein 2000 [1991]: 19, Walser 1993: 8, christe 2004 [2003]: 10). The song, featured in Dennis hopper’s road movie Easy Rider (1969), contains the phrase “heavy metal thunder,” which refers to the roaring sound of a motorcycle engine. Walser (1993: 8) further points to the common usage of “heavy metal” as an expression for ordnance and poisonous compounds, a meaning perfectly itting to the predominantly tough and violent image favored by protagonists of the genre. Many of the musicians who are today considered to have laid down the

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blueprint for heavy metal, however, never identiied with the term.6 The irst to deliberately describe their music as heavy metal were Black sabbath (Weinstein 2000 [1991]: 18). heavy metal took shape in the 1970s and early 1980s. subsequent to the release of groundbreaking albums by led Zeppelin, Black sabbath, and Deep Purple, a second generation of bands such as ac/Dc, the scorpions, and aerosmith consolidated the genre’s musical style. Yet, in the second half of the 1970s, record sales of previously well-known heavy metal artists went down. The negative trend partly resulted from the emergence of punk rock and a new, popular shift towards softer mainstream rock, as Walser put it (1993: 11), as well as from the ongoing economic recession in america, as emphasized by klypchak (2007: 31–2). at that time, when heavy metal was already pronounced dead by its critics, the socalled New Wave of British heavy Metal (NWBhM) got started. Bands like iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Def Leppard, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Diamond Head revitalized the scene and gave new impulse to bands in the us and other parts of the world. The NWBhM paved the way for heavy metal’s commercial success in the 1980s. The 1980s were crucial for heavy metal for two reasons: heavy metal by the end of the decade was at its peak of international popularity and commercial success, while, at the same time, it had entered a process of substantial diversiication. The latter would eventually lead to a thorough redeinition of metal in the 1990s. On the eve of the 1980s, however, heavy metal was still widely banned from public radio stations and TV programs. in order to promote their music, bands had to rely on continuously touring small venues and clubs. This, however, had the advantage of strengthening ties between bands and fans, ensuring strong fan-base loyalty. One of the early milestones that marked the growing success of heavy metal was iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast album, which topped the British album charts in 1982. The title track, the repeating chorus of which refers to the biblical number of the beast, 666, earned iron Maiden the false reputation of being a satanic band.7 The sudden success of heavy metal continued throughout the decade, reaching its commercial peak in 1989. according to Walser (1993: 3), during that same year, heavy metal accounted for 40 per cent of the record sales in the united states. in response to the genre’s looming success, the american music channel MTV started its own metal program named Headbangers’ Ball on 18 april 1987. Over the next couple of years, the show became one of MTV’s most successful programs and contributed considerably to the popularity of heavy metal in other parts of the

6

in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, led Zeppelin’s vocalist robert Plant stated: “led Zeppelin spawned a million of imitators on one level or another … but it wasn’t about being hard rock or heavy metal” (25 October 2007). according to ian christe (2003 [2004]: 13), Deep Purple also repeatedly denied being metal. 7 see, for instance, the christian polemic Wir wollen nur deine Seele (“We just want your soul”) written by u. Bäumer (1984: 66).

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world, for it could be received via satellite, and was often the only source for watching music videos. The enormous number of record sales, which is often used to emphasize the commercial success of heavy metal in the 1980s, also included albums of hard rock bands such as Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, or Aerosmith, whose songs also appealed to a non-metal audience. recording at least one ballad per album appeared to be an unwritten rule that was obeyed by almost any top-selling heavy metal artist of the time. Ballads guaranteed radio airplay, and ideally drew attention from a wider, more mainstream audience. Quite a number of bands that had started their careers with rather uncompromising heavy sounds at that time shifted towards a softer, mainstream-suitable approach. a prominent example for this development is Judas Priest who, on their 1986 album Turbo, used synthesizers for the irst time. The commercial success of hard rock and so-called glam metal bands, which came up with rather soft and catchy songs, with an image that was based upon a mixture of androgyny and machismo (tough guys with big hair, makeup, and spandex trousers, who sang about sex, girls, and alcohol) was accompanied by a thorough diversiication of the scene and the formation of rather uncompromising new styles. Thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, grindcore, black metal, and doom metal each radicalized metal in its own way. This shift towards the extreme also revealed major rifts within the genre. Many metalheads neither identiied with the extremely popular glam and hard rock bands of the 1980s, nor did they accept them as metal. consequently, the new scene raised questions of authenticity and credibility. it is highly unlikely that a die-hard death metal or grindcore listener would ever deine Bon Jovi, Poison, or Winger as metal, or go to one of their shows. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the bulk of fans of these bands would identify themselves as metalheads. This rift is also relected in the American animated television series Beavis and Butt-head, which was produced between 1993 and 1997. The series, shown on MTV, features two youngsters, Beavis and Butt-head, who are characterized by their lazy, antisocial, and vulgar behavior. Their main role on MTV’s program is to comment on music videos. While devotedly listening and banging their heads to “cool” heavy metal videos, they would commonly make sarcastic comments on any other type of music, including hard rock, and particularly glam rock. Their devotion to “real” metal is further expressed by wearing Metallica and ac/Dc T-shirts, respectively. stewart, a chubby, nerdy kid from the neighborhood, whom they would often torment, is shown wearing a T-shirt of the american hard rock band Winger instead. These codes symbolize the above-mentioned rift and redeinition of metal in the 1990s that was characterized by a much harder and more aggressive sound. in fact, it was Nirvana’s Nevermind in 1991 and the following rise of grunge and alternative rock bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam, that brought a sudden end to the 1980s hard rock and glam era. Grunge also spawned the success of american-dominated nu metal in the late 1990s, when bands like korn, slipknot, staind, system of a Down, or Deftones merged their death and thrash metal roots with the sounds of alternative rock. Bradley c. klypchak (2007:

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10–11) points to a rift caused by the emergence of nu metal: metalheads, who had been socialized into metal in the 1980s, often categorically reject nu metal due to its alternative sound and thematic shift. in contrast to many classic heavy metal bands, which had focused on having a good time (fun, sex, party, alcohol), the new bands turned towards themes of grief, anger, isolation, and (in part) politics. as a reaction, T-shirt imprints like “Death to Nu Metal” or “Old school” can be frequently witnessed at heavy metal concerts and festivals. Metal, moreover, has always been affected by other musical genres, causing further fragmentation and redeinition. Many artists, for instance, claim to have been affected by classical music. Prominent songs relecting this inluence are Accept’s Metal Heart (1985), which incorporates motifs from Pyotr ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March and ludwig van Beethoven’s Für Elise; helloween’s Gorgar (1985), which features a guitar solo based upon the central theme from edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King; or The Great katt’s Beethoven on Speed (1990), a metal version of ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth symphony in c Minor.8 Beyond that, some artists even added classical instruments to their regular lineup like, for instance, the British bands My Dying Bride and skyclad. Fusions with other genres of popular music have been common as well. One can ind hip-hop, rap, hardcore, punk, gothic, folk, funk, jazz, and even electronic inluences. In 1991, for instance, anthrax collaborated with rap artists Public enemy on the song Bring Tha Noize. Two years later, the soundtrack for the ilm Judgment Night by stephen hopkins drew considerable attention for featuring collaborations between hip-hop and rock/metal artists like slayer and ice-T (Disorder) or helmet and house of Pain (Just Another Victim). a band that managed to fuse death metal with jazz was cynic on their album Focus in 1993. The list of musical fusions and dynamics is long, and i will refrain from being further selective and going into detail. Finally, the question of what is metal very much depends on the observer’s perspective. Metal, like any other phenomenon of popular culture, is dynamic. it is fragmented and constantly being (re)negotiated. Musical and visual signiiers are used to establish boundaries in order to demarcate metal from other genres of popular music. The above-mentioned T-shirt imprints rejecting nu metal represent an attempt to sustain these boundaries and, moreover, to deine and claim authenticity for oneself. The latter is crucial with regard to the formation of personal and collective identities. Metal Panics Throughout its history, heavy metal has been associated with divergent forms of morality, and, most particularly, satanic evil. Black Sabbath, the irst band to 8

r. Walser, in the second chapter of Running with the Devil (1993), discusses the relationship of heavy metal and classical music; thereby he provides a detailed musical analysis of how metal guitarists like eddie Van halen, randy rhoads, or Yngwie Malmsteen incorporated classical music styles.

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deliberately adopt the label “heavy metal” in order to deine its music, was also the irst to take a programmatic shift to the dark side of life. Its name derived from a 1960s horror movie and its lyrics turned away from the love-and-peace-attitude which had characterized many earlier rock bands. instead, Black sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osborne sang about paranoia, darkness, sorrow, war, and evil. The band’s self-titled debut album released in 1970 sparked a load of controversies, for songs such as Black Sabbath or N.I.B. contained allusions to satan. Though the band never pursued any satanic intentions, they became a major target of christian rightwing campaigners, who blamed heavy metal for seducing the young and spreading satanic ideas. another band that contributed to an early stigmatization of rock and metal as being satanic was the american psychedelic rock band coven. On the cover of their 1969 debut album, Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls, the band members, grouped around a human skull, appeared wearing inverted crosses around their necks. another photo on the same album showed them posing behind an altar covered with red velvet and making the sign of the horns, a hand gesture, which had been popularized in the 1960s as a satanic salute. consequently, the scenery and gestures could be interpreted as a black mass. coven, though they were not a metal band, became an early inspiration for black metal in the late 1980s (Moynihan and soderlind 2002 [1998]: 18–20). in addition to coven and Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page has often been named in connection with satanic allegations against rock and heavy metal, for he had been publicly interested in the writings of the British occultist aleister crowley (christe 2004 [2003]: 12, Moynihan and soderlind 2002 [1998]: 15–6). as mentioned by various authors (Weinstein 2000 [1991], Walser 1993, Bennett 2001, christe 2004 [2003], Wehrli 2005, harris 2007, klypchak 2007), heavy metal has provided an impetus for moral panics all around the world. a myriad of allegations, lawsuits, and charges has blamed heavy metal for seducing youngsters into satanism, blasphemy, suicide, violence, sexual perversion, drugs, and alcohol abuse. heavy metal has even been said to convey subliminal messages and to possess supernatural powers over its listeners. The irrational, false, and often religiously and/or politically motivated allegations have usually been met with bewilderment, ridicule, and deliberate provocation by bands and fans. commonly speaking, the satanic references in metal are less likely to represent sympathy for the devil, than a rebellion against social and moral constraints. and herein lies the signiicance of the discourse over metal and Satanism: regardless of whether it might be satanic, blasphemous, perverted, violent, and so on, or not, heavy metal is subversive in terms of contesting prevalent concepts of morality. Metal Culture While the previous paragraphs gave some brief insight into metal studies and metal history, the following section aims to explore metal culture—that is to say, its representations, codes, and meanings. as already outlined, metal is dynamic, fragmented, and constantly changing. This very general inding involves both

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codes and meanings. For instance, while the wearing of denim stretch trousers had been a common feature of metalheads in the 1980s, it became a subject of ridicule and laughter in the 1990s. Neither does every metalhead necessarily have long hair, nor does every metal band have to refer to sex and satan. Moreover, a variety of codes are being used to demarcate metal’s different subgenres from each other. To put it briely, any attempt to depict metal as a uniied whole runs the risk of essentializing and ultimately missing the point. With this in mind, the present text tries to summarize and describe some of metal’s most common features, without, however, claiming to be exhaustive. The meanings of the below-mentioned codes considerably depend on spatial and temporal contexts, as well as on the observer’s perspective. The meaning of metal, therefore, will be explored in detail in the empirical part of the study by directly referring to the Turkish context. British sociologist keith kahn-harris describes extreme metal as a “transgressive practice,” thereby referring to extreme metal’s urge to excessively test and break musical and non-musical boundaries.9 The purpose of the scene, he states, is the “production of transgression” (kahn-harris 2007: 48). he further differentiates three ideal types of transgression: sonic transgression, discursive transgression, and bodily transgression. sonic transgression, according to kahnharris, relates to the transgression of musical boundaries by means of screamed or growled vocals, heavily distorted and down-tuned guitars, complex rhythms, or extremely fast tempos (ibid. 31–33). With discursive transgression, he refers to non-musical discourse which is sparked by extreme lyrics, song titles, band names, fanzine publications, or everyday talk (ibid. 34). Finally, with bodily transgression, he refers to extreme bodily practices such as headbanging, slamdancing, or stage-diving (ibid. 44). i fully agree with kahn-harris’s approach to depict extreme metal as a transgressive practice; and the following investigation into Turkish metal will provide further proof of his assumption. Yet, i would argue that the production of transgression is not limited to metal’s extreme subgenres alone, but rather applies to metal music and culture as a whole. Though the modes of transgression have been constantly changing, transgression has been a permanent feature. even early bands like led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, or Black sabbath were transgressive in their musical, verbal, and bodily practices, considering the particular social and political contexts of their time. a social practice considered transgressive today, however, may no longer be considered transgressive tomorrow. While, for instance, on the eve of the hippie movement, long hair on men was something odd to see in the united kingdom or the united states, it is, today, commonly no longer considered deviant. Transgression is often accompanied by a process of adaptation, and boundaries once transgressed may not persist any longer into the future. at a time when former enfant terrible Ozzy Osborne gets invited to a presidential dinner at the White house, it is hard to imagine that songs like War 9 under the term “extreme metal,” he summarizes different metal subgenres, namely thrash metal, black metal, doom metal, death metal, and grindcore.

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Pigs, Black Sabbath, or Killing Yourself to Live once caused political and religious controversies. To put it shortly, the parameters of what is considered transgressive or extreme are constantly being (re)negotiated, and depend on temporal and spatial contexts. Metal’s cultural representations are, however, deeply deined by sonic, verbal, and visual transgressions. Sonic representations: the typical metal lineup resembles the conventional rock lineup, consisting of vocals, drums, bass, and guitars. Though not part of metal’s standard instrumentation, quite a number of bands have been incorporating different classical and folk instruments—popular examples for this are My Dying Bride (violin), subway to sally (violin, lute), Orphaned land (oud, saz, bouzouki), and Skyclad (lute, mandolin, violin). Keyboards and synthesizers are also permanent features of many bands. Despite all the musical diversiications, the overall primary sonic feature of metal music is still its heavily ampliied, distorted guitar sound. This sound is further characterized by a playing technique called “palm-muting,” which is done by placing the edge of the picking hand near the bridge in order to dampen the strings. This enables the musician to create abrupt breaks and to play rather aggressive staccato lines. The latter dominate the often complex rifing of metal guitarists. In the 1970s and 1980s, guitar solos had been a matter of prestige for most bands and, therefore, appeared in almost every song. Under the inluence of death metal, grunge, and hardcore, guitar solos became increasingly associated with the openly despised “poser” and rock star image of commercially successful mainstream metal bands that had become popular in the late 1980s. in rejecting this image, many musicians shifted towards a rhythmdominated, aggressive sound, in which guitar (or drum) solos played only a minor role. another prominent technique, used particularly in death metal, thrash metal, and grindcore, is down-tuning. This means the pitch of the guitar is lowered by one or several halftones in order to consolidate a dark, aggressive, or melancholic sound, which is characteristic for these subgenres. With regard to the rest of the lineup, metal drumming, since the 1980s, has been characterized by the excessive use of double-bass drums or double-bass pedals. Double-bass techniques are usually utilized in order to enhance the drummer’s ability to play extremely high tempos and complex rhythms. another drumming technique, which is particularly used in metal, is the “cymbal choke.” The expression refers to the sound made by silencing a crash cymbal by grabbing it with the hand, immediately after striking it with the drumstick. The effect, a sudden burst of sound, is further strengthened by a single, simultaneous kick with the bass drum. With regard to the bass guitar, it is hard to give any general statement. Drums and bass represent the rhythm section of each band, so they closely interact. Together they form the driving force behind the powerful, aggressive, and often-brutal sounds of metal music. One particular feature with regard to death metal and grindcore is (sporadic) use of bass distortion. The vocals are screamed, shouted, growled, or moaned, depending on the particular subgenre. Nevertheless, the vocals vary considerably in style and incorporate different aggressive, melancholic, or theatrical moods.

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The verbal representations of metal are conveyed through band names, lyrics, album titles, pseudonyms, and other verbal expressions that are used during stage performances or in underground publications (fanzines, lyers). Particularly since the second half of the 1980s, the names chosen by most metal bands refer to themes of horror, death, decay, grief, anger, hatred, blasphemy, or suffering (anthrax, Black sabbath, cannibal corpse, carcass, crematory, Destruction, entombed, hate squad, Napalm Death, Nuclear assault, Pestilence, sepultura, slayer, sodom, suffocation, and so on). in earlier days, band names were less extreme, though evoking images of power, danger, and intensity (Walser 1993: 2). The lyrics incorporate a wide spectrum of themes, which include tales of gore and horror, mysticism and fantasy, sex and excess, despair and paranoia, death and rebellion, war and evil—to name just a few.10 Many extreme bands deliberately exclude themes such as having a party, feeling good, or indulging in easy romance in order clearly demarcate themselves from other musical genres as well as from hard and glam rock. starting with Venom in the early 1980s, particularly black metal musicians adopted blasphemous pseudonyms. Personal names behind Venom’s early lineup, for instance, consisted of Mantas, abaddon, and cronos; Mayhem between 1988 and 1991 was made up of Dead, euronymous, Necrobutcher, and hellhammer; and sodom was known for featuring Tom angelripper. Besides which, the usage of swear words became widely common in lyrics and stage performances. Visual representations are the most signiicant markers of metal spaces and identities in everyday life. it appears useful to differentiate between two complementary visual dimensions: iconography, and bodily practice. common to the metal scene’s iconography are symbolic representations of horror, death, and blasphemy, with a clear focus on anti-christian sentiments. This resembles the above-mentioned verbal representations depicted in lyrics, names, and pseudonyms. symbolic representations such as depictions of the devil, the inverted cross—which refers to the roman empire’s execution of st Peter by having him cruciied with his head down as an act of mocking his religious belief—and the 666, the number of the beast—which derives from St John’s book of revelation and symbolizes the approaching apocalypse—were all appropriated from christian tradition. To such symbols are added elements of pre-christian pagan traditions, like the pentagram or the mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. also common are explicit sexual illustrations, various forms of human and animal skulls, and the color black. all these icons are displayed in various forms on album covers, T-shirts, patches, band logos, tattoos, jewelry, and basically all kinds of metal fashion. Bodily practice, on the one hand, applies to the bodily appearance of metalheads in terms of fashion and style. This includes long hair, beards, piercings, tattoos, black clothes, silver jewelry (rings, earrings, necklaces), studded and spiked 10 Deena Weinstein, whose analysis refers to heavy metal’s mainstream manifestations of the 1980s, suggests deining the lyrical focus of heavy metal by differentiating Dionysian and chaotic themes (ibid. 2000 [1991]: 35 et seq.).

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wristbands and belts, denim and leather jackets, as well as worker or army boots. The depiction of the above-named icons is an integral part of metal’s fashion and style. On the other hand, bodily practice also refers to a couple of excessive activities like heavy drinking, headbanging, or stage-diving, moshing and slam-dancing at concerts. “headbanging” describes the act of ferociously and rhythmically shaking the head to music; “stage-diving” is jumping from the concert stage onto the crowd with the body and arms stretched out in order to be caught and carried over the heads’ of the audience (also known as “crowdsuring”); while “moshing” and “slam-dancing” are forms of aggressive dancing, which include acts of violently pushing and slamming into each other. as the dissemination of modern media and communications systems made metal available to a global audience, its music and culture has spread all around the world. Yet, the situation was different when heavy metal was in its infancy. it was not until the communications revolution of the 1980s and 1990s that cultural resources became more easily available on a global scale. Beyond technological innovations such as satellite television, the internet, or advanced computer software used to easily convert characters, sounds, and images into digital data iles, political and economic factors played an important role in the dissemination of metal. as regards the advent of metal in Turkey, two factors were of crucial importance: the kemalist music revolution and the birth of anatolian rock.

The Prelude Turkey attained its independence in 1923, following a long period of war and foreign occupation. The Balkan Wars of 1912–13, World War i (1914–18), and the War of independence (1919–22) ended the century-long decline of the Ottoman empire. replacing the remnants of the obsolete Ottoman state, the foundation of the Turkish republic marked a radical rupture with the past. under the presidency of Mustafa kemal (1881–1938), who was later bestowed the honorary title Atatürk (“Father of Turks”), the country’s new political elite initiated a revolution from above, prompting a pervasive transformation of state and society. The kemalist model of modernity aimed at eradicating the old Ottoman order and building a new one, free from the traditionalist spirit of the past. in the course of building a modern, europe-oriented nation-state, the kemalist government enacted a bundle of wide-ranging reforms. in addition to abolishing the sultanate (1 November 1922) and the caliphate (3 March 1924), granting equal civil rights to male and female citizens (17 February 1926), adopting a secular legal system based upon the swiss civil code (17 February 1926) and the italian criminal code (1 March 1926), removing the constitutional provision designating islam as the state religion (9 april 1928), and replacing the arabic alphabet in favor of the latin alphabet (1 November 1928), the reformers also prompted a modernization of Turkish music that would in the end foster the emergence of anatolian rock music.

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The Kemalist Music Revolution The idea of incorporating music into the process of modernization and nationbuilding was based upon the ideological concepts of Ziya Gökalp (1876–1924), one of the intellectual fathers of Turkish nationalism. In his most inluential work The Principles of Turkism (Türkçülüğün Esasları), published in 1923, he advocated inventing a unique form of Turkish national music that would strengthen national identity and place Turkish music on the same “civilizational” level with european music traditions (Gökalp 1996 [1923]: 88–89). Gökalp’s idea was guided by the conceptual distinction between civilization and culture. european classical music, with its elaborate polyphonic harmonies and its rational approach as regards music theory, symbolized the pinnacle of modern civilization. Ottoman classical music, however, with its roots in Byzantine, arab, and Persian monophonic music represented a relict of the past, the epitome of tradition and ignorance. Gökalp, on a related note, described Eastern music as “sick,” “artiicial,” “unnatural,” and, regarding the process of nation-building, “non-national” (Gökalp 1996 [1923]: 88–89). If European classical music symbolized the pinnacle of modern civilization, then, according to Gökalp, Anatolian folk music (halk müziği) embodied the essence of Turkish culture. consequently, the modernization of Turkish music could only be achieved by adopting european music standards. With this in mind, he proposed a synthesis of anatolian and european music traditions.11 realizing this aim meant breaking with previous music traditions. as a result, Ottoman music institutions were either transformed, or abolished. Ottoman classical music teaching and performance had been closely linked with state institutions. The court, the army, the Sui orders, as well as certain individuals of the state elite, maintained separate music schools. as a consequence of reform, the court’s music academy (enderun), the military’s music academy (mehterhane), the music seminars of the Mevlevi Order (mevlevihane), and the private teaching facilities of well-known musicians (meşkhane) were closed down (Tanrıkorur n.d., Aydın and Ergur n.d.: 2–3). In an additional move, the government set up new music institutions modeled on european music conservatories. in ankara, the Music Teachers academy (Musiki Muallim Mektebi) was opened in 1924, followed by the Ankara State Conservatory (Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı) in 1936. istanbul’s Ottoman music conservatory, the Darülelhan, founded in 1914, closed its department of eastern music in 1926. it was later renamed istanbul State Conservatory (Istanbul Belediyesi Konservatuvarı), and exists today under 11 “We regard eastern music as sick and non-national music. since folk music is our national culture and Western music the music of our new civilization, both are not alien to us. Therefore, our national music is to be born from the fusion of our country’s folk music and western music. Our folk music gave us a myriad of melodies. if we gather and ‘harmonize’ them along the lines of Western music, we shall have both a national and a European music.” Quoted and translated from Gökalp 1996 [1923]: 89.

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the name istanbul university state conservatory (istanbul Üniversite Devlet Konservatuvarı). The Turkish state, concomitant to institutional reforms, sent young musicians abroad to study at european music conservatories, and invited foreign composers to help build up and lecture at the newly established music academies. in the academic year of 1935–36, the government hired the German composer Paul hindemith (1895–1963) and the German theatre director carl ebert (1887–1980) in order to teach at the ankara state conservatory. hindemith left ankara after only one year, but ebert, who had been denounced as “Musik-Bolschewist” and dismissed from his position as director general of the Berlin Opera following the National socialist seizure of power in 1933 (klee 2007: 126), stayed for a period of nine years, directing the state conservatory’s theatre and opera departments. The most prominent European igure to participate in the reform process was Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881–1945). he arrived in Turkey in early November 1936 at the invitation of the ankara halkevi (”People’s house”),12 where he gave three lectures on musical folklore. Bartók had accepted the invitation after being promised two research trips to the anatolian countryside in order to study and record local folk music songs for the hungarian academy of science. upon his arrival in Ankara, he noted that Turkish oficials “had no advisor as to how a Turkish national music should be developed from Turkish folk music” (Bartók 1993 [1937]: 137). For this reason, Turkish authorities were happy to welcome Bartók, who, in the following months, helped accumulate an anatolian folk music archive in close collaboration with famous Turkish composer and musicologist ahmed adnan saygun (1907–1991). even Mustafa kemal himself emphasized the importance of the national music revolution. in Turkish sources he is often quoted as stating: “The most dificult revolution is the music revolution, because the music revolution irst of all needs to make a person forget his inner world and then proceed to a new world. Therefore it is dificult … It is dificult, but it will be achieved.”13 Though the kemalist music revolution in the long run did not succeed in eliminating Ottoman music traditions, it spawned musical innovation and heterogeneity. The introduction of european classical instruments, the adoption of the european octave system in addition to the anatolian 24 or 17-tone system, the new possibilities of polyphonic music, and the advent of new forms of musical performance such as opera, orchestra, or different kinds of music ensembles gave

12 The state sponsored halkevleri (“people’s houses”) were established in 1932 and were part of a general education and enlightenment campaign of the kemalist government. They offered free education to the Turkish people, with courses on literature, music, ine arts, and other subjects. 13 Quoted and translated according to s. irmak (1978: 17). in a speech in front of the Turkish Parliament on 1 October 1934, atatürk reasserted the need for a national music revolution.

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creative impetus to Turkey’s musical landscape and inally paved the way for the emergence of rock music. Anatolian Rock Music The advent of rock music in Turkey dates back to the mid-1960s and coincides with the rise of rock music and the hippie movement in North america and Western Europe. Inluenced by internationally popular rock bands and built upon the results of the kemalist music reforms, Turkish musicians created a sound that today is commonly denoted as Anadolu Rock (“anatolian rock”). Anadolu Rock embodies the synthesis of modern rock and anatolian folk music. electric guitars and bass, drums and rock beats meet anatolian melodies and instruments, including the saz—a stringed musical instrument often also referred to as bağlama—and the ney, the traditional anatolian reed-pipe. early after the advent of pop and rock music, Turkish musicians began experimenting— in particular with the new technical possibilities of modern music. Modeled on the technical facilities of the electric guitar, they created the elektro saz (or elektro bağlama), thus relecting a general tendency of amplifying acoustic musical instruments. The lyrics of the anatolian rock scene were predominantly in Turkish, although a number of musicians recorded songs in english and French as well. For the inexperienced listener, many of the early tracks of Turkish rock music may sound quite traditional. This could be because the listener has an untrained ear, but it is also due to the fact that rock inluences remained in the background at that point. The Turkish music revolution was not only a musical revolution. That is to say, Turkish musicians appropriated not only the sonic, but also the visual representations of rock music. As a result, Turkey, for the irst time, saw longhaired men with “wild” beards, jeans, and leather jackets appear on stage. Their deviant appearance and behavior was perceived by many as a provocation and threat to moral values. Today, we can speak of the four fathers of anatolian rock music, namely erkin Koray (b. 1941), Cem Karaca (1945–2004), Barış Manço (1943–1999), and the band Moğollar (f. 1967). Not only did all of them start their careers in Istanbul in the mid-1960s, but they were also the sons of Turkish middle-class families, and belonged to the irst generation of musicians to be affected by Kemalist musical and educational reforms from their childhood days. They were educated at some of the country’s most prestigious international high schools and grew up in a Turkish middle-class environment that favored european classical music over traditional anatolian music.14 at school and within the family they became socialized into european classical and american popular music. erkin koray’s 14 erkin koray graduated from the German high school, cem karaca from the American Robert College, Barış Manço from the French Galatasaray Lisesi, and Moğollar’s Cahit Berkay from the no-less-prestigious Kabataş Erkek Lisesi.

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mother, for instance, was a piano teacher at the istanbul state conservatory, and cem karaca received early piano lessons from his aunt, the opera singer rosa Felekyan. Both musicians later claimed they only became familiar with anatolian music after they had already started their musical careers. in an interview with the Turkish daily Milliyet, cem karaca recounts how he got involved with anatolian folk music: When i went to the army in ‘65, i had been married for three days. i mean, i missed istanbul and my wife too badly. suddenly, i heard the sound of a saz coming towards me. in this moment, a 2000-volt-strong bulb was lit in my head. Neither a sinatra nor an elvis song could have expressed my feelings at this moment the way the saz did. Well, that’s how i came to know the Turkish people and Turkish music.15

in 1965, Turkey’s best selling daily newspaper, Hürriyet, initiated the country’s irst national music contest for pop music. The so-called Golden Microphone contest was held on an annual basis from 1965 to 1968, having a huge and longlasting impact on the development of Turkish popular music (solmaz 1996: 29–30, Tireli 2005: 415–30). Firstly, it encouraged the fusion of anatolian folk music with international pop music, for the artists were obliged to perform their songs in Turkish, but with modern (electric) instruments. secondly, the contest successfully spread the sounds of modern popular music to anatolia. Hürriyet not only reported on the event, but arranged a nationwide concert tour featuring all the bands and solo artists participating in the contest. Moreover, the contest’s inalists were given the chance to release their hit singles under the Golden Microphone logo. in other words, the Golden Microphone created stars overnight and paved the way for the emergence of anatolian rock music. The aforementioned erkin Koray, Cem Karaca, and Moğollar all successfully participated in the contest.16 Notwithstanding the fact that there had been other inluential Turkish pop and rock musicians at the time as well, the above-named four artists were the ones who established the milestones of early anatolian rock music. erkin koray, who was born in Istanbul on 24 June 1941, commenced playing rock ‘n’ roll songs while still in high school. His irst hit single Bir Eylül Akşamı (“a september evening”), from 1962, represents one of the very irst Turkish rock ‘n’ roll recordings. Despite its Turkish lyrics, the song’s instrumentation consists of the classical rock music lineup—an electric guitar, an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. anatolian instruments were not yet used. Only at a later stage in his career did erkin koray Quoted and translated from M. Davran, (1999) ”Derviş Cem şimdi geçti buradan,” in Milliyet Gazete Pazar, 11 Nisan–18 Nisan (available online: http://www.Milliyet.com.tr/ ekler/gazete_pazar/990411/haber/hab4.html). 16 Erkin Koray—under the name Erkin Koray Dörtlüsü—took fourth place in 1968, Cem Karaca and his band Apaşlar (“The Apaches”) won second place in 1967, and Moğollar—landing one place ahead of Erkin Koray—was third place in 1967. 15

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incorporate inluences from Ottoman classical music and Anatolian folk music. The synthesis of Anatolian and European musical elements inally took shape with the release of Elektronik Türküler (“electronic Folk songs”) in 1974. The artistically sophisticated album merges modern rock arrangements with traditional folk melodies played with (electrically ampliied) Anatolian instruments, electric guitar, bass, and drums. With Elektronik Türküler, erkin koray stepped to the forefront of Turkish psychedelic rock, a genre that also attracted listeners from europe and North america. Today, erkin koray is widely admired for being the father of the elektro saz as well as for his (legendary) statement, “rock is not a musical genre, it’s a lifestyle.” although his music appears to be far from modern metal sounds, Erkin Koray is a symbolic igure for the Turkish metal scene. In March 2003, he headlined ankara’s rock station Festival, an event that—with the exception of him—was completely comprised of thrash and death metal artists. Following the unexpected deaths of Barış Manço in 1999 and Cem Karaca in 2004, he remains as one of the few living rock legends in Turkey. Before successfully participating in the Golden Microphone contest with the band Apaşlar in 1967, Cem Karaca, who was the son of the theatre actors Toto and Mehmet karaca, had been involved in two amateur rock bands in istanbul: Dinamitler (“The Dynamites”) and Jaguarlar (“The Jaguars”). In the years that followed, karaca became particularly known for his involvement with the Turkish socialist movement, and his political lyrics. as far as his contribution to anatolian rock music is concerned, he released at least two albums that can be described as pioneering—Yoksulluk Kader Olamaz (“Poverty is not a fate”) with his band Dervişan in 1977, and the symphonic Sainaz (“Reined Coyness”) with a new lineup called edirdahan in 1978. Political tensions in the run-up to the military coup d’état of 1980 prompted cem karaca to leave Turkey for Western Germany in 1979. Due to his commitment to socialism, he was temporarily stripped of his Turkish citizenship (before being rehabilitated at the instance of Prime Minister Turgut Özal in 1987).17 in exile, he continued his musical and political work, releasing several provocative albums, as for instance Die Kanaken in 1984.18 The album also contained a song in German entitled Gastarbeiter, in which karaca presented a critical perspective on Germany’s ambiguous attitude towards the Turkish-born migrants, who had been called in for economic reasons in the 1960s and 1970s. Barış Manço’s irst singles—Twistin’ USA/The Jet and Do the Twist/Let’s Twist Again—date back to 1962. inspired by 1960s twist and beat music, the songs did 17 During his irst public appearance in Turkey, Karaca, in gratitude for allowing him to return home, kissed the hand of Prime Minister Turgut Özal. This traditional gesture of submission earned him the enmity of many of his former socialist comrades. On a related note, he was also criticized by Turkish secularists for entering into dialogue with Fethullah Gülen, the country’s most popular islamic reformer (solmaz 1996: 56). 18 The German slang word “Kanake” is a racist, pejorative term used particularly (but not solely) for Turkish migrants. it refers generally to people of Middle-eastern origin.

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not contain any Anatolian inluences. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Manço spent several years in Belgium and France. he released songs in French, english, and Turkish, and, together with his band les Mistigris, toured Belgium, France, Germany, and Turkey. his breakthrough came with the folk music-inspired song Dağlar Dağlar (“Mountains, Mountains”) in 1970. accompanied by the rhythm of an acoustic guitar, Barış Manço sings to the melancholic sound of a ney— the traditional Anatolian lute, which is usually made of reed. The single went gold in Turkey, selling nearly 700,000 copies within a few months. as regards the evolution of Anatolian rock music, two particular Barış Manço’s albums are important: the 1975 concept album 2023—which was innovative for using synthesizers and a drum machine—and the 1976 album Baris Mancho—which he recorded together with the George hayes Orchestra for cBs records.19 In the 1980s, Barış Manço enhanced his fame as a TV entertainer rather than musician. unlike many other rock musicians who left the country for political reasons in connection with the military coup d’état, he ended up adjusting to the military regime. Over a period of ten years, from 1988 to 1998, he directed and presented 7’den 77’ye (“From 7 to 77”), an enormously popular family program on TrT1 combining musical performances with talk show and documentary elements. in addition, he hosted a popular children’s program named Adam Olacak Çocuk (“The child that will be a man”). Breaking away from the image of a long-haired, rebellious rocker and womanizer, he gradually turned into a morally upright— though still long-haired—family man who was loved and respected by the whole nation. Manço’s popularity was immense, and when he died from a sudden heart attack on 1 January 1999, the Turkish nation was consumed with grief. Numerous streets, parks, and cultural centers have since been named after him. The last protagonists of early anatolian rock music to be named here were in the band Moğollar (“The Mongols”), which formed in Istanbul in 1967. Its original lineup consisted of aziz ahmet (b. 1947), cahit Berkay (b. 1946), Taner Öngür (b. 1949), Engin Yörükoğlu (1945–2010), and Murat Ses (b. 1946). In contrast to the aforementioned solo artists, Moğollar based their tunes from the very beginning on anatolian folk music arrangements, accompanied by rock and pop elements. The instrumentation combined stringed musical instruments from the saz family— bağlama, cura, tambur—with modern instruments like electric guitar, harmonica, drums, and keyboards. Due to that mixture, Moğollar became (internationally) known as the founder of Turkish psychedelic rock, and representatives of eurasian world music. in an interview for the Turkish Hey Dergisi in March 1970, Moğollar’s Taner Öngür explains the band’s musical intentions: What we wanted to prove is that our folk music has a multifaceted soul. What’s more, the dynamic of our folklore is very similar to the dynamic of pop music

19

The latter was released in Turkey as Nick the Chopper in 1977.

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Turkish Metal … Our backward popular music will gain an identity by combining progressive techniques with our rich folklore …20

Though probably unintended, Öngür’s statement corresponds to the kemalist idea of modernizing Turkish music. Yet, it seems unlikely that the fathers of the kemalist music revolution had a fusion of anatolian folk music with european popular music on their minds when thinking about generating a Turkish national music style. In fact, Turkish authorities for some time even opposed the inlux of modern popular music (solmaz 1996: 24). In August 1970, Moğollar moved to Paris, shortly afterwards signing a threeyear contract with cBs records. its album Danses et Rythmes de la Turquied’Hier d’Aujourd’hui won the academie charles cross award in 1971. The same year, the band also released its legendary Anadolu Pop album, which marked the birth of a new musical genre. Like Cem Karaca, Moğollar regarded its music as protest music, openly sympathizing with the political left. Political reasons led to the band’s split in 1974, and, against the backdrop of rising political tensions in Turkey, several former band members resettled in different parts of Western europe. at the request of their fans and an initiative led by the satirical magazine Leman, Moğollar re-formed in 1993. Since then, they have performed on numerous occasions and also resumed their political activity by, for instance, headlining Istanbul’s Barışa Rock Festival (“Rock for Peace Festival”). The annual festival was initiated by several leftist organizations and irst held in summer 2003 in order to protest the american invasion of iraq, and in order to counter istanbul’s rock ‘N’ coke Festival which was taking place at the same time. Today, the music of Erkin Koray, Cem Karaca, Barış Manço, and Moğollar is admired by a wide audience from all parts of Turkish society. some 30 years ago, however, political events brought the development of anatolian rock and pop music to a standstill. On 12 september 1980, Turkey witnessed a military coup d’état, which created a political and a cultural rupture with the past. Nationwide strikes, political turmoil, and violent clashes between radical left- and right-wing movements had paralyzed the country. When the military stepped in, it claimed to preserve Turkey from political disintegration, economic breakdown, and disorder. The National security council—that is, the general staff of the Turkish armed forces—imposed martial law, suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, banned all trade union and political activities, and ordered workers back to work (Şenses 1993: 100, Ahmad 2003: 150). While the military accused the political left of destabilizing the country, it treated the extreme right as natural allies in the ight against communism (though the right wing’s organizational structures had been dissolved as well). Tens of thousands of primarily leftist activists and intellectuals were taken into custody, systematically intimidated, and tortured. The National security council retained control of Turkey until the general elections of 20 Quoted and translated according to Moğollar’s oficial website (http://www. mogollar.com/tarihce.asp).

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6 November 1983, when Turgut Özal’s Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi, aP) came to power. in the course of political repression, numerous left-oriented rock musicians went into exile. artists like cem karaca, who openly advocated socialist ideas, were considered politically subversive. even to have long hair and to look like cem karaca or listen to one of his albums could be interpreted by the police as evidence of socialist activity. Musical performances were restricted, and required the authorities’ permission. as a consequence, anatolian rock music lost much of its driving force. Yet, it did not vanish completely, and soon began to re-emerge in the form of heavy metal. Güven erkin erkal, host of the weekly heavy metal program Yüxexes (“high Volume”) on Dream TV, describes the atmosphere at the time: cem karaca was a fugitive. he was a dangerous person, and parents started destroying lPs by cem karaca or anybody who looked like cem karaca. all lPs were destroyed, because any guys looking like cem karaca could be dangerous. With all this, something else was destroyed: the documents. You know, the writings and things that convey rock culture to young people … But as always, the young did not surrender. They stared coming together at night, talking and listening to music. And in 1982 or 1983, the irst rock festival took place in Istanbul … There was Asım Can Gündüz and Devil,21 these kinds of bands.

21 Asım Can Gündüz is a Turkish rock guitarist; Devil was one of the irst Turkish heavy metal bands.

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chapter 2

Turkish Metal

The Turkish metal scene was formed in urban areas of Western Turkey at the beginning of the 1980s. initially, tiny scenes sprang up in istanbul, ankara, and a few other major cities, constituting the nucleus for the rise of Turkish metal. its protagonists consisted mostly of young males from middle-class families, who had the beneit of a good education at public or private high schools. Although heavy metal at that time witnessed a tremendous boost in international popularity and commercial success (Walser 1993: 3, Weinstein 2000: 278), the formation of a Turkish scene could not be taken for granted. The coup d’état of 1980 was followed by political and economic hardship, and access to cultural resources from abroad was limited to only a small portion of the Turkish population. import taxes, the devaluation of the Turkish lira, and a general decrease in purchasing power made european and american music imports nearly unaffordable to Turkish customers (Balkır 1993: 135, 150, Şenses 1993: 105). Albums, magazines, instruments, ampliiers, stereo equipment, and any kind of metal-related accessories—including patches and T-shirts—were virtually unavailable on the Turkish market. in addition, the national media was monopolized by the state. consequently, rock— let alone metal—programs, were extremely rare on Turkish radio and TV. This situation did not change until the early 1990s, when Turkey entered a new phase of political liberalization and economic recovery. until then, however, Turkish metalheads had to rely on informal networks to get hold of albums, merchandise, and information on bands and trends. The present chapter tells the story of Turkish metal by exploring the informal mechanisms of cultural dissemination. The severe economic, inancial, and political conditions of the post-coup d’état era initially limited the diffusion of metal music and culture to informal practices of selling bootlegs, trading tapes, spreading lyers, organizing concerts, publishing fanzines, and broadcasting music programs on independent radio stations. Originally born out of numerous do-it-yourself projects, Turkish metalheads established a vibrant infrastructure consisting of bands, fanzines, music programs, concert venues, and record and music stores.

Selling Bootlegs in the Streets During the post-coup d’état era, anatolian rock music, despite state-imposed restrictions, did not vanish completely. it did, however, lose much of its driving force, as its most prominent protagonists either led the country or maintained a

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low proile for fear of political repression. In this situation, the newly emerging metal scene had to start from scratch—not easy considering the complete absence of music imports, as hakan, one of the “old” rockers, explains: in order to listen to an album, i had to wait for two or three months. and when I inally got it, where could I listen to it? At that time, there was no record player around. so how could i play an album? There were no phono pick-ups [cartridges] either at that time. There were neither pick-ups nor cassette players in this country. There was nothing in this country. Virtually nothing.

in the immediate aftermath of the coup d’état, metal albums, music magazines, or stereo equipment entered Turkey almost exclusively via relatives and friends who were living or traveling abroad. This was fostered by the fact that Western europe, since the early 1960s, hosted hundreds of thousands of Turkish migrant workers who regularly returned home for the holidays. Many youngsters used these connections in order to get hold of the latest records, videocassettes, and music magazines. soon, however, some well-connected young rockers set up their own informal businesses by selling bootleg cassettes on the streets or in small shops. ufuk Onen, vocalist of ankara thrash metal band hazy hill, recalls how it all began: In the 80s in Turkey, very few albums were released oficially. Record store owners used to request their friends, who traveled abroad, to bring them records, and they would copy the albums from vinyl to tape and sell them. That was almost the only way to listen to Western music at that time. Magazines such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang!, etc., were very dificult to ind. Same for t-shirts.

One of the irst street sellers was above-named Hakan. In the mid-1980s, he began selling bootlegs in the Istanbul neighborhood of Bakırköy, close to the central Bakırköy Square. “At that time,” he explains, “my girlfriend was living in Germany. all lPs came to me by post from Dortmund. it was a matter of friendship. i mean, that’s the way it started to spread.” Over the years, hakan created an archive of approximately 4,000 rock and metal albums from around the world, all personally delivered or sent to him by friends. From his growing archive, he copied cassettes on demand, attracting customers from around the city and beyond. his business was so successful that he was eventually able to open a small record shop. This, however, was only possible because international copyright laws were not yet enforced by the authorities. Bakırköy’s equivalent on the other side of the Bosporus was Kadıköy, a prosperous middle-class neighborhood, home to several well-known high schools. The Kadıköy Anatolian High School, in particular, played a crucial role in disseminating rock and metal music among the local youth. Originally designed for educating the country’s secular elite, its liberal atmosphere and focus on foreign language teaching—as well as on music education—made it a hotbed for

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young rockers and metalheads. all in all, the quarter represented an ideal place to sell music—or, to be more precise, to sell books and music. Even today, Kadıköy is a center for bookselling, specializing in school and university textbooks. This is important, since the earliest sites to sell bootlegs were bookstores. One of them was a secondhand bookstore located in the Moda cinema arcade. The shop was run by thrash metal band Metalium’s vocalist sadi, who, one day, apparently placed the album cover of Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil in the shop window. The weird-looking guys on the cover soon attracted attention, and sadi was asked to prepare copies of the album. This, then, spurred him to place further album covers in the window and commence his own informal music business. in addition to providing access to music, the places where bootleg cassettes were sold evolved into important spaces of sociability. here, young metalheads could buy the latest releases, talk about music, hang out with friends, and check out whoever else was listening to metal. since the scene was still small, and the places where metal music was sold were rare, metalheads from all over istanbul came to these shops. close to Moda, where sadi had his store, was akmar, another two-storey shopping arcade specializing in secondhand school and university books. By the late 1980s, several former street sellers opened record stores in akmar’s basement, among them Zihni Müzik, atlantis Music, hammer Müzik, the Pentagram Metal shop, and saadeth. While members of eponymous thrash metal band Pentagram owned the Pentagram Metal shop, saadeth was run by Mazhar Şiringöz of Metalium and Çalğan Tekil of Laneth magazine. Zihni Müzik, atlantis Music, and hammer Müzik soon evolved into independent record labels, and Akmar became the center of Istanbul’s metal scene. Enis Kızılkaya of Hammer Müzik describes the development from selling bootlegs in the streets to becoming an independent record store and label: actually, there were no original tapes in the market. There were no licenses, no importers. Nothing! so, for example, haluk [the founder of hammer Müzik] bought some lPs or cDs of sepultura or other bands. he made copies and he sold them … actually, he started by selling tapes on the streets some twelve years ago [in 1991]. and then more original tapes, more cDs here [in the hammer Müzik shop in Akmar]. At irst, he started selling copies. Then, he decided to start a shop and traveled outside Turkey to Greece. he had friends going to the usa, Germany. and he ordered cDs through friends, and they brought cDs here and he started selling [them]. afterwards there was a big interest for this kind of music. He got licenses for albums and released them here … The irst original license tape was slayer’s Hell Awaits … and after that a lot of cD imports, a lot of productions. and the shop was going well.

Enis’s words reafirm what has already been mentioned—that albums were initially imported by relatives and friends and then sold as bootleg cassettes. In addition to that, he describes the further process of business intensiication, professionalization, and adaptation to changing market and legal conditions. as

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a result of the customs union with the EU, which came into effect on 1 January 1996, Turkey undertook to align its copyright legislation with that of the eu member states (Yıldız 2006: 550). Pertinent amendments to the Turkish Copyright act tightened intellectual property laws and hampered the sale of bootleg cassettes and cDs in Turkish stores. consequently, even small traders like hammer Müzik had to adapt to the new situation by acquiring licenses for reproducing, selling, and distributing foreign albums. hammer Müzik scaled up cooperation with a number of european and american metal labels securing exclusive distribution deals for Turkey. in return, some foreign record labels agreed to distribute hammer Müzik’s releases. enis explains: We had and we have distribution. We worked with Bellaphone in Germany, for example. Our cDs were available in bigger stores like saturn. and we also worked directly with Nuclear Blast. They add our cDs to their catalogue. We have distribution in the uk, spain, Portugal and many other countries. and we trade with american companies.

in addition to the formal distribution deals, enis mentions another popular practice of disseminating metal music: trade. By using the word “trade,” he does not refer to conventional trade relations in a monetary sense, but to an informal practice that has become known among metalheads around the world as “tape trading.”

Trading Tapes The Turkish scene’s integration into the global metal underground took place through tape trading. By the second half of the 1980s, heavy metal had become an internationally known genre with some bands selling millions of albums worldwide. in terms of musical diversity and sheer numbers, however, these bands represented only the tip of the iceberg. The great majority of artists never got signed by one of the big record companies—and even if a band managed to release an album on one of the countless independent labels, its records were rarely available in local music stores. small record companies usually did not have the capacity to distribute their releases through national or international chain stores. instead, they used alternative methods of distribution, in particular mail order. For a band without a record deal, the usual way of promotion was to record a demo tape, play as many gigs as possible, get reviews and interviews in fanzines and magazines, receive airplay on local or independent radio stations, and spread “tons of lyers.” Having a demo tape was the necessary precondition for getting concerts, reviews, interviews, and radio airplay. Flyers—that is, photocopied or printed single-page lealets—constituted a popular means to advertise concerts, bands, labels, fanzines, distributors, and record or demo releases. They were either distributed at concerts, in local record stores, or, most prominently, via post.

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Before the advent of the internet, the global metal scene had been relying on postal mail for communication. as keith kahn-harris in Extreme Metal (2007: 78–82) has already pointed out, the global metal underground was built upon a network with thousands of participants. One particular mode of transmitting music, fanzines, and personal information through this network was tape trading. The term describes an informal practice of exchanging and distributing recordings, mostly at a non-monetary level. Beyond metal, tape trading has also been common within other global music scenes such as punk, hardcore, or dark wave. among those who participated in the global tape-trading network were individuals, bands, distributors, and independent record labels. The quantity of tapes and records being traded varied between one and several dozen copies. While individuals and bands used to trade only small numbers of demo tapes, record labels usually exchanged higher quantities of their oficial releases. Most record companies had their own mail orders or shops, and the trading system gave them the opportunity to avoid costs for international money transfer and to bridge exchange rate disparities. Through tape trading, they were able to cheaply purchase records from other companies and, at the same time, spread and promote their own releases in other countries. With regard to Turkey, these aspects were crucial, as enis of hammer Müzik explains: it’s not easy to import cDs. it’s very expensive. People don’t have so much money to buy imported cDs … The companies we trade with are red stream and Dark Symphonies from the USA, World Chaos Production from Japan, and who else?, Morbid records from Germany, sentinel steel from the usa, raven Music in israel, heathen records from spain, for example. united Guttural— usa … We used to [trade] with Napalm records [from austria] … and in the czech republic: Obscene Productions, Machinery Productions. in Germany: last episode. i mean there are a lot more, but smaller ones.

aside from record companies, committed individuals set up their own tapetrading lists and established small distributions. Bands also traded amongst each other, selling their own and others’ tapes at concerts. Besides trading, bands tried to sell their tapes directly via lyer advertisement. The prices usually varied from three to six dollars per tape, depending on band and country. Due to higher postage and production prices, tapes from Germany, for instance, were usually more expensive than tapes from Poland or other low-income countries. Payment was made by sending cash or international reply coupons (irc). in this sense, the global tape-trading network was heavily reliant upon mutual trust and support. since there was no formal guarantee of receiving a response, let alone tapes or money, there was always a risk of being cheated. The only way of sanctioning “illicit” behavior was to denounce the person as “rip-off.” all in all, the tapetrading network guaranteed a cheap and easy way of spreading recordings to other parts of the world. Moreover, it helped to create a feeling of community among its participants. Through exchanging tapes, letters, and lyers, people built

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up common experiences, mostly without ever meeting each other personally. sometimes trading contacts even formed the basis for visiting each other or organizing concerts. in Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore, albert Mudrian (2004: 38, 85–6) explores how the us-american and British death metal and grindcore scenes inluenced each other through tape trading at a time when none of the pioneering bands (Napalm Death, Morbid angel, Genocide, extreme Noise Terror) had yet secured a record deal. Turkish metalheads began participating in the global tape-trading network in the late 1980s. Güray, who later became the editor of several underground fanzines (Yer Altı, I Feel Like Nick Cave, I Feel Like Shit, Maia), remembers: Well, i think it was back in ’91 or ’92. There was Laneth magazine you know.1 and i think i saw some demo reviews of Turkish bands … i wrote them a letter, sent money, and got the demos. I received a couple of lyers of foreign bands then, and i just wondered, if … the foreigners would write [back] as well. i just wondered you know. i wondered about more underground acts. so, i just wrote my irst letter—I think to Benediction. And there was Gomorrha and a band from Poland.2 i can’t remember the name right now. and i asked them for demos, prices, and info. and when i got some response, i was shocked, because I didn’t expect it. You know for the irst time, I got in touch with foreign bands. and i started to buy their demos and later … You know, when you got a demo back ten years ago you received tons of lyers and lots of addresses. And I started to write to everyone.

Güray describes how he became involved in the global tape-trading network and how a single letter suddenly opened a whole new world to him. Tape trading made cultural resources that formerly lay far beyond his local reach accessible. he further explains how the global underground functioned before the advent of the Internet. By responding to a lyer, the sender did not just receive a cassette in return for cash, but also lots of extra information in the form of booklets, lyers, and personal letters. Each package included a handful—if not bundles—of lyers featuring bands, fanzines, and independent record labels from around the world. The Turkish bands that initially responded to Güray’s letters must already have been involved with tape trading, since they sent along lyers of foreign bands. What is also revealing here is the mentioning of Birmingham death metal band Benediction. Benediction’s irst album Subconscious Terror was released by the German underground label Nuclear Blast in 1990. Back then, Nuclear Blast had just commenced signing death metal and grindcore bands, and did not have oficial distribution in Turkey. The company only later signed an oficial distribution deal 1

Laneth was a Turkish metal fanzine published between 1991 and 1994. Güray either refers to the British death metal band Gomorrah or to the German thrash/death metal band Gomorrha. Both bands released demo recordings in the early 1990s. 2

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with hammer Müzik. That is to say, Turkish metalheads were listening to death metal even before this kind of music was available on the Turkish market. This, however, substantiates the assumption that Turkish metalheads were well aware of the latest trends in global metal, even without the involvement of the international music industry, rather only through the informal networks of the global metal underground. Güray outlines the scope of translocal connectivity fostered by tape trading: Well, irst of all, it was good to have some stuff from really weird places. You know, in the beginning you just knew that there was metal in europe and america, but later I received lyers from Panama, from South Africa—Groinchurn.3 i’d been in touch with them. And then: Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia. So, it was really good! i just wanted to have at least one contact per country. so, i tried to write to everyone, to israel, south africa, Brazil, chile, Paraguay, argentina, everywhere.

Tape trading brought Güray into contact with metalheads from around the world. The recordings and contacts he obtained enabled him to initiate a number of do-it-yourself projects: And then, it was in the beginning of the 1990s, for the irst time there were some fanzines … and i just said: “if they can do it, i can do it as well!” i found a typewriter and with my primitive english i made a couple of interviews and I wrote them down and published my irst zine. It was in ’94. It was called Yer Altı—“Underground.” Not the most original name, but it came to my mind. and then, i also made compilation tapes and started to distribute some demos. i started to trade with a lot of bands … Turkish demos, and in return i got foreign stuff. Then, i started to distribute some Turkish bands. You know, their demos to foreign distributors. cenotaph, asafated, Deathroom, Tears of Beggar …4 i think i sold and traded about 100 copies of cenotaph’s demo. asafated also had quite good sales.

Via lyer, Güray encouraged bands to send their demo tapes for review and distribution. That way, he was able to increase his access to foreign recordings. although the circulation of Yer Altı never exceeded 200 copies, it effectively provided Turkish readers with information on the global underground. Moreover, Güray used his fanzine and distribution networks to promote Turkish death metal and grindcore bands by trading their tapes with foreign distributors, or by 3 Groinchurn was a grindcore band from Johannesburg that formed in 1994. The band released several recordings with the German underground label Morbid records. 4 cenotaph, asafated, Deathroom, and Tears of Beggar are death metal and grindcore bands from istanbul.

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Figure 2.1

Turkish Metal

aside from Yer Altı Güray also edited the fanzines I Feel Like Nick Cave and I Feel Like Shit

publishing reviews and interviews. in this context, he mentions that he also used to release compilation tapes. compilation tapes, which had been another common mode of promotion within the global underground, usually included songs by bands from the same subgenre, released and sold by small distros. Quite a number of independent record labels originally started out by releasing such compilations. Depending on the quality of the release and the quantity of copies being produced, bands sometimes contributed inancially to the release of a compilation. In return, they received a ixed quantity of copies, which they tried to sell at concerts. In the early 1990s, the production of demo tapes was still a rare phenomenon among Turkish bands. On the one hand, this was due to a general lack of inancial and technical means—at that time, Turkish music studios had neither the technical facilities nor the experience to record and produce rock albums—while on the other hand, many bands were still not aware of the importance of demo tapes in (successfully) promoting one’s music. Güray describes the reaction of Turkish metalheads when they irst heard that he was distributing demo tapes by foreign bands:

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it was strange, because it was a really, really new thing! Because nobody … i mean, even releasing a demo was a new thing for a Turkish band … We said: “We have demos of foreign bands,” and they said: “They make demos?!” You know, because they only knew the big names and thought that everything outside of Turkey is [done] through albums. They were not aware of a foreign underground scene. and you know, when you sent a demo, you sent thousands of lyers, and they asked: “Hey, if I write to them, will I get an answer?” Stuff like that. Yeah, we were the pioneers of the scene, and so it was for good, i think.

Güray also points to the economic advantages of tape trading, particularly in terms of bridging exchange rate disparities: Pierre: Did you always trade, or did you also pay for the tapes? Güray: Mostly trade. it was easy and cheap. i mean, cheap for us, because … You know, here the living standard and economy are quite low. so, the Turkish demos cost less, and when i send them to foreigners, i can get their demos and sell them here at the price of a Turkish demo. so, it was better to trade, because foreign prices were something like three or four dollars. it would have been hard to sell here. But if i sell it at the price of a Turkish demo, for one or two dollars, it’s easy.

This, however, did not mean that tape trading was a proitable business. The market for extreme music was simply too small to earn an appreciable amount of money. Only those traders and distributors, who, at a certain point, transformed into record companies or oficial mail order services had the chance to make a proit. But this, in turn, presupposed that they had decided to sell commercially successful rock and metal albums as well. Otherwise, tape trading often turned out to be a losing game: I never got any money. It was a inancial disaster! It’s really hard to get any money for this, because you always try to sell [the cassettes] at low prices. and in the past, you always spent money on postage. so, it’s impossible to do commerce … i just do it for fun … it’s good to save some money for the next issue, but i never thought about it commercially.

Tape trading often formed the basis for personal friendship. in 1996, Güray invited the grindcore bands agathocles and Mastic scum to Turkey. The invitation was preceded by intense mail correspondence, after which Güray decided to organize a couple of club concerts. Formed in 1985, Belgian agathocles was pioneering the european grindcore scene alongside the British bands Napalm Death and extreme Noise Terror. The band’s fame among grindcore listeners resulted particularly from a strong underground commitment. agathocles released dozens of (split) EPs and albums solely promoted and sold via lyers, small

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distros, and during concerts. The band played in istanbul in the spring of 1996. Mastic scum, on the other hand, originated in Vienna, where they spearheaded the austrian grindcore scene. Güray organized three consecutive gigs for the band (on 5 October in Saturn, on 11 October in Kemancı, and on 12 October in Caravan). It is important to note that no oficial booking agency was involved in organization of these concerts. since then, the digital revolution and the worldwide dissemination proffered by the internet greatly facilitated the recording and transmission of music. Tape trading subsequently lost much of its importance, to be replaced by electronic communication. Today, most actors use private websites and popular communication platforms like Myspace or YouTube in order to promote their music and merchandise. Tapes have long been replaced by cDs, and cDs are about to vanish in the wake of digital audio formats. Both Güray and Batu—the vocalist of Turkish grindcore band cenotaph—witnessed the changes brought about by new media and communication technologies: Güray: The underground now shows up on the internet. i still have a P.O. Box at the post ofice—for almost nine years now. Every day, I went there and got my mail, but now i go there only once a week and just receive cDs and no letters anymore. all the letters and communication stuff goes by e-mail … i am still in contact with a couple of traders from those years. i’m still in touch with them. i still trade some stuff. it’s easy now, because of the internet. it changed a lot. i still think there is some kind of community, but i think in the past it was better. Not better, but maybe it was more dedicated. You know, you received lyers and the only way to get in touch was by [postal] mail. You know, you wrote letters and right now you communicate by e-mail. Writing a letter takes time. Then, you have to enclose lyers—your own lyers—and go to the post ofice. It was really time consuming, but i did it, because it was some kind of dedication. We had to be part of the underground then. and there was not much in Turkey in the beginning. so, it was cool to be part of it. Batu: in the past you wrote letters and it took ages. and some letters got lost in the mail … Now, everybody has internet at home and people are too lazy to write letters. Those were the old times. But now people send e-mails or messages or chat. everything is faster, but it destroyed the spirit of the underground. Tape trading, cD trading—in the past we sent our cDs and waited for two or three weeks until we received cDs in return. Those times are over now … i mean i still do it. it’s a part of my life. To this day i send my cDs to other people and receive theirs in return. i like it … i love this underground shit!

Both attribute the downturn in global tape trading to the rise of the internet. and though they praise the advantages of the new technology—as it makes communication cheaper, faster, and safer—they also bemoan the loss of the

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underground spirit. Tape trading may be time-consuming and require dedication, but at the same time, it produces a feeling of community. For Güray and Batu, it became an integral part of their lives, regardless of changing times (“i love this underground shit!”).

Losers, Baboons, and Mad Butchers in addition to trading tapes and selling bootlegs, the production of fanzines became a crucial means of informally disseminating metal culture in Turkey. in contrast to regular music magazines, fanzines could be described as mostly nonproit-oriented, do-it-yourself publications done by committed metalheads themselves and distributed through local stores, postal mail, or at festivals and concerts. Usually, they consisted of no more than a couple of photocopied lealets with a circulation of maybe 50 to 100 copies. Over time, however, some of these evolved into semi-professional publications with a regular circulation of several thousand copies. But the price of being independent from commercial publishing houses or media companies was the permanent risk of going bankrupt. and in fact, most metal fanzines were only short-lived. in recent years, however, the classical fanzine has been increasingly replaced by webzines and web-based communication platforms. Moving from paper to online signiicantly reduced the inancial risks, thus contributing to the persistence of these new projects. in Turkey, metal fanzines did not appear before the beginning of the 1990s. up till then, metal was only sporadically featured in some of the country’s youth magazines. Professional rock and metal magazines were effectively absent. eventually, it turned out to be a satirical magazine rather than a music magazine that prompted the rise of metal in Turkey. Grup Perişan Towards the end of the 1980s, young caricaturist Abdülkadir Elçioğlu began to create the Grup Perişan comic strips, which appeared in Turkey’s most prominent satirical magazine Gırgır. Gırgır (later renamed to Hıbır) was one of the world’s best-selling satirical magazines, with a weekly circulation of 300,000 to 400,000 copies. its enormous prominence, particularly among young readers, was due largely to an environment that did not provide enough political and intellectual outlets. radio and television were still monopolized by a single state-controlled body, the Turkish radio and Television corporation, and the political climate remained affected by the military coup d’état of 1980. satirical magazines were one of the few autonomous voices featuring a combination of politics, sex, art, and social criticism. Gırgır followed its declared mission: to criticize cultural values, politics, and the “ordinary” way of life. With Grup Perişan, Abdülkadir Elçioğlu invented a comic strip that was dedicated to rock and metal culture. he himself was a passionate rock and heavy

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metal listener and, in reference to Metallica, used the pseudonym “Aptülika.” “Grup Perişan” means “group of losers,” and tells the story of three young men who share a lat in Istanbul while studying at the university. The narrative structures of Grup Perişan are based upon the protagonists’ discrete, stereotypical characters and their interpersonal encounters in everyday life. soyut, the confused intellectual, Danyal, the naïve and dumpy, but likeable guy from the anatolian countryside, and Mazhar, the easygoing, rebellious rocker are each in search of the joys and comforts of life as available through girls, music, alcohol, sleep, and—in the case of Danyal—food. They live in an urban setting: mostly on the streets, and in bars, concert venues, university corridors, and their shared lat. By all means, aptülika’s favorite character is Mazhar. he embodies all the features of a young, rebellious rocker. uncompromising in his individual way of life and always on a collision course with the surrounding society, he goes through—and gets into—a lot of trouble. The author leaves no doubt as to who is the undisputable hero of the story. he portrays Mazhar as a cheerful, carefree character who enjoys life to the fullest degree. in this way, he shows the ultimate success of a lifestyle driven by individual freedom and self-determination. The relevance of Aptülika’s Grup Perişan lies in a number of aspects. Perhaps most striking is how his personal afiliation with Istanbul’s rock and heavy metal scene affected the cartoon’s narrative. Together with his friends, aptülika witnessed both the rise of the city’s metal underground and controversial reactions to it from the Turkish public, including verbal and physical insults, consternation, and a lack of understanding. his inspiration was often directly derived from these personal experiences, which he then transposed into the Grup Perişan strips. In a humorous and frequently ironic way that aimed to hold up a mirror to society, he captured the zeitgeist of these early years of Turkish metal in istanbul. his cartoon’s proximity to everyday life was also relected in the frequent appearance of real events, settings, and persons: Pentagram’s drummer cenk Ünnü, one of Aptülika’s close friends; Istanbul’s irst rock bar, the Kemancı under the bridge; or the harbiye Open air Theatre, a formerly frequent venue for heavy metal concerts are only a few examples of real-life references in Aptülika’s Grup Perişan. Another aspect of importance is how Aptülika’s Grup Perişan contributed to the dissemination of the visual and verbal representations of rock and metal culture among young readers. Not only did Mazhar—with his long hair, leather jacket, torn denim trousers, boots, earrings, and sodom, D.r.i., or skull print T-shirts—match the cliché of the true rocker, but aptülika also added some “hidden” information to his drawings. That is, he often illed the background in the cartoon, by way of posters or writings on the wall, with news about bands, upcoming concerts, and record releases. at a certain stage, aptülika decided to go beyond the original scope of the comic strip and use the blank margins of the magazine pages for some further drawings and verbal information. in that way, he presented band biographies (including caricatures of each band member), discographies, lyrics, and the latest news on the metal world. Figure 2.2 shows a whole page from Hıbır magazine in order to illustrate samples of aptülika’s work. in the magazine margins, he

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depicted american thrash metal legend slayer with reference to their South of Heaven album (1988), while at the top of the page he portrayed king Diamond’s logo. his illustrations further comprised visual representations of metal culture, including inverted crosses, human skulls, slayer’s pentagram logo, and the devil horns sign (see the “bird” at the top of the magazine page). Through Grup Perişan, interested readers became familiar with these kinds of metal icons. Over the years, aptülika portrayed almost the whole rock and metal world, ranging from classic rock band Jethro Tull to black metal pioneers Venom (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.2

Aptülika’s Grup Perişan. The magazine margins depict caricatures of thrash metal band slayer. Published in Hıbır, No. 13, 27 July 1989, p. 9

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Figure 2.3

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Venom as caricatured by aptülika in Hıbır, No. 135, 28 November 1991, p. 7

Laneth since there is no archive for underground publications in Turkey, it is hard to determine when exactly the irst fanzines were published. According to my research, it was either Laneth or Mega Metal, which were both launched in 1991. Laneth soon evolved into a professional music magazine and had considerable impact on the scene. Its founder Çağlan Tekil was inspired by the German and British metal magazines Metal Hammer and Kerrang!, of which he had found copies in a secondhand bookshop in Beyazıt. Before commencing with Laneth, he had been actively involved in istanbul’s metal scene, organizing concerts with local metal bands. in 1989, while still in his teens, he mounted a concert with Metalium, Pegasus, and Destroyer in istanbul’s famous Fenerbahçe Park which, according to Çağlan himself, attracted some 3,000 metalheads. The next morning, the daily newspaper Sabah “honored” the event, with a report headlined “children of satan” (see chapter 3). Laneth’s irst issue was published in May 1991 and was sold under the slogan “Turkey’s least-selling music magazine.” Çağlan, in fact, only had enough money to produce 35 copies of the irst issue, which he then delivered to the Pentagram Metal shop in akmar. upon his return a few hours later, all copies had been sold. For the second issue, Çağlan prepared 100 copies, which again sold out almost immediately. a metal magazine in Turkish was something incredibly new, and people were thirsty for news about bands and events. Laneth’s circulation, therefore, steadily increased, inally reaching as many as 2,700 copies in 1994.

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Figure 2.4

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Laneth, No. 17, 1992

By that time, it had turned into a monthly publication with a professional layout, featuring news and record reviews, interviews with local and foreign bands, as well as concert and festival reports. Laneth’s continuous professionalization was due in part to the fact that Çağlan from the very beginning aimed for connecting with the european underground. as early as 1993, he and co-editor kerim Tunçay traveled to the annual Dynamo Open air Festival in eindhoven in the Netherlands. since ticket prices were incredibly cheap—10 Guilders for two and a half days of metal and hardcore—Dynamo had become europe’s largest metal festival, at the time attracting an audience of up to 100,000 people. Upon returning to Turkey, Çağlan and Kerim published a lengthy report on the festival and presented interviews with several international bands. During repeated trips to european concerts and festivals, they gathered new experiences, established contact with musicians, labels and fanzines, and—to a certain degree—made the existence of Turkish metal known abroad. at Dynamo, kerim also met Greek black metal band rotting christ, an acquaintance which soon developed into a close friendship. Laneth published several interviews with the band, and Çağlan eventually organized a small concert tour in Turkey. in light of the long history of hostile relations between the two countries, organizing a tour for a Greek band could be considered a revolution.

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Though the organizers initially feared a violent response from Turkish ultranationalist groups—particularly after the press had reported on the forthcoming concerts—the tour became a great success, and rotting christ until today has a strong fan base among Turkish black metal listeners. Laneth’s declared aim, according to Çağlan, was never a commercial one, but rather to one day conduct an interview with the “godfathers” of thrash metal, Slayer. This dream was inally realized at the end of 1994, when Laneth published its irst and only Slayer interview. Immediately thereafter, the fanzine ceased publication. Crucial to this decision was also the fact that Çağlan could no longer delay his military service. since the Turkish constitution does not provide a right to conscientious objection, all males up to the age of 41 are obliged to serve in the armed forces for a period of up to 15 months. losing musicians and writers to the military service was (and still is) a catastrophe for many bands, fanzines, and even concert organizers. The situation is worsened, for not all band members are able to serve their terms at the same time. Non Serviam After his return from the military in May 1996, Çağlan founded a new fanzine called Non Serviam. in contrast to Laneth, it favored a more mainstream approach, and in addition to metal, also featured alternative rock artists. The name “Non serviam” was chosen in tribute to rotting christ’s eponymous album, as well as in reference to italian death metal band crown of autumn. The latin phrase non serviam—“i will not serve”—originally refers to satan’s biblical refusal to submit to the will of God and accept no masters (Jeremiah 2, 20).5 in modern times, the biblical myth of satan’s revolt against God found adaptation in quite a number of literary works, best-known in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. in nineteenth-century romanticism, the protagonist of Milton’s seventeenth-century poem had been widely regarded as Lucifer, the fallen angel, who deiantly declares that it is better to reign in hell than to eternally serve in heaven. lucifer’s rebellion, as expressed in the words non serviam and adapted in Milton’s Paradise Lost, represents an allegory of emancipation in terms of freeing human thought and action from divine intervention. Both Milton’s Paradise Lost and the biblical phrase non serviam ind numerous adaptations in global metal—probably most popular in the name of the eponymous British band Paradise lost; other popular examples are elend’s album-trilogy Les Lecons de Ténèbres (1994–1998) and cradle’s of Filth’s Damnation and a Day (2003), which are both thematically based upon Milton’s work. These references, in my contention, should not be classiied as symbolic representations of evil, but rather as metaphors of emancipation. as i will argue 5

“Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: i will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.” (Jeremiah 2, 20; translation: The Old Testament irst published 1609 by the english college at Douay).

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later, the meaning of satanic allusions in metal is mostly metaphoric and, in most cases, an expression of emancipation from religious and social constraints. The meaning of the biblical phrase non serviam in a Muslim context must thus be read within this wider setting. Şebek Non Serviam became Turkey’s most popular metal fanzine, alongside a new project by aptülika named Şebek (“Baboon”). aptülika’s former employer Hıbır had gone bankrupt by the end of 1995. Together with some former colleagues, he, therefore, founded a new satirical magazine. When sales remained low, his colleagues asked him to try something new and to add regular writings on rock and metal music to his section of the magazine. When the idea proved a success, the editing board decided to further enlarge the magazine’s “rock section.” at this stage, aptülika began to gather support from his metal friends—namely Hicri Bozdağ, Cenk Ünnü, Ozzy Özgür, Şanver Oluoğlu, Panterakay, Bahadır Uludağlar—and, by the end of 1997, Şebek had turned from a satirical magazine into a full-scale metal magazine with a weekly circulation of 7,000–10,000 copies. Şebek enjoyed nationwide distribution and could be bought at regular newspaper stores and kiosks.

Figure 2.5

Şebek, No. 3, ca. 1996

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The editors of Şebek and Non Serviam were on friendly terms with each other. Nevertheless, they represented two separate factions within the Turkish scene. While Non Serviam was open to other musical genres, Şebek was known to mostly feature old-school heavy metal bands and look critically at new musical trends. in the eyes of Şebek, the enormous success of alternative rock bands like Nirvana represented a deformation of the true heavy metal spirit. however, both magazines went bankrupt in early 2000 as the direct result of a moral panic over metal and satanism (see chapter 3). shopkeepers and kiosk owners suddenly refused to sell the aforementioned magazines any longer, and many youngsters were afraid of being seen buying “Satanist propaganda.” Due to the inancial disaster caused by public pressure and ignorance, and enabled by the latest technological innovations, fanzine culture increasingly shifted towards the Internet. The irst webzine to go online after the closure of Non Serviam and Şebek was Deli Kasap (“Mad Butcher”) in 2001. Deli Kasap “Laneth and Non Serviam were closed. and there wasn’t anything for rockers to read about rock ‘n’ roll. We thought: ‘Ok, we can do it’ … [and] we somehow became the major rock ‘n’ roll magazine in Turkey,” explains Bahadır, one of the founding fathers of Deli Kasap. as he indicates, Deli Kasap is devoted to a broader musical approach, rather than solely focusing on metal. Yet, the magazine was named after a recording by the German thrash metal band Destruction (Mad Butcher, 1987). in addition to musical issues, Deli Kasap’s editors also see their magazine as a means of informing and educating their readers about the meaning of rock ‘n’ roll culture, and are, therefore, also dealing with historic, political, and philosophical issues. In order to avoid inancial catastrophe, as was the case with Non Serviam and Şebek, Deli Kasap’s editors refrained from publishing a printed version of their magazine. however, the internet had a transformative impact, not only with regard to the general format of publication, but also as regards usage habits. although Deli Kasap reproduced the basic fanzine patterns in terms of regular (monthly or quarterly) publication, separate front covers, thematic priorities, interviews, reviews, and articles, it also introduced a series of new facilities. a new forum section, for instance, provided a platform for discussion and virtual networking. Moreover, the internet enabled Deli Kasap to easily engage writers from other cities and even from outside of Turkey. its audience thus could now be also updated on releases and events in other parts of the metal world. Due to better connectivity, the number of writers and contributors increased signiicantly or as Bahadır puts it: In total we have sixty, sixty-ive [writers]. I keep track of the writers, but I personally just know maybe ive or six of them. The other ones … are living in

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other cities, away from istanbul. We don’t know them personally. We are just, you know, on common grounds with them.

Bahadır provides insight into the scope of translocal connectivity as made possible by the internet. like the global tape-trading network, webzines do not rely on face-to-face contacts. social relations stretch over huge distances, across national and natural boundaries. in the “old times,” however, it would have been impossible to jointly edit fanzines, for the postal system as the main vehicle of communication was simply too slow and expensive. another aspect that persisted from the old days, at least as far as Deli Kasap is concerned, is the editors’ do-it-yourself and nonproit attitude. In addition to being freely accessible through the internet, Deli Kasap also decided to ban all commercial advertisement from its site. During the conversations and interviews for the present study, Deli Kasap’s editors appeared convinced that bringing in commercial interests would ruin the whole project. consequently, the webzine is heavily reliant on its writers’ voluntary commitment. since Deli kasap was launched in 2001, rock and metal platforms have been mushrooming. Despite the technological advantages of the internet, traditional (printed) fanzines have been also reappearing in the racks of local record stores (Metal Monster, Zor, Headbangers, Rock Station, Alternative Mag, Gothic and Machines, Ağrı Kesici, Nefret, Enred, Woeful Cry, Sonic Splendor, Holy Sin). None of them, however, would probably reach the (weekly) circulation, let alone the countrywide distribution of Şebek.

Independent Radio Broadcasting During the post-coup d’état era, Turkey’s national media were monopolized and controlled by the state. independent music channels were unavailable, and the Turkish radio and Television corporation (TrT) only sporadically played rock music on its program. Özer sarısakal of thrash metal band kronik recalls one of these rare moments: I just remember one thing. Motörhead’s Ace of Spades was number one in england. National charts, Top Ten, and ace of spades was number one. i was going to school. it was in the morning like seven o’clock, and i turned on the radio and the speaker says: “Now, we are playing the international charts. united Kingdom: Ace of Spades by Motörhead.” But it was a mistake. The Motörhead lP had been pressed here in Turkey. and they had put the sticker on the wrong side of the record. They announced ace of spades, but were playing Fire, Fire. [laughs]

Özer refers to the vinyl pressing of Motörhead’s Ace of Spades album, which was released in england in 1980. its a-side opens with the title song Ace of

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Spades, while the B-side of the record begins with a song called Fire, Fire. Özer uses this example in order to make fun of the TrT radio hosts who apparently didn’t notice that they played the wrong song. Besides this, he mocks the Turkish music industry, which appeared unable to simply put a sticker on the right side of a record. Özer’s narrative therefore is an allusion to the general atmosphere of ignorance that surrounded Turkish rockers and metalheads in those days. Police Radio although the era of private radio broadcasting was still to come, the TrT’s monopoly was not supreme. Beyond its control was the oficial Police Radio, a broadcasting station that to this day belongs to Turkey’s General Directorate of Security. Police Radio, indeed, hosted Turkey’s irst rock music programs— Meridyen (“Meridian”) and Rock Dünyası (“World of Rock”)—which, from time to time, also played popular heavy metal songs. Şener Yıldız, the former host of Rock Dünyası, recalls how he initiated the program: Good God, it was sheer coincidence. everything was just a coincidence. Well, one day, i was listening to my records and it came to mind: “Why is there no such program on the radio?” … so, i went to the Police radio [station]. concerning content, Police radio was more open-minded … i went there and … we submitted a request saying, “let’s do it,” and they invited me … we talked a bit and then we started.6

Though to launch the program appeared surprisingly easy, conditions in the studio turned out to be more dificult. Şener describes the atmosphere during the program’s recording sessions: Well, there were some physical conditions. On the ninth loor of a building, you play the records and a police oficer records the program. You show the wording of the program and the security chief signs it. There were constraints of this sort. Just think how dificult it was to go and play these kinds of songs. Well, the police asked what the song is about, and, of course, sometimes we couldn’t be frank. You record something, and just then someone blows the whistle [as a warning], because someone is coming along the corridor … This is how we worked.7

6 Quoted and translated from an interview with Şener Yıldız for Zor Music Magazine, published in april 2004 (Zor Müzik Dergisi, Sayı 3, 2004, p. 86). 7 ibid. 85.

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From Monopoly to Privatization The national broadcasting monopoly, for a long time, lay in the hands of the Turkish radio and Television corporation. Founded as an autonomous, public corporate body in 1964, the TrT was never free from government interference. Particularly in the aftermath of the coup d’état of 1980, the political leadership exerted direct control over the TRT’s broadcasting policies (Barış 2006, Çaplı 1998). Even after the restoration of civilian government in 1983, the TrT’s national broadcasting monopoly remained in place. an important landmark as far as Turkish media history is concerned was the launch of STAR 1, the country’s irst private TV channel, in September 1990. By broadcasting via satellite from Germany, sTar 1 could easily escape government control. In addition to beneiting from technological innovations, the company received support from local municipalities, which, in opposition to the government, relayed its broadcasting signals terrestrially (Çaplı 1998). Although private broadcasting oficially continued to be illegal, approximately 100 local commercial TV channels and 500 local radio stations commenced operating without licenses (Çaplı 1998, Barış 2006). Faced with a widespread public euphoria about the new variety of radio and TV programs, the Turkish government was left with little choice but to step back from its previous position and legalize the private operators’ activities. On 8 august 1993, the parliament inally amended Article 133 of the Turkish Constitution, lifting the monopoly on radio and television broadcasting. The same constitutional amendment also reasserted the TRT’s impartiality and autonomy from governmental inluence. The state, however, did not completely lose its grip on the national media. On 13 april 1994, only a few months after the parliament had paved the way for legalizing private broadcasting, it also passed the radio and Television Bill (Law No. 3984) in order to regulate both private and public broadcasting (Çaplı 1998, Barış 2006). The law provided for the establishment of a new body of control, namely the radio and Television supreme council (rTÜk). The rTÜk had not only been assigned the duty of allocating frequencies, channels, and transmission licenses, but also of assuring the compliance of media content with legal regulations. it continued to retain sanctioning power, reaching from simple warnings and inancial penalties to temporary program and channel suspensions (Barış 2006, Çaplı 1998). Over the years, the RTÜK has come under frequent criticism for sanctioning private broadcasters due to political reasons. Private Radio Broadcasting Unlike the irst private TV channels, which went on air as early as 1990, private radio stations did not begin operating until 1992. in contrast to the emerging TV industry, private radio broadcasting also involved channels that were independent from the country’s major cross-media groups. Due to the relatively small amount of start-up capital needed to buy the necessary technical equipment, local radio

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stations were mushrooming all over the country. The radio boom was further stimulated by the absence of broadcasting regulations during the period between the abolition of the TrT monopoly in august 1993 and the establishment of the rTÜk in april 1994. subsequently, independent radio stations became an important means of spreading underground music, initiating a process of cultural transformation that particularly affected the younger generation. in the summer of 1992, Kadir Çöpdemir, a writer for the music magazine Stüdyo Imge, reports on Istanbul’s irst independent radio stations. Full of enthusiasm, he hails the advent of private radio broadcasting and announces the beginning of a new era: it is needless to tell a man, who [still] remembers [the time] when there was only one television set within one single house of a huge neighborhood, about the importance of radio broadcasting. … cinemas, theatres, exhibitions … There were no such things in the town where i lived.8

Kadir Çöpdemir underlines the general importance radio broadcasting at that time. The inluence of television was undisputedly on the rise, but the array of media entertainment, particularly for youngsters, was still very much limited. The situation in Turkey, therefore, should not be confused with the fully developed entertainment industry in Western europe. The program formats of the new private radio stations it the needs of the younger generation much better than the standard formats of TrT. The Turkish audience was used to listen to a stagnant set of programs largely isolated from the international music market. The new programs now placed emphasis on popular music and were operated by young do-it-yourself corporations that had taken the chance to found their own independent radio stations. The irst private radio station to go on air was radio Kent FM (“Town FM”) on 4 June 1992. Only a few days later, on 12 June, it was followed by Genç Radyo (“Young Radio”). Both stations broadcast from istanbul and were available throughout the region (Kent FM could be received as far as Tekirdağ in the west and Şile in the east of istanbul). Genç radyo was founded by Turkuaz holding, a corporation established by a group of 99 young people, all of them in their 20s (Çöpdemir 1992: 35). It was a low-budget, do-it-yourself initiative that did not include any professional staff. Nevertheless, Genç radyo broadcast 24 hours a day, gaining wide popularity among young listeners in particular. This was mainly due to a program format that featured almost all kinds of popular music. The station hosted radio shows for jazz, rock, funk, soul, alternative, pop, and last but not least, heavy metal. radio kent FM had a similar format, including several rock and metal programs. in terms of rock and metal, the relevant shows were kara Tren (“Black Train”), Sus (“Shut Up”), Azı Dişi Kerpeteni (“Dental Forceps”) and Orion on

8 Quoted and translated from K. Çöpdemir (1992), “Radyo Günleri Başlıyooorrr,” in Stüdyo Imge, Sayı 2, 2 Temmuz 1992, Istanbul, pp. 34–5.

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radio Kent FM, as well as Mahşer (“Doomsday”)9 on Genç radyo. kara Tren’s and Orion’s program format, apart from playing music, could be described as a mission to promote rock culture in Turkey. Both radio shows presented features on rock history and culture, and organized live interviews with local Turkish rock and metal bands. The other aforementioned programs—Sus, Azı Dişi Kerpeteni, Mahşer—had a clear focus on metal music, thus representing the irst ‘real’ metal programs on Turkish radio. Other radio stations, almost simultaneously, came up with similar programs—like, for instance, Hilmi Tezgör’s Vertigo on the socialist radio RED FM or Barbaros Devecioğlu’s Garaj (“Garage”) and Necati Tüfenk’s aksi Nota (“counter Music”) on radio hür FM (“independent FM”). Özer sarısakal of Kronik was among the irst DJs at radio Kent FM. Over several years, he hosted the programs kara Tren (together with Tolga soyhan) and Azı Dişi Kerpeteni. In an interview, he placed emphasis on the effect private radio programs had in terms of disseminating metal culture in Turkey: We did [the program] over many years. it was very helpful in disseminating heavy metal, because many people listened to [heavy metal] for the irst time through our program. and we were reaching the listeners. Many people were listening and it became bigger. it became much bigger.

in playing the recordings of local metal bands and inviting them for live interviews, Özer and his colleagues gave a boost to the local scene. The private radio stations provided a new possibility for promoting underground music. until then, the bands had been limited to local concerts or features in one of the few oficial music magazines in order to promote their music. Private radio made the existence of Turkish metal more “real.” Professionalization and Decline Soon, however, the newly emerging radio channels were facing severe dificulties. First of all, only a few of them managed to generate suficient income in order to secure long-term survival. advertising revenues were mostly far too low to guarantee their staff a living. The fact that the majority of radio hosts and engineers simultaneously had to work at other jobs to survive, undermined the professionalization of the private radio sector. Moreover, access to technical equipment and international record releases was still highly limited. compared with Turkish standards, prices for european and North american goods were high, and the Turkish music industry was not yet fully integrated into the international music market. Only the most popular albums were produced and sold under license by Turkish companies. as far as extreme metal music was concerned, albums were only released on independent metal labels in europe and the united 9 Mahşer was the program of Abdülkadir Elçioğlu, alias Aptülika. He was not the sole presenter, but contributed signiicantly to the program.

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states (earache, Metal Blade, Morbid records, Nuclear Blast, Peaceville, relapse Records, and so on) and were, therefore, particularly hard to ind. as of august 1993, the Turkish Parliament formally legalized private radio and TV broadcasting. The radio stations, however, continued functioning beyond regulatory control. This lack of regulation, which lasted until the rTÜk was established in april 1994, stimulated rivalry among private radio stations, which sometimes competed with each other for the same broadcasting frequencies. in the end, it was mostly technical equipment that decided the battle. The legal anarchy in those days was, therefore, another factor for why many private radio stations quickly vanished. Furthermore, most radio initiatives were struggling with a lack of experience. a simple yet crucial example of this was an initial failure to regularly draw up playlists for each program. Playlists usually function as proof to the record companies that their artists had actually been played and promoted. in other words, they are a necessary precondition for receiving free promotional copies of the music industry’s latest record releases. Mete Sohtaoğlu, who hosts Beton (“Concrete”)—a weekly metal show on Istanbul’s Açık Radyo—mentioned that when he started his program in 1997, he did not know about the importance of playlists. This did not change until he had a chance to visit the international music fair Popkomm in cologne, together with friends from hammer Müzik. Mete apparently asked a number of international metal labels for promotional copies for his program. Most of them, however, refused, for he did not bring any playlists. after returning home he immediately proceeded to list all the songs he played on his show, and today receives promotional copies from dozens of record companies around the world. another innovation, according to Mete, was to invite international studio guests onto his program. it was already common to have Turkish artists on the show, but to have some of the world’s most famous “metal gods” live on air was something of a new dimension. Mete’s very irst studio guest was Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth of Overkill in 1999. Beforehand, however, he had a hard time convincing the band’s manager of the importance of a live interview. When he inally succeeded, the show was a huge success. Many listeners were shocked by the live interview with “Blitz.” up till then, there was something unreal about bands like Overkill. People knew and loved their music, but it was hard to imagine seeing (or listening to) them live in Turkey. The fact that the vocalist of the legendary band Overkill was talking to Turkish fans live on radio made metal more real and established Turkey as a part of a global scene. Differently speaking, the appearance of international studio guests moved the Turkish scene from the margins, a little bit closer to the center of global metal. Since it remained a dificult task to regularly invite international studio guests, radio presenters proceeded to record interviews abroad and broadcast them a couple of days or weeks later. This was usually done by the help of friends who had the money, time, and a visa to travel to the big summer festivals in europe.

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The 1990s saw a considerable number of metal shows appear on Turkish private radio. To name but a few, there were Pena and Köprüaltı (“Under the Bridge”)10 on Radyo İstek, Maximum Rock on Radyo Klüp,11 laneth (“curse”) on radyo eksen,12 Biryantin (“Brilliantine”) on radio rock FM, rock station on radyo Vizyon,13 and Beton on Açık Radyo (Sohtaoğlu 2005: 3). Although the stations broadcast at a local or regional level, they reach a far wider audience via satellite and Internet. Açık Radyo, for example, covers the Turkish Marmara region via FM 94.9, including the major Turkish cities of Istanbul, Edirne, Eskişehir, and Bursa. Via satellite and Internet, Açık Radyo also reaches listeners from beyond that area. Radio presenter Mete Sohtaoğlu mentioned that he even received emails and demo CDs from listeners and bands in Jordan, Israel, Germany, and Brazil.

Bands and Events Over the past 30 years, the Turkish metal scene spawned hundreds of bands. Most of them, however, were only short-lived, characterized by constant lineup changes and breaking up without ever releasing a recording. This is no wonder, considering all of the constraints and disadvantages Turkish metal bands face. These dificulties begin with prevailing stereotypes and prejudices towards metal music in Turkish society (see chapters 3 to 7), proceeding with many other factors. Turkish musicians suffer from a shortage of affordable rehearsal studios, high prices for equipment and instruments, a lack of high-quality recording and production facilities, the strict visa requirements of most european countries, long months of compulsory domestic military service, long working hours, low wages, and insuficient national healthcare and welfare systems. Briely speaking, the chances to improve and professionalize one’s own music in order to compete in the international music market, or to reach an international audience by touring or promotion, are extremely low. as a whole, the aforementioned factors pose a constant threat to the musical professionalization and continuity of the Turkish scene. as sales potentials for extreme music in Turkey are low, and an international career is largely out of reach, most metal musicians are realistic enough to know that they have only the slimmest of prospects of ever earning a living through metal music alone. Many of them, however, appear to compensate for this volatile situation with an enormous degree of passion and dedication. consequently, we ind all forms, styles, and genres of metal music in Turkey today. 10

The program was named after the legendary rock bar under the old Galata Bridge. after radyo klüp was shut down, Maximum rock continued on radyo D. The program was presented by Güven erkin erkal, who also hosts the metal show Yüxexes (“high Volume”) on Dream TV. 12 Laneth is hosted by Çağlan Tekil and named after the eponymous metal fanzine. 13 Radio Vizyon broadcasts from Ankara. Rock Station is presented by Hiçri Bozdağ, who also runs an eponymous rock bar, metal fanzine, and metal festival. 11

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The irst wave of Turkish heavy metal took off in the early 1980s and consisted of bands like Whisky, Devil, ra, kramp, akbaba, Dr. skull, egzotik Band, and Objektif. in contrast to previous anatolian rock music (see chapter 1), the new bands no longer drew their inspiration from anatolian folk music. instead, they modeled their songs on american and european hard rock and heavy metal. Furthermore, they increasingly preferred english over Turkish lyrics—due partly to political reasons, for the Turkish police usually did not understand english. The irst heavy metal album to be completely sung in Turkish was Whisky’s Babaanne (“Grandmother”) in 1986. a second, more extreme wave of Turkish metal hit the scene in the second half of the 1980s. Bands like kronik, Metafor, Metalium, Pentagram, or hazy hill— though they were also inluenced by the above-named irst-wave Turkish metal bands—became known for introducing thrash metal to Turkey. Thrash metal was born in the early 1980s and represents a musical revolution within global metal. it incorporated musical elements that were originally derived from hardcore and punk, generating a sound that was much harder than classical heavy metal. Thrash metal was faster, more aggressive, and technically more elaborate. The new style was pioneered by american artists like anthrax, exodus, Megadeth, Metallica, slayer, and Testament. another breeding ground was Western Germany, with Destruction, kreator, sodom, holy Moses, or Tankard. German thrash metal had considerable impact on the Turkish scene, for German bands were among the irst to perform live in Turkey. Pentagram One of the bands that spearheaded the second wave of Turkish metal was Pentagram. Formed by hakan utangaç and cenk Ünnü in 1986, the band became a symbol of persistence and success in the eyes of many metalheads. Not only does the band’s history relect the emergence, growth, and transformation of Turkish metal over the past 25 years, but it also serves as an inspiration for many young bands today. Pentagram’s outstanding popularity could be seen on 4 February 2007, when the band celebrated its 20 anniversary in front of thousands of fans at the sold out Bostancı Gösteri Merkezi in Istanbul. During the show, Pentagram was enthusiastically hailed by the crowd—not least because its members were living proof of the existence of metal beyond the age of 40. The members of Pentagram were involved in virtually all of the aforementioned informal practices that contributed to the dissemination of metal music and culture in Turkey. Cenk Ünnü, for instance, was among the irst to sell bootleg cassettes in the streets of Beyazıt. Years later, he opened a record store in Beşiktaş named Pena Müzik. For several years, the band also ran the Pentagram Metal shop in akmar. Moreover, its members organized numerous concerts and their characters even appeared in Aptülika’s Grup Perişan comic strips. Their irst live performance took place in a traditional wedding venue in Bağcılar, a mostly poor, workingclass neighborhood in istanbul. That show, however, had to be interrupted after

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the audience “went crazy” and began to destroy the place. (The venue owner, apparently alarmed by the noise of chairs being smashed to the loor, forcibly prevented the musicians from continuing their performance). in spring 1990, Pentagram released their same-titled debut album. it was the irst Turkish speed/thrash metal record, and, therefore, hit Turkish metal listeners like a bombshell. Nobody had actually expected a Turkish band to be capable of producing a thrash metal album—in particular, since Turkish recording studios did not meet international standards. cenk remembers how he and hakan picked up the irst records of their new album: The irst album came out on 23 April [1990]. Hakan and I were waiting at the doors of the [record] company in Unkapanı [on the European side of Istanbul]. The newly-pressed albums were delivered to the company in separate packages. about noon, we received news that the packages had arrived. so, we shouldered one of them and jumped on the ferryboat [going] directly to akmar. still on the road, album sales started. The rockers we met along the way bought the album on the spot. There was solidarity in these times. It was the irst English-speaking, speed metal-style cassette that had been released.14

Within only a few weeks, the album’s irst pressing of 5,000 copies was sold out. in the months that followed, it sold a total of 30,000 copies, which, by Turkish standards, was an enormous success. The album release also enabled Pentagram to promote their music abroad. in other words, they joined the global tape-trading network by sending promo packages to foreign bands, fanzines, and labels. The latter inally earned them a record deal with German metal label Nuclear Blast. although the release of Trail Blazer, Pentagram’s second album, in 1992 was of symbolic rather than commercial value, it had an important psychological effect on the Turkish scene. Pentagram’s deal with Nuclear Blast—as well as the band’s subsequent releases on century Media, sanctuary records, and universal records—was seen as proof that even a Turkish band can make it internationally.15 In fact, Pentagram was the irst (and only) Turkish metal band to achieve some degree of commercial success and make a living from music (though not from metal music alone). Anatolian Metal? in the second half of the 1990s, Pentagram jumped on another trend in global metal. By then, a number of popular bands had proceeded to integrate ethnic musical Quoted and translated from an interview with Cenk Ünnü by M.B. Kayıhan for Körpüaltı Heavy Metal Dergisi. The complete interview was published in two successive issues of the magazine, on 1 January 2000 and on 8 January 2000. 15 Outside of Turkey, Pentagram’s albums were released under the name Mezar kabul due to copyright disputes with an eponymous band from the usa. 14

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instruments into their sounds—among them the British band skyclad, Brazil’s sepultura, and israel’s Orphaned land. The “ethnic turn” in metal music in some cases reached into the domain of thought and belief, stretching from Bathory’s pre-christian, pagan philosophies or sepultura’s tribal allusions in support of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, to Orphaned land’s search for religious spirituality and reconciliation with the arab people. Pentagram apparently responded to this trend by blending anatolian folk elements into their music. The band’s third studio album Anatolia (1997) reveals this musical reorientation. The recording not only merges anatolian musical instruments and melodies with metal, but also includes a song that is based on the work of famous Turkish minstrel and poet Aşık Veysel (1894–1973). Pentagram’s song Gündüz gece (“Day and Night”) is an interpretation of the poet’s Uzun ince bir yoldayım (“i’m on a long and narrow road”), one of the most prominent poems in Turkish music and literature.16 Due to the new anatolian sound, Pentagram attracted a much wider audience. in the end, Anatolia sold more than 70,000 copies, representing the biggest success by a Turkish metal band so far. With their next two albums, Unspoken (2001) and Bir (2002), Pentagram further pursued the path broken by Anatolia. Bir was the band’s irst record to be completely sung in Turkish. The album included another poem by Aşık Veysel, Bu alemi gören sensin (“You are the one who sees this world”), as well as an interpretation of minstrel Aşık Dertli’s (1772–1846) famous song Şeytan bunun neresinde. The latter begins with the words: Telli sazdır bunun adı (“stringed saz is its name”) Ne ayet dinler ne kadı (“Neither does it listen to the verses of the koran, nor to the islamic judge”) Bunu çalan anlar kendi (“The one who plays it understands himself”) Şeytan bunun neresinde? (“Where is satan in that?”)

The poet here refers to a stringed musical instrument of enormous popularity, the saz. Besides its popular usage in anatolian folk music, the saz is of highly symbolic value. in Ottoman times, it became a symbol of revolt and resistance against the empire’s political and religious authorities. Popular folk poets traveling the anatolian countryside often used their songs in order to spread the word of rebellion. Many of them belonged to the alevi branch of islam, which found itself in a constant struggle against the institutions of sunni orthodoxy and the central government’s policies of religious assimilation. Most popular in this 16 Aşık Veysel’s Uzun ince bir yoldayım has been adapted by many musicians: internationally best known is likely to be aziza Mustafa Zadeh’s interpretation on her album Shamans (2002).

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context is the igure of Alevi mystical poet Pir Sultan Abdal (1480–1550), who actively participated in a revolt against the Ottoman sultan in the region of sivas before inally being executed (Shaw 1976: 149, Sökefeld 2008: 67). His death made him a popular symbol of alevi resistance. even today, many alevi families keep pictures or small sculptures of Pir sultan abdal in their homes. usually, he is depicted raising a saz high above his head. To put it briely, even in modern Turkey, the saz in many ways represents a symbol of revolt, resistance, and freedom. Pentagram apparently used this symbolism in a modern, contemporary context. The subversive power of the saz in Şeytan bunun neresinde appears to be conveyed upon another stringed musical instrument, the electric guitar, as used by contemporary anatolian “metal minstrels.” Pentagram’s interpretation of the song was released in 2002 in the direct aftermath of several moral panics over metal and satanism in Turkey (see chapter 3). Within this context, Şeytan bunun neresinde must be seen as a strong statement of deiance in the face of social repression. Musically, Pentagram continued to merge classical heavy metal with anatolian melodies. Although the band was not the irst to use Turkish lyrics in metal— Whisky, kramp, and kronik did that long before—their synthesis of anatolian folk elements and metal marks a resumption of 1960s and 1970s anatolian rock traditions. at least since the release of Bir in 2002, the Turkish metal scene has been discussing the birth of a new musical genre alongside Anadolu Rock, namely Anadolu Metal.17 To some extent, other present-day metal bands like Soul Sacriice or almora have also been integrating anatolian folk elements into their music.18 Pop Music? Pentagram’s irst live album of 1998 was entitled Popçular dışarı (“Pop listeners leave the hall!”). Despite this, the band is an excellent example of how (former) metal musicians are having an unfolding impact on present-day Turkish mainstream rock and pop music. Most of Pentagram’s former and present members—Tarkan Gözübüyük, Metin Türkcan, Murat İlken, Demir Demirkan, Murat Net, Ogün Sanlısoy—have been involved in commercially successful mainstream projects, either as musicians, composers, or producers. The list of these projects is long, wherefore i will only name some of the most successful. Pentagram’s former guitarist Demir Demirkan, in addition to his solo career, became famous for composing the contest winning song Every Way That I Can, performed by sertab erener at the european song contest in 2003. Metin Türkcan, parallel to playing in Pentagram, has been appearing in Şebnem Ferah’s studio and live lineup for more than a decade. Moreover, he has been working with Turkish pop star and actor Özlem Tekin. (Before launching successful solo careers, both women—Şebnem 17 see, for instance, Deniz Özbildin’s review on Pentagram’s Bir album, published in Rock Station Müzik & Kültür Dergisi, Ekim – Kasım 2002 # 12, p. 31. 18 As we can see, for example, in Soul Sacriice’s song Çocuk Bahçesi on the Stranded Hate album (2005) or on almora’s album Gates of Time (2002).

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Ferah and Özlem Tekin—played in Turkey’s irst all-female hard rock band Volvox, which was founded in Bursa in 1988.) Tarkan Gözübüyük, Pentagram’s bass player, contributed to various rock projects as songwriter, performer, and producer. For instance, he worked with the band athena, with the solo artists Teoman and Turgut Berkes, and he produced commercially successful mainstream rock albums like Mor ve Ötesi’s Büyük Düşler (2006) and Şebnem Ferah’s Can Kırıkları (2005). It is further worth noting that the musical inluence of (former) rock and heavy metal artists on Turkish mainstream music has been leading to a certain degree of adaptation of rock sounds among a wider Turkish audience. Evidence of this development is the oficial participation of several Turkish alternative rock bands—athena in 2004, Mor ve Ötesi in 2008, and Manga in 2010—in the prestigious international european song contest. The Legendary Moda Concert The “legendary Moda concert” (“efsane Moda konseri”) took place in an old cinema hall in the Moda neighborhood on 4 October 1988. except for kronik, istanbul’s leading thrash metal bands—Metafor, Metalium, and Pentagram— appeared live on stage. compared to previous events, attendance was huge despite the fact that the concert was promoted primarily through word of mouth and selfmade lyers. According to Çağlan Tekil, the editor of Laneth, approximately 1,800 people came to the show, although the cinema’s capacity was limited to only 600. For istanbul’s metal scene, the concert had a catalyzing function. The concert took place in a busy and densely-populated quarter in the city center, and the Moda Cinema’s close proximity to the Kadıköy Anatolian high school and to akmar made many high school students attend the event. Witnesses described the audience as a crowd of ferociously moshing, headbanging metalheads who, in the end, rampaged through the hall, destroying dozens of seats as well as other parts of the furnishings. The bands, however, were greatly hailed. Cenk Ünnü attempts to explain the signiicance of the day: It was the irst time that rock and metal listeners came together … The Moda concert was one of these concerts during which people feel a certain kind of power. Friendships were formed here. after the concert, everything began to grow quickly. Bands were formed. it was a pioneering concert. how can i describe the atmosphere of that moment?! You can only understand if you’ve experienced something like this yourself.

cenk describes the event as an intense—almost spiritual—experience that was commonly shared by the audience. The concert apparently had signiicant creative (“bands were formed”) and social (“friendships were formed”) impetus on the scene. It sparked a sense of community, and Turkish metalheads, for the irst time, had demonstrated public visibility. The legend of the Moda concert has indeed become an integral part of the Turkish metal scene’s collective memory. its story

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appeared, slightly modiied, in numerous interviews and conversations. However, only a few of my interviewees had actually attended the concert themselves. They usually only repeated the initial “legend.” The fact that so many different people could tell the same story points to a persistent reproduction of the Moda narrative among Turkish metalheads. having actually participated in the “legendary Moda concert” is like wearing a badge of honor and respect, as it is seen as evidence of authenticity and being “truly metal.” in that sense, the Moda concert became a matter of personal and collective identity. again, it is important to note that the Moda concert came at a time when access to metal music was still highly limited. concerts were rare and, at that point, no foreign metal band had visited the country. Moda marked a tremendous success, and, shortly afterwards, the scene began to “explode.” local metal bands now organized small festivals, sometimes attracting crowds of several thousand people. Generally speaking, small underground concerts had considerable impact on the formation of the Turkish metal scene. speaking in abstract terms, they provided temporary junctions of collective social practices and experiences. They gave creative and emotional impetus to the scene, fostered processes of cultural (re) production, and strengthened the feeling of community and identity. The German Thrash Invasion On 12 May 1990, German thrash metal band Grinder performed live at the harbiye Open air Theatre in istanbul, supported by Pentagram and akbaba. The concert marks a milestone in Turkish metal history, since, for the irst time, a foreign metal band came to the country. Grinder was followed by three other German thrash metal bands in 1992: Protector, Tankard, and sodom. While Protector played an open-air concert with Pentagram and hole in the Wall on 2 May, Tankard—with the local support of Athena—performed live at Istanbul’s Bostancı Gösteri Merkezi on 14 June. Sodom, joined by Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench, then played a show at the same venue on 15 September. The inluence of German thrash metal on the Turkish scene dates back to these days. it was not uncommon to see die-hard Turkish fans wearing patches with German lags on their jackets in tribute to “Teutonic thrash.” Turkish metal fanzine Deli Kasap, not without purpose, was named after Destruction’s song Mad Butcher. Bahadır Dinler, member of Deli Kasap’s editing board, recalls the impact of Tankard’s show: You know, everybody was listening [to metal music] at home. You know, like “heavy metal—that’s cool!” But nobody knew each other! Then, Tankard came and lots of people went there and everybody was like, “Oh, my God! There are lots of people listening to heavy metal!”

Bahadır points out the importance of the show as a moment of collective experience that implanted an idea of community into the heads of Turkish metalheads. in 1990, yet another foreign metal band came to Turkey: Mayhem.

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The infamous Norwegian black metal band, soon after playing a show in izmir on 9 December 1990, drew international media attention in connection with the suicide of vocalist Per “Dead” Ohlin and the murder of guitarist Oystein “euronymus” aarseth. For Turkish black metal listeners, Mayhem’s appearance in izmir became a legend (see chapter 5). Stadium Concerts in 1992 and 1993, several large stadium concerts brought a new dimension to the presence of rock and metal music in Turkey. While previous concerts had been low-budget and low-proit projects arranged by the local underground, these events were professionally organized shows of international stars, requiring strong inancial backing and aiming at making proit. The irst stadium concert on 28 July 1992 was by Canadian mainstream rocker Bryan Adams, and took place at Istanbul’s İnönü Stadium, a major football venue owned by Istanbul’s premier league club Beşiktaş. Crucial for metal was the following year, which saw the successive appearance of three major hard rock and heavy metal bands, namely Guns N’ Roses (26 May), Metallica (25 June), and Bon Jovi (13 September). Each show attracted tens of thousands of people from all over Turkey. Many considered it the chance of a lifetime to see one of their favorite bands live and, therefore, undertook to travel huge distances. The presence of international rock stars also attracted the attention of the media. The shows were broadcast on national TV, increasing the popularity of rock and metal music, particularly among young listeners. even non-metalheads went to see Metallica, for the sole reason that the event had been promoted on TV. Briely speaking, the sonic and visual representations of metal culture, for the irst time, were delivered to a national audience through the mass media. Notwithstanding the enormous success, the period of stadium concerts was short-lived. In 1994, Turkey slid into a severe economic and inancial crisis. National inlation rates hit record highs, and international exchange rates for the Turkish lira deteriorated. as a consequence, huge stadium concerts were no longer inancially viable. Neither did Turkish consumers have suficient spending power to afford expensive concert tickets, nor were the organizers able to compensate for the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the us Dollar. This situation lasted for almost a decade, being aggravated by another inancial crisis in 2000 and 2001.

From the Coffehouse to the Rock Bar The invasion of the public sphere by young rockers and metalheads manifested itself in the form of rock bars, record stores, music shops, festivals, and groups of long-haired folks hanging out on the streets. This new visibility, which likewise signaled the appropriation of globalized cultural resources at a local level, was embedded in a wider process of transformation of urban public spaces in Turkish

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society—a process that actually commenced in the nineteenth century. in order to better understand the present-day transformation of urban public spaces, it appears crucial to reconsider the historical context from which it emerged. But let us begin with an eyewitness account by Şanver Oluoğlu, who, in the mid-1980s, was a young “innocent” rocker: i was still an easy-going adolescent with no other social outlet except third-class, Hong Kong-made Karate ilms, when, one day, I heard about the existence of beer houses where girls and boys drank together … When did these beer houses evolve into bars? i wasn’t even aware … i had just heard rumors about a beer house under an istanbul bridge where music was played … We were slaves to the music in a fantastic, volatile world formed by alcohol …19

With an almost wistful longing, Şanver—who later became involved in a series of fanzines and radio shows—portrays a nostalgic picture of the small and shabby place under the old Galata Bridge, which became known as Istanbul’s very irst rock bar, the Kemancı köprü altı (“the iddler under the bridge”). The story of the Kemancı and how it evolved from an ordinary beer house to a rock bar represents a key narrative for the collective memory of istanbul’s local metal scene. The “golden times” of the old Kemancı are even remembered by those who never set foot in the place, either because they were too young or because they were not living in Istanbul at the time. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to ind an Istanbul metalhead who has never heard about the Kemancı. From the Coffeehouse … The Kemancı’s evolution into a rock bar is symptomatic of the changes to the concept of public space under the inluence of European modernity. The European impact on the transformation of public space can be traced back to the era of Tanzimat reforms (1839–76) and the incorporation of the Ottoman economy into the capitalist world market in the nineteenth century: the free trade agreements with Britain and France of 1838 mark the beginning of european economic penetration into the Ottoman empire. British and French businessmen were granted an exemption from customs duties, bolstering foreign investment and imports throughout the second half of the nineteenth century (raccagni 1980: 10, Zürcher 1993: 66). along with the free trade agreements, foreign investors also beneited from the Capitulations—treaties that had been signed between the Ottoman empire and a number of Western european states. The capitulations granted judicial immunity to foreign nationals, exempted them from the Ottoman tax system, and opened the internal market to foreign private investment. all of

19 Quoted and translated from the article “Kemancı Gülleri” by Şanver Oluoğlu, published in Kuzey Ormanı, No. 1 (2005), istanbul: self-published, no pagination.

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this created a situation favorable to the emergence of a strong Western european business community and the inlux of previously unknown cultural concepts. in terms of public space, modernization manifested itself in new forms of nightlife and entertainment activities, which became visible by the end of the nineteenth century. in the Ottoman capital of istanbul, european-style coffeehouses, “Kafe Şantan” (“Café Chantant”), cabarets, casinos, and beer gardens opened up. These places also introduced new forms of alcoholic beverages such as cognac, liquor, whisky, champagne, and beer (Zat 2002: 139–48). This development, however, was mainly limited to the district of Pera, today’s Beyoğlu. Here, on the northern shores of the Golden horn, modernization efforts could be felt most. Not only was it home to numerous european businesses, embassies, and schools, but also to istanbul’s large armenian and Greek Orthodox communities. Ottoman christian communities maintained close ties to Western europe and were exempt from the Ottoman prohibition on alcohol, which applied to the empire’s Muslim citizens. The area alongside the main road cadde-i kebir, today’s istiklal caddesi, saw the construction of modern european-style buildings, which soon became home to istanbul’s middle and upper classes. until that time, istanbul’s urban landscape in terms of public space and leisure activities was dominated by coffeehouses (kahvehane) and, to a lesser extent, wine houses (meyhane). Though today considered integral to Turkish tradition, the coffeehouse was once an innovation that brought signiicant change to urban life. coffee consumption in anatolia dates back to the mid-sixteenth century, with the irst Istanbul coffeehouse opening in 1554 (Arendonk 1990: 451). Until then, leisure activities were largely conined to the private sphere. Exceptions included the public bath and religious institutions such as mosques, churches, and Sui orders. Nightlife was limited to taverns that were infamous for reckless alcohol consumption and gambling (hattox 1985: 125). The coffeehouse soon attracted men from all levels of society, who made a common activity of going out, chatting, and socializing within the new public atmosphere. The emergence of coffeehouses considerably changed men’s social lives, day-to-day habits and social relations. From early on, coffeehouses were also perceived as places of deiance and immoral behavior, particularly for some clerics who regarded coffee as a substance prohibited by islamic law. This touch of subversiveness resulted in temporary bans and persecutions by the Ottoman authorities (hattox 1985, arendonk 1990: 451–52). Due to the Ottoman prohibition on alcohol, the alcohol business lay completely in the hands of non-Muslims. Only non-Muslims were allowed to consume alcohol and run a meyhane, the only place for alcohol consumption until the beginning of the Tanzimat era (Zat 2002: 13). The meyhane, which literally means “wine house” as deduced from the Persian word for wine (mey), was a remnant from Byzantine times. in english literature, the meyhane is often referred to as a “tavern” (see, for instance, hattox 1985). according to Vefa Zat’s research on early istanbul wine houses (Eski Istanbul Meyhaneleri, 2002), taverns already existed under the sultanate of Mehmet ii (1451–81) and were only temporarily closed down under

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the reign of some of his successors (Zat 2002: 144, 190–91). Traditional Ottoman taverns were usually small and shabby places. Besides wine, they also served rakı, an anise-lavored alcoholic beverage similar to Greek ouzo or arab araq. With the beginning of the Tanzimat reforms, modern european-style drinking places gradually replaced the traditional meyhane (Zat 2002: 13).20 This was also the time when the irst beer houses (birahane) appeared on the scene. Beer started to become popular in the second third of the nineteenth century. Istanbul’s irst beer houses (birahane) opened in the early 1840s, with the beer still being imported from non-Ottoman europe. This began to change when the irst beer company, the Bomonti Beer Company, opened in the neighborhood of Feriköy in 1890. Founded by two brothers from Switzerland, Bomonti remained istanbul’s only brewery until 1909. That year a second company, the Nektar Beer company, opened in Büyükdere. in 1912, the companies amalgamated, forming the Bomonti Nektar corporation. although beer did not become a product of mass consumption, istanbul had several dozen beer houses and beer gardens by the end of the nineteenth century. The levels of beer production and consumption have been steadily rising in Turkey over the last century. istanbul’s nightlife and entertainment industry changed again with the arrival of White russian refugees during the aftermath of the October revolution of 1917.21 Tens of thousands of Russians took up residence in and around Beyoğlu, among them many artists, intellectuals, and members of russia’s former upper classes. Throughout the 1920s, the russian community established numerous restaurants, bars, hotels, shops, and even vaudevilles that added to the cosmopolitan lavor of that area (Zat 1999: 71–2, 78ff.). … to the Rock Bar The kemalist revolution of the 1920s and 1930s marked a new stage in the transformation of public space under the inluence of European modernity. Farreaching reforms, aimed at breaking with the Ottoman past by modernizing Turkish society from above, also included abolition of the alcohol prohibition in 1926. (Turkey’s founding father Mustafa kemal was a heavy drinker himself and died of liver cirrhosis in 1938.) The new legal basis gave Muslims the right to produce, consume, and sell alcohol for the very irst time. This became an 20

Today’s meaning of meyhane can hardly be compared with the meaning of meyhane in Ottoman times. in present-day Turkey, meyhane has a wider meaning in the sense of “restaurant” or “bar,” serving all kinds of alcoholic beverages and food. The traditional meyhane did not typically serve food. 21 The term “White russians” refers to the followers of russia’s White Movement, the main opposition to the Bolsheviks after the October revolution of 1917. On the battleield of Russia’s civil war of 1917–22, the opponents became known as the monarchist White Army and the revolutionary Red Army. The White Army was inally defeated in Vladivostok in October 1922.

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important step in gradually replacing christian tavern and beer-house keepers with Muslim ones. The transformation was accelerated by the fact that istanbul’s christian communities had been fading due to pogroms and political crises. With the kemalist era, new public spaces such as theatres, opera houses, cinemas, restaurants, and pastry shops emerged as the favorite symbols of modern Turkey. as a result of the new modernist ideology’s gradual effects on people’s minds and thinking, the traditional concepts of meyhane, kahvehane, and birahane became contested. From an urban, middle-class perspective, the coffeehouse was increasingly linked to the lower, uneducated segments of society and, therefore, became associated with attributes of traditionalism, provincialism, ignorance, and vulgarity (Kömeçoğlu 2004: 157–8). Starting from the second half of the 1980s, istanbul’s old coffeehouses and beer houses began being replaced in earnest by modern-type restaurants, bars, and cafés. Traditional wine houses had already vanished by the end of the 1960s (Zat 1999: 65). according to Vefa Zat’s study on early istanbul bars (Eski Istanbul Barları, 1999), the 1950s and 1960s brought about a revival of nightlife after the city had lived through a period of depression during World War ii. he mentions the opening of nightclubs and casinos, as well as of different types of bars: cocktail bars, piano bars, jazz bars, snack bars, and so on (Zat 1999: 46). usually, they were attached to the newly-built international hotels in the area in and around Taksim, and many of them had live music. Istanbul’s irst rock bar, the Kemancı, can be seen as an indicator as well as an impulse for the transformation of public space in urban life: the 1990s saw modern, european-style bars, clubs, and cafés pop up all around istanbul’s modern city center, irst and foremost in the districts of Taksim and Beyoğlu. In this area, modern bars and cafés have gradually been replacing the traditional coffeehouses and beer houses, which have almost vanished from that part of the city. Most of the new places deliberately adopted the label “bar” or “café” in order to separate themselves from the traditional, male-dominated birahane or kahvehane.22 The intention of drawing this linguistic line is to clearly separate modern urban space from traditional urban space. The new bars and cafés stand apart from their more traditional counterparts in that they dissolve the spatial line between male and female, for there, young men and women can meet, sit, and drink together in public. The traditional meaning of public space in Turkish society is based upon the moral principle of separating the masculine from the feminine (see chapter 6). according to that, the public space of the coffeehouse as well as of the beer house is an exclusively male space. Women are conined to the private. From that perspective, the opening of “beer houses where girls and boys drank together” (Oluoğlu, see quote above) must have been seen as morally subversive.

22 Uğur Kömeçoğlu, in a study on Islamic cafés in Istanbul, also points out the phenomenon of adopting the term “café” rather than “kahvehave” in order give the place a modern touch (ibid. 158).

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Under the Bridge in the early days, metalheads were frequently confronted with hostile, often violent reactions from the Turkish public. Due to this situation, rock bars played an important role in deining their identities. The narrative of “the Kemancı under the bridge” is the story of how istanbul’s rockers and metalheads created a place of their own in the very heart of the city, a place where they felt free and safe. The old Galata Bridge, which spanned the Golden horn from its inauguration in 1912 until its devastation in a ire in May 1992, connected the busy districts of Beyoğlu and Eminönü.23 its structure consisted of two separate levels, an upper loor carrying a wide road with tramway tracks in the middle and pedestrian sidewalks on each side, and a lower loor hosting a variety of small ish restaurants, coffeehouses, and beer houses. The area under the bridge was simultaneously famous and infamous, in particular for its evening and nighttime activities. The option of eating fresh ish from the Bosporus, playing backgammon or cards, and ending up drunk in one of the places selling cheap rakı and beer attracted many men from the surrounding quarters. When the Kemancı opened under the old Galata Bridge in 1986, it would not have attracted ordinary citizens. Seyda Babaoğlu, a female metalhead who entered the Kemancı for the irst time around 1990, describes the scene: Back then, there was no other rock bar besides the old Kemancı, which was under the bridge. actually, it was small and totally run-down, where you used to sit around barrels, and there were these kinds of trays on them [instead of tables]. everything was constantly falling down. The guys fell into the sea, because they were drunk and arguing … For a stereo, there was only a very bad tape player with terrible loudspeakers. We used to listen to heavy metal there, and all the metalheads who listened to that kind of music—this was only a handful of people—they all used to come to the old Kemancı under the bridge … It had a super atmosphere, although it was totally run-down. it was a dive, but the atmosphere was great … it was like family.

The Kemancı was run by two young men in their mid-20s who had bought the place by chance. Zeki Ateş and İlyas Gürel were already regular guests of the beer houses under the bridge when they heard that one of them, the Yudum (“Gulp”), was for sale. its owner put it on the market in response to rumors that the municipality intended to close the bridge. The Yudum was one of the notorious localities men frequented with the aim of inding cheap beer to get drunk quickly. Though they wanted to start something different, Zeki and İlyas did not initially

23 The old bridge was replaced in 1994; its remains were moved upstream and relocated to an area between the districts of Balat and Hasköy. Today, the bridge sporadically hosts cultural events such as the annual istanbul Design Week.

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intend to open a rock bar when they renamed Kemancı from Yudum.24 They opened a beer house which, under the inluence of its customers, transformed into a bar. The Kemancı attracted a combination of local ishermen, artists, and young intellectuals. Many of these young intellectuals listened to rock and metal music. Among the Kemancı’s regular guests were three young, well-known caricaturists: Bülent Karaköşe, Abdülkadir Elçioğlu, and Tuncay Batıbeki. All of them listened to rock and metal music and supported the Kemancı in different ways. Tuncay Batıbeki was directly involved in introducing rock music to the place by bringing cassettes and LPs from his private archive. Bülent Karaköşe drew caricatures of the Kemancı regulars. The small portraits were placed on a wall inside the bar, and the series was titled “A night in Kemancı” (“Kemancı’da bir gece”). Probably more important in terms of creating public attention was the work of Abdülkadir Elçioğlu, alias Aptülika. He depicted scenes of the Kemancı in the aforementioned, widely prominent cartoon Grup Perişan. Another celebrity who in the beginning had vehemently criticized the rockers and metalheads, but then became a regular guest of the Kemancı was the famous journalist Savaş Ay. Last but not least, an elderly Istanbul gentleman is said to have been a Kemancı regular; dressed in a suit and bowtie, he used to sit down with the young metalheads, showing them black and white photos of his family. all these personalities added to the fame of Istanbul’s irst rock bar. Its cosmopolitan atmosphere, as well as its close proximity to Istanbul’s modern city center, was critical to the lourishing of rock and metal culture. in retrospect, the area under the bridge makes an ideal location for a rock bar: situated in the middle of the city’s two most busy areas with thousands of people passing by every day, a constant low of customers was pretty much guaranteed. Sheltered under the old bridge and surrounded by the sea, the Kemancı lay in the center of public life, yet at the same time was hidden from curious eyes. One could easily sit down and have a beer without running the risk of being spotted by family members or feeling bothered by the open disapproval of passing pedestrians. During the daytime, a considerable percentage of the Kemancı’s customers were (male and female) high schools students heading from Beyoğlu, the location of some of the city’s most prestigious high schools, to Eminönü, the city’s main transportation center. crossing the bridge on their way home in order to catch the bus, boat, dolmuş,25 or taxi, many students took the chance to stop by the Kemancı for a beer. 24 According to Zeki, the name “Kemancı” was the outcome of a night-long discussion between him, İlyas, and two other friends named Sami and Ismail. Among others they considered names such as Caz (“Jazz”), Melodi (“Melody”), and Keman (“Fiddle”). During that evening they were never able to agree on one of these names. The next morning Zeki, thanks to a sudden inspiration, added the sufix -cı to the formerly proposed keman, thus calling the place under the bridge Kemancı (“the Fiddler”). 25 Dolmuş (“full”) is a particular expression for minibus in Turkey. it represents an important means of public transportation in istanbul.

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The Kemancı’s transformation started slowly, with the rockers and metalheads bringing their own cassettes to the beer house. levent, a die-hard glam metal listener, who has worked as a barkeeper in a number of istanbul rock bars, describes the Kemancı’s transformation: The irst rock bar was under the bridge. It was not a rock ’n’ roll bar. It was like [oriental-style] carpets on the walls, you know. it was shit. it was a pub. They were always playing Turkish traditional stuff. Folk music and shit, you know. But we used to go there like giving them our cassettes: “can you play one song?” And the irst time they pushed the button, they were like: “What the hell is this noise?”—and turned it off. and after we used to go there over and over and over, they were like, “Oh, shit! These guys are very tough!” They felt like they got money from us. so they played our cassettes and that place turned into a rock bar, which is basically Kemancı.

The Kemancı was the irst place in Turkey to publicly play metal music, an act that was seriously frowned upon by neighboring beer houses. Unlike the Kemancı, the other establishments under the bridge played Turkish popular music and its proprietors were not familiar with the intense sounds of heavy metal. even more suspicious than the deviant music was the deviant behavior of the Kemancı’s clientele. The young rockers and metalheads, long-haired folks dressed in jeans and leather jackets shaking their heads to violent musical noise, did not it into any common category to which others could attach a meaning. Moreover, the Kemancı, unlike other places in the area, provided a space where males and females could be spotted sitting together, chatting and drinking beer. With a combination of sound, style, and symbols, the young metalheads invaded the public, creating a new social space in the middle of istanbul. The initially hostile reaction of local coffeehouse owners illustrates the audible and visible tangibility of space and boundaries. The tense situation, however, eased after a period of mutual acquaintance and noninterference. An important incitement in the Kemancı’s transformation process came from local metal bands that used to draw crowds of people to the Kemancı for aftershow parties. kronik’s Özer sarısakal puts it the following way: after a concert at the [harbiye] Open air [Theatre], the guys in the audience said: “Let’s get out of here now, out of the concert and go to Kemancı.” There was a place called “Kemancı under the bridge.” Back then, there was a bridge … It was nice there, a place that belonged to us … After that, the Kemancı became very popular. We went there after the concerts, and it was pretty crowded. later on, other places opened up. Then, the bridge burned down and they went to this area, to Taksim and to Beyoğlu. Here is Gitar and Caravan.26 a number of places opened up. They opened and closed, opened and closed. 26

Gitar and Caravan were both rock bars in Beyoğlu.

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The Kemancı under the bridge represented a kind of safe haven for the metalheads who were exposed to considerable pressure and animosity in everyday life. Within the Kemancı, they had a public space of their own where they could meet, listen to music and drink beer without being bothered by the outside world. until it opened in 1986, metalheads did not have a place to go and collectively share their music and culture. As Zeki Ateş, the owner of the Kemancı, explains “people were in need of something like that.” They “were listening to music, but at home or at concerts.” When the old Galata Bridge burned down, the Kemancı relocated to Taksim, on Sıraselviler Street. The bar adopted the name Kemancı Körpü Altı (“The Kemancı under the Bridge”), thus deliberately contributing to the legend of the “beer house under an istanbul bridge which was playing music” and “where girls and boys drank together” (see quote above). Shortly after relocating to Taksim, Zeki Ateş and İlyas Gürel split their business. While İlyas continued to operate the Kemancı Köprü Altı, a small, shabby, and smoky place—then, also referred to as “old” Kemancı—Zeki opened the “new” Kemancı, a bigger, three-storey rock club which was situated in one of the neighboring buildings. The lowest level hosted the metal area, while the upper two loors were reserved for softer sounds. The whole club was covered with visual representations of rock and metal culture—the hallway and staircase were decorated with adaptations of works by the swiss artist h.r. Giger, whose morbid images have been widely popular in metal. Other paintings, for instance, depicted a scantily-clad woman on a motorcycle, or an adaptation of the last supper showing Jesus and his disciples around a table set with a guitar and empty beer cans.

Figure 2.6

Wall painting in Kemancı, Sıraselviler Street

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Eloy In the early 1990s, many rock bars and cafés settled down in Taksim and Beyoğlu— among them Bilsak rock Bar, roots Bar, Dersaadet, Gitar, Gitanes Bar, caravan, and hayal kahvesi. Outside of this area, there was Oksijen in sultanahmet, as well as a rock café named Eloy. Eloy was situated in the Istanbul suburb of Bakırköy and was owned by hakan, who has already been mentioned in connection with selling bootlegs on the streets. eloy not only attracted rockers and metalheads from around the city, but was also known among rockers from ankara, izmir, or Bursa who dropped by on their way to istanbul. The café thus represented a connecting point for different local metal scenes in Turkey. For the local “Bakırköy Crew” (“Bakırköy Tayfası”), it was a place of retreat, cohesion, and friendship. levent remembers the locale: The irst heavy metal café [was] opened in ’89 by one of the old rockers. It was like an emergency cage for us. You know, like, for the irst time we had a place to go. There was no alcohol. Only, kind of tea and coffee and some sandwiches. it was a fucking shoe box. really small place. Very tiny. But we always were forty-ive people during the weekend. Very small cave and posters on the wall and some skulls around. We used to steal from the cemeteries. Yeah. some bones. Those were really good times … We were like meeting each other, exchanging cassettes and magazines and posters. And it was the irst time we felt like a community, you know. and whenever one of us had trouble in the street, he would come to the café and ive or forty-ive people would go back with him, you know. First time we were feeling strong.

As already mentioned in connection with the Kemancı, rockers and metalheads did not have any other place to go. in the cafés and bars, they found access to music, “were exchanging cassettes and magazines and posters,” and experienced solidarity, protection, and friendship. Eloy provided shelter from conlicts in everyday life and strengthened the feeling of community among metalheads (“we felt like a community,” “we were feeling strong”). Moreover, rock bars and cafés were important in terms of public visibility and providing access to metal culture for the “next generation.” Maksim, the guitarist of Istanbul death metal band Soul Sacriice, grew up in Bakırköy and was still in his teens when eloy opened up. The place held a strong attraction for him, and helped him connect with the local scene: eloy was founded in 1988 or 1989. i can’t remember clearly. at that time, i was still too young to attend this café … and we just started to go there, but they didn’t allow me to enter. and i was just hanging around in front of the café and talking with the guys. They were smoking cigarettes, drinking beer. and at this café he [Hakan] had painted a big pentagram on the loor. He was really a crazy guy.

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since hakan did not have a license to sell alcohol, some of eloy’s guests drank their beers outside in the streets, though this was oficially prohibited, too. The public visibility of deviant practices (“smoking cigarettes, drinking beer”) and representations (“pentagram on the loor”) frequently caused trouble with neighbors and residents. Yet, the times of the moral panics were still to come …

chapter 3

children of satan

in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the growing visibility of metal in urban public spaces increasingly drew the interest of the mass media. Newspaper journalists and television commentators overwhelmingly depicted metal as a phenomenon of deviancy posing a threat to the moral fabric of society. The situation was exacerbated by a series of teenage suicides and the murder of a young girl at an istanbul cemetery, which triggered a subsequent number of panics over metal and satanism. The Turkish media, emphasizing the commonalities between the events, constructed a coherent scenario of interrelated incidents though they obviously had nothing to do with each other. Before delving into details, it appears necessary to raise the questions: what is a moral panic? and what can we learn from studying a moral panic over metal and satanism in Turkey?

Moral Panics Though the term ‘moral panics’ irst appeared in The Drugtakers (1971), a work by British sociologist Jock Young—who examined the media’s involvement in amplifying the deviance of drug-taking—it was stanley cohen’s pathbreaking study Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) that solidiied the moral panics concept. cohen built his investigation of moral panics on an incident that became known as the clacton Disturbances. On easter sunday 1964, clacton—a small and quiet seaside resort on the eastern coast of england—was the scene of riots involving youths and young adults from two subculture factions: the mods and the rockers. Presumably triggered by a general sense of boredom and rumors of a barkeeper refusing to serve some of them, a group of young people began scufling on the streets and throwing stones at each other (cohen 1981: 263). The rivalry between mods and rockers, which appeared to have contributed to the outbreak of violence, at that time largely manifested itself in clothing and style. according to Dick hebdige’s well-known study Subculture: the Meaning of Style, the mods invented a style that “enabled them to negotiate smoothly between school, work and leisure” (1979: 52). correspondingly, he describes them as short-haired, middle-class youths in conservative suits and ties who placed so much emphasis on being “fastidiously neat and tidy” that they were “pushing neatness to the point of absurdity” (1979: 52). With their long hair, boots, and leather jackets, the rockers, conversely, cultivated a much tougher style. as distinct from the mods, who preferred italian scooters, they usually rode heavy motorbikes.

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local police, obviously overwhelmed by the spontaneous outbreak of violence, arrested dozens of young adults and teenagers on charges of obscenity and abusive behavior. The very next day, British national newspapers presented the clacton Disturbances as the story of the day. Despite the isolated and spontaneous nature of the initial incident at Clacton, the press unanimously classiied the youths’ behavior as a threat to public order and safety. Feature articles described the young mods and rockers as a destructive, drug-driven mob invading the beaches and holiday resorts of the english coast. initial reports were followed by subsequent accounts on similar incidents in other seaside towns like Bournemouth and Brighton. in order to underline the severity of the situation, newspapers substantiated their allegations by drawing on police reports and eyewitness accounts of allegedly terriied residents and holidaymakers. Every new account appeared to only conform to existing stereotypes. The general portrayal of deviance and disaster quickly resulted in a wave of public fear and concern, raising demands for stricter law enforcement and political action. cohen, whose analysis was concerned with the way in which the media interpreted and presented the clacton Disturbances, revealed that the initial incident had been heavily distorted by media coverage. his investigation suggests that journalists deliberately exaggerated the actual events by repeating or fabricating apparently false assertions. in addition, he found that the media coverage tended to follow a similar, stereotypical pattern, with every new story of youth deviance being ascribed to a long line of previous incidents, thereby purporting a connection between them. according to cohen, the central issues of a moral panic are, therefore, exaggeration and distortion. He identiies the two other key elements in fabricating a moral panic as prediction and symbolization. Prediction refers to the “implicit assumption … that what had happened was inevitably going to happen again” (cohen 1981: 271). The message conveyed by the media to the public is clear: the presumed threat is going to persist, if not countered vigorously. symbolization, however, relates to the communication of stereotypes. Originally neutral words are given new meanings that come to symbolize complex ideas and that evoke particular emotions. in the case of cohen’s investigation, words such as Clacton, mod, or rocker became inseparably connected with the media-fabricated picture of the clacton Disturbances. Mentioning them, consequently, elicited feelings of fear, concern, and disgust among recipients of the media coverage. accordingly, the formerly neutral words became symbols of violence and chaos. since publication of cohen’s Folk Devils and Moral Panics, the phenomenon of moral panics has become a much-cited concept in British and american sociology. it attracted the attention of scores of scholars who, with their works, contributed further to the development of the analytical framework initially laid out by cohen. some of the most prominent studies, which themselves have become well known and inluential, are for instance Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson’s Resistance through Rituals (1976), erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (1994), and chas critcher’s Moral Panics and the Media (2003). What all of these studies have in common is the search for

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precise indicators (and stages) of a moral panic. The authors apparently saw a need for standardization if the idea of moral panics was to become established as an analytical concept in sociology. in other words, their work was driven by seeking an answer to the question of what exactly deines a moral panic. On a related note, the present analysis will follow the conceptualizations of Goode and Ben-Yehuda, who came to distinguish ive core elements that must be met if we wish to speak of such a phenomenon as a moral panic (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 2009 [1994]: 37–43): Concern. Moral panics are characterized by a “heightened level of concern over the behavior of a certain group or category and the consequences that that behavior presumably causes for one or more sectors of the society” (ibid. 37). For those who are concerned, the deviant behavior of others embodies a “very real and palpable threat” (ibid. 37). Public concern can be measured “in concrete ways, through public opinion polls, public commentary in the form of media attention, proposed legislation, number of arrest and imprisonments, and social movement activity” (ibid. 37). Hostility. Moral panics engender “an increased level of hostility toward the group or category regarded as engaging in the behavior or causing the condition in question” (ibid. 38). The group under allegation is clearly identiiable, seen as responsible for the threat, and “collectively designated as the enemy” (ibid. 38). its members’ deviant behavior is regarded as “harmful or threatening to the values, the interests, possibly the very existence, of the society, or at least a sizeable segment of that society” (ibid. 38). hostility also includes a process of stereotyping in which the deviant other is depicted as the “bad guy,” or agent of evil subverting public morality. Consensus. in order to qualify a phenomenon as a moral panic, there must be “substantial or widespread agreement or consensus … that the threat is real, serious, and caused by the wrongdoing of group members and their behavior” (ibid. 38). Public concern must be shared by a majority of the society. Disproportion. Disproportion stands at the very center of the moral panics concept. Goode and Ben-Yehuda make this very clear by emphasizing that “the concept of the moral panic rests on disproportion. if we cannot determine disproportion, we cannot conclude that a given episode of fear or concern represents a case of a moral panic” (ibid. 41). Disproportion means that the seriousness of the perceived threat is being exaggerated as concerns, for instance, the scale of the damage, the form of deviance, or the number of individuals involved in acts of deviance. Moreover, this particular aspect of a moral panic also refers to the inappropriate or disproportionate reaction of society towards the presumed threat, possibly leading to an escalation of the situation. Disproportion is the most important element to indicate a moral panic or, as chas critcher in Moral Panics and the Media put it: “Moral panics are by deinition disproportionate reactions to perceived threats” (critcher 2006: 2). Volatility. Finally, moral panics are volatile and short-lived by their very nature; “they erupt fairly suddenly … and, nearly as suddenly subside” (ibid. 41). Moral

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panics, despite all initial panicking, can vanish without any tangible explanation and, after having disappeared for years, rise again according to the same patterns and with the same might as before. after discussing the conceptual outline of moral panics, the question still remains: what can we learn from studying a moral panic over metal and satanism in Turkey? stanley cohen once described moral panics as providing the “arenas for acting out society’s morality plays” (1981: 457). accordingly, the study of moral panics should enable us to learn more about how moral boundaries are reinforced and contested. in addition, the ways in which deviance and morality are negotiated provide us with information about how society is changing or, as Goode and Ben-Yehuda have pointed out, “the concept of the moral panic expands our understanding of social structure, social process, and social change” (2009: 28). correspondingly, this investigation shall raise the following questions: what does the moral panic over metal and satanism tell us about how the Turkish society is (morally) constituted? how is metal contesting and possibly subverting public morality? and, more generally speaking, what does the moral panic tell us about social change in Turkish society, and in particular about the transformative impact of a new cultural phenomenon called metal? The moral panic over metal and satanism in Turkey built up over several years before sending its irst shockwaves of moral concern through the country. Turkish metalheads irst had to “invade” the public sphere and become visible in considerable numbers before attracting the attention of the mass media. The period under investigation, therefore, stretches over more than a decade and involves a number of separate incidents. The subsequent sections chronologically outline and analyze the different episodes of the moral panic.

Metaaal! The issue of metal and Satanism irst surfaced in autumn 1990, when Sabah, one of the country’s leading dailies, published a photo report on a metal concert in istanbul. The event’s scene was the harbiye Open air Theatre; the objects of interest, weird-looking young adults and teenagers, some of them apparently wearing black-and-white makeup. The harbiye Open air Theatre, which was built in the style of a classic amphitheatre shortly after the end of World War ii, is located on the European side of Istanbul close to Taksim and Beyoğlu, the city’s nightlife centers. Today, it’s a popular concert venue hosting many national and international artists. Back then, however, the theatre was in a state of disrepair, wherefore it was possible to stage underground concerts there with little money. On that particular evening in autumn 1990, scores of young metalheads (possibly up to 2,000) had come to the concert. The photo report was followed by a commentary by popular newspaper journalist Engin Ardıç in Sabah on 14 October 1990. Ardıç’s outspoken polemic made him not only an intimate enemy of the Turkish metal scene (even 15 years

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later, during research for this book, the mention of his name usually provoked heavy swearing from my interview partners), but also set up the prototype for all the other moral polemics that were to come. The pattern laid out by Ardıç was slightly modiied and repeated, over and over again. It also contains what cohen has described as the three key elements of a moral panic (exaggeration and distortion, symbolization, and prediction), and reveals some of the key fundaments of morality in Turkish society. Ardıç’s comment reads as follows (excerpt, translated by the author from Turkish into english): Metaaal! as if there were not enough ‘species’ in the country [already], yet another one has emerged: metalheads. calling themselves “children of satan,” their main characteristics are tattered clothes and iron pieces and shackles [attached] to their backs and heads. some of them are wearing swastikas and some are cutting themselves with razor blades here and there, ripping themselves left and right and making themselves bleed … Last Monday, you saw a photo report of our [colleague] Tayyar Işıksaçan on our back page: as many as 2,000 “metalheads” gathered in the [harbiye] Open air Theatre, enjoying themselves [and drinking alcohol].1 On their foreheads crosses—yes, young ladies painted with the oficial ‘sign of the inidels,’ and some boys with reebok, american eagle, adidas, and converse shoes. They have symbols. You stretch the index and the little inger of the right hand into the air and yell,2 bursting out “metaaaaal” from deep inside your throat! … Okay, we understand the rampant depravity of the prosperous, easy-living brats in the West, [but] what’s going on with our homemade rich bastards? … i would like to address another and bigger aspect of degeneration to you, a squalor that is [even] more inconceivable: satan worshippers have been springing up! Yes, in Turkey! … every saturday the 15th, they gather in order to celebrate a mass with wads of smoke, black cowls, crosses, sharp knives, and a mystic number of magic murmurs. stark-naked chicks. The abbot mixes the blood of the person attending the ritual with his own blood and signs a contract with satan. after that they copulate like dogs in front of the group!

1 Ardıç does not explicitly speak about alcohol here, but using the Turkish verb dağıtmak implies wild partying and heavy drinking. 2 Here, Ardıç describes the sign of the horn.

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in any case, there has to be sexual intercourse between man and woman [during the rituals]. They are the servants of satan—everything is permitted; homosexual relationships are fostered. among them, there are even villains who are molesting small children. … a bloke named a.k. explains their principles in the following way: be antisocial, live only for yourself … be egoistic, live up to your desires … be strong, evolution proceeds through the perishing of the weak … obliterate all moral values … destroy what is not created by yourself, strike back against everything done to you … spread chaos … do not limit your sexuality to only one gender … live without responsibility … so, what i am saying is … if our honorable islamist brothers just gave up killing laicist intellectuals with guns or mail bombs and “tackle” this kind of true degeneration … We said “tackling,” but your hand should not immediately pull the trigger or the pin [out of the hand grenade]; there are a thousand ways of “tackling.” You see, we are unaware of how “westernized” the country is, for heaven’s sake.3

if we believe the above-cited narrative, a new breed of evil has been unleashed upon Turkey: metalheads. They have come to subvert public morality, spread chaos, and obliterate the religious foundations of society. The text is replete with evocative images of deviance that seek to strengthen this argument. Ardıç’s words are emotional, metaphoric, full of anger and cynicism, and, beyond that, apparently highly imaginative. With regard to the variety of images used in the text, it appears necessary to deine a system of classiication that helps to transform the empirical material into manageable categories. accordingly, i decided to use four different categories of “moral subversiveness” to which the different images will be allotted. The lines between these categories are, however, luid; some images can be assigned to more than just one category. Religious Subversiveness A central argument in Ardıç’s polemic against metal is the putative renunciation of islam. according to what he says, metalheads are faithful to apostasy and satanism. he depicts them as “children of satan,” “satan worshippers,” and “servants of satan.” The text culminates in the portrayal of a black mass that ends in signing “a contract with Satan” before inally engaging in a ritual act of sexual intercourse. These allegations are all the more astonishing as satanism, up until that time, had been a phenomenon thoroughly unknown to the Turkish public. in order to present more ‘evidence’ for the apostate nature of metal music, he refers to photographs of his colleague Tayyar Işıksaçan, reportedly showing 3

Quoted and translated from E. Ardıç, Metaasal!, Sabah, 14 October 1990.

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young women with crosses painted onto their foreheads. Though i did not have access to these photographs, i suppose that the girls had painted inverted crosses onto their skin. This, however, points to the ambivalence of anti-christian symbols in a Muslim context: in the eyes of a Muslim society not familiar with metal iconography, a cross—inverted or not—is perceived as an expression of christian creed. Consequently, the “sign of the inidels” upon the skin of young Turkish girls must have come as a shock to newspaper readers, as it implies the girls’ conversion to christianity. This, however, poses a threat not only to islam, but also to the country’s national identity, for sunni islam is an important element of Turkish nationalism—despite the kemalist doctrine of laicism. Sexual Subversiveness The text clearly mentions several forms of sexual subversiveness, namely promiscuity (“they copulate like dogs,” “there has to be sexual intercourse between man and woman”), homosexuality (“homosexual relationships are fostered”), and child molestation (“molesting small children”). The concept of morality addressed through these images is mainly religious. concerning sexuality, islamic sources distinguish between licit and illicit forms of sexual activity. licit intercourse is marital intercourse, or as kecia ali in her book Sexual Ethics & Islam put it, “marital intercourse is the paradigmatic sexual act in islamic law” (ali 2006: 64). illicit intercourse, by the same token, refers to sexual activities that take place beyond the realm of marriage. This paradigm applies equally to men and women— though men, according to classic islamic tradition, are entitled to marry up to four wives. consequently, promiscuity represents a serious act of sexual transgression. in addition to that, some authors have pointed out that islamic jurists usually label anal sex as a form of illicit sexual behavior as well (schmitt 2002, ali 2006: 77, kugle 2010: 50). as a result, islamic traditions widely condemn homosexuality or, in a wider sense, same-sex intimacy, as a sinful and shameful act. allegations of promiscuity and homosexuality must, therefore, be interpreted as an attempt to subvert divine revelation. a second, traditional concept of morality addressed here is the concept of honor and shame (see Chapter 6). Very briely speaking, the idea of honor and shame is based upon the principle of separating the masculine from the feminine in order to ensure the sexual integrity of the female body. any harm to that equates to a complete loss of social prestige for the whole family. consequently, metal described by Ardıç as propagating promiscuity must be seen as a threat to the traditional social order. The same goes for allegations of homosexuality. as far as traditional notions of gender are concerned, men are expected to play an active, and women a passive, role in society. While women are supposed to be modest, chaste, and weak, men are supposed to be strong, daring, and determined in what they do. This concept also relates to sexuality, particularly with regard to sexual intercourse and the act of penetration. Men are assumed to take the active, penetrating part. a male homosexual, according to these traditional conceptions

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of gender and sexuality, is usually referred to as someone who takes the passive (female) part in a sexual relationship; he is the one who is being penetrated. homosexuality, therefore, not only represents a violation of Divine Will, but also individual weakness, passivity, and—in short—the loss of one’s manliness. Political Subversiveness From a political perspective, Ardıç blames metalheads of adhering to subversive ideologies such as National socialism (“some are wearing swastikas”) and—as mentioned in a second article by Ardıç published only a couple of days later— communism.4 With regard to Turkish national history, open conlict between the communist left and the Fascist right led the country into political instability culminating in the coup d’état of 1980. As outlined above, Ardıç assumes that an apostate nature of metal poses a threat to the country’s religious identity. religious identity, in this case, is equivalent to national identity. Another verbal attack along the same line is his inal résumé that the emergence of metal and satanism is a result of westernization (“You see, we are unaware of how ‘westernized’ the country is, for heaven’s sake!”). The Turkish republic was born out of a war of independence, after european imperialist powers had already agreed on a territorial partitioning of Ottoman anatolia by the end of World War i. Therefore, Turkish nationalism is highly sensitive about any kind of foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs. From this perspective, westernization—seen as a matter of cultural alienation—could breed discord among the population, in the end contributing to a weakening and disintegration of the country. Metal, in this sense, is undermining Turkish national identity. Social Subversiveness The text reveals multiple images that can be categorized as socially subversive. it starts with some brief remarks on the metalheads’ clothing. What Ardıç describes (“tattered clothes”) contradicts the prevailing dress codes of Turkish society. The question of what is seen as adequate in terms of clothing is based on principles such as decency, tidiness, and cleanliness. in another section, he denounces Turkish metalheads as “our homemade rich bastards” who are wearing expensive sports shoes. in doing so, he alludes to the enormous social, cultural, and economic disparities in Turkish society. When he wrote his anti-metal polemic, westernization in terms of having access to cultural resources from Western europe and North america was largely limited to a relatively well-off Turkish middle class. Accordingly, Ardıç implies that metal is an exclusively upper-middle-class phenomenon, which—at least today—it is not. in other words, he draws a line between an allegedly morally corrupted, westernized elite and a socially deprived but morally superior lower class. as a result, the 4

See E. Ardıç,. Metalciler bozulmuşlar, Sabah, 21 October 1990.

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rift—originally social—is connoted as a moral rift, with metal functioning as an indicator thereof. Beyond that, Ardıç claims that metalheads indulge in acts of self-mutilation (“some are cutting themselves with razor blades”), and are committed to the principles of egoism and hedonism. accordingly, they disregard the well-being of others (“be antisocial,” “evolution proceeds through the perishing of the weak”), seek to maximize their own pleasure (“live up to your desires”), and act solely under the terms of their own interests (“live only for yourself,” “live without responsibilities”). Finally, he imputes them with a nihilist attitude (“spread chaos,” “obliterate all moral values”), thereby completing the picture of social subversiveness. Ardıç’s polemic infuriated Turkish metalheads. Their anger over what they perceived as a sensationalist and ignorant distortion of reality was further fanned by the article’s inal paragraph. The author’s request, “if our honorable Islamist brothers just gave up killing laicist intellectuals through guns or mail bombs and ‘tackle’ this kind of true degeneration,” was conceived as a call to militant islamists to kill metalheads instead of assassinating laicist intellectuals. Ardıç’s diction here is full of sarcasm. using the antiquated and thus apparently ironic form of address, “our honorable islamist brothers” (“muhterem şeriatçı biraderlerimiz”), illustrates that he does not intend to support some sort of islamism with what he says. apparently, he considers militant islamists as a threat as well. however, they could be useful to “tackle” an even greater matter of concern. in order to fully understand this, we have to direct our attention to the article’s inal sentence. Here, the author reveals the root of all evil by stating: “You see, we are unaware of how ‘westernized’ the country is, for heaven’s sake!” Metal, with this inal statement in mind, becomes a metaphor for westernization, and its moral and cultural impact on Turkish society. Or, differently speaking, metal becomes a metaphor for immorality, a symbol for the profane that poses a putative threat to what has traditionally been sacred in Turkish society. at the same time, it is a symptom of change indicating a transformation of society under the inluence of cultural globalization processes. It is this change that Ardıç perceives as a threat to the very fabric of Turkish society. Ardıç’s polemic marks only the irst episode in a series of events that were (over)reported by the Turkish mass media. The next phase of the moral panic over metal and satanism was sparked by a number of “unpredicted” teenage suicides in the second half of the 1990s. The investigation will now proceed by analyzing how four major daily newspapers covered the events. These are namely: Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah, and Zaman. While Hürriyet and Milliyet, which both belong to the Doğan Media Group—as well as Sabah, which is owned by the Merkez Group—can be considered secular and politically mainstream, Zaman represents the religious conservative spectrum of the Turkish media landscape. in order to complement the picture, reports from the (much smaller) liberal daily, Radikal, and the socialist daily, Evrensel, are added to the analysis.

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Suicide Pact The series of teenage suicides—which, according to the Turkish mass media, were inspired by metal music and satanism—commenced with the joint self-murder of a teenage couple in June 1998. Seventeen-year-old Aslı Yardımcı and 14-year-old Alp Cenan Yuğaç ended their lives by jumping from the 14th loor of a residential building in the Ataköy neighborhood of Istanbul. The press presented the incident as an inexplicable mystery. how could it be that two handsome teenagers from afluent families, who were attending one of the country’s most prestigious high schools—the German high school in istanbul—intentionally terminate their own lives? The two of them were in a privileged position that most Turkish youngsters could only dream of, and expected a bright and prosperous future. against this backdrop, the Turkish press unanimously concluded: “The suicide of two high school students is a mystery.”5 The perceived “mystery” led to frenzied speculation and, though the exact reasons for this remain unclear, all major dailies instantly linked the teenagers’ death to satanic inluences. Early reports gave only vague indications for this, such as, “it has been reported that they had satanic afinities” (Hürriyet, 23 June 1998).6 soon, however, newspaper headlines expressed a consistent opinion: The Satan Dilemma (Milliyet), The Satanist Enigma (Zaman), The Ataköy Suicides and Satanism (Zaman), and They sacriiced themselves (Radikal).7 Two days after the suicide, Hürriyet published Aslı and Cenan’s farewell letter. it reportedly ended with an english quotation, which the newspaper translated into Turkish: “Ben bir sürüngenim/Burada ne işim var/Ben bir garibim/Buraya ait değilim.”8 Though it obviously went unnoticed by the author of the report, the phrase appears to have been derived from the chorus of Creep, a song by British alternative rock band radiohead,9 which reads: “But i’m a creep/i’m a weirdo/What the hell am i doin’ here?/i don’t belong here.”10 Quickly, the phrase reappeared in numerous other reports; however, for the most part slightly modiied. its message was usually reduced and distorted to only one sentence, “we don’t belong here” (“buraya ait değiliz”), instead of the original “i don’t belong here” 5 The suicide of two high school students is a mystery (İki liselinin intiharı sır), Milliyet, 26 June 1998. Hürriyet published a similar report entitled They took their secrets to the grave (Sırlarıyla öldüler), Hürriyet, 23 June 1998. 6 Quoted and translated from Sırlarıyla öldüler, Hürriyet, 23 June 1998. 7 headings in Turkish: Şeytan çıkmazı (Milliyet, 28 June 1998), Satanist bilmecesi (Zaman, 23 June 1998), Ataköy intiharları ve satanizm (Zaman, 29 June 1998), Kendilerini kurban ettiler (Radikal, 23 June 1998). 8 Quoted from The suicide’s photo novel (İntirharın fotoromanı), Hürriyet, 24 June 1998. 9 The song Creep was released on Radiohead’s irst album Pablo Honey in 1993. 10 With regard to the Turkish translation, it appears that either Hürriyet or Aslı and cenan interchanged the second and third line of the chorus.

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(“buraya ait değilim”). Zaman gave it an even more dramatic drive by altering the sentence to: “We love you all, but we don’t belong here.”11 a connection to the quotation’s most probable source, radiohead’s Creep, was never made. however, journalists usually gave it a mysterious touch, linking its meaning with some kind of satanic cult. ahmet kurucan, a writer for Zaman, went as far as to invent a relation to the collective suicide of 39 members of the christian-based heaven’s Gate sect in california in 1997. according to him, the sect’s disciples had used the same words before killing themselves.12 In the early days after Aslı and Cenan’s death, several dailies published interviews with relatives and teachers of the two teenagers. all of them praised the commendable characters of the youths and rejected all accusations of satanism against them. in doing so, the respondents were keen to outline the two youngsters’ school achievements and their supposedly deep afiliations with Islam. This, however, did not stop the moral panic from developing further. indeed, the media proceeded by now focusing on how to identify Turkish satanists in everyday life. Milliyet was the irst to provide a detailed description of the alleged satanist scene in istanbul. a report depicted satanists as long-haired young lads wearing earrings and hanging around the neighborhood of Beyoğlu. The newspaper was so precise as to uncover the satanists’ favorite haunts, namely the well-known Atlas Shopping Arcade in central Beyoğlu, which, back then, accommodated a number of music shops. all of a sudden, the Turkish public found itself face-to-face with the satanic enemy within, and Milliyet observed, “for days, all Beyoğlu has been discussing the Satan worshippers. Particularly in the neighborhoods of Beyoğlu, Bakırköy, and Ataköy, many people have been reporting the presence of satanists and their increase in numbers after dark.”13 Following similar coverage in other newspapers, long hair, earrings, and black clothes became ultimate symbols for Satanism; the rock bars and cafés in Beyoğlu and Bakırköy were regarded as hotbeds of immorality; and all visually identiiable metalheads were perceived as agents of evil. The two suicide victims Aslı and cenan were not only said to have been addicted to metal music, but also to have frequented the rock bars of Beyoğlu. Moreover, once the indicators of Satanism had been publicly identiied, many local residents suddenly claimed to have known about the existence of satanism long before the teenage suicide actually took place, presumably recalling having watched metalheads visiting rock bars

11 Quoted and translated from The Ataköy Suicides and Satanism (Ataköy intiharları ve satanizm), a. kurucan for Zaman, 29 June 1998. 12 The followers of the heaven’s Gate movement committed suicide when the comet hale-Bopp passed through the inner solar system in early 1997. according to their belief, suicide was the only way to leave the planet and join Jesus, who they believed was traveling in a spacecraft hidden behind the comet’s wake (hadden n.d.). 13 Quoted and translated from The Satan Dilemma (Şeytan çıkmazı), Milliyet, 28 June 1998.

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and clubs at night. assertions such as this one attributed a sense of continuity to the alleged satanic threat, making its existence even more credible. Once the enemy was known, the satanic threat was further embellished by presenting individual stories of Turkish satanists. Milliyet, for instance, reported on an alleged Satanist called Şeref. Şeref, who was mentioned by several of my interviewees as having founded one of Turkey’s very irst black metal bands, was presented as a leading igure of the Satanist scene: he is known to take drugs … it has been reported that he formerly used to sleep in a graveyard. among the allegations [against him] was that he found disciples with whom he organized religious ceremonies, and that he had been trying to draw youngsters to these ceremonies. it is said that, during the ceremonies, cats have been sacriiced. Following that, [the ceremony] proceeded by incising the breasts of the girls participating and drinking their blood.14

The depiction of Şeref conveys images of moral subversiveness similar to those used by Engin Ardıç in 1990. Themes like sex, drugs, blood, sacriice, and chaos reappeared in many reports. The speciic allegations of seducing others into Satanism (“he found disciples”), organizing satanic ceremonies, sacriicing animals (“cats have been sacriiced”), abusing young women, and drinking human blood were equivalent to accusing the youngsters of contesting the unity and almightiness of God. Parallel to the process of stereotyping and increasing the level of hostility toward the designated enemy, all national dailies began to inform their readers about the supposed historic and psychological roots of satanism. consequently, a new lood of articles, interviews, and comments shifted towards presenting “academic facts” on the satanist danger. in doing so, the media coverage entered a new phase of conveying the impression that public concern was shared by experts and scientists, too. This, however, contributed to producing what Goode and Ben-Yehuda have described as the “substantial consensus,” which is necessary to qualify a phenomenon as a moral panic. The often crude and undifferentiated explanations in Turkish newspapers provide evidence of the readers’ and writers’ general ignorance concerning the subject. an article in Zaman, for instance, introduced the phenomenon by providing the most basic deinition: “the scientiic name for devil worshipping is satanism.”15 The fact that the author of the article used an anglicism (“satanizm”) in order to give devil worshipping a “scientiic name,” indicates that Satanism had been a hitherto unknown phenomenon in Turkey. indeed, a Turkish equivalent of the word did not yet exist. While Zaman, moreover, identiied Satanism as

14

ibid. Quoted and translated from The Ataköy Suicides and Satanism (Ataköy intiharları ve satanizm), Zaman, 29 June 1998. 15

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“an offshoot of political, economic, and cultural globalization,”16 other dailies increasingly focused on the intellectual roots of satanism, usually locating them in nineteenth- and twentieth-century “western” thought. Most reports accused German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) as well as twentieth-century american occultist anton szandor laVey (1930–1997) of being the intellectual fathers of satanism—without, however, making any intellectual differentiation between the two of them. Other reports provided advice to parents on how to save their offspring from falling into the clutches of devil worshippers. The same reports mostly contained urgent demands for confronting the moral decay among Turkish youths. Within this scenario, metal bands were assumed to be responsible for spreading modern satanic ideologies among the young. Radikal, for instance, claimed afiliations among bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Slayer, and sepultura—and the thoughts of laVey.17 Sacriice for the Devil The most serious accusations, however, were raised in connection with the murder of a young woman in Istanbul. The incident, due its signiicance, could be discussed as a moral panic in itself. in order to maneuver through the plethora of information surrounding the event and clearly outline the different stages of the moral panic, the following analysis will be structured in accordance with what Goode and Ben-Yehuda have identiied as the ive core elements of a moral panic: concern, hostility, consensus, disproportion, and volatility. Concern in september 1999, Turkish police recovered the naked, half-buried body of a young woman in a small grove at a cemetery in the neighborhood of Ortaköy. Şehriban Çoşkunfırat, aged 21, had been missing about one week before she was inally found. Her dead body, according to police reports, showed signs of rape, and her head had been smashed in with a stone. By the time the newspapers published the story, the police had already arrested two young men and a young woman, who unanimously confessed to have murdered Şehriban on the night of 13 September. The arrested were 23-year-old Ömer Çelik, 18-year-old Engin Arslan, and 19-year-old Zinnur Gülşah Dinçer. When the full details of the crime became known, people were shocked. The scene of the crime itself—a cemetery—had been disturbing enough; but the perpetrators’ testimonies were even more shocking. Not only did they confess to having raped and killed the girl, but they also claimed to have received their orders from Satan, who apparently demanded a human sacriice. As pictures emerged 16 17

ibid. see They sacriiced themselves (Kendilerini kurban ettiler), Radikal, 23 June 1998.

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showing two of the perpetrators dressed in black and posing with the remains of a dismembered cat, it was seen as proof that satanism had taken hold of them. The photo did, in fact, depict Ömer Çelik and Engin Arslan. Ömer, a long-haired young man with a goatee and a broad, sardonic smile on his face, could be seen holding the head of the dead cat in his left hand, while other parts of the carcass were hanging from his right. engin, stony-faced and also dressed in black, holds a knife in his right hand. his left hand exposes some further parts of the mutilated creature. For newspaper commentators the situation was clear: the photographer had witnessed the ritual killing of an animal for satan. incriminating for the Turkish metal scene in all this was the fact that the killers had picked up their victim in a Beyoğlu rock bar—and, moreover, apparently had afiliations within the local scene. Based upon reports in Milliyet, Hürriyet, and Zaman, the following paragraphs aim to outline the circumstances that led to Şehriban’s death. Turkish dailies published a number of excerpts from Ömer, Engin, and Gülşah’s self-incriminating testimonies. Yet, it cannot be ruled out that these excerpts have been deliberately distorted by the newspapers themselves. comparing their publication in different Turkish dailies, several key quotes from the perpetrators’ testimonies show small inconsistencies. That is to say, the wording is not identical, which is an indicator for possible manipulations. This must be considered before reading the following summary of events. On 17 august 1999, a devastating earthquake had struck Turkey’s heavily populated northwest, destroying huge parts of the industrialized town of izmit and leaving many thousands of people dead. even in istanbul, a considerable number of buildings collapsed. When around lunchtime on 13 september a heavy aftershock could be felt throughout the Marmara region, the population was still in fear, particularly since the media had been speculating that a similarly devastating earthquake could hit istanbul soon. Therefore, the aftershock caused a temporary panic in istanbul, with thousands of people leaving their homes and seeking security in the open. Ömer and engin, who witnessed these happenings, later claimed that the devil had sent them a sign through the earthquake. Milliyet and Hürriyet quote Ömer in a similar way: Satan sent me a message with that earthquake … Şehriban is the sixth child. Six is Satan’s number. For that reason we had to sacriice her.18 During the earthquake, we were all frightened. Ten minutes after the quake, engin arslan approached me, saying: “Today, it’s the thirteenth. i talked to satan and he wants a sacriice.” The earthquake, which took place shortly before, had been a sign. I chose Şehriban.19 18 Quoted and translated from Satanic ferocity (Şeytani vahşet), Ü. Avcı, P. Aktaş, and e. ezber for Milliyet, 21 september 1999. 19 Quoted and translated from An earthquake sacriice for the devil (Şeytan’a deprem kurbanı), Hürriyet, 21 september 1999.

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The satanic motivation for the murder was also conirmed by Zinnur Gülşah Dinçer. although Ömer and engin’s intentions apparently took her by surprise, she participated in the crime. Gülşah and Engin had been dating each other, and her testimony was probably the most shocking document on the case: i have been together with engin for six months. Only two months ago, i learned that he is a satanist. he said that he is showing his hatred against God by worshiping Satan. In this belief, he already killed two people and sacriiced cats. Ömer strangled the girl and engin helped him … They told me to stab the girl … scared to death, i stabbed her. a few seconds later, the girl died. By the hair they dragged her to a tree and Ömer raped the dead girl according to the satanist faith. engin was also waiting to rape her, but he did not succeed. angry, he started punching the dead body.20

Gülşah proceeds by asserting that she was not aware of any plans to “sacriice” Şehriban until minutes before the crime. She, moreover, claims to have tried to prevent the murder by warning the victim: “i objected [but] when [engin] told that he had done two sacriices before, I was afraid he would threaten to kill me as well.”21 The Turkish public was horriied. The immolation of a young woman for satan accompanied by unholy acts of necrophilia—never before had such a thing happened in Turkey. satanism had again reared its ugly head, challenging public order and safety this time more than ever. in the following days and weeks, the press came up with more and more sensationalist details about the perpetrators and their victim. Milliyet identiied Engin Arslan as a supposed sympathizer of the revolutionary People’s liberation Front (Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Cephesi),22 a militant Marxist-leninist movement best known for a number of attacks against us military personnel and the assassination of famous Turkish businessman Özdemir Sabancı. Furthermore, Milliyet reasserted Gülşah’s claims that Engin had killed two other persons before, yet without providing any proof for these allegations. Ömer Çelik was also denounced by Milliyet, though in a slightly different way. The paper printed an interview with his parents and quoted his father with the words: he left home three years ago. he is a psychopath. he has a vicious and dishonest personality. if they brought Ömer here, i would beat him up. he is not my son

Quoted and translated from Satanic ferocity (Şeytani vahşet), Ü. Avcı, P. Aktaş, and e. ezber for Milliyet, 21 september 1999. 21 Quoted and translated from An earthquake sacriice for the devil (Şeytan’a deprem kurbanı), Hürriyet, 21 september 1999. 22 see Satanic ferocity (Şeytani vahşet), Ü. Avcı, P. Aktaş, and E. Ezber for Milliyet, 21 september 1999. 20

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anymore. he brought disaster to us as well as to the family of that very young girl.23

Ömer’s mother is also quoted, telling the story of how her son began serving an apprenticeship as a butcher at the age of 13, and how he lost his job after he was caught stealing meat from his employer. she attributes Ömer’s deviant behavior to the bad inluence of his friends whom she describes as car thieves. She also mentions that he ran away from home, got into drugs, and established contact with some metalheads. Finally, she complains about his clothes and appearance and recalls the time when he began to grow his hair and beard.24 The allegations raised by the media were not only limited to the three perpetrators. indeed, they were even extended to their victim. a report in Hürriyet,25 which aimed to reconstruct the events of the night Şehriban was murdered, mentions that she had left her home in the neighborhood of Avcılar for Taksim on Sunday night. After touring several rock bars until as late as ive o’clock in the morning, she apparently met Ömer. having spent all their money on alcohol, they were seen leaving one of the bars together. in other words, the article depicts Şehriban as a young woman who went out at night alone in order to have fun, drink alcohol, and look for men. With this sparse information about the night she was murdered, the article fosters doubt about Şehriban’s moral integrity. Yet, the allegations go even further: Her family did not know about it, but Şehriban had adopted atheism. This was also an issue on that night. Two youngsters wanted to draw her into satanism. Both were listening to metal music. Once, Şehriban expressed her views towards her nephew Cem and told him that she went to a drinking hole in Ataköy where she watched satanic rituals.26

The text depicts her as an atheist and apostate from islam who fell into the clutches of satanists. This implies that the tragedy would not have happened if she had kept her faith and morality. atheism appears as the gateway to satanism.27 Quoted and translated from My son was a psychopath (Oğlum psikopattı), Milliyet, 22 september 1999. 24 ibid. 25 see An earthquake sacriice for the devil (Şeytan’a deprem kurbanı), Hürriyet, 21 september 1999. 26 Quoted and translated from An earthquake sacriice for the devil (Şeytan’a deprem kurbanı), Hürriyet, 21 september 1999. 27 This opinion is relected in a number of comments and reports. In an article for Zaman published on 25 september 1999 entitled Thoughts about the Satan worshippers (Şeytana tapanlarla ilgili düşünceler), popular writer Ismail Hekimoğlu states: “A person without faith is impossible, you either believe in God or satan.” consequently, any atheist conviction is equivalent to satanism. 23

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all in all, the excerpt alleges the existence of an unholy alliance consisting of metal music, bars, and satanism. The message conveyed to the readers could be summarized as “keep your kids away from metal, bars, and atheist thought, then everything will be ine!” Public concern was already high when some dailies predicted further violence. According to an increasing number of journalists, the Ortaköy murder had only been the prelude to much greater horrors. On september 25, virtually all national dailies promulgated the existence of a satanist terror network with plans to strike against religious targets in Turkey. The bedrock of this assertion were the testimonies of the arrested murder suspects, as well as the discovery of “ritual equipment” during police raids in istanbul (“inverted crosses, black clothes, … special candles, … books and magazines with satanic content”).28 The latter were assumed to provide evidence of the existence of a larger satanic group: During the inquiries related to the murder charges, members of the satanist group … confessed that they were planning operations such as burning mosques, stealing and burning the holy koran, killing the imam of a mosque, and sacriicing a baby or a young girl on the thirteenth of each month.29

Describing a group of satanic terrorists that wages war against islam in a society where religion is a powerful force at the popular level—the sensitivity of the issue could not have been higher. Despite its laicist character, Turkish nationalism draws strongly on the population’s Muslim identity. consequently, it was no wonder that the reports evoked calls for immediately countering the anti-islamic threat posed by satanists. The following excerpt originates from a contribution published in Zaman under the title Isn’t there anyone to tell Satan “stop”? crimes committed by satanists snowball … They worship the devil, perform ceremonies, and sacriice virgins. They drink the blood of animals and offer sacriices to Satan in collective rituals. They participate in horriic murders Quoted and translated from Here comes Satan’s battle-axe! (İşte Şeytan’ın baltası), Zaman, 25 september 1999. The same kind of “ritual equipment” is also mentioned in the article “Satanic” plans (“Şeytani” planlar) published in Milliyet on the same day. The magazines “with satanic content” mentioned in the reports are local metal fanzines, namely Non Serviam, Ölüm ve Cenaze (“Death and Mortal Remains”), and Hayelet Gemi (“Phantom Ship”). 29 Quoted and translated from Here comes Satan’s battle-axe! (İşte Şeytan’ın baltası), Zaman, 25 september 1999. The quotation appears to be identical to a paragraph in an article by e. ezber published in Milliyet on the same day (only the words “related to the murder charges” are missing), see “Satanic” plans (“Şeytani” planlar), Milliyet, 25 september 1999. Moreover, the quotation (though not identical) coincides with a paragraph in Hürriyet published under the headline Satanists in court (Satanistler adliyede) on 25 september 1999. in a nutshell, different newspapers seem to have copied from the same source, showing conspicuous conformity in coverage of the case. 28

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and suicides destroying all boundaries by rebellious actions; sexuality plays a major role in this. They act organized and spread chaos, but the security General Directorate did not induce any measures against the satanists. in brief, there is no one to say “stop” to these crazed killers. Our compatriots want this perverted sect to be stopped by quickly putting security measures on the agenda. The fact that ifteen- and sixteen-year-old children have unrestricted access to amusement centers such as discos and bars plays an important role in young people coming in contact with these deviant thoughts. Our compatriots demand to increase control over amusement centers, to harshly punish those places where these perverted groups have lodged, and, moreover, to close them down.30

What we can see from this short comment, as well as from the previously discussed allegations against the perpetrators and the victim of the Ortaköy incident, is that public concern was built upon a recurrent pattern—the fear of subversiveness, in various forms: religious (“they … offer sacriices to Satan”), social (“they … spread chaos”), sexual (“sexuality is playing a major role”), and political (engin arslan, a supposed member of a militant Marxist-leninist group). This fear merged with the prediction that there were yet more crimes to come. Hostility The resurgence of public concern over satanism was accompanied by reidentifying the potential enemy. Zaman published the following description: With black costumes, sulky faces, long hair, and goatees, they appear on the [TV] screen. From istanbul to Mersin, all families are scared. The police conduct one raid after another. Young satanist university students are taken into custody. They drink chicken blood, chop cats into pieces, and abuse little girls.31

Milliyet, by the same token, released an instructional manual for parents on how to positively identify satanists in everyday life in order to protect their children from satanic seduction: common features of satanists: 1) in general, they are the children of rich and wealthy families and live in rich neighborhoods.

30 Quoted and translated from Isn’t there anyone to tell Satan “stop”? (Şeytana “dur” diyen yok mu?), Zaman, 22 september 1999. 31 Quoted and translated from an untitled article published under the rubric “Ekran Okumaları,” Zaman, 24 september 1999.

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2) They feel extreme afinity for abnormal types of music known as heavy metal and black metal. 3) [Satanism] is common among fourteen to twenty-ive-year-old youngsters. 4) They are long-haired, dressed in shabby clothes, and wear black T-shirts with skull and bone imprints. 5) in order to please satan, they go to graveyards at night, choose a girl from among them, undress her completely, and, after slaughtering her with a knife, besmear themselves with the blood of an animal and enter into [sexual] relations with her all at the same time. 6) They drink the blood of cats. They claim to gain immortality through that. 7) Their ultimate aim is to prevail in order to establish satan’s reign over the world. 8) They have an extreme aggressiveness against religious and holy books. Particularly against islam, the holy koran, and mosques … unacceptable activities are found. 9) They regard other people as stupid.32

ritual killings and sexual abuse, long hair and black clothes—both excerpts present a simple scheme of who satanists are and what they do. again, both papers relect the same models of moral subversiveness outlined in previous reports. The texts represent an act of symbolization, or, in other words, how the discourse over Satanism is a symbolic discourse. It reveals and (re)deines the dominant realms of the sacred and the profane in Turkish society. satanism, herein, is a symbol for the profane, as is everything associated with it (black clothes, metal music, and so on). it represents a threat to all moral values. consequently, the discourse over satanism is less about the existence of a satanic threat than about the question of what is sacred and what is profane, and what the ideal Turkish society should look like. This becomes even clearer once one realizes that the panic over satanism is not derived from an actual threat in the form of a satanist terror organization, but rather from an imaginary threat invented largely by the media. The scenario displayed above is full of symbols that are either allocated to the realm of the sacred or the profane: the holy koran, the mosque, and the female body—whose sexual integrity is threatened by the satanists—represent what is sacred to Turkish society. The visual representations of metal culture (“long 32 Quoted and translated from Police alert families (Emniyet, aileleri uyarıyor), Milliyet, 22 september 1999.

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hair and goatees,” “black t-shirts”) are on the contrary displayed as markers for the profane, for they are associated with satanism. allocating satanic meaning to the metal scene’s shared cultural codes made satanism suddenly visible in everyday life. Public visibility also brought credibility to the allegations over satanism raised in the media. That is to say, encountering young people with black clothes, long hair, leather jackets, and boots in the streets was no longer an act of simply encountering new cultural differences, but, moreover, an encounter with an imminent threat to what is sacred in one’s personal life. With this in mind, the public visibility of metal also strengthened a feeling that the established way of life could no longer be taken for granted. in that sense, the discourse over Satanism eventually relects a wider, dynamic process of negotiating social and cultural change. Consensus in connection with the previously discussed suicide case, newspaper reports were addressing the supposed historic and psychological roots of modern-day satanism in order to ind explanations for why Turkish youngsters had been affected by this “perverted faith.” There was consensus among newspaper writers, who traced the roots of satanism to europe or, more broadly, to “the West.”33 accordingly, many authors followed its history back to the times of the holy inquisition and the age of witch hunts, or even to the early days of christianity and the roman empire.34 ahmet Ünal, a writer for Zaman, goes back to Goethe’s Faust and the works of modern philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche in order to explain the rise of satanism.35 Similarly, Beşir Ayvazoğlu, who also writes for Zaman, identiies Charles-Pierre Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) as a major source of modern satanism. he proceeds by mentioning ira levin’s horror novel Rosemary’s Baby (1967) and the eponymous movie adaptation by roman Polanski (1968).36 references to popular culture and the thoughts of aleister crowley and anton szandor laVey can be found as well.37

33 see, for instance, The real Satanists are hiding (Gerçek Satanistler gizleniyor), Zaman, 24 september 1999; Satan (Şeytan), Zaman, 27 september 1999; There are ive types of Satanism (Satanizm in 5 türü var), Milliyet, 30 september 1999. 34 see There are ive types of Satanism (Satanizm’in 5 türü var), R. Çakır for Milliyet, 30 september 1999. 35 a. Ünal, The real Satanists are hiding (Gerçek Satanistler gizleniyor), Zaman, 24 september 1999. 36 B. Ayvazoğlu, Satan (Şeytan), Zaman, 27 september 1999. 37 Ibid. and R. Çakır, There are ive types of Satanism (Satanizm’in 5 türü var), Milliyet, 30 september 1999.

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Among the “ive types of Satanism” mentioned in an article by Ruşen Çakır for Milliyet, one can also ind the “heavy metal subculture.”38 Similar consensus among Turkish newspaper writers was created in inding an answer to the question of why Turkish youngsters had been infected by satanist thought. The answer came in a single headline: “The reason is alienation.”39 if the explanation was alienation, the following question had to be: alienation from what? The answer to this was as simple as the aforementioned headline: alienation from islam. No paper made this clearer than Zaman, though even Milliyet quoted the head of the Presidency of religious affairs, Mehmet Nuri, with the words: “They [the satanists] emerge from moral emptiness. Families should give their children religious education and teach them our religious values well.”40 in order to strengthen this general argument, experts were called upon. Zaman quoted an unnamed psychologist from selçuk university in konya: They [the satanists] show disorder in the family, frequently right alongside psychological problems such as loneliness, anger, despair, psychosis, suicide attempts, weak self-respect, and incapability. among children, there is a lack of religious education [accompanied by] the presence of a crude social environment and a lack of adequate and suficient identiication options in the family. Moreover, being exposed to violence and exploitation within the family increases the afinity towards Satanism.41

in addition to the religious factor, the author also refers to a number of social (“disorder in the family”) and psychological factors (“loneliness, anger, despair, psychosis”) in explaining the emergence of satanism among Turkish youth. another article in Zaman published on the same day appears more focused: What makes us human is our own faith and values. Why do you wonder at our youth falling into the clutches of satanism and superstitious beliefs, when [this] has not been taught [to them]? Now, everybody is asking: “Where does it come from?” … Those who stand up against religious education, did they ever consider where the youth would go? What do you expect from today’s

38 R. Çakır, There are ive types of Satanism (Satanizm’in 5 türü var), Milliyet, 30 september 1999. 39 The reason is alienation (Sebep yabancılaşma), Zaman, 23 september 1999. 40 Quoted and translated from Department of Religious Affairs: the Satanists are [just] a few prowlers (Diyanet: Satanistler birkaç serseri), Milliyet, 23 september 1999. Mehmet Nuri’s statement was also printed in Zaman in The remedy for Satanism is religious education (Satanistliğe care din eğitimi), 23 september 1999. 41 Quoted and translated from The reason is alienation (Sebep yabancılaşma), Zaman, 23 september 1999.

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education? What you sow is what you reap. You sowed satanism, now you are reaping satanic perverts!42

The writer, whose name is not mentioned by Zaman, regards the rise of satanism as the result of a general lack of religious education. But this argument is not simply an explanation. it is a political statement that represents open criticism of Turkey’s secularist educational system. Particularly in Zaman—in contrast to secularist dailies such as Milliyet, Hürriyet, or Sabah—one can ind references to the highly political headscarf issue: at the university gates there is drama with young girls who are covering their heads for the sake of faith. They didn’t slaughter cats. They didn’t drink chicken blood. They didn’t slaughter young girls at a cemetery. covering their heads for religious necessity, they appear more dangerous to some people than the satanists do.43

This example, referring to the ban on headscarves at Turkish universities and schools, shows that the moral panic over satanism also stirred political debate over religious matters. The killing of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat was seen, at least by some commentators, as a religious act committed by a radical religious sect. From here, they built a political argument attacking the secularist state system. This perspective, which emphasizes the religious meaning of the event, is signiicant for another consensus implicit among Turkish newspaper journalists: the existence of satan and satanism appears be taken for granted. The public discourse is concentrated on inding an explanation for the emergence of Satanism without ever asking what other circumstances could have driven the three youngsters to murder the girl: they killed her, because they had been seduced by satan. This assumption is not questioned during the whole affair. The only comment which deliberately seeks distance from satanic explanations is an elaborate article by Taylan Bilgiç for the socialist daily Evrensel.44 it commences with a quotation from the song Who’s To Blame? by the american thrash metal band sacred reich.45 The song tells the story of a young boy who commits suicide in his room while listening to metal music. Without relecting on their own behavior, the boy’s parents, who did not show any interest in him while he was still alive, place the blame on the negative inluence of metal music. The song released in 1990 is a parody referring to allegations that had been made in 42

Quoted and translated from Those who sow Satanism reap Satanists (Satanizm ekenler Satanist biçiyor), Zaman, 23 september 1999. 43 Quoted and translated from an untitled article published in Zaman under the under the rubric “Ekran Okumaları,” 24 september 1999. 44 see Taylan Bilgiç, Who’s to Blame? (Suçlu kim?), Evrensel, 29 september 1999. 45 The song was released on sacred reich’s 1990 album The American Way on Metal Blade records.

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connection with teenage suicides in the us and the alleged negative impact of the music of Ozzy Osborne and Judas Priest. Bilgiç is well aware of the song’s meaning and transfers it to the Turkish context. Not only does he criticize the Turkish media for fuelling a witch-hunt against rockers and metalheads, but he is also the irst and last commentator who relects on rock and metal music as a social phenomenon. according to his view, metal must be seen as a reaction against social problems; as an uproar against sexual pressure, conservatism, outdated moral values, and fascism. He identiies metal as a means of individual self-determination. Bilgiç also addresses the religious criticism inherent to metal music, quoting from bands such as slayer, Dark angel, The church Bizarre, and Metallica. he depicts the content as a critical relection upon God and religious belief in Christianity without, however, relating it to satanism. This perspective differs fundamentally from the message conveyed by all above-mentioned newspaper commentators. The incident is no longer an act of satanism and apostasy caused through westernization, but rather a social phenomenon that serves as an indicator for cultural change. Disproportion Satanist Hunt was the headline that appeared repeatedly in Turkish newspapers. although the perpetrators had already been arrested, the incident continued to draw a response from the authorities. Particularly after reports claimed the existence of a satanic terrorist network, public emotions ran high. Faced with demands to take decisive action against the emerging threat, the police conducted searches and raids on homes and bars in areas where they believed satanists would meet or hide. Raids were reportedly conducted in a number of bars in Beyoğlu46 as well as in Kadıköy’s Akmar Passage. The latter had been identiied by the police as a “gathering place of istanbul’s satanists.”47 Zaman quotes istanbul’s police chief hasan Özdemir as saying that the Department for intelligence and Terror (Istihbarat ve Terör Şubeleri) and the security Department (Asayiş Şubesi) were involved in operations against the satanists. The police chief also reportedly added that the satanists had been included in a list of malignant organizations. This means that they were put in the same category as terrorist organizations.48 as a result, the police continued to indiscriminately arrest young people with black clothes, long hair, and tattoos. This strategy of arresting individuals due to speciic visual criteria apparently drew on those stereotypical schemes previously deined by the media. In addition to that, the police raided music shops and private homes, coniscating magazines, CDs, and other items they believed to have satanic content. Out of fear for being arrested, most metalheads temporarily avoided 46

see “Satan-hunt” in the bars! (Barlarda “Şeytan” avı!), Milliyet, 26 september

1999. Quoted and translated from Satanist hunt (Satanist avı), Sabah, 22 september 1999. see Satanists included in [the list of] malignant organizations (Satanistler zararlı örgüt kapsamında), Zaman, 3 October 1999. 47

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wearing black T-shirts or going out to bars. some of them even decided to cut their hair in order to avoid trouble with the police, angry people in the streets, or even their families. For a couple of months, life—as far as metal was concerned—came to a standstill. Not only were metalheads afraid of being bothered by the police or local residents, but shop and kiosk owners now refused to sell metal magazines, clubs and bars no longer provided stages for metal concerts, and parents were afraid of letting their children listen to metal music or take guitar lessons. Public pressure was only one side of the coin. another “fatal factor” came in the form of economic consequences: fanzines could no longer be distributed and sold, young musicians could no longer earn money by giving music lessons, and record sales declined (particularly affecting small record labels that had specialized in releasing Turkish metal albums). Despite its temporary nature, the disproportionate reactions caused by overreporting and media manipulation dealt a heavy blow to the metal scene.49 Volatility Yet, the panic soon showed signs of dying down. One indicator was the surfacing of reports criticizing the police for arresting anyone who incidentally it into the long-hair-black-clothes-scheme. even Zaman, which had previously been putting heavy blame on metal for allegedly prompting satanism, now accused the police of arresting innocent people.50 Hürriyet published an interview with Turkish rock legend erkin koray, in which he lamented the public witch-hunt against rockers and metalheads. He commented on this with the words: “I have been ighting for forty-two years now. Did we bear all these dificulties about long hair only in order to [still] be blamed by people of this society?”51 Milliyet even published a series of satirical comments with regard to ignorant and disproportionate behavior on the part of the police.52 Despite the intensity of media coverage, and despite the severity of allegations raised in connection with the Ortaköy murder, the panic over Satanism turned out to be short-lived. When the police failed to ind evidence for the existence of a satanic terror organization, and the prosecuting authorities did not proffer any further charges, the media lost interest. Within days, the satanism issue vanished from the front pages. The intensive phase of media coverage lasted for a 49 Enis Kızılkaya from Hammer Müzik said it took up to one year before everything was back to normal in terms of record sales and the number of customers coming to their shop in Akmar (personal interview, Istanbul, 24 June 2003). 50 see Dangerous promotion (Tehlikeli promosyon), Zaman, 25 september 1999 as well as Accused by the police of being a Satanist (Polisten Satanist suçlaması), Zaman, 7 October 1999. 51 Quoted and translated from Satanist-hunt made Erkin Baba angry (Satanist avı Erkin Baba’yı kızdırdı), Hürriyet, 26 september 1999. 52 see, for instance, Yağ satanist, bal satanist, ustam öldü ben satanist … , k. Demir for Milliyet, 27 september 1999.

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maximum of ten days. after the situation had calmed down, a few more balanced, increasingly unemotional reports were published.

Teenage Suicides Almost exactly one year after the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat, the suicide of seventeen-year-old high school student ceylan konuk brought the issue of satanism back to the fore. ceylan, a student at istanbul’s German high school, leaped from the fourth loor of the school building. Although the incident did not draw as much attention as the Ortaköy murder in 1999, it perfectly it into the scheme of previous panics over satanism. ceylan belonged to Turkey’s upper middle class, was a talented tennis player (she was national champion in her age group), went to one of the country’s elite high schools, and was said to have been in contact with satanists via the internet. as in previous cases, the Turkish press presented reports on her personality, interviews with relatives and friends, excerpts from her farewell letter, allegations of satanism, explanations for the emergence of satanic ideologies among Turkish youth, and relections on the role of rock and metal music in spreading satanic thought. Once more, newspaper commentators established a connection between metal, moral subversiveness, and satanism. under the headline How Do They Become Satanists?, Zaman’s Fatih Yılmaz gave a warning to Turkish parents to prevent their children from going to bars and listening to metal music: The meeting places of young satanists are the cafés and bars in the streets of Beyoğlu that are playing metal music and selling accessories. These places of amusement are also haunted by a large number of homosexuals and transsexuals. They get in touch with high school students whose innocent minds secretly share the perverted spirit of that place. Particularly during adolescence, high school students with psychological problems fall easily into the clutches of satanists. satanists pursue and win new disciples by instructing their followers, who are hanging out at the bars, to form music groups at school. The journey starts simply with a musical taste and ends at the forefront of satanic ceremonies.53

By explicitly mentioning Beyoğlu’s rock bars and cafés as “the meeting places of young satanists” and by stressing the role of metal music in conveying “the perverted spirit” to innocent youngsters, the author once again places istanbul’s metal scene at the center of public concern. aspects of sexual subversiveness (“homosexuals and transsexuals”) and religious subversiveness (“satanic 53 Quoted and translated from How do they become Satanists? (Nasıl Satanist oluyorlar?), F. Yılmaz for Zaman, 26 september 2000.

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ceremonies”) further contribute to the highly negative image. The article ends by depicting the visual representations of metal culture as symbols of satanic evil: “They love black … they generally have long hair … they wear t-shirts with symbols such as the pentagram or the inverted cross.”54 The inal suicide incident to be discussed here marks the zenith of the moral panic. The death of Lara Falay in January 2002 even outshined the Ortaköy murder of 1999. The Turkish press reported over it on a daily basis for more than a month. lara’s photo appeared on Milliyet’s front page for nothing less than a fortnight (though decreasing in size). Within this period, from January 16 to January 31, Milliyet alone printed several dozens of comments and articles associated with the case. Zaman’s coverage reached similar levels. Sixteen-year-old Lara belonged to Istanbul’s small Jewish community. She died jumping from the First Bosporus Bridge after leaping out of the back seat of a taxi. like the other suicide victims, she attended one of Turkey’s elite schools, the american high school in Üsküdar. she grew up in a wealthy family, and was described by her friends and teachers as having a tender and warm-hearted character. The above-mentioned photo depicted a young and beautiful girl smiling at the camera. The picture alone prompted journalists to doubt that such a girl could really commit suicide. Unsurprisingly, the press identiied Satanism as the driving force behind her death. On 23 January, Milliyet announced that “satanic symbols have been found in her room,” later “specifying” them as “clothes, things, books, and notes.”55 Two days later, the same newspaper reafirmed its previous allegations by reporting that further satanic symbols, as well as photos of dead cats and dogs, had been discovered on her computer. The photos were said to have been sent by one of her classmates. This, however, raised concerns that other youngsters may also have been affected through the internet.56 The situation heated up when it turned out that lara and ceylan’s fathers had been long-time friends. consequently, the media concluded that both girls must have known each other. From here, it was only a small step to asserting a causal relationship between their deaths. since ceylan had also been a student at the German High School like Aslı and Cenan, the suicide victims of 1998, it was all too easy to suggest a connection with this case as well. Finally, the mass media presented a scenario of interrelated satanic suicides, the apparent recurrence of which was seen as proof of the persistence of the satanic threat. as in previous cases, the media also raised the question of who was to blame for the resurgence of satanism. in their answer, Turkish newspapers addressed both old and new scapegoats. Besides identifying metal music, the internet, and 54

ibid. s. kahraman, B. Özdemir and e. ezber, School did not take heed of Lara (Okulu Lara’ya kulak asmadı), Milliyet, 23 January 2002. 56 see Lara’s computer started to talk (Lara’nın bilgisayarı konuşmaya başladı), Milliyet, 25 January 2002 as well as Police upon the heels of three people in chat [rooms] (Polis, chat’teki 3 kişinin peşinde), Hürriyet, 23 January 2002. 55

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the writings of authors such as anton szandor laVey as the sources of evil, the press this time added a previously unidentiied source to the scenario: Fantasy role Playing (FrP). lara’s suicide effectively coincided with the release of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of the irst part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings. its release increased the interest in FrP, since many role-playing games were directly inspired by the writings of Tolkien. When rumors spread that lara and ceylan had not only been involved in rock music, but also in FrP, headlines turned up such as FRP’s Bloody Face57 or Should FRP Be Banned or Not?58 To include FrP into the ‘satanic picture’ marks a focal shift from rock and metal music to other newly emerging cultural phenomena. The common element was the depiction of symbolic acts of moral subversiveness in comments and reports. Milliyet, for instance, presented an unnamed ex-satanist who gave testimony about the satanic ceremonies he allegedly participated in: During the ceremonies, men were drinking the blood of cats in order to enter into sexual relations with virgin girls … in order to impress the girls they slaughtered cats … and drank their blood … in the blood they were having sex.59

Despite the persistence of sensationalist reports like this, the media coverage increasingly broadened, giving space to more differentiated views. accordingly, reports on possible psychological, social, and economic factors added to the debate on teenage suicides (particularly after it became known that lara, like ceylan, had been struggling with psychological problems). From here, discussions on “bigger” societal problems began to unfold. a subsequent number of caricatures by the famous artist ercan akyol published in Milliyet illustrated the shift towards an increasingly self-relective and critical perspective: the caricature of an unborn baby committing pre-natal suicide by hanging itself within the womb of its mother was entitled: “The age of those committing suicide in Turkey decreases.” The baby’s farewell letter read: “i do not want to be born in this country.” another caricature by akyol depicted a court scene: a group of little angels hovering in the front of the judge represented the “youths drawn into suicide.” akyol put into the grandstand a number of complacent, fat men who symbolized the true factors behind the teenage suicides. slogans written on their bellies read: “education system,” “bad habits,” “future angst,” “lack of love, indifference;” “pressure,” “economic crisis,” “télé vole culture,” and “excess consumption.” The devil, a scrawny igure in the back, was addressed by the judge with the words “hey, you in the back. stand up …”; obviously enervated, he replied: “come on! aren’t there a whole lot of reasons FRP’s bloody face (FRP’nin kanlı yüzü), Milliyet, 21 January 2002. Should FRP be banned or not? (FRP’yi yasaklamalı mı yasaklamamalı mı?), Milliyet, 22 January 2002. 59 Quoted and translated from The ceremonies’ only aim was sex and drugs (Ayinlerin tek amacı uyuşturucu ve seksti), Milliyet, 30 January 2002. 57

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before putting the blame on me?” akyol’s cartoons constituted a critical approach that illustrated how the discourse over satanism caused people to lose sight of the urgent problems of the society. satanism accordingly distracted the attention from the “real evils,” which were bigger since they were not being tackled (represented by the fat, relaxed-looking men in the court room sitting and watching). although an increasing number of critical voices could now be heard, Turkey’s metal scene was freshly affected by the allegations of satanism. at the same time, Turkish authorities came under extreme public pressure to decisively respond to the putative re-emergence of the satanic threat. The situation was tense, leading to coordinated police arrests and, inally, the formation of a special anti-Satanist task force.60 The latter came just days after the security General Directorate (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü) released a report entitled Satanic Suicides. This report was lengthily discussed by Tolga Şardan for Milliyet.61 accordingly, the authorities regarded lara’s suicide as inspired by satanism. referencing a number of symbols that had been found during the investigation of her personal belongings and her computer, she was considered to have been under the inluence of a satanic organization. Moreover, the report claimed a link between lara’s suicide and the suicide of a young man named Nedim Biçacı who killed himself with a gun on 13 January. Important with relation to metal were claims that satanic activities had been noticed in other parts of Turkey as well, namely in the cities of ankara, Bursa, Aydın, Eskişehir, Izmir, Adana, Içel, Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kayeri, and Samsun. In other words, the report suggested that satanism was spreading across the country. As far as Istanbul was concerned, police identiied a number of locations (notably bars and music shops) in Taksim, Kadıköy, Aksaray, Bakırköy, and Beşiktaş as centers of Satanism. Furthermore, several neighborhoods in Izmir—Karşıyaka, Alsancak, Balçova, Narlıdere, and Gaziemir—were mentioned as important satanist hideouts. The neighborhoods referred to represent the areas where izmir’s rock bars, music shops, and university campuses are located. Finally, the report gave the total number of Turkish satanists as 3,500 aged between 14 and 25, and consequently issued the warning that “in order to gain new members, satanist groups generally choose cafes and bars playing metal or rock music.”62 The release of the report was accompanied by a “fresh satanist hunt.”63 in addition, the Police intelligence Bureau Directorate (Emniyet Istihbarat Şube Müdürlüğü) also announced that it had decided to establish a special task force in order to ight Satanism.64 The directorate is normally responsible for see, for instance, Satanist hunt launched (Satanist avı başlatıldı), Zaman, 22 January 2002; Satanist operation! (Satanist operasyonu!), Milliyet, 21 January 2002. 61 T. Şardan, Satan’s organization (Şeytan’ın örgütü), Milliyet, 26 January 2002. 62 Quoted and translated from T. Şardan, Satan’s organization (Şeytan’ın örgütü), Milliyet, 26 January 2002. 63 see Fresh Satanist hunt (Yine satanist avı), Milliyet, 25 January 2002. 64 see Police formed task force for Satanists (Emniyet satanistler için özel birim kurdu), Zaman, 30 January 2002. The forming of a special task force was already mentioned 60

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enacting measures in connection with counterterrorism. That is to say, Turkish authorities temporarily put satanism on the same level as, for example, Pkk activities. in connection with this, a newspaper article in Zaman, in the course of reporting about the new anti-satanist task force, quoted a police representative who stated that people with long hair, black T-shirts, and tattoos had been probed in connection with countering satanic activities. Moreover, it mentioned investigations into music and the internet. But the climax in the panic over satanism was certainly attained when it reached the Turkish Parliament. The commission of National education (Milli Eğitim Komisyonu) discussed the issue in an extraordinary meeting. a representative from the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MhP) reportedly compared the threat emerging from satanism with that deriving from the islamist hizbullah movement or the kurdish Pkk.65 The temporary political importance ascribed to the issue was also marked by the fact that a newspaper report over Satanism appeared for the irst time under the rubric “Politics.” After coverage of the case had illed the newspapers for several weeks and no satanists were found, public interest quickly evaporated, and with it, further press coverage. Nevertheless, reports on satanism reappear in the national media from time to time, though not in the form of full-scale moral panics. in December 2006, for instance, a headline in the Turkish weekly news magazine Aksiyon warned: Take Care! The Satanist Are Coming Back, claiming that Turkish satanists had just been in hiding and were about to return.66

in Lara’s computer started to talk (Lara’nın bilgisayarı konuşmaya başladı), published in Milliyet on 25 January 2002. 65 see Satanism laid on the Parliament’s table (Satanizm Meclis’te masaya yatırıldı), Milliyet, 31 January 2002. 66 See H. Söylemez, Take Care! The Satanists are coming back (Dikkat! Satanistler geri dönüyor), Aksiyon, 18 December 2006 (source: http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/detay. php?id=26190). Two-and-a-half years earlier, on 21 February 2004, the Turkish tabloid newspaper Star published a similar article entitled There are ifty to sixty thousand satanic youngsters in Turkey (Türkiye’de 50-60 bin Satanist genç var). On 18 June 2003, the Ortaköy murder case had reappeared on the front pages of Turkish daily newspapers, since a new Court of Appeal decision reversed a previous verdict, sentencing Ömer Çelik, Engin Arslan, and Zinnur Gülşah Dinçer to life imprisonment.

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chapter 4

Media Manipulations

in order to learn more about how the Turkish press invented satanism, the further investigation followed several lines: irstly, I conducted interviews with two newspaper journalists who had been involved in the production of news with different newspaper companies at the time; in addition to that, i questioned dozens of Turkish metalheads about how they personally experienced the different phases of the moral panic; and, inally, I analyzed a fair quantity of articles published in Turkish metal fanzines in reaction to the invention of satanism in the mass media. This multi-pronged approach aimed at acquiring different perspectives on the mechanisms involved in the production of a moral panic. The investigation begins with the inside perspectives from newspaper journalists Engin Baş and Taylan Bilgiç. Both appeared to be ideal candidates for gathering information about how the moral panic evolved, for they were experienced journalists and, moreover, have personal afiliations with metal music. That is to say, they are both passionate metal listeners themselves.

A Suitable Scapegoat Engin Baş, a long-haired young man in his early 30s, started his career as a foreign correspondent for the Sabah newspaper in Greece. after returning to istanbulin the late 1990s, he switched to the foreign news desk of Radikal before transferring to Hürriyet. at the time of the interview, in December 2003, he was still employed at Hürriyet, where he was responsible for preparing news for the paper’s internet edition. We irst met during a concert at a club called Manhattan, where I was supposed to meet a group of metalheads with whom i had spoken before. What began as a coincidental conversation was followed by a two-hour interview only a couple of days later. subsequent to our meeting, several istanbul metalheads independently advised me to conduct an interview with engin, since they considered him competent to explain how the issue of satanism was presented by the Turkish media. after a number of introductory questions on his personal background, i aimed to direct the interview to the question of how Turkish newspapers presented the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat in 1999. When I commenced with the words: “Do you think Turkish newspapers …,” he straightaway completed the sentence with his own words: … manipulated the situation? [laughs] Yes! This is actually the horrifying thing about the Turkish media: They manipulate and they believe what they

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Turkish Metal manipulate … The guys killed this girl. and they confessed that they raped the girl after they had killed her. and you know, this “cat-killer” thing [refers to a photograph showing Ömer and engin holding the remains of a dead cat] … They were no white sheep, but for the media it became much more than [just] news, because it was something very, very extraordinary for Turkey. Nobody was expecting that this kind of thing could happen. Till then, nobody in the Turkish media knew what satanism was. Nobody at all! But after this case popped up, the public showed interest in satanism and the Turkish media wanted to write something more. More and more in order to draw attention, to keep the water boiling, you know. so, i’m not saying that the Turkish media created some stories or something. But the Turkish media—and the Turkish public—believed that there were these guys who wanted to take our children and inluence them in a satanic way and create an army of Satan that ights against Islam. In the eyes of the Turkish public these kinds of people existed after that news, especially after that manipulated news. it came up suddenly with a huge explosion, let’s say. and everybody focused on that … People were intensively showing interest in the case! so, competition started—competition between the papers. You know, kind of, “who is going to write more about this thing?” and it became a phenomenon in daily news: the satanic cases, the satanic guys. and of course, the tabloid media manipulated a lot. They showed like, “all these long-haired guys are satanists!” These kinds of things.

Engin irst and foremost highlights the manipulative character of the Turkish media. he accuses commentators of having acted true to the motto, “keep the water boiling,” in order to attract further public attention to the case. apart from the media’s tendency of being prone to manipulation, he regards the extraordinary character of the event (“it was something very, very extraordinary”) and the general lack of knowledge on satanism (“nobody in the Turkish media knew what satanism is”) as contributing to a scenario in which commentators and the public equally believed in the existence of a satanic threat. it was perceived as real and nothing to be brushed aside. his assertions underline the distortive character of the media coverage, which, according to the preceding conceptual debate at the beginning of this chapter, is a necessary condition to qualify a phenomenon as a moral panic. in addition to that, engin points to a process of symbolization and stigmatization resulting in repressive action against Turkish metalheads: Till then, long-haired guys were, let’s say “not so welcome,” especially for conservative Turkish families. if a guy had long hair, his choice was [considered] “not so good.” But after that case, they started to show much more interest in their kids. You know like: “What are they reading? What are they doing?,” etc. and they told them: “look! These are bad guys! They are satanists. They are

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going to take you over!” … after that case, everybody reacted, because i had long hair. Police started crackdowns all around … They had no idea of how to deal with it. so, they started to pick up everybody who had long hair, especially from the rock bars … and they went to Akmar Pasajı which was full of long-haired guys, because it was a metal bazaar—a market where they sold metal cDs … Police didn’t know how to deal with it. They had no idea about satanism. it went on this way for three months. after three months, things settled down, but the issue of satanism remained.

as a consequence of manipulative media practices—including acts of exaggeration, distortion, and symbolization (stigmatization)—Turkish metalheads were publicly perceived as an “army of satan.” since “everybody focused on that,” they suffered from repressive measures taken by the authorities, their families, and their social environment. engin illustrates this by pointing towards personal experiences (“everybody reacted, because i had long hair”) and the indiscriminate action of the police who “didn’t know how to deal with it.” Newspaper journalist Taylan Bilgiç provides a different perspective on the events. at the time of the interview, Taylan was the managing editor of the foreign news desk at Evrensel, a socialist daily afiliated with the Turkish Communist labor Party (eMeP). in september 1999, he wrote several critical articles on how the Turkish mass media constructed connections between metal and satanism.1 he was well aware of the historical development of rock music, socially and politically conscious when it came to the meaning of rock and metal in a Turkish context, and a die-hard metal fan himself. Besides his political commitment to Evrensel and the Turkish socialist movement, he used to write for metal fanzines such as Ağrı Kesici, Metal Monster, and Deli Kasap. When we met for the interview in May 2004, he was aged 32. concerning the depiction of satanism in connection with the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat, he gave the following assessment: Well, after the incident, the media had found a very suitable scapegoat. it was so suitable that all of their own sins could be hidden under [the coat of] this murder. The islamist media attacked it in its own way. it ran articles about how bad the secular education system was: “This was a creation of secular Turkey! This was the youth of atatürk!” liberal media started bashing satanism as if it was a coherent ideology and nearly put them [the satanists] between left-wing or kurdish groups: you had enemies of the state and you had satanists. even the police, i have heard, created a task force against satanism.

1

see T. Bilgiç, Who’s to Blame? (Suçlu kim?), Evrensel, 29 september 1999.

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Young people were harshly repressed by their families, by society, by the police. Many people were taken into custody. Their hair was cut, their music [records, cDs] broken, and their posters torn up … This murder became like a rampage against rock music listeners … all these old debates about the family came up again. how the Turkish family is, how the Turkish family should be.

unlike engin, Taylan looks at the events from a political point of view. referring to the different lines of argument used by what he calls the “islamist media” and the “liberal media,” he identiies political motives behind the depiction of satanism in the media. From a political perspective, the discourse over Satanism represents a means of redeining boundaries between secular and religious concepts of state and society. simply speaking, it turns into a symbol of the political struggle between those supporting the prevailing kemalist state doctrine and those supporting the idea of a political system based upon islamic principles. Additionally, the discourse over Satanism provides a space for redeining social values (“old debates about the family came up again”—later in the interview he directly refers to “family values”). In other words, it is about redeining the realms of the sacred and the profane in Turkish society. Boundaries are either redeined by public discussion (media discourse) or by acts of repression in order to eliminate all visible symbols of the profane (“Their hair was cut, their music [records, cDs] broken, and their posters torn up”).

Schizophrenic Media The public discourse over metal and satanism was not solely limited to the mass media. indeed, the Turkish “metal press” published lengthy statements that vehemently rejected any accusation of satanism. Yet, the voices from the underground were only sparsely heard in public. even worse, as the situation deteriorated, most fanzines had to cease publication. Not only did they suffer coniscations by the police, but shop owners also stopped selling the allegedly satanic propaganda. alarmed by the media, many parents also prohibited their children from buying metal magazines due to their “satanic content.” in the face of repression, some writers even decided they had better keep a low proile and stop writing. since metal fanzines were all basically do-it-yourself projects relying on limited inancial resources, they quickly went bankrupt. Even Şebek, with its weekly circulation of several thousand copies, ceased to exist by the end of that year. This phenomenon, particularly during the aftermath of the Ortaköy murder in 1999, led to a technical reorganization of the scene. after a period of silence, new initiatives discovered the potential of the internet. The new strategy to publish fanzines through the World Wide Web made editors less vulnerable to the inancial risk posed by each newly emerging satanic panic. One of irst webzines was Deli Kasap (see chapter 2), which succeeded in publishing issues on a monthly basis.

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in early October 1999, the weekly Şebek issued the following statement on its front page: “Not every long-haired person is a satanist, not every satanist is a potential killer.”2 inside, the magazine reprinted a collage of newspaper clippings from the direct aftermath of the Ortaköy killing. Each newspaper report was followed by a short comment aimed at highlighting the distorted nature of the media coverage. One of the clippings, which was taken from Hürriyet, depicted the “organizational hierarchy” of Turkish satanists, including the names and photos of several metalheads.3 among those pictured and named was sibel Oral who, at the time, was a regular writer for Şebek.4 Hürriyet presented her as a “committee member” of Turkey’s secret satanic organization. sibel, infuriated over the report, vented her anger in an article for Şebek entitled Schizophrenic Media, I just Don’t Know What to Say to You: i’m gonna tell you about the murder that was manipulated by the media … The war, which had been launched very carefully beginning with the Ataköy suicides [in 1998], has now reached its inal peak: any person wearing black clothes …, having long hair, and listening to heaVY MeTal has been declared a potential PerVerT. The media that created news with headlines such as hOW TO FiND OuT WheTher YOur chilD is a saTaNisT targeted all rockers as a whole. i would like to thank the media boards which made me a member of the central committee of a satanic terror organization … One-and-a-half years ago, i was on the same picture with one of the suspects following a concert which i had organized. [Just because of that] they regard me as a Satanist. Well, that’s nice … unfortunately, it is not funny … heavy metal listeners are automatically seen as saTaNisTs, MaNiacs, and PerVerTs … There is nothing else to say, because patients with schizophrenia are beyond help … let them continue to believe their own lies … Just go on … The main thing now is LONG LIVE heaVY MeTal!!!5

Sibel gives a deiantly angry, sarcastic, and, at the same time, worrying statement. she accuses the media of manipulating the events, particularly when depicting her as a leading member of a satanic terror organization. Pushing the argument even further, she alleges a concerted media campaign against “all rockers,” beginning with the suicide of Aslı Yadımcı and Alp Cenan Yuğaç in

2 3

see Köprü Altı Heavy Metal Dergisi, No. 148, 2 October 1999. see Police: They are Satanists (Polis: Bunlar Satanist), Hürriyet, 23 september

1999. 4 After her time at Şebek, Sibel Oral became a writer. Her irst novel Beni beklerken was published in Goa Yayıncılık in 2006. 5 Quoted and translated from s. Oral, Şizofren medya, sana ne yazacağımı bilmiyorum!, Köprü Altı Heavy Metal Dergisi, No. 149, 9 October 1999, p. 6.

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1998. Finally, she calls the outbreak of fear an act of schizophrenia, and the public perception a matter of misconception. in order to outline the different reactions to the satanic panic of 1999, the investigation will now focus on several articles published in Şebek and Non Serviam, the two most popular metal magazines at the time. The irst excerpt is derived from an article written by Hiçri Bozdağ for Şebek. hicri, who is known for organizing numerous rock and metal projects under the label rock station,6 spoke about the aftermath of the satanic panic: it’s interesting, isn’t it? … The disgusting murder incident that we have witnessed these days has suddenly changed quite a number of things. People have learned about a perverted faith called satanism. Yet, people have learned that everybody who has long hair and wears black clothes is a potential criminal … They have learned that led Zeppelin, Black sabbath, Megadeth, and Metallica are satanist bands. an incident has happened and all of a sudden a large society came under pressure and got scared … alright, why then? it is very simple … the media [has used] an isolated incident to ascribe a crime committed by three horrid human beings to a whole group of people—without mercy, without regret. i say it again: rock and metal are types of music. i am not a satanist. i believe in God. and i think it is the same for many [rock and metal] listeners. We are just not listening to arabesque or pop. We are listening to rock music. i do not want to remain under the suspicion of being a satanist just because of that. i distance myself from those people who claim to be rock listeners and have perverted and abnormal thoughts.7

Expressing disgust at the Ortaköy killing incident, repudiating Satanism, and confessing faith in God seem like an attempt to reintegrate metal into society or, in other words, like an attempt to eliminate the “satanic line” drawn by the media in order to separate long-haired metal listeners from the rest of society. hereby, hicri even reduces the meaning of rock and metal to “types of music,” placing them on the same level with arabesque and pop, as if he wants to say: “The only difference between us and you is that we are listening to rock music.” he ultimately blames the media for falsely equating the cultural representations of metal with satanism. how the satanic media coverage affected Turkish metalheads in everyday life is

In the early 1990s, Hicri Bozdağ hosted a radio program called Metal Heart. Under the rock station label he ran an eponymous café in ankara, an international festival, a TV program, and a magazine. 7 Quoted and translated from H. Bozdağ, Telli sazdır bunun adı, Köprü Altı Heavy Metal Dergisi, No. 149, 9 October 1999, p. 4. 6

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further highlighted by Zarife Öztürk in her article “Does every satanist drink cat Blood?” referring to the impact of the media coverage, she asks: What are its consequences? even if it is just for a few days, you at least tie back your hair in order to not draw much attention; you take out your earrings, nose studs [“hızma”], and piercings; you hide your tattoos; you don’t wear your military boots and black t-shirts; you don’t show your pocket chains; maybe even more important, you don’t go on the internet, you don’t use a computer; bands suspend their activities for a while. in other words, people like us are hiding, we are hiding ourselves: We are not free. The Turkish media, however, is pretty oblivious. With regard to some cases this is a good thing. When you look at the newspapers or television today, the media forgot about “the satanists” … The media is oblivious, but people are not that oblivious. and still, two elderly women wearing a headscarf might talk and say, for instance: “Two satanists are standing in front of our house.” To make a long story short, after long-haired men have been collectively branded as “fags,” they are now being branded as “satanists.” The word “satanist” won’t be easily erased from people’s minds.8

Both paragraphs refer to the consequences of the satanic panic of 1999. Yet, they are addressing two different temporal dimensions. While in the irst paragraph Zarife stresses the short-term impact of the satanic panic (by recalling how metalheads temporarily went into hiding in order to escape public pressure), she points to its long-term impact in the second paragraph (thereby imagining how two elderly women talk about the long-haired ‘satanists’ in front of their house). central to this second paragraph is her statement: “The Turkish media is pretty oblivious … [but] the word ‘satanist’ won’t be easily erased from people’s minds.” What does this inding mean with regard to the conceptual framework of a moral panic? The phenomenon of a moral panic may be volatile, but its impact as far as the effects of symbolization persists much longer. People may be quick in forgetting about the actual events of a moral panic, but the newly formed categories (long hair, black clothes = satanist) persist in their minds, consequently affecting their future thoughts and behavior. The semantic recoding of long hair from “fag” to “satanist,” as observed by Zarife, provides evidence to these long-term mental effects. The following example from my research further conirms the aboveoutlined assumptions. In September 2005, Maksim Kırıkoğlu, guitarist of the Istanbul death metal band Soul Sacriice, told me about an incident that took place the night before: the band had left their rehearsal studio late at night, all of them slightly drunk. When 8 Quoted and translated from Z. Öztürk, Her Satanist kedi kanı içer mi? (Does every Satanist drink cat blood?), Non Serviam, No. 17, December 1999.

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their drummer decided to test the engine of his newly-bought motorbike, he drew the anger of one of the residents. From his window he shouted at the long-haired metalheads, demanding that they immediately stop the noise. in an outburst of anger, he also called them “pis satanistler” (“dirty satanists”). Now, the band for their part told him to shut up. Not very impressed by his angry swearing, they left the scene in order to buy some beer from a nearby shop. When they returned, they noticed the same man waiting in front of the studio, this time holding a knife and shouting: “Pis satanistler! Öldüreceğim sizi!” (“Dirty satanists! i’ll gonna kill you!”). after an attempt to approach and talk to the man, they left again in order to avoid violent confrontation. Maksim describes the resident as a traditional, rural man, dressed in pajama trousers and a white undershirt. his description is based upon a number of codes that assign the man to the lower, uneducated, and conservative strata of Turkish society. apart from his appearance, his violent behavior—showing his masculinity through being ready to ight and kill—contributes to this image. concluding the story, it is relevant to mention that Maksim and the others refrained from going to the police, as the oficers might have treated them as satanists, too. The example shows that the image of the longhaired satanist still lives on in people’s minds, though the time of satanic panics appears to be long over. Personally, i can add that during participant observation, i more than once heard a voice whispering “Satanist!” from behind my back.

Figure 4.1

Istanbul death metal band Soul Sacriice, 2011

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another aspect to be mentioned here is the feeling of absurdity which struck many metalheads when being confronted with the sensationalist media coverage and the public reaction towards it. Zarife Öztürk directly refers to a number of newspaper headlines printed in connection with the Ortaköy murder: i sifted through the old newspapers and, well, again i couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry when confronted with what we have seen. Hürriyet’s headlines actually covered [the incident] in the following way: “satanist terror,” “a rendezvous with Death,” “Don’t be an atheist, be a satanist,” “i started to strangle her throat,” “I sacriiced two people,” “Ömer raped her,” “Sharon Tate had been sacriiced to the devil as well” … However absurd all of this may seem, why do i actually wonder?9

Hicri Bozdağ, however, reduces the media allegations to absurdity by questioning their logic of argumentation and pointing towards other (socially accepted) acts of violence: Just think, in this country 100,000 copies of [the latest] Metallica album have been sold. That means, at least 100,000 people are under suspicion of being satanists. really? hah hah … What else could you say? What has it got to do with music for God’s sake? come on! some days ago, a TV channel reported that during a Müslüm Gürses10 concert a guy cut across his chest with a razor blade. Think, what would a person doing this to himself do to others; what cats would he chop? Whew! … in the street, gossip greets my ear: “eh, let’s see what will happen if i get hold of these long-haired satanists” … Do you see people’s animosity? Once they implement their ill plan, our surroundings will be covered in blood. Who is the Satanist? Just who?11

Why does an act of self-mutilation at an arabesque concert not send shock waves through the country like a satanic suicide does? Probably because it is nothing unusual to see young men cutting themselves at an arabesque concert in an outburst of ecstasy or Weltschmerz. is this not an act of violence that should be (socially) rejected, too? hicri’s remarks imply at least two questions. Firstly, who is threatening whom—do the alleged satanists threaten “normal” people or do “normal” people threaten the alleged satanists? and, secondly, who is to blame for the emergence of “perverted” killers as seen in the Ortaköy incident—Satanism, or a society in which violence seems to be a widely accepted phenomenon?

9

ibid. Müslüm Gürses is a famous Turkish arabesque and folk singer. 11 Quoted and translated from H. Bozdağ, Telli sazdır bunun adı, Köprü Altı Heavy Metal Dergisi, No. 149, 9 October 1999, p. 4. 10

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Testimonies of Manipulation Turkish metalheads repeatedly blamed the mass media of being manipulative. This became clear in numerous conversations and interviews during my research in Turkey. erhan, the former drummer of istanbul black metal band Omen, even claimed that newspaper journalists had offered him money in order to present himself as a satanist. he refused. Due to this and a number of similar stories— as, for instance, the interview with Engin Baş—I assumed that I would soon encounter further evidence of sensationalist overreporting. Yet, the full scale of manipulation and distortion only became clear to me after conducting interviews with two young men who were friends with some of the suicide victims. Both told me how they experienced the array of supposedly satanist incidents. Aslı and Cenan’s farewell letter, which was published by Hürriyet on 24 June 1998, also contained the name of one of their friends, ali emir. The mention of this name brought an almost same-named student of the German high school into the focus of the Turkish press. in a personal interview conducted in summer 2003, he gave his perspective on the events of June 1998. At the time of the interview, ali had just graduated from the German high school and was involved in several underground bands such as Wintermoon and khaoskult. he can be described as a “die-hard” black metalhead. The following excerpt from the interview with ali reveals how he experienced the events: it started in 1998 with the suicide of my friend cenan. Back then, i was at the end of the seventh grade. he was my classmate, and we were such good friends. he lunged off a roof with a girl from the tenth grade of our school. Then, a son of a bitch said they were satanists. if they had not said that, all this shit would not have happened, i think. cenan had a friend called ali emir, and my name is ali emin. and the reporters confused it, and my picture appeared in the newspapers. and then, after one year, this satanist murder took place and it was hellacious. Many people were arrested and their houses were searched. Through this, many people lost their cDs, cassettes, and t-shirts. it was really sick! i was lucky then and didn’t get arrested, but many others weren’t lucky. it harmed the scene pretty bad. Many bands, Der Tod, for instance, quite a good death metal band, were no longer able to do anything. Many fanzines were unable to publish new issues and concerts were cancelled. after a couple of months everything was back to normal. In early 2002 … there was another suicide. She was a Jew, a rich Jew. I think she just had problems—these problems with puberty. and i don’t think she was listening to heavy metal. i don’t think so. it was just bullshit, what they told about her. i didn’t even know her, [but] they spread some rumors and i appeared in the newspapers again as her lover. But i didn’t even know her! You know, they

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always want sensations. i don’t believe the press. i don’t believe the press at all! They only want sensations in order to sell more newspapers. There was another suicide at our school. ceylan. she also had psychological problems. last year, she didn’t come to school at all. she always stayed at home and she also took medicine. But i think, she didn’t have anything to do with it either [satanism]. she did have problems as well. cenan was a hard-core death metal fan, even at the age of thirteen. Over the last few months, he did have many psychological problems. The doctors thought he was schizophrenic … During his last months, he only listened to stuff like The Doors—this old stuff, you know. i think his mother just threw away all his death metal albums. it had nothing to do with satanism. he was just fourteen years old! he had psychological problems. it could have been anyone. [With stronger emphasis:] it could have been anyone! it could have been an islamist even!

ali’s depiction of the events contains references to all four incidents that together form a coherent scenario constructed by the Turkish media in order to prove the existence of a satanic threat in Turkey. These incidents are, as already mentioned before, the joint suicide of Aslı Yardımcı and Alp Cenan Yuğaç in June 1998, the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat in September 1999, the suicide of Ceylan Konuk in September 2000, and the suicide of Lara Falay in January 2002. ali’s comments convey a mixture of shock, irritation, and anger about what happened in the aftermath of cenan’s death, particularly in terms of media coverage. he rejects all allegations of satanism against his friend (“it had nothing to do with satanism”), and instead blames the press for deliberately spreading false information in order to create satanic sensations. his personal explanation for the suicides of cenan, ceylan, and lara refers to psychological problems, as they all had been undergoing medical and psychological treatment (“The doctors thought [cenan] is schizophrenic,” “[lara] just had problems—these problems with puberty,” “[ceylan] also had psychological problems … she also took medicine.”). Ali mentions Cenan’s strong afiliation to metal music, but rejects any connection between his suicide and listening to metal (“it could have been an islamist even”). When he talks about the temporarily devastating impact the satanic panic had on the metal scene, it becomes clear how absurd the whole scenario appears to him (“it was hellacious! … it was really sick!”). ali’s narration contains references to several elements which previously have been identiied as being constitutive for a moral panic (see Chapter 3). These are distortion and exaggeration, when he complains about the media’s intentions to exaggerate and distort the actual events (“i didn’t even know her … and i appeared in the newspapers again as her lover”); the authorities’ disproportionate response, when he mentions actions against the metal scene (“Many people were arrested and their houses were searched”); and, inally, the volatile character of the moral

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panic, when he states that “after a couple of months everything was back to normal.” A similar perspective emerged in an interview with Erdem Çapar, the former vocalist of antisilence, who is now “shouter” for a band called Nitro. ali and erdem did not know each other, belonged to two different generations of metalheads (at the time of the interview ali was aged 18, erdem was aged 28), and afiliated themselves with different subgenres of the scene. Nevertheless, they provided two separate but complementing views on the situation. like ali, erdem narrated all three suicides, and also pointed towards the manipulative character of media coverage: [lara] was coming to our concerts. i used to know her … and when i saw her picture in the newspaper, i was shocked! … There was this funny thing about her suicide. When her remains were found, they said that there was a pentagram tattoo on her leg. Yeah, there was a tattoo on her leg. it was a star! But it wasn’t a pentagram. It was a Jewish star with six angles … It wasn’t a pentagram. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The newspaper said: “There was a pentagram on her leg.” It’s not a pentagram! Hey man, everyone knows the Jewish star here. and there was this girl who killed herself in 2000. she was studying at the German high school … she jumped from the school roof. and she was a rich girl. her parents are famous people in adana. They are rich people, but she killed herself … her name was ceylan … i knew her for more than four years. i knew her when she was [still] a child. and then, she committed suicide when she was sixteen or seventeen. and i said: “she had different problems.” she was like a schizophrenic or something else. it wasn’t coming from music. she had different problems … Well, ceylan was a fan of Megadeth. she would kill herself for Megadeth. Only! And in ’98, two kids, a girl and a guy, committed suicide together in Ataköy. They threw themselves from the thirteenth loor of the apartment, and before they fell down, they wrote something on the wall. They [i.e. the newspapers] said: “This is satanism. This is a verse from a metal band!” it was “We don’t belong here” from radiohead. it’s not a metal thing. it’s just radiohead.

erdem had a nodding acquaintance with both lara and ceylan. although his words do not offer close insight into their lives, it becomes clear that he relates their suicides to psychological problems (“she was like a schizophrenic”). Besides, he mentions two cases of distortion and manipulation by the media in connection with the suicides: the depiction of lara’s star of David tattoo as a pentagram, and the misinterpretation of a Radiohead song in connection with the death of Aslı and cenan. When talking about these mistakes, he makes fun of the media’s ignorance (“It’s funny!”). Last but not least, he rejects any suicidal inluences of metal music. in doing so, he refers to an interview with iron Maiden’s vocalist Bruce Dickinson,

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which he repeats: “Metal is not responsible for it. Yeah, because: i listen to this music and i never thought about committing suicide.”

Confrontation and Ignorance Turkish metalheads watched the events with a mixture of shock, anger, anxiety, consternation, and amusement; without, however, associating any of the incidents with satanism. Only a few voices from the metal underground genuinely considered the possibility that there might have been afiliations to some form of unspeciied satanic thought.12 in short, the metal scene’s perception differed completely from that of the media and the public. The subsequent analysis, which is based upon personal interviews with Turkish metalheads, will follow two questions. Firstly, how did Turkish metalheads perceive and experience the methods of the mass media and the mounting public pressure upon them? and secondly, how did they personally assess the allegations of satanism with regard to the murder and suicides? let us begin by looking at how Yavuz, a longtime rock and heavy metal listener, perceived the media coverage during the satanic panic of 1999: so, the whole mass media, the whole society, the whole lower middle class, the whole … the ones who don’t have the capacity to understand things, believed in this shit! Believed in this shit! i can’t believe it! … it was a frenzy. The whole media was covering all this satan shit, saying: “These guys are worshipping the devil. Beware of these devil worshippers. Your sons and daughters are worshippers of the devil, if they have these black t-shirts, if they have this long hair, if they have these piercings, if they have this strange make-up and black sneakers, and black socks, and black shirts. if they have these noisy albums in their room, if they have these candles burning, if they have these Pink Floyd albums [stresses the word “pink” and laughs], if they have these Bon Jovi albums. so, they are worshippers of the devil.” come and take it, man. come and take it! i was laughing … i was really laughing my ass off at all this stuff! … Especially, when I think about Bon Jovi as a devil worshipper! [bursts out in laughter]

implicit in this statement is not only amusement and consternation over the absurdity of the situation—particularly, when imagining female heartthrob and hard rock star Bon Jovi as a devil worshipper—but also over the ignorance of “the ones who didn’t have the capacity to understand things.” ignorance was probably the most frequently mentioned factor when metalheads explained the reasons 12

“Yes, in one way or the other there is satanism in Turkey. There are satanists. But we ultimately have to accept that most of these people are black metal listeners.” Quoted and translated from M.B. Kayıhan, The Gods Made Heavy Metal (Tanrılar Heavy Metal’i Yarattı), Köprü Altı Heavy Metal Dergisi, No. 149, 9 October 1999, p. 5.

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for the emergence of satanic panics in Turkey. seyda underlines this through the following statement: There was no such thing before. People didn’t even know what satanism was. They didn’t know the word. and later, after the incident, newspapers were reporting about it every day. Pages and pages of articles about: “What is satanism?,” and “how to protect our children?,” “how do you notice your child is a Satanist?,” and so on. Just like that. Just afterwards, people knew the word. Previously, it didn’t exist.

Besides ignorance, some metalheads also identiied political motives behind the invention of satanism. Particularly in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake of august 1999, when authorities and building companies were busy covering up their failures in connection with poor crisis management and construction deicits, there appeared to be a political interest in detracting people’s attention from those issues. Other voices asserted that satanism was used to cover up economic problems as well as terror threats by Turkish islamists or, as enis from hammer Müzik put it, “we believe that the government used the media … [because] no one was speaking about economical problems anymore.” speculation regarding political motives often had much of a conspiracy theory mantle, though it is certainly true that the satanic panic helped to temporarily push politically controversial issues off the front pages. Speciic consequences manifested themselves irst and foremost in the form of confrontations with parents, with the police, within the wider public, and, to a certain degree, within the media itself. These different lines of confrontation presented themselves in most narrations about the satanic panic of 1999. For most metalheads, the confrontations began at home, as Bahadır from Deli Kasap recalls: My mum … [laughs] My mum asked me, actually: “Hey Bahadır, come here, come here!”—You know, Ömer and these guys were on TV—“Do you know these guys?”—“No, i don’t know them.” [laughs] Yeah. it was like everybody was inluenced, because the media made it a very big event. Every day, it was on TV, in the newspapers: “Who is Ömer? Who is who?” You know.

Oral, vocalist of ankara death metal band cidesphere, tells a similar story about his parents: At irst, they were very angry, of course. When the irst Satanist incidents came up, they asked us some questions about satanism: [whispers] “are you Satanists? Do you believe in Satan?” [laughs] But we said: “Deinitely not!”

Most parents were shocked, irritated, and worried when the irst news about the Ortaköy murder emerged—worried not only about the satanic impact metal music could have on their children, but also about the dangers of being arrested by

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the police or being physically assaulted on the streets. some reacted by asserting greater control over their children, like one of my interviewees mentioned: “i couldn’t wear my black clothes for a few months. My mother didn’t let me. she said: ‘i’m afraid that someone will attack you, blaming you for satanism.’”13 While some parents urged their kids to cut their hair, burned their magazines, threw away their cDs, prevented them from hanging out in rock bars, or made them give up playing an instrument, others reacted with sympathy, particularly those who had listened to rock music themselves. Yet, some metalheads were subjected to major confrontations. saro remembers: My parents reacted, of course! First, they didn’t believe me. i fought a lot with my father. he threw me out of the house. i stayed with my friends. … i left my family for more than six months. i tried to live alone … Those were terrible days. When i returned home, my uncle came. he knows what i am, because he used to listen to hard rock and heavy metal [himself], and he said: ‘he’s not a Satanist! Just don’t understand anything wrong!’ So, they got used to it.

a second line of confrontation involved the police. in the aftermath of the Ortaköy incident, the police conducted raids in almost all major Turkish cities. These raids were usually limited to rock bars, music shops, and the apartments of alleged satanists, and led to the arrest of dozens (if not hundreds) of people. When it comes to the role of the police, metalheads often use the expression “cahiller,” thereby denouncing police oficers as uneducated and ignorant. This, however, was usually due to the policemen’s naïve and ignorant behavior during raids and interrogations. Two istanbul metalheads perceived the police actions as follows: saro: The Turkish police commanders said: “round up everyone who has long hair and wears black!” I was in jail, too, because of these morons. I was in Köprü Altı [rock bar] and the police came in and took everyone who was wearing black! They took everyone who had long hair! i didn’t have long hair in that period, i was a skinhead … [but] they took me, too. i was just seventeen years old. i mean, i was under eighteen and they took me, too. Then, my family came. They [the police] did nothing to me. They just arrested and released us the next day … and i saw lots of guys who had nothing to do with heavy metal. They just wore black and they said: “i’m don’t listen to metal. i’m not a satanist. how can i be arrested? i don’t know anything about it! i listen to techno!” and another one said, “i have a black coat and i wear a black t-shirt and they took me for a satanist! i don’t know what’s going on!” a lot of silly things. cenk: There were many nights the police came and they took everybody from the bars—Caravan, new Kemancı. They took everybody to the police station. In Izmir, the police took me and another twenty, twenty-ive persons. We had gone 13

Melih, personal interview, istanbul, November 2003.

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to Izmir for a concert … The oficer asked us questions. He was very naïve, very friendly like a father you know: “What do you think about this satanist thing?” This was bullshit, man. “Why are you wearing black?” … We tried to explain it to them, but i think we couldn’t do it, man. it was very hard to tell them. They were like our parents. They only believe the media … They let us go, but you know, it affects you. it makes you [come close to] a nervous breakdown. it’s been very sad for us, but then you drink two beers and start headbanging and it’s okay.

Turkish police oficers apparently entered the situation unprepared, familiar neither with satanism nor metal music. as a result, they perceived the stereotypical patterns previously published by the media. consequently, arrests were made on the basis of visual appearance rather than deinite suspicion. Police interrogations revealed a similar state of naïvety and ignorance. unable to attach meaning to metal-related codes and symbols, oficers asked seemingly naïve questions, like the above-mentioned: “Why are you wearing black?” according to numerous interview statements, similar questions were asked not only about the meaning of metal albums and bands, but also about the arrested metalheads’ religious mindsets— whether or not they believed in God or whether or not they read the koran. Though most suspects were released shortly after their arrests, some individuals suffered severe consequences while in police custody. an istanbulbased black metal listener who claimed to have been close friends with Ömer Çelik, the assumed ringleader in the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat, said he was arrested and tortured by the police for several days. according to a conversational interview conducted in May 2003, police oficers beat him, stripped him naked, and doused him with cold water in order to gain information on the “satanic terror network.” unlike other metalheads who had been arrested, his friendship with Ömer put him at the forefront of police investigations.14 Beyond confrontations with the police, metalheads were also openly confronted in the public sphere. These confrontations happened in urban public spaces—on the streets, at markets, in cafés—and ranged from deprecating looks and comments to verbal and physical insults, sometimes causing bizarre situations (see Chapter 7). In the direct aftermath of the Ortaköy murder, people were very sensitive towards depictions of satanic images in the public sphere. in the same week Şehriban Çoşkunfırat was killed, George Lucas’s Star Wars Episode I arrived in cinemas across Turkey. Since Pizza Hut was the oficial sponsor of the movie, their local branch in Taksim set up a life-sized igure of Darth Maul, the ictional evil character in the movie. With his horns, red skin, and facial tattoos, his artistic creators had drawn upon christian depictions of the devil. The satanic imagery infuriated pedestrians and customers alike, and the company had to remove it. another grotesquerie, which apparently happened similarly to quite a number of metalheads, was described by the musician Cenk Turanlı: 14

Out of fear for further police repression, the interviewee did not want to be named.

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The media reported: “satanists are killing cats!” and when i was walking down the street a guy passing me by said: “Meow.” can you imagine that? Oh man, what’s my fault? What’s my fault? i only listen to music. Bullshit! They lie! … People only believe in the media. so, what can you say? it’s a lie. We suffered pressure from the public. sometimes they are yelling from the cars: “These are the satanists!” it’s very scary.15

individual consequences, as caused by public or family pressure, were only one side of the coin. The other side were the consequences affecting the Turkish metal scene’s infrastructure. since many people suddenly became afraid of being associated with satanism through the act of buying metal albums, cassettes, fanzines, or T-shirts, the local scenes in Turkey suffered a severe economic and, therefore, infrastructural setback. in practical terms, this means that record sales declined, magazines ceased publication, concerts were cancelled, and bars suffered from a decrease in customers. The inancial risk of bringing foreign bands to Turkey, releasing an album, or organizing a festival increased so much, that most scene-related activities ground to a temporary standstill. all of a sudden, “metal was out of fashion,”16 and it took months—if not years—until the scene completely recovered from the “satanic blow.” On the one hand, the satanic panic led to a recession in the Turkish metal scene. On the other hand, it strengthened its social cohesion. Due to public pressure and repression, the metal scene felt as if it were representing an endangered species forced to resist its extinction by sticking together, as seyda explains: somehow, there was this anger about this ignorance. My closer friends and i were like, now more than ever! We won’t let them bring us down, just because people are so dumb and ignorant, believing: “everybody who is wearing black is sacriicing cats,” or something like that.

She ends her deiant speech with the remark that only “fake metalheads” left the scene in the wake of public pressure. in this sense, the moral panic over metal and satanism provided a chance to prove one’s commitment to metal and draw a line between “true metal” and “fake metal.” as already mentioned, Turkish metalheads generally did not relate the murder of Şehriban Çoşkunfırat to Satanism. The existence of a Satanist scene, let alone a satanist terror network, was considered an invention by the media. conversely, most metalheads’ explanations revolved around social and psychological factors, particularly since many of them personally knew the perpetrators. Ömer Çelik, Personal interview, Istanbul, 29 November 2003. Cenk Turanlı played bass for a number of istanbul death and black metal bands, such as Pagan, asafated, Nekropsi, and antisilence. recently, he was involved in several mainstream rock bands such as süt, with pop star Aylin Aslım, Üç Nokta Bir, and Malt. 16 Personal interview with Erdem Çapar, Istanbul, 10 July 2003. 15

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for instance, used to work as a bar man at a rock bar in Taksim, through which he was known by many people in the scene. This fact made it possible to conduct interviews with some of his former friends and fellow metalheads, and gather information on his social background and character: Bahadır: [Ömer] came from a very conservative family … His father had beaten him and thrown him out of the house … You know, at the beginning he used to sleep in the streets, snifing glue. … [Then,] he became a bartender in a rock bar … He was a problem guy who ights with everybody. You know, he was an angry man, attacking everybody. Ömer was announced guilty by the media. Okay, he was guilty in the end. You know, he killed someone. But no one talked about his father and family. how he was raised, you know. What he had done before he was in the rock scene. and everybody focused just on him … it’s a social thing actually. at the beginning, heavy metal and rock music listeners were like kids from normal and maybe rich families, with good education. like us, you know. But Ömer was different. he didn’t have any education. he had a very hard time in his family. he was poor and actually he couldn’t understand rock ’n’ roll at all. so, it’s the community and the culture that pushed him to the edge. kuzu: i know all the guys who killed the girl … in Taksim they had a house [a lat] and sometimes, we went to concerts and stayed with them … I can talk about Ömer, not about the other guy. Yeah, he came from a poor family. he was totally addicted to drugs and alcohol … i think they just raped the girl when she refused [to have sex with them] … actually, there is no meaning to it, if they claim to be satanists, because, as i told you, they had no idea [about satanism]. They have no education. at the time, there were no books in Turkish [about satanism] … i think they just watched movies. at least, they tried to do the same thing … These guys, they have nothing. They are lost people. and these lost people are getting involved into anything … They have no idea, they have no background, so they are fucking crazy … [referring to Ömer:] You can make this guy anything. You can make him a satanist, if you work on it, [or] you can make him an al-Qaeda terrorist. akay: Ömer began to drink and drink and drink. he was fucking angry. it had nothing to do with satanism. Nothing! he drank more and more, and then, he changed. he got this look in his eyes after he drank. i mean, i was really afraid of this … it had nothing to do with metal, nothing to do with it!

Ömer is described as coming from a poor, uneducated, and conservative family. according to the foregoing interview excerpts, he was used to domestic violence, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and lived on his own. That is to say, he emerged from a troubled social background with no bright prospects for the

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future. concerning his character, he is, moreover, described as a crazy, angry man who used to ight a lot. In summary, the root of the crime is being solely related to socioeconomic factors. satanism or metal are not regarded as relevant factors. Moreover—and here the metal perspective goes in direct opposition to the general perspective presented in the media—the above-mentioned interviewees make the roots of crime out to be a matter of ignorance. This means, on the one hand, they’re associating the ‘satanic’ murder with the lower, uneducated classes of society and, on the other hand, personally dissociating themselves from the event—since metal listeners usually “were like kids from normal and maybe rich families with good education.” While the media perspective often associates the alleged emergence of satanism with the immorality of the Turkish middle and upper classes, the metal perspective associates the events with a lack of education and ignorance based upon Turkish tradition and conservatism. in other words, metalheads are passing the guilt back to society, speciically to those parts of society that raised the strongest allegations against them. here, Ömer is not perceived as a part of the Turkish metal community, but as a part of Turkish traditional society. The remark, “Ömer was different. he didn’t have any education … and actually he couldn’t understand rock ’n’ roll,” implies not only that rock ’n’ roll is a matter of education, but also relects an intention to draw the line between him and the rest of the Turkish metal community. This act of exclusion illustrates that Ömer’s actions violated the boundaries of what is perceived as metal. simply speaking, a “real” metalhead would not have behaved as Ömer did. What Ömer did was not metal. also important with regard to the general discourse over metal and satanism is the assertion that any allegation of Satanism in connection with the Ortaköy murder has “no meaning,” because Ömer and his friends were not intellectually capable of establishing any form of satanic cult. Their lack of education also related to a lack of knowledge concerning foreign languages, irst and foremost english. This knowledge, however, would have been necessary to gain access to those cultural resources that would have allowed establishment of a “real” satanic organization. Books on satanism were reportedly not available in Turkish at the time. Ömer’s fragmentary knowledge regarding satanic ideologies was probably derived from different popular culture sources. This view is strengthened by one of Ömer’s close friends, who did not want to be publicly named. according to a personal interview with him, Ömer and his group were indeed interested in satanic ideas, but their interest was limited, as none of them knew english. apart from movies, they attempted to draw knowledge from lyrics of Norwegian black metal bands (without much success, however). These indings point to two new aspects: although the murder may have been a rape case that was later manipulated by the media (a view that corresponds to the perception of most metalheads), reports were probably not wrong about Ömer’s personal claim that he regarded himself as a satanist. This assumption is also conirmed by the following narration of Saro, a young black metal listener. He recalls:

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What is more important with regard to the general context of this study is that Ömer’s case provides evidence of the globalization of cultural resources and their appropriation on a local level. The way in which the “satanic” murder was perceived by many metalheads actually revealed the inluence of Norwegian black metal on the Turkish scene. This became clear during an interview with members of the izmir death metal band in spite: Onur: They are not [Satanists] … I mean it’s deinitely no Satanist organization, group, or sect … [they are] misdirected, uneducated youngsters, uneducated people, and the results are violence and death. Just like that … It’s not something like, you know: Norway. it’s not like that i mean. There’s a desire to imitate, but there is no [direct] link. ant: There is no personal link to people in Norway, but … the guys were impressed by the metal scene in Norway. They read lots of magazines or heard about things. so they tried to make a “sample murder” in Turkey—maybe to get some respect from other people, from other metalheads. … Well, i see parallels … about their behavior, about their desire to be a master, to rule someone. i see people trying to be like Varg, trying to be like Dead.17 it’s, as i said, just an imitation.

in what they say, both interviewees implicitly refer to a set of events that took place in Norway at the beginning of the 1990s, thereby revealing a new perspective in the discourse on metal and satanism in Turkey. The perspective locates the Ortaköy incident within the context of global black metal. That is to say, in order to understand their references, it is necessary to learn about the cultural concept of black metal. This will be explored in the following chapter, Towards the extreme.

17 he refers to Varg Vikernes of Norwegian black metal band Burzum and Per “Dead” Ohlin of Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.

chapter 5

Towards the extreme

No other subgenre has taken the term “metal” as far to the extreme as black metal. The list of controversies sparked by its protagonists is almost ininitely long. Black metal has been blamed for reviving pagan, anti-christian sentiments; spreading racist, anti-semite, and homophobic propaganda; and fostering hate crimes. undeniably, there are other forms of extreme metal as well, and the verbal and sonic transgressions of Turkish death metal and grindcore equally deserve attention. Yet, it is black metal that is best suited for studying issues of religious transgression, translocal connectivity, nationalist and ethnic ambivalences, and the appropriation of global role models on a local level. The empirical material presented in this chapter is selective, non-representative, and does not relect common practice among Turkish metalheads. it consists of individual statements and perspectives that function to exemplify the aforementioned aspects.

Black Metal The term “black metal” goes back to the album of the same title by the British band Venom, released in 1982. Venom, together with Bathory from sweden and celtic Frost from switzerland, are widely referred to as the forefathers of black metal. What distinguishes black metal from other metal subgenres are a number of cultural representations that are driven to the extreme. in brief, black metal represents the ultimate cultivation of negativity, hopelessness, and evil. as regards musical aesthetics, black metal stands out for its high, shrieking vocals, the frequent usage of chromatic scales, highly distorted guitars, somber, symphonic keyboard sounds, and up-tempo blast beats. additionally, black metal artists have developed visual aesthetics that are meant to convey nihilist, pagan, and evil imageries. Black-dyed long hair, facial corpse paint, spike-studded leather outits, and medieval weaponry in stage performances and in photo sessions are aesthetic features frequently seen in black metal. Black metal artists are further renowned for adopting blasphemous stage names, displaying the remains of dead animals on album covers or in live performances, and producing lyrics on pagan, satanic, morbid, and inhuman themes. ideologically, black metal has been known to embrace pagan, satanic, misanthropic, and racist ideas. The proliferation of National socialist and anti-semitic ideology has especially been subject to diverse discussion (Moynihan and soderlind 2002 [1998], kahn-harris 2007, Davisson 2010, spracklen 2010). although National socialist Black Metal (NsBM) appears to be a minority phenomenon, it has put a stigma on black metal as a whole. The

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question of whether its spirit lies in a combination of music and ideology, or solely in music, draws mixed responses from within the scene. Black metal is probably the most highly contested genre within global metal. alongside political and ideological controversy, black metal has also provoked widespread ridicule and laughter. The “hyper-evil” image, as propagated by black metal protagonists, is frequently seen as too extreme to be taken seriously. especially the wearing of corpse paint—a style of black-and-white makeup—has been the subject of mockery. in reference to the black-and-white face marks of the cuddly, bamboo-loving chinese mammal, corpse paint is quite commonly referred to as “panda paint” by fellow metalheads.

Scandinavian Black Metal The emergence of scandinavian black metal coincided with the commercial success of mainstream metal, which many young die-hard listeners denounced as a sellout to the masses. subsequently, parts of the metal underground were radicalized musically and intellectually in order to “restore” authenticity. Black metal, from that perspective, could be also seen as a fundamentalist movement that intends to draw a line between those who spoiled the “true spirit” of metal and those who aimed at preserving its cultural roots by further challenging prevalent concepts of morality. Within that process, Norwegian black metal happened to become a global role model. at the forefront of the Norwegian scene were the bands Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, satyricon, immortal, emperor, and Gorgoroth. They were joined by other prominent protagonists from scandinavia like the swedish bands Marduk, Dark Funeral, and Dissection, or the Finnish band impaled Nazarene. Never before did metal artists propagate such a thoroughly blasphemous and evil image. Drastic illustrations on album covers and T-shirts, as for instance, Marduk’s Fuck me Jesus (1991)—showing a naked woman lustfully penetrating herself with a christian cross—or the British band cradle of Filth’s Vestal Masturbation T-shirt—depicting the slogan “Jesus is a Cunt” together with the image of a masturbating young nun dressed with no more but her white coif and wimple—were put on the index in many countries. even more striking was the fact that some bands began to apparently practice what they preached. in early summer of 1992, Norway saw the beginning of a series of arson attacks on churches that continued until the mid-1990s. several churches burned down completely. Between June 1992 and November 1995, the Norwegian police recorded 44 cases of arson against churches, all of them allegedly inspired by black metal (Moynihan and soderlind (2002) [1998]: 118). in fact, some black metal bands openly welcomed and promoted the events. Burzum’s 1993 eP Aske (“ashes”) depicted the charred remains of the famous Fantoft stave church on its cover. The church, which had been erected in twelfth century, was the irst to be destroyed that summer, in June 1992. Shortly after, several musicians were

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Figure 5.1

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swedish black metal band Marduk live in Bronx, istanbul, ramadan 2005

arrested, charged, and convicted in connection with church arsons—among them samoth (Tomas haugen), Faust (Bard eithun), and Tchort (Terje Vik schei) from emperor as well as Varg Vikernes from Burzum. in retrospect, they described the church burnings as symbolic acts against christianity, an intention to point to Norwegian pagan traditions, and a way to shock society.1 another symbolic act in their campaign to rid Norway of christianity and revert it to its heathen roots was the desecration of graveyards. The “ultimate turn to evil” manifested itself in a series of homicide and suicide events that involved members of Mayhem, Burzum, emperor, and, at a later stage, Dissection. in april 1991, Mayhem’s vocalist Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin) shot and killed himself, after he had obviously tried to cut his wrists with a knife. Dead, who had been known for his melancholic, self-destructive attitude (he became famous for cutting himself during live performances), was found by his fellow band member euronymous (Oystein aarseth). The latter, before reporting the case to the police, took photographs of the scene. shortly after, one of the pictures appeared on the cover of the bootleg album Dawn of the Black Hearts (1991). The photo showed Dead’s body with parts of his head blown off and a gun lying beside him. reportedly, euronymous sent small fragments of Dead’s skull to members of 1 see interviews with Varg Vikernes, Bard eithun, and Tomas haugen in Lords of Chaos (Moynihan and soderlind (2002) [1998]: 104–6, 110–111, 114–8).

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selected black metal bands. When euronymous was murdered by Burzum’s Varg Vikernes in august 1993, Mayhem became notorious on the global metal scene. The reasons for the crime remained obscure, but were generally related to rivalries within the scene. after his arrest, 20-year-old Varg Vikernes showed no remorse for killing euronymous. instead, he continued to insult his victim verbally, and later published a detailed description of the murder.2 The police investigations into the murder of euronymous coincidentally revealed another crime—the killing of a homosexual man by Faust of the band emperor in lillehammer in 1992. in addition to that, all three men—euronymous, Vikernes, and Faust—were accused of being involved in an arson attack on a church in holmenkollen in 1992 (Moynihan and soderlind (2002) [1998]: 130). Finally, the conviction of Jon Nödtveidt for the felony murder of an Algerianborn homosexual drew public attention in 1997. Nödtveidt was the vocalist of the swedish black metal band Dissection. after being released from jail in 2004, he was involved in initiating the swedish Misanthropic luciferian Order. he committed suicide in august 2006, only months after the release of Dissection’s third studio album Reinkaos.

Mayhem Live in Izmir at the time of the Norwegian church burnings, Turkish black metal was still in its infancy. however, the notorious events surrounding Mayhem, Burzum, and emperor were known to the Turkish scene. The editor of Turkish underground fanzine Yer Altı in an interview mentioned that he had been tape trading with Burzum’s Varg Vikernes only months before the murder of euronymous became public.3 But even before the church burnings and deadly violence gained momentum, contacts had been established between the scenes. The second ever foreign metal band to play live in Turkey was Mayhem. On 9 December 1990, they performed live in izmir, subsequent to touring several towns in east Germany. The tour later gained legendary status among Mayhem fans, for it was the only international tour featuring the “classical” lineup of Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin), euronymous (Oystein Aarseth), Necrobutcher (Jorn Stubberud), and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg). Mayhem’s performance in leipzig on 26 November was later released as the band’s irst live album, Live in Leipzig, on Obscure Plasma records in 1993. This was important insofar as on several occasions during my research, i was happily greeted with “Mayhem—live in leipzig,” after mentioning the name of my adopted hometown. Mayhem, back then, was an underground band, unknown on the international scene. Dead and euronymous were still alive and no one could anticipate 2 See Burzum’s oficial website: http://www.burzum.org/eng/library/a_burzum_ story02.shtml. 3 Personal interview, istanbul, 6 august 2004.

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the notorious events that would lead to Norwegian black metal’s global fame. Mayhem’s only recording, the 1987 Deathcrush eP released by Norwegian Posercorpse Music, was not oficially available in the Turkish market. The concert in izmir was organized by stüdyo Ümit, a local rock music promoter and distributor. contact with the band had been established through the global metal underground, wherefore the gig could be realized without the involvement of an oficial tour management or booking agency. According to an interview with Mayhem’s Blasphemer (rune eriksen) for the Turkish metal magazine Gothic and Machines, the band traveled to Turkey via interrail.4 Today, the concert, in which Mayhem was supported by a then popular band from ankara named hazy hill, is an important reference point for Turkish black metal. Various rumors surround the event, from stories about animal heads on stage and Burzum’s Varg Vikernes participating in the show, to reports on police intervention. Black metal listeners remain enthused about the gig, even those who had not been present. similar to the aforementioned narratives of istanbul’s irst rock bar—the Kemancı under the bridge—and the legendary Moda concert, Mayhem’s performance in izmir became a key narrative in the collective memory of Turkish black metalheads. emphatic statements like, “i was dying to go to this concert, but i couldn’t, cause i couldn’t get permission [from my college],”5 relect the signiicance of the event. Hazy Hill’s Ufuk Onen recalls the night of the concert: a promoter in izmir organized the concert. as you said, Mayhem was an underground band, so it was possible to realize the concert without booking agencies, huge money, etc. Mayhem was on a mini-tour in europe. They were traveling by train. They extended their route and came to play in Turkey. … attendance at [the] Mayhem concert was not that good, i don’t know why. Maybe it was a bad date or something, because usually we had much, much bigger crowds in izmir. The rumors you’ve heard, well, they are rumors, they are not true. Mayhem did not have animal heads on stage and Varg was not with them. it’s true that the police interrupted the event, because the time that was on the oficial permit document was up. There wasn’t a black metal scene in Turkey at that time.

ufuk, in a remarkably dispassionate way, dismisses all sensationalist rumors about the show. apparently, public interest had been only limited, and the low attendance at the gig must have been a disappointment for both the bands and the organizer (“usually we had much bigger crowds in Izmir”). Although he conirms reports on police intervention, he qualiies it as an act that was due to a breach of regulations and not related to the black metal show itself. Finally, he expresses the view that “there wasn’t a black metal scene in Turkey at that time.” 4 5

Gothic and Machines #2, 2004, p. 28. Personal interview, istanbul, 4 December 2003.

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Turkish Black Metal It is hard to pinpoint exactly when black metal appeared in Turkey for the irst time. Albeit, the inluence of early black metal bands such as Venom, Bathory, and celtic Frost dates back to the second half of the 1980s. kuzu, former vocalist of ankara black metal band Witchtrap, provides a starting point for tracing back the rise of black metal in Turkey: During these years, there was a radio station called Police radio. it’s really a police radio. all the programs are made by the police, and they played heavy metal on Friday and saturday nights … in 1988—i really remember this—one Friday night, they played a song beginning with the ezan [the Muslim call for prayers] … You know, the band is very interesting. i can’t remember the name … Their album covers are drawn by Giger …6 The name of the album is Into the Pandemonium … celtic Frost! can you imagine? in 1988! They were playing just a sample. When i heard “Allahu akbar,” i was like: “What the shit is that?!” You know, celtic Frost is one of the cornerstones for satanic bands or black metal and such.7

celtic Frost’s song Caress Into Oblivion on the 1987 Into the Pandemonium album is, indeed, accentuated by the sound of the ezan, the Muslim call for prayers. Despite this reference point, it is dificult to determine the exact time from which we can speak of the birth of Turkish black metal. Within the Turkish metal scene, black metal represents only a small faction, with concerts rarely drawing more than 50 to 100 people. it’s an urban, male-dominated culture, concentrated on the cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Eskişehir. Turkish black metalheads are interconnected, but, at the same time, split by rivalries over questions of authenticity, commitment, and the “pure spirit” of black metal. Due to the rarity of live performances, many artists seem to be obscure, even within the realms of Turkish black metal. Despite this situation, the digital revolution helped to increase the cultural productivity and translocal connectivity of Turkish black metal bands. The availability of recording software for personal computers and the possibility of building one’s own internet presence via MySpace, YouTube, or an oficial website contributed heavily to this development. For the present study, interviews were conducted with members of Black Omen, Dishearten, eternal rise, Gece, kara Budun, khaoskult, Moribund Oblivion, Pagan, Pogrom, saboath, sagu, sithicus, and Witchtrap. There are, however, many more bands to be mentioned, as, for instance: ehrimen, sadistic spell, 6

hans rüdi Giger is a swiss painter and sculptor who owes his international fame to the design of the Oscar-winning horror movie Alien, directed by ridley scott (1979). his works inspired metal bands around the globe and appeared on album covers like celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion (1985) or Danzig’s How the Gods Kill (1992). 7 Personal interview, istanbul, 4 December 2003.

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sarcophagus, satanic Verses, and Vintage solemnity from ankara; Funeralmoon, Leviathan, Sirannon, and Tagraht from Izmir; Episode 13 from Eskişehir; or ebonsight, Gargoyle, infected, Monarchy, Nefastum, and satanized from istanbul. Despite this considerable number, only a few bands had (and have) the musical and inancial capacities to release albums, play concerts, and do promotion via fanzines, radio, and TV. as a result, the Turkish black metal scene has been missing a driving force or institution, such as a band, that would function as a role model for future generations or could guarantee a level of continuity like, for example, Pentagram did with regard to thrash and classical heavy metal. The band most commonly mentioned as Turkey’s very irst black metal band is Witchtrap from ankara, which formed in 1988. its emergence, which dates back to the pre-Norwegian era of black metal, was inluenced by Venom, Bathory, and celtic Frost, as well as by horror movies such as Poltergeist (1982) and novels by stephen king. Witchtrap incorporated some of the “classical” codes of black metal that had been previously unknown in Turkey, including being said to have introduced corpse paint to the Turkish audience. Moreover, it came up with allegedly satanic imagery. The band’s irst demo tapes, Witch and Incubbo ve Succubo, were released in 1992 and 1993. Other pioneering bands were Pagan, ebonsight, and infected: ebonsight consisting of lady Tronos (Dilek), countess Omnious Demoness (Ebru), and Lilith’s Spell (Damla), and was formed in Bakırköy in the early 1990s. The band, which released two demo tapes—The Ocean Ebon (1994) and As the River Runs through the Pain (1997)—drew attention for being Turkey’s irst all-female black metal band. Another reason for their temporary fame was their declared anti-religious attitude and the usage of corpse paint on stage. Turkey’s irst oficial black metal album, however, was released by Witchtrap on hammer Müzik in 1997, bearing the title Witching Black. Only a couple of months later, this was followed by infected’s eP Lost Loser in Dreams (1998) and Pagan’s irst demo Heathen Upheaval (1998). With regard to contemporary black metal, at least three bands show considerable persistence: Moribund Oblivion, Black Omen, and episode 13. all three were founded in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and have released several albums to date.8 up till now, Moribund Oblivion, founded by former infected vocalist Bahadır Uludağlar, has been the only Turkish black metal band to gain at least limited international attention. in 2007 and 2008, they played two mini-tours in Germany, promoting the albums Machine Brain (atlantis Music, 2006) and Time to Face (atlantis Music, 2007). Moribund Oblivion is also the only Turkish black 8 The Discography of Moribund Oblivion (founded in 1999) reads as follows: Like a Falling Haze (Blackpro Music, 2002), Khanjar (DJ Club, 2003), Machine Brain (atlantis Music, 2006), Time to Face (atlantis Music, 2007), and K.i.N. (2008). episode 13 formed in 2001 and released two oficial albums so far: Tabula Rasa (DJ Club, 2005) and Pitch Black (DJ Club, 2008). Black Omen was founded in 2000. The band’s releases are entitled Black Omen (demo, 2003), When Pure Darkness Covers … (Poem Productions, 2005), and Sinphony (Poem Productions, 2007).

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metal band to release a music video, which was aired on the music programs rock station (TrT) and Yüxexes (Dream TV).

Anti-Christian Symbols in a Muslim Context The usage of satanic and anti-religious symbols is a common practice in global black metal. and although the codes of blasphemy have been initially shaped in a christian context, they have been also adopted into Turkish black metal. islamic concepts of evil, in many ways, resemble christian traditions. islam also knows the devil, who, in the koran, has two equivalent names—Iblis and al-Shaytan— the latter being the arabic equivalent of “satan.” The nominal distinction conveys the devil’s double role as iblis—the proud, disobedient, and, therefore, fallen angel who refused to follow God’s order to prostrate before Adam, the irst mortal man— and as satan, the great seducer, who leads astray believers and makes them defy the will of God (Wensinck 1986: 668, rippin 1997: 408). however, in contrast to christian traditions, islamic notions of the devil are less dualistic. satan does not have the power to challenge God himself. he is no coequal opponent. in light of similar traditions, the representations of the devil in Turkish black metal resemble christian models. an early reference to satanism is Witchtrap’s eponymous song Witchtrap from the 1997 Witching Black album: lucifer, Belial, Omgorma These are the names of the beast That we believe You learn the names that you’ll need at the other side To the lord To the death This is the ight Of antichrist Never give up From satan’s side

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You’ll get the right To enter our side satan! it’s everywhere satan! it’s anywhere satan is always in your brain satan is always in your vein

“lucifer,” “Belial,” and “antichrist” are christian-derived synonyms for the devil. consequently, the song, if written in a christian context, could be easily related to anti-christian sentiments within black metal. But what is the meaning of these representations in a Muslim context? Why are they used? Why does a Turkish band not use anti-islamic symbols to express anti-religious sentiments? Does the usage of anti-Christian symbols relect an absence of relexivity as regards the appropriation of global role models? and is the song indeed intended to convey satanic messages to the listeners? Possible answers to these questions are neither simple, nor easy to ind. Witchtrap, whose pioneering role has been described to me by a member of black metal band sagu with the words, “for us, Witchtrap was something like Venom,” provides a starting point for inding answers to these questions. During my time in istanbul, i had the chance to meet Witchtrap’s former vocalist kuzu on several occasions. kuzu had been accompanying the band since the early 1990s— irst as a roadie and showman, then as their vocalist. He left Witchtrap just before the release of their irst album in 1997. The following indings are the result of a number of conversations and an extensive three-hour interview at his home in istanbul. his detailed descriptions give an insight into the emergence of black metal in Turkey, the impact of the Norwegian scene, and the pioneering role of Witchtrap within this development. according to kuzu, it was Witchtrap that introduced corpse paint to the Turkish audience, and which irst came up with verbal and visual representations of the devil. The band’s logo incorporated two inverted crosses, and the album cover of Witchtrap depicted a horned creature, half-woman, half-snake. i wanted to learn from kuzu about the meaning of the satanic references: Pierre: Witchtrap’s lyrics circle around satan and lucifer. Why is that? kuzu: it’s a black metal album. it had to be!

Kuzu’s answer is short and simple. He identiies satanic lyrics as an integral part of black metal culture. Deducing from this, satanic references—according to

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kuzu’s individual perspective—are the cultural codes that determine black metal identity. This, however, does not yet provide information as to the intentional meaning of the above-cited lyrics. What does the band want their audience to read in the text? is it really about conveying a satanic message and propagating satanic belief? Do black metalheads aim to win new disciples for satan as claimed in numerous newspaper articles? concerning this, kuzu proceeds with his explanation: Normally, the lyrics … [pauses] For example, for ten concerts i wrote ten different lyrics for the same song. You know, there are some basic lines, but if something happens before the concert, something you see on the news or in a movie or something you read in a book … I just imagined how this its to the song, you know. [pauses] When we were recording the album, i had to decide on the lyrics. some of them we did not put on the album. You know the powerful things, cursing against religion. We decided to censor them. and the other things were basically telling: “satan is everywhere. satan is in my brain!” Things like that. Yeah. We never wanted to spread messages with our songs. it’s for fun. it’s only a way to express yourself. When i saw the guys who killed this girl, i said: “Thank God we did not spread such things like: kill the Muslims! kill the christians! kill the believers!” [uttered in deep-throated growls]. Yes, they are killing. Yes, they are crazy. so, it’s not my fault. Yeah, i said a lot of things during concerts. i sang a lot of things, but i did not write those things. in a concert most people don’t understand what you are singing … The real thing in the concert is the music, not the lyrics … There’s no meaning behind words here. No one can sing with you! … i think for black metal the words don’t have so much meaning.

kuzu depicts the band’s lyrics as highly dynamic and situational. apparently, they were not designed to convey verbal messages to the audience, but to provide a personal outlet for what affected him in his daily life. Words were rather used as a means of self-expression and to complement the music, than a means of intellectual power. although he acknowledges that his words could be perceived as insulting, he insists: “There’s no meaning behind words here.” On the one hand, a statement like this may be interpreted as a lack of relexivity in terms of neither intending to, nor being aware of conveying meaning with a song. On the other hand, his mentioning self-imposed censorship with regard to “powerful things” that were directed against religion assumes at least some degree of deliberation. indeed, this raises the question of why the band subjected itself to self-censorship. Obviously, they were aware of the potential for adverse reactions to their lyrics. Kuzu explicitly refers to the Ortaköy murder, expressing relief over not having used provocative lines in the vein of “kill the Muslims! kill The christians. kill the believers!” implicit is also the fact that Turkish black metal bands avoid public blasphemy against islam. None of the lyrics of Turkish black

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metal bands that i came to know include a direct desecration of islamic symbols. Blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad, the holy koran, and God seems to be a taboo. at least publicly, this boundary has not been challenged. reasons for this are manifold. actually, not all black metal bands deal with religious issues, let alone consider satanic references as an integral part of black metal culture. even though most of them appear to be critical about religious doctrines and institutions, they do not necessarily reject religion, per se. some of my interviewees, indeed, described themselves as secular Muslims or at least as believers in God. The main reason for avoiding public blasphemy, however, seems to be rooted in the fear of suffering a violent response from society and the authorities. as the analysis of moral panics has shown, religion remains a serious issue in Turkish society—despite the apparently secular character of Turkish state institutions. Against this backdrop, Turkish metalheads ind themselves in a volatile situation that leaves them vulnerable to social and political sanctions. consequently, the use of anti-christian symbols could be interpreted as a strategy to avoid anti-islamic blasphemy while, at the same time, keeping to classical black metal codes. This, however, does not mean that Turkish black metal is free from anti-Islamic blasphemy, but rather that this is mostly conined to private spaces. During a conversation at his home, one of my interviewees showed me a number of self-made, fake concert posters announcing joint shows of scandinavian and Turkish black metal bands in the holy city of Mecca. Other posters were designed in mockery of Osama bin laden and al-Qaeda. among all the fake images was also an apparently posed photo of a young metalhead wearing a Muslim taqiyah (religious headgear similar to the Jewish kippah) and reading from the Koran in front of a black metal poster. Bringing together the sacred and the profane— Marduk and Mecca, black metal and the koran—is a subversive act, for it violates the boundaries that are assumed to exist between the two realms. From a religious perspective, the images would probably be interpreted as an act of desecration and deilement. From the perspective of the young black metalhead, however, it rather appeared to have an ironic, satirical touch, as if he wanted to say: “Don’t take it too seriously. it’s for fun.” Yet, he found the material too delicate to show outside his home. To conclude, the homemade, fake images reveal the contradictions in black metal and religion that are apparently felt by the genre’s protagonists. another limiting factor in terms of displaying anti-islamic blasphemy derives from the religious symbols itself or, as Kuzu put it: “We worked hard on inding an anti-Muslim symbol, but we couldn’t ind anything. We tried something with the crescent, but it didn’t look good.” What kuzu describes as a limiting factor in a Muslim context applies in other religious contexts as well. eden rabin, an israeli metal musician (enochian key, Orphaned land), in a conversation noted that he and some friends also used to wear inverted crosses, for the symmetrical shape of the star of David did not allow its inversion. he concluded: “i couldn’t wear an inverted star of David … so we had to take the inverted cross.” Despite these statements, it is hard to say how the reported lack of adequate islamic symbols

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ultimately contributed to the appropriation of anti-christian symbols in a Muslim context. Though not in terms of conveying a satanic meaning, anti-christian symbols in a Muslim context can be provocative nonetheless, particularly as far as use of the inverted cross is concerned. Newspaper journalist Taylan Bilgiç illustrates it the following way: There is a problem with these symbols in a Muslim society. You wear an inverted cross on the streets and people will call you a christian, because it’s a cross— inverted or not. [laughs] so, you have to wear an inverted crescent, but that has no meaning. [laughs again] so, these symbols have no relevance! i mean, they derive from christian culture.

On the one hand, Taylan’s words conirm what Kuzu had already mentioned concerning the limited practicability of using the crescent as an anti-islamic symbol. On the other hand, he makes clear that wearing an inverted cross in a Muslim context is decoded according to prevalent categories. That is, a cross “inverted or not” designates the wearer as christian. This, however, may be regarded as a symbol of apostasy from islam and possibly provoke anti-christian resentments. This inding admittedly only relates to the meaning attached to anti-Christian symbols by the metal scene’s predominantly Muslim surrounding. it does not give information about the personal meanings of these symbols. in order to learn more about the personal process of meaning making, i asked a metalhead about the 666 tattoo on his arm: My pin code is also 666, you know. it’s fun. it’s a hard rock tat … so, i like it. i mean i’m not into religion … everyone asks me: “What does that mean?” Okay. Of course, tattoos have a meaning, but it’s not like that hard you know. Okay. it’s 666. everyone has like a bad sign or a good sign. it’s the symbol of my evil inside, you know. it’s just like that. like i wanna kick some ass sometimes. i mean a lot of times … everyone wants to kick his father’s ass when he tries to cut your hair or something. Just like that you know. For me it’s like: “I’m still the same.”

To summarize, the 666 tattoo on his arm is “a hard rock tat” that does not have a religious meaning (“i’m not into religion”). instead, it conveys a much more personal meaning that is closely afiliated with his individual identity. On the one hand, it is a cultural code of identiication that relects his commitment to rock and metal culture. and in fact, no other bodily practice could symbolize stronger commitment, as it represents a permanent feature that cannot be changed, as a style of clothes, hair, or behavior could. On the other hand, it is a symbol for his rebellious spirit (“i wanna kick some ass sometimes”) and a means of selfafirmation that he is “still the same.”

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Turkish grindcore band cenotaph performing live in russia, October 2010

indeed, there are further, image-related explanations for using anti-christian symbols. asked about the inverted cross in his band’s logo, Batu, vocalist of the grindcore band cenotaph, comments: it’s just a coincidence. We are neither religious, nor a satanic band. We are an apolitical band. We write about horror, guts, gore, sickness—like in horror movies. We watch horror movies and from what remains in our heads we write lyrics. Fantasy, horror. Our music is brutal, you know. We can’t write about lowers, butterlies, or such kinds of things. We write about gore and zombies … We are not the antichrist or something.

Batu makes clear that the inverted cross has not been used as a satanic reference, but as a means to underline the band’s brutal image as a grindcore band that deals with horror, guts, and gore—in line with the idea that brutal music needs a brutal image. a black metal band that stands out for its attempt to merge anti-christian and anti-islamic symbols is satanized from istanbul, which formed in 2005. The band’s logo shows two topless angels holding an inverted crescent that embraces an equally inverted pentagram. The two angels are nailed to the lower arc of the crescent while blood is dripping from their eyes and wounded arms and torsos. The image is an adaptation of the Turkish national symbols—crescent and star.

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While the crescent has been rotated clockwise by 90 degrees so that it appears to be inverted, the star has been turned into a pentagram. a second version of the logo presents a decapitated Jesus nailed to the inverted pentagram. Blood is seeping from the crescent and the ive-pointed star.9 in their promotional photos and live performances, the band celebrates the typical black metal image: black clothes and black hair, corpse paint, spike-studded wristbands, medieval weaponry, and lots of blood and gore. at the present stage, it is not possible to say whether Satanized represent a new generation of Turkish black metal bands that inally dare to publicly challenge islamic symbols or not. For this, further research would be required.

Figure 5.3

istanbul black metal band satanized, promo photo

Blood Shows and Blasphemy although they did not publicly challenge islamic symbols, Turkish black metal bands, like their scandinavian counterparts, went to other extremes. again, this can be illustrated with the help of Witchtrap, which embodied the image of black metal more than any other band in Turkey. in addition to corpse paint and satanic references, Witchtrap became known for their controversial shows and public behavior. kuzu remembers throwing raw meat into the audience and cutting himself with a razor blade during several shows: i was acting like a showman at that time … i was eating raw meat … and i was throwing meat to the people. and hakan was wearing huge arm nails and carrying the raw meat on these nails. and we were walking down the streets like that. and all the people moved away from us. Black men! even though it was 9

see http://www.myspace.com/truesatanized.

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forty degree celsius, we were walking like that in the streets and people couldn’t understand what was going on. Twenty people walking in the streets, wearing black leather, looking insane.

Practices of self-mutilation and the throwing of raw meat into the audience reveal parallels to the Norwegian scene. in the 1990s, Mayhem and Gorgoroth became known for their notorious “blood shows” and decorating the stage with animal heads on stakes. kuzu’s description indicates that Turkish black metalheads were ready to seek confrontation with their surroundings by shocking people with their outits in public. According to the above-cited interview excerpt, their visual appearance irritated and intimidated people. Differently speaking, they dared to contest urban public spaces through their deviant behavior and massive visual presence as a group. One of my interviewees even claimed to have been involved in graveyard desecrations in istanbul. The city has a number of old abandoned cemeteries— Muslim and christian. at night, they provide a remote place to sit, drink, and sleep without being bothered by local residents or pedestrians: There is one Muslim graveyard near Maçka. Maçka cemetery. it’s a very old cemetery and not used anymore. it’s a very good place to sleep, if you don’t have any place [to stay], because nobody comes there. and during those years, we kept blankets in the graves … And the other is just here [in Şişli] … It’s a christian cemetery. in the cemetery there are nameless graves … and the old bones are put into a box, and there is a place like a dungeon where they put the boxes, thousands of boxes. so, you can go there and choose the skull or the bones. Whatever you want. [laughs] You must be very careful not to be caught, because it’s a very big crime. in this life and the other. God will ask. [laughs]

The speaker also mentioned that they were photographed while posing with human bones in the graveyard. The photos later even appeared in a local tabloid newspaper; without any consequences, however. although what is described here represents a violation of what is sacred to Turkish society, the words do not indicate any religious or ideological motivation.

Turkish Vikings The appropriation of anti-christian symbols in a Muslim context and the occurrence of similar forms of deviant behavior (self-mutilation, desecration of graveyards, wearing corpse paint) still do not suficiently clarify what impact scandinavian black metal had on the Turkish scene. it is safe to say that Turkish black metal has been musically inluenced by the Scandinavian scene—but what about the appropriation of ideological concepts? The following paragraphs will delve deeper into the reception and appropriation of scandinavian role models

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within Turkish black metal. herein, the analysis will focus on anti-islamic, pagan, and nationalist concepts. Anti-Christian sentiments, the gloriication of a pagan past, and references to nationalist and racist ideologies are popular themes in scandinavian black metal (Moynihan and soderlind 2002 [1998]: 28–34, kahn-harris 2007: 40–41). references to Norse mythology, Viking warfare, and pre-christian traditions also shape the image of many bands (for instance, Bathory, enslaved, immortal). all these themes have been appropriated by Turkish metalheads, as well. kuzu describes the appropriation of anti-christian sentiments and its transformation in a Turkish context: When we saw the things happen in Norway and sweden … They said christianity came to our lands by ire and blood, and it will be driven out by ire and blood. so, they burned churches and that kind of thing … When we think about the people in Scandinavia who say that Christianity came to our lands by ire and blood, i feel the same thing, because this belief [islam] and this lifestyle was brought to our land and people by force. i really don’t want to live that way. i don’t want to live the religion like that, the beliefs like that, the nationality like that, the education like that, the life like that. Because it’s kind of, you know, forcing you to do this: This is good, this is bad. When you look at european history, there are two kinds of barbarians: Vikings and Turks. The Vikings came from the north. The Turks came from the north and the east. actually, in the beginning—during the times of the roman empire—all these barbarians were the same, because most of the scandinavian people have Turkish roots. They traveled to the north up to scandinavia and then, a thousand years later, the Turks, the Muslim Turks came from the south to europe. They attacked Europe … So, this suit does not it a barbarian Turk—Islam as a religion. and it’s the same for scandinavian people, for the Vikings. in the twelfth century, the Norwegian king became christian and said: “Okay, we are going to become christians.” … and those who said: “We are not christians,” were killed. it’s the same for the Turks. One padishah said: “We are Muslims” … and they came and killed.

The interview excerpt irstly reveals that Turkish metalheads were well aware of the violent campaign of the Norwegian scene, including church burnings. That points to the translocal connectivity of the scenes. secondly, the text gives an example for the successful appropriation of cultural resources in a different context. The narrative of a forcible christianization of scandinavia is adopted and applied to a Turkish context. here, it is transformed into a narrative of a forcible islamization of the Turks by the will of the padişah. The theme of anti-christian sentiment, which is basically rooted in this particular narrative, turns into an antiislamic sentiment. in other words, the initial narrative becomes part of a different cultural context where it is slightly transformed and given new meaning. another

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theme that is being appropriated here is the narrative of pagan barbarian tribes, which are idealized in scandinavian black metal. This is done by pointing towards the barbarian nature of Vikings and Turks—the interview presents a scenario that assumes historic and racial bonds between the two. Thirdly, the new cultural resources—that is to say, the narrative of forcible islamization and the narrative of pagan barbarian tribes—provide a means of expressing resistance towards an environment that is felt to be distorted by (alien) religious beliefs. The latter inds expression in another statement: Pierre: What do you personally believe in? kuzu: it’s a very hard question. i know that i am not a Muslim, because for me, strictly for me, Islam is a religion of Arabs, and I’m a Turk. This suit doesn’t it me and i have my own way of belief. But i can’t say that it’s totally un-islamic, because religion is also a culture. it’s also my own beliefs, my own feelings, and also lost things like şamanizm [“shamanism”] are there.

The statement of not being a Muslim its the anti-Islamic sentiments that were expressed in connection with what he assumed as the forcible adoption of islam amongst Turks. This time, however, he adds a racial aspect to the discourse over religion (“islam is a religion of arabs”). accordingly, the refusal of islam implies his commitment to “pure” Turkish culture—a culture that has not been transformed by Islamic (that is, Arab) inluences. The reference to Shamanism corresponds to claims by other Turkish black metalheads that shamanism is the original religion of Turks. Just as some Scandinavian black metal bands pay tribute to Norse mythologies and deities, some Turkish black metal bands do the same with regard to shamanism, often tied to a nationalist ideology that is linked with the history of the Gökturks (göktürkler), the irst Central Asian tribe known to have used the word “Turk” as an ethnic self-description. The Turkish term göktürkler literally means “celestial Turks” or “Blue Turks”—according to the double meaning of the word gök (“heaven” or “blue”) (shaw 1976: 2–4, West 2009: 829–30). in some Turkish black metal albums, bands such as Pagan on Heathen Upheaval (1998) or Moribund Oblivion on Khanjar (2003) allude to a pre-islamic shaman past by telling ancient legends, without pursuing discourse on nationalist or racial ideologies.10 Others, however, openly propagate nationalist ideas. The booklet of saboath’s Epic of Turks (1998), for example, carries a dedication in honor of Turkey’s fallen war heroes, which reads: “This album is dedicated to

Moribund Oblivion’s Bahadır Uludağlar explains the concept behind Khanjar: “Khanjar tells a legend … before the arrival of the religions … There is a place called Karaşehir [Karaşehir literally means “black city”] … There is an evil shaman. and this Shaman is something like the emperor of Karaşehir,” personal interview, Istanbul, 28 April 2003. 10

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those who have fallen and heroically sacriiced their lives for this country.”11 Other black metal bands from istanbul that consider themselves Turkish nationalists are, for instance, sagu, Dishearten, Pogrom, or sithicus. Sagu is an archaic term which literally means “threnody” or “elegy,” a name the band chose in order to state their bonds with pre-islamic Turkish culture. in that sense, it is a symbol for “pure” Turkishness.12 according to the band’s vocalist, emre, Dishearten was originally founded under the name Şaman (“Shaman”)—not in the least because emre personally considers himself a shamanist. Due to unsuccessful negotiations with several Turkish record companies, the band decided to change its name into Dishearten. as a consequence of the satanic panic of 1999, Turkish labels mostly refused to sign black metal bands that could be linked to satanic or pagan inluences. Only Zihni Müzik continued to release albums by Turkish black metal band infected (Breathless Kiss on the Lips of Melancholia in 2000 and Chaosium—The Ruins of Elysian Era in 2002). although nationalist and racist ideas are a widespread phenomenon among Turkish black metalheads, it would be wrong to label the whole scene as nationalist or racist. The issue is much more complex and rich in contradictions.

Nationalist Black Metal Nationalism is a controversial issue among Turkish metalheads, not least because the majority of the scene is either apolitical or favors leftist ideas. Verbal insults against allegedly fascist or racist bands are, therefore, common during concerts or conversations. Most bands, however, deny any kind of fascist, racist, or National socialist involvement. This holds true, for example, for two istanbul black metal bands that are frequently named in connection with fascist tendencies: sagu and Pogrom. erdem, who is one of the founding members of sagu, expresses his feelings of being misunderstood by huge parts of Turkey’s metal audience: all band members are nationalists, Turkish nationalists. in Turkey they don’t like us very much, because we are nationalists. There is only a small group of people who … support us and send emails … By saying: “We are nationalists,” we actually don’t say like: “We are everybody’s enemy. We’ll burn, destroy, and kill you all.” We don’t say this. Our only reason for being nationalist is our bonds with ancient culture. We are bound to ancient culture. We love it. We love to read about it, we love to deal with it. and in our music, we want to tell about it. I mean inally, eh … Since you’re not a Turk you might not be able to feel it. Our nationalism is neither related to German Nazism, nor italian Fascism, nor to any other country’s nationalism … i am a nationalist. i am not your enemy. You might be a German nationalist, for example. i appreciate that … We tried 11 12

Quoted and translated from saboath’s Epic of Turks (hades records, 1998). Personal interview with Erdem of Sagu, Istanbul, 29 June 2004.

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to explain that, saying “We are nationalists,” but everybody tells us: “You are fascists, you are this or that. You are bloody Nazis.”

Several aspects deserve attention here: irst of all, Erdem asserts that nationalist tendencies are not received enthusiastically by the Turkish metal audience. secondly, he rejects fascist and National socialist ideas by reducing his view of nationalism to a personal afiliation with ancient Turkish culture and by propagating a mutually respective form of nationalism (“You might be a German nationalist, for example. i appreciate that”). That points to a third aspect that is important with regard to successfully appropriating nationalist and racial narratives in black metal. according to his concept of a mutually respective form of nationalism, the admiration for scandinavian black metal bands does not have to be called into question by Turkish metalheads. To put it differently, Turkish metalheads do not ind their Turkish national identity be called into question when listening to scandinavian (or Polish, or German, and so on) nationalist black metal bands, because, as erdem puts it in a subsequent part of the interview: “We are all brothers!” This, however, reveals a fourth aspect: The Turkish black metal community is not relexive about nationalist ideologies, particularly with regard to the multi-ethnic context of contemporary Turkish society. Taurnas, vocalist of istanbul black metal band Pogrom, also rejects fascist allegations against his band: Because our name is Pogrom, people think we are fascists … Pogrom was deinitely not founded because of that. The name Pogrom was chosen because it’s a ierce name. I am not against them [the Jews].

Despite these assertions, young Turkish black metalheads frequently express their hatred against the country’s ethnic minorities—Greeks, armenians, arabs, Kurds, and Jews. Sympathies for National Socialism are not so common, but are sometimes shown through the usage of National socialist insignia like the swastika, the double sig rune of the German Waffen ss, or the iron cross. The latter does not necessarily relate to National socialism, as it already entered popular culture in the 1960s, when some american and British rockers and bikers displayed the symbol on badges, logos, and jackets. since then, it has also become a regular symbol among rock and metal musicians with no afiliation to National socialist ideology.13 although supporting nationalist and sometimes racist ideas, most of my interviewees seeing themselves as a part of the local black metal scene also expressed their aversion for radical nationalist movements like the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MhP). On the one hand, they explained this by the MhP’s predominantly conservative and islamic self-conception—which 13 Popular examples in international metal are lemmy kilmister of the British band Motörhead, who is known for wearing an Iron Cross necklace, as well as James Hetield of the american band Metallica, who has an iron cross tattoo on his left elbow.

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they reject. On the other hand, they mentioned being rejected by followers of the MhP themselves, as they regard the cultural codes of metal as un-Turkish. During interviews and conversations, many metalheads reported verbal and physical insults by people who they described as “MhP guys.” all this is part of an intensive process of demarcation, which also includes drawing a line between black metal and the rest of the Turkish scene. Other metalheads are commonly regarded as fake, weak, or lacking authenticity and commitment. Nevertheless, black metalheads broadly share the same spaces (rock bars, concert and festival venues) and cultural codes (long hair, black clothes and boots) as the rest of the scene.

Rhetorics of Hate Demarcating black metal identities through the usage of nationalist and racist categories produces a variety of ambivalences and contradictions, which are relected in everyday life. From Turkish black metalheads, this demands the ability to constantly balance these rising contradictions. The problem will be illustrated and analyzed with the help of two case studies—an allegedly National socialist band from antalya, and that of a young armenian black metalhead from istanbul. In summer 2004, Istanbul death metal band Soul Sacriice invited me for a show to antalya. i gladly accepted, as i hoped to gain insight into the antalyan scene. after an exhausting eight-hour drive in a borrowed minibus, the band was quick to get their equipment on stage and prepare for the show. i was left behind and, while waiting in front of the venue, was approached by a tall, brawny, young skinhead in a black Slayer T-shirt. He was wearing camoulage pants and whitelaced combat boots. Black sideburns framed his face and despite his young age, his physical appearance was fairly intimidating. Yet, he approached me in a friendly manner and introduced himself as arman. switching from Turkish to German and pointing to the white laces of his boots, he proudly revealed that he was a Nazi skinhead. he then handed me a promo cD of his band assault, which only emphasized what he had just said. instead of a double s, the assault logo depicted the “sig runes” of the German Waffen ss, and the letter T had been replaced by an iron cross. a black and white sticker on the jewel case announced the band’s “hit single” SS Feuersturm (“ss Firestorm”), a deeply anti-semitic song sung in German. The album itself was entitled Das Bedeuted Krieg!!! [sic] (“This means war!!!”), and the cover depicted photographs of German World War ii soldiers, a swastika banner, and, remarkably, a picture of slovenian progressive rock band laibach, whose members, due their uniforms, probably had been mistakenly classiied as SS-commanders. Slightly irritated I went inside, telling Maksim and Özgür of Soul Sacriice about my encounter. Maksim, whose family belongs to istanbul’s tiny Bulgarian-Orthodox community and who, during previous conversations, had repeatedly expressed his antipathy towards Turkish ultra-nationalist movements, rose up and without

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missing a beat stormed to the door, obviously ready to seek confrontation. at the same moment, arman walked in. he immediately sensed Maksim’s anger and, at irst, it seemed the two of them would engage in a ight. However, they entered into heated dispute, in which Maksim challenged arman over his claim of being a Nazi skinhead. What prevented the situation from further escalating was a matter of social prestige. Maksim was a well-known, experienced musician in his late 20s, whereas arman was about ten years younger, and relatively new on the scene. During our short conversation, Arman had even expressed his admiration for Soul Sacriice’s music. hence, from his position, Maksim was a person to be respected. The confrontation, therefore, soon turned to verbal self-defense, in which arman aimed to justify why he had become Nazi. in the end, he came up with two explanations: irst, because he’d been beaten up by a group of Kurdish nationalists (“for no reason”) and second, he’d been impressed by Edward Norton in the ilm American History X. Norton’s character is a young neo-Nazi skinhead who brutally murders two african-american car thieves as revenge over the killing of his father by a drug dealer. In the ilm, however, an anti-white supremacist attitude is intended, which inally becomes clear when the main character renounces his racist ideas. Yet, for arman the message was different. he seemed to be so attracted by the anger, strength, and hatred of Norton’s character, that being like him appeared to be a solution to overcoming the helplessness and humiliation suffered at the hands of others. still, that did not explain his hatred towards other minorities like Armenians or Jews. in order to soothe Maksim, himself a member of an ethnic minority, he emphatically ended his speech with the words: “Seni seviyorum!” (“i love you!”), and further strengthening this statement: “Sen Türksün, ben Türküm. Seni seviyorum!” (“You are Turkish. i am Turkish. i love you!”). Maksim, however, only coolly replied: “Hayır, Türk değilim. Ben Bulgarım!” (“No, i am not Turkish. i am Bulgarian!”). hesitating only for a moment, arman waved away Maksim’s remark with an airy gesture of his hand and reasserted: “Neyse, seni seviyorum! Seni seviyorum!” (anyway, i love you! i love you!”). in a show of respect, he calmed the situation, offered Maksim his friendship, and, in a very polite way, invited us for a sightseeing trip through antalya, because, in the end, “we are all metal,” and, “i consider myself a humanist.” The encounter with arman revealed a set of ambivalent, dynamic, and situational identities (neo-Nazi, skinhead, Turk, metalhead, humanist), moreover, accompanied by a lack of relexivity as regards political ideologies. arman, for instance, appeared to have only limited, secondhand knowledge of German National socialism, though he described himself as a Nazi. The following case of an armenian black metal listener turned out to be even more complex. at the time of the interview, saro was a 21-year-old university student who lived with his mother in an apartment in the neighborhood of Kurtuluş. We were introduced to each other by one of his close friends, whom i knew from a previous interview. Our irst encounter took place in front of Katarsiz, a rock bar in Beyoğlu

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that was known for playing black metal music. saro was passing by with his girlfriend and entered into a conversation with a group of young black metalheads whom i already knew for their explicit nationalist (and partly racist) attitudes. a couple days later, we met again at the waterfront of Bostancı, where I had arranged a meeting with members of black metal band khaoskult. in summertime, the Bostancı waterfront is a popular place to meet, chat, drink, and listen to music. On that evening, a group of young black metalheads from various neighborhoods had come together, as the area provides a relaxed, cheap, and nearby alternative to the rock bars in Beyoğlu and Kadıköy. Only minutes before Saro appeared on the scene, i had participated in a conversation with Neferios of the band sithicus, in which he denounced kurds, armenians, and Greeks as “parasites” to the Turkish race. Moreover, he described himself as a white supremacist. When saro arrived, Neferios jumped up and cordially introduced him as one of his best friends— though saro is of armenian descent. One of our next meetings took place at Saro’s home in Kurtuluş, where we complemented a two-hour interview that had begun a few days before. among the items decorating saro’s room were several armenian national insignia, a personally signed poster from the israeli metal band Orphaned land, a small sculpture of the Virgin Mary, and a screensaver depicting the logo of american death metal band Deicide. The contradictive meanings of these four symbols will be discussed subsequent to the following interview excerpts. For these purposes it is necessary to know that saro describes himself as the biggest Deicide fan in Turkey. Due to its vehemently anti-christian sentiments and some musical allusions to black metal, the band is also respected among black metal listeners. During the interview, he talked about the impact Deicide had on his personal beliefs: Pierre: so, you’re not a strong believer. saro: No. No. No. i just respect. That’s all! That’s my belief, but i know everything about christianity, because i took some religious lessons, and i was going to church, and i was going to become a priest … i was expected to become a priest, an armenian priest, but all my ideas have changed. But i still know everything about christianity. Pierre: You said your attitude changed. until the age of eighteen, you wanted to become a priest and now you say ... Saro: When I irst listened to this music, it affected my religion … When I met Deicide, all my beliefs ended! When I irst listened to it … I listened to the When Satan Lives album, the live concert. and when i listened to it, i just tried to ind their lyrics … And when I read the lyrics: “Oh my God! What’s that?” I hadn’t read something like that [before] and my beliefs started to change—all my ideas, all my character! I started to become more rebellious. I started to ight with my family. lots of problems. i became more pessimistic … i started to

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wear inverted crosses. i started to wear pentagrams. i started to put Baphomet pictures in my room. i started to read about aleister crowley and occultism. lots of things! But then, i told myself: “it’s silly!” Because as Glen Benton [Deicide’s vocalist] said: “We are not satanists. We are just anti-christian!” so, when you look at the black metal bands—except some of them like Dark Funeral or abigor, they are not satanists. They are just pagan or anti-christian. That’s all. They don’t say: “We pray to satan.”

like other interviewees before, he differentiates between satanism and antichristian sentiments. satanism is clearly rejected and condemned as “silly.” Furthermore, he describes how Deicide’s lyrics affected his religious beliefs and changed his character. as he said, he became more “rebellious.” he became relective on the dominant sets of meaning in his life and opted for an alternative provided through the appropriation of new cultural resources. Finally, he began to challenge these dominant sets of meaning, and scrapped his previous plans of becoming a christian priest. The example gives proof of how the appropriation of new cultural resources provides new identity options. The interview excerpt also reveals another issue that, at irst glance, seems contradictive. although saro rejected the option of becoming an armenian priest and, moreover, announces the loss of his christian faith, he does not reject christianity completely. instead, he expresses his respect for christianity (“i just respect. That’s all!”). saro provides further explanation regarding his personal relationship with christianity: [some] people ask me: “What kind of christian are you?” i reply to them: “Yes. If you check Deicide’s lyrics, they are all anti-Christian. It’s a swearing to Jesus christ, a swearing to God, to Virgin Mary, etc.” i say: “My belief is just tradition and just respect.” That’s all!’

The contradiction, which is apparently felt by people in his surrounding, manifests itself in the presence of the sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the logo of Deicide in his room. What seem to be two apparently contradicting symbols are two separate reference points of saro’s cultural identity. During the interview, he also puts emphasis on the importance of armenian nationalism in his life: “i became more nationalist. i started to be interested in my race and in my culture, in armenian music, armenian traditions, but not in religion, just in my history.” Further on, he explains that christianity is considered an essential part of armenian nationalism, for the Armenians were the irst to collectively adopt Christianity in the early fourth century. From this perspective, the Virgin Mary is not a symbol of Christian belief, but of Armenian nationalism. Accordingly, his identiication with anti-christian sentiments, as being represented by his love for Deicide, is personally not felt as a contradiction. as the previous analysis has shown,

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expression of commitment to nationalist ideologies is widely respected among Turkish black metalheads. This corresponds to saro’s personal situation of being a member of an ethnic minority in Turkey. The Turkish armenian community has been continuously pressured to assimilate to Turkish national culture. With regard to this, saro also mentions his family, who want him to resist the pressure of assimilation and preserve the community’s armenian identity. Within this context, he negotiates his personal identity by connecting two points of reference that are at irst glance contradictive—his (Christian) Armenian identity and his (antichristian) black metal identity. in this sense, the sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the Deicide logo are not contradicting, but corresponding. The interview with saro also shows that the line between an apolitical interest in national or pre-monotheist pagan history and the appropriation of racist ideologies is thin. During our conversations, he frequently expressed his hatred against Kurds, Arabs, and Jews: so, i’m proud of being an armenian. if i were Greek, i would be proud of being a Greek. But i’m not a racist! i’m just proud of it and i’m just interested in my culture … For example, you should at least know what your grandparents did. You are pagan or … You know all Turkish people are şaman. and at least, just discover what you were in history. Where have you lived? What’s your origin? i mean, not racism. For example, if i say: “i’m armenian and a kurd is worse than me.” … Okay, i hate kurds, but i can even say that our brain is the same. We are all humans. i was born as an armenian, but i could have been born as a Kurd, I could have been born as a Japanese, I could have been born as a nigger. God bless, i’m an armenian. i’m proud of it … But sometimes i really share some ideas with Nazi people [who] say: “subhumans.” There are subhuman peoples, for example, kurds or arabs. They are subhumans, because they live like animals.

His words relect a process of demarcation. Saro negotiates his personal identity by drawing boundaries that correspond to nationalist and racist categories. These boundaries, which manifest in the form of verbally expressing hatred towards Kurds, Arabs, and Jews, seem to have only limited relevance within the realms of metal. Despite his self-declared hatred of Jews, Saro keeps an autographed poster of Orphaned land from israel in his room. saro had met with Orphaned land’s vocalist Kobi Farhi when the band played their irst gig in Istanbul in December 2001. according to saro, he just went to the concert because a friend had asked him to translate a conversation with Orphaned land for him. While translating, he entered into a conversation with Kobi and they inally spent the evening drinking together in the caravan rock bar. That was also the place where the members of Orphaned land signed the poster. saro had to promise to put it on the wall of his room. another aspect, which contradicts his previous statements, is the fact that his ex-girlfriend was kurdish. he even admitted that they were thinking about

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getting engaged before they split up. (at the time of the interview, saro had a Turkish girlfriend.) Signiicant for the limited relevance of nationalist and racist boundaries is also the relationship to his friends, who are self-declared nationalists, and (at least partly), racists. asked about this seemingly tricky situation, he replied: as i told you, there are some Nazis, but when we meet there is no problem … i have lots of friends, and they are also strict. They are also racists, and i don’t have any problem with them. i meet them. i drink with them. i go to their homes or they come to my home. so, there is no problem. Pierre: although they are racist, there is no problem? saro: Yes, but they say: “You are the only armenian we like! We hate the other ones!” … They just respect me. That’s all. But if they hadn’t met me before … For example, i met some of them. They are Nazis, and they are my friends’ friends. First, they got annoyed … and my friends said: “stop! he’s my friend! There is no problem with him!” and we meet each other and there’s no problem.

The limited relevance of nationalist and racist boundaries in the case of saro and his friends brings back the question of what relevance political ideologies generally have in Turkish black metal. starting from the assumption that political ideologies are irst and foremost relected in the lyrics, it is necessary to have a look at the unique situation of Turkish black metal bands.

Black Metal Meaning Turkish black metal artists usually sing in English. Their language proiciency is, however, commonly low, which makes it dificult to extract particular messages or meaning from a song. Due either to these linguistic deicits, or in order to avoid controversial reactions, many bands refrain from publishing song lyrics at all. Furthermore, black metal’s shrieking vocal style makes it impossible to understand the lyrics without textual assistance. These circumstances strengthen kuzu’s aforementioned claim that “for black metal the words don’t have so much meaning.” accordingly, many musicians and listeners do not necessarily relate black metal to ideological concepts, but rather to musical and emotional issues. This brings up the question of the personal meaning of black metal. The black metal listeners interviewed for the present study apparently faced a hard task when being asked to put the meaning of black metal into words. eventually, the request drew many diverse, sometimes taciturn responses (“my life,” “my lifestyle”), revealing individually differing conceptions of black metal. Yet, the most dominant, repeatedly named, connotations were melancholia, darkness, depression, negativity, hatred, and hopelessness. The process of meaning making, as revealed by the interviews, obviously involves a strong projectional

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element. The interviewees all attached personal emotions, concepts, and ideals to black metal, shaping it in a way they could best identify with. as should become clear from the following excerpts, black metal represents a relection of personal identities: ali: it’s my life. it’s my existence … it’s aggressive and sometimes destructive … Like I said, it’s not a hobby for me. It’s a relection of my soul. It means the world to me … Black metal is the only eye in this world that sees. it’s the only soul that feels … Black metal simply means a lot to me. i cannot really express it in words. so, it means everything to me. everything! … [Black metal] has to be connected with negativity—all the negative things in this world. it’s a philosophy rather than music … it’s a feeling. You have to feel it … it’s inhuman. it’s hateful. it’s aggressive. it’s bitter … Black metal stands against everything. everything! against every joy in this world. saro: Metal is my life, my ideas, my lifestyle. Black metal is my spirit, my rebellious spirit—rebellious towards everything, towards people, towards this system, sometimes towards God. in my idea, metal is a sound, but black metal is something different … as i told you, it’s my spirit. For example, when i hear the screams i think i’m screaming, too. as i tell everyone: “Maybe [one day] i will wear colorful clothes, but i will continue [to listen to] the same music” … i have been listening to this music for around nine years, and i don’t wanna quit.

The young men’s words show intense commitment. Black metal represents an essential part of their lives and a relection of their individual identities (“It’s my life,” “It’s a relection of my soul”). What they say implies that black metal is not a political concept based upon certain demands or programs, but something they refer to as a feeling. The explanation, “you have to feel it!” came up frequently during interviews, particularly when the interviewee lacked words to explain the meaning of black metal. This—together with the previous inding that “the words don’t have so much meaning” and the statement that the commitment to the visual codes of black metal may be temporary, but not the commitment to music (“Maybe [one day] i will wear colorful clothes, but i will continue [to listen to] the same music”)—suggests that it is the tone of music to which they attach the most meaning. Black metal corresponds to their emotional needs and serves as a tool to express and deine their individual identities. Meaning making, accordingly, appears to be a reciprocal process of identity formation and cultural (re)production. Black metal deines who they are, but at the same time, they individually (re) deine black metal.

chapter 6

Metal and Gender

Gender has always been a major issue in metal studies. Metal has been described as “forging masculinity” (klypchak 2007), being built upon images of “hypermasculinity” (Grant 1996, klypchak 2007), and fostering “varieties of misogyny as well as [the] exscription of the feminine” (Walser 1993: 110). Deena Weinstein (2000 [1991]: 134) went as far as to assume that “heavy metal style is masculine, and women who want to become members of the metal subculture must do so on male terms.” academic interest in the subject even resulted in an international conference on Heavy Metal and Gender in cologne during October 2009. The conference program included a public panel discussion with Germany’s leading female metal vocalists angela Gossow (arch enemy), Britta Görtz (Cripper), Doro Pesch, and Sabina Classen (Holy Moses). When asked to comment on a common perception describing her as “the woman who can growl like a man,” angela Gossow replied:1 The fact that i sound like a man is, of course, related to gender roles in society. Men have that deep, dark voice and are entitled to be really angry. They are even entitled to occasionally shout out loud [utters her words with deep growls]. Yeah. But women, they have to be small and quiet. They must not raise their voices too much. That is an old, gender-biased way of thinking, which is increasingly about to dissolve.

Being depicted as “the woman who can growl like a man” is anything but a neutral reference to a woman’s personal vocal style. The statement implies that women are not typically assumed to be able to produce growling vocals. at the same time, it conveys respect for the particular woman who, surprisingly, is able to do something “only men” can do. This, however, tells us something about gender relations. Men apparently dominate at least one particular, brutal style of metal music, in which growling vocals are used. Men and women do not appear to be on equal terms here. One could even go as far as to interpret the phrase as an entirely negative perception of women in metal, who in that context are assumed to be less capable than men. angela Gossow herself relates the issue to traditional gender roles in society. Masculinity in patriarchal gender contexts is usually deined in opposition to femininity, being constituted by practices related to power, strength, resistance, 1 The following statements were quoted and translated from the public panel discussion Frauen im Metal (“Women in Metal”), held in cologne 8 October 2009.

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and aggression. The patriarchal constructions of masculinity thereby rely on the hegemony of men and the corresponding subordination of women (connell 2005 [1995]: 77). Men are assumed to be active, angry, and strong, and “to occasionally shout out loud,” while women on the contrary are depicted as passive, quiet, and weak. From that point of view, growling is “naturally” associated with masculinity. Yet the situation appears to be more complex. adding to the discussion, Britta Görtz, who is likewise known for her brutal vocal style, set out to challenge the masculine ownership of growling: The phrase “you sound like a man” actually only reveals that no one knows what a growling woman sounds like … since there are more men who do it … [women] sound like men and not the other way around. One could also say “growling men sound like women.” it is interchangeable. it has to do with listening habits.

in a society where listeners are not used to aggressive female vocals and in a scene where women represent a minority, it is obvious that growling is still widely associated with masculinity. Yet, the point raised by Britta Görtz here is that the practice of growling does not necessarily need to be addressed in a gendered way. Growling could be either masculine or feminine. This, however, stresses the fact that gender roles are socially constructed (holmes 2009: 1–14, 36–7). They are dynamic, and are changing, historically and culturally. Whether a social practice is classiied as masculine or feminine depends on a particular context and the social norms present within it, as well as on behavioral expectations towards men and women. Dominant role models in metal do indeed correspond to traditional concepts of masculinity. The majority of fans and artists are male, and these fans do draw upon cultural stereotypes of patriarchal masculinity. anger, aggression, strength, resistance, and even female subordination are common themes in metal. But is that enough to label metal as masculine? Does this argument not fall short in times when notions of masculinity and femininity are constantly being redeined? Assuming that gender is socially constructed and dynamic, one needs to take into account varying individual notions of gender. Do men have a monopoly on aggression, anger, or sexual promiscuity? and do metalheads really intend to express their masculinity when doing metal? During the above-mentioned panel discussion, Doro Pesch and sabina classen, for instance, pointed out that it was men who, particularly in the 1980s, adopted traditionally feminine practices. They grew their hair long and, during the heyday of Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, or Mötley Crüe, male vocalists tended to sing and scream as high as possible. sabina classen, moreover, described both sexes as “well integrated into the metal scene,” and Doro Pesch, referring to the signiicance of gender in metal, stated: “Well, i simply did what i felt … For me heavy metal was always about freedom. To be yourself. i think if i were a man, i would have made the same music.” in other words, the four female musicians appeared to be

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less concerned about whether particular practices would be classiied as masculine or feminine, than about inding ways of self-expression. Angela Gossow described metal respectively as a means of coping with her personal fantasies of violence and aggression. But what does the discussion tell us about metal and gender in Turkey? The present chapter aims at exploring how doing metal in Turkey can be perceived from a gender perspective. The above-outlined global discourse on metal and gender will accordingly function as a reference point for the investigation. in Turkey, gender issues have been highly politicized since the early days of the republic. The female body was and still is the most iercely contested battleground of islamic and secularist actors in society. Within that context, the question will be addressed: does metal contest dominant concepts of masculinity and femininity in Turkish society?

Gender and Politics in contemporary Turkish politics, the female body is of great symbolic importance. Particular articulations of femininity and female identity are popular means of marking, claiming, and contesting secular and religious spaces in everyday life. The kemalist model of modernity put women’s emancipation at the forefront of national reform efforts from the very beginning. it promoted the ideal of the unveiled, enlightened woman, making her a symbol of national progress and pride (Arat 1998: 15–16, Göle 2000: 51, Kadıoğlu 2002: 73, Arat 2005: 16–19). The founders of the republic even presented gender equality as an integral value of pre-Islamic Turkish culture (Durakbaşa 1998: 141). Turkish state feminism consequently strengthened women’s position in society. it granted women the right to vote, provided them with access to education, and increased their opportunities to enter the public sphere and the workplace. in the end, however, kemalism—though it succeeded in weakening the public institutions of patriarchy—failed to fully implement gender equality, particularly within the private sphere of family and home. Women remained in a subordinate position, with the concepts of patriarchal morality widely untouched (Durakbaşa 1998: 140). While Turkish women were still expected to follow the norms of modesty, chastity, and subordination (Kadıoğlu 2002: 76, Arat 2005: 18), men’s prestige continued to depend on the honor and (sexual) integrity of their female relatives (Arat 1998: 27, Durakbaşa 1998: 149). During the early 1990s, the female body also became an important factor of Islamic revivalism (Göle 1995, İlyasoğlu 1998, Kadıoğlu 2002, Navaro-Yashin 2002, Arat 2005). Islamic igures pushed their way into the public realm by promoting particular visual codes and practices marked as islamic. Particularly, young women placed emphasis on their islamic identity by wearing the türban, a modern though conservative version of the islamic headscarf. consequently, the türban became a symbol for the pure, virtuous, devout, and self-conident

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woman who advocated for an islamic state and society. The new model of islamic femininity conveyed by islamic intellectuals was that of a heroine who dared to challenge the secularist authorities, and who was ready to suffer for the sake of her religious beliefs—by, for instance, being excluded from higher education due to the oficial headscarf ban at university campuses. From a political perspective, the visibility of the islamic veil in the public sphere represented an attempt to demonstrate power, challenging the secularist principles of the state by creating a visible counter-public (Göle 2004). This, in short, is why gender issues are still highly politicized in Turkey today. But how do these gender controversies relate to metal? in March 2008, i had the chance to join a conference at kayseri erciyes university. in Turkey, the central anatolian city of kayseri is famous for being a stronghold of the governing conservative Justice and Development Party, the akP. The conservative atmosphere of the place could be easily felt during the conference sessions. in response to the conference program, which was meant to discuss the EU Turkey agenda for the twenty-irst century, students placed remarkable emphasis on questions of cultural alienation and religion. even more striking was the fact that for the irst time at a Turkish university, I witnessed female students wearing the islamic headscarf. Not long before, islamic-style headscarves had been banned from state schools and universities—although the akP, since its coming to power in 2002, had been pushing hard to ease the ban. The government’s commitment to the issue has been bitterly opposed by hardline kemalists and intellectuals who fear damage to secularity. For conservative Muslims, however, the headscarf has become an important visual symbol for demonstrating their religious aspirations in public. in addition to wearing headscarves, the young women participating in the conference sat in small groups separate from their fellow male students, an apparent expression of modesty. Female students, though actively involved in the conference discussions, noticeably effaced themselves during the breaks between conference sessions while their male counterparts besieged the predominantly male speakers with questions. speaking in more abstract terms, the young women’s behavior revealed a set of gender-speciic practices which, in that particular conservative context, were regarded as morally adequate. The day after the conference, i got on a plane to istanbul in order to meet old friends and gather new material to complement previous research on Turkish metal. That same night, i went to Dorock, a popular rock bar in the center of istanbul, to watch a concert by metal bands Murder king and Postmortem. The bar was packed with people, and when i entered, Postmortem was already live on stage. Pushing my way to the front, i encountered a crushingly brutal sound with growled vocals produced by three ferociously headbanging young women and a male drummer. None of the women was covering her hair—neither on stage nor in the audience. instead, they were wearing skin-tight, sleeveless shirts and were socially interacting with the mixed male and female audience. all in all, their conident, extroverted, and aggressive performance appeared to represent an

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antipode to the behavior of the modest, chastely dressed women i had observed in kayseri the day before. switching from kayseri to istanbul, from the university campus to the stage pit, i apparently witnessed two diametrically opposed concepts of femininity. in light of traditional images of “the Turkish woman,” Postmortem’s performance appeared to me as an act of resistance against dominant gender conventions. But what are the conventions that constitute masculinity and femininity in Turkish society? and how are they being challenged by doing metal?

Tradition and Gender studying gender in Turkish society sooner or later involves dealing with the terms şeref and namus, or as frequently referred to in academic literature, the concepts of honor and shame. Turkish society is a patriarchal society, and gender identities are still largely determined by traditional notions of patriarchal morality, as expressed in the honor/shame dichotomy. The distinction between the honorable and the shameful marks a line between the male and the female, or as the anthropologist carol Delaney (1991: 39) put it, “honor is primarily an attribute of men and shame of women.” in order to understand what this means in practice, it is necessary to explore the meaning of the above-mentioned words şeref and namus. it is somewhat tricky to express the meaning of şeref and namus by direct single-word translation. Turkish-english and Turkish-German dictionaries, for instance, commonly translate both terms as “honor,” or respectively, “ehre.” That is, the meanings of the two words at irst glance seem identical—though in fact, they are not. in accordance with anthropological studies of Werner schiffauer (1983: 70) and andrea Petersen (1988: 11, 28), as well as with the linguistic study by hüseyin kuzkaya (2001: 22), i will refer to namus as “honor” and to şeref as “social prestige” or “social reputation.” in Turkish, a person can be either described as “namuslu” or “namussuz,” or likewise, with regard to şeref as “şereli” or “şerefsiz.” The sufixes “-lu” and “-suz” or “-li” and “-siz” are grammatical peculiarities that allow the speaker to create adjectives from nouns and, at the same time, indicate a dichotomy by adding the meaning “with” or “without.”2 an honorable person (lit. a person “with honor”) would accordingly be described as “namuslu,” and a shameful one as “namussuz.” The same goes for human behavior in general and social practices in particular; they are either classiied as honorable or shameful. As already mentioned, there is a strong gender-speciic connotation to the concept. honor is a patriarchal concept, dominated by men and borne by women who ind themselves in a subordinate position. Uneven power relations between the sexes are reproduced by a set of social norms and behavioral expectations. The 2 The sufixes “with” or “without” are modiied in accordance with Turkish vowel harmony (-li, -lı, -lu, -lü and -siz, -sız, -suz, -süz).

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honor of both men and women primarily depends upon their ability to preserve the sexual integrity of the female body. key to this is the principle of socially and spatially separating the male and the female. To mark and sustain the line between the sexes, men and women are required to adopt gender-speciic modes of behavior. Women must preserve their sexual integrity (virginity before marriage, idelity after marriage) and demonstrate purity, modesty, and chastity. In other words, an honorable woman is expected to avoid contact with men from beyond her family; hide her feminine charms by dressing properly (that is, by covering her hair and those body parts that could be attractive to men); cast down her eyes; avoid running or talking loudly in the presence of men; hide her bodily functions; be tidy and clean; respect the will of her father, husband, and older brothers; and, generally speaking, passively accept her subordinate position in society (schiffauer 1983: 74–5; Petersen 1988: 11f.; Delaney 1991: 42; kardam 2005: 16). any deviance from that norm is considered shameful. above all, however, she has to preserve her sexual purity. a woman’s value depends on “her ability to guarantee the legitimacy of a man’s seed” (Delaney 1991: 40), wherefore female sexuality is strictly limited to the realm of marriage. extramarital sex, consensual or not, is seen as an irreversible deilement of the female body. It entails the deinite loss of namus, to the woman herself as well as to her family as a whole. in that sense, namus is not just an individual, but also a collective value that needs to be preserved in order to guarantee a family’s social and economic capacity to act and survive in traditional village society. A family without honor would ind it dificult to secure support from other villagers, or to marry off daughters (schiffauer 1987: 46–9). a woman, therefore, not only has to avoid extramarital relationships, but also any situation that might put her sexual integrity into question and put her under suspicion of being a “loose” woman. While women’s sexuality is commonly perceived as insatiable, men’s sexual desire is further seen as uncontrollable. sexual attraction is consequently assumed to be so strong that sexual intercourse is presumed virtually inevitable between a man and a woman who evade public control, even if only for a short period of time. in contrast to women, a man’s honor depends on his abilities to defend, protect, and control the sexual integrity of his female family members. he has to show strength, virility, determination, aggression, and—perhaps most importantly—the willingness to use violence in order to preserve his honor. Providing protection means, for instance, accompanying one’s wife, daughter, or sister when she leaves the private sphere of family and home. if a young woman enters the public without being accompanied by a male relative (or a group of other women), this could be interpreted as an inability to protect, defend, or control her. The man responsible for protecting her would consequently be classiied as weak, and his masculinity would be placed into question. Once labeled “weak,” the man would further lose the respect (saygı) of surrounding society, which has a negative impact on his social prestige (şeref ). a man has to take care of “his” women and react to any offense from the outside world. if he wants to sustain his social prestige, no physical or

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verbal insult may go unpunished. even another man’s looks or daring remarks could be seen as deiling the female body. Moreover, he has to exert control over “his” women and must sanction any behavior that would put their integrity at risk. For instance, he has to make sure that they do not go out at night, meet up with or talk to other men, or behave in any deiant or rebellious way that could be seen by others as a challenge to his authority. in addition to this, particularly young men are expected to demonstrate their masculinity by showing off their virility. This can be done symbolically by growing a moustache (kuzkaya 2001: 113), or directly by enjoying sexual promiscuity. in contrast to women, it is accepted for men to have sexual intercourse with women who are not their wives. The men’s personal honor remains untouched by extramarital affairs. a “real” man would never reject a sexual overture from a woman, for he could otherwise be considered homosexual or impotent (schmitz 1985: 46). a young man furthermore demonstrates virility (and courage) by challenging the sexual integrity of women who do not belong to his own family. To put it briely, masculinity and femininity are deined in opposition to each other. Gender identities in Turkish society are constructed along dichotomous behavioral patterns such as active versus passive, strong versus weak, virile versus chaste, or aggressive versus modest. social prestige (şeref ) is likewise also related to the practicing of gender roles as deined by the honor/shame dichotomy. Şeref marks a person’s moral excellence, which—irst and foremost—depends on following the principles of honor (namus) as described above. in other words, there is no prestige without honor; or the loss of honor inevitably entails the loss of prestige. in addition to gender-related issues, a person’s prestige further depends on moral virtues like helpfulness, hospitality, honesty, generosity, bravery, or intellectuality. someone who shows weakness, stinginess, cowardice, or hypocrisy would never be considered şereli. Other traits that increase a person’s prestige can be wealth, power, education, or knowledge. Moreover, a good reputation can be heritable and thus transferred from one generation to the next (Yalçın-Heckmann 2000: 147). in everyday life, şeref usually refers to men (kuzkaya 2001:21–22). some authors even hold the opinion that şeref is an exclusively male value (schiffauer 1983: 74; Petersen 1988: 23); others, however, claim that şeref, unlike namus, is not bound to gender identities (Yalçın-Heckmann 2000: 147). According to the latter position, a woman’s social prestige equally depends on her personal virtues. unlike men, however, women are further considered şereli by, for instance, maintaining a clean and orderly household, not getting involved with gossiping, or aligning their lives in accordance with the moral values of society (kehl and Pluger 1997 [1988]: 24). At least with regard to urban settings, I would agree with Lale Yalçın-Heckmann’s inding that şeref is not an exclusively male value; during my research, young women were also occasionally referred to as “şereli” or “şerefsiz.” To sum up, şeref, as distinct from namus, is an individual value that can be acquired, lost, and retrieved (as long as not connected to namus-related

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misbehavior). That is, a loss of prestige does neither entail a loss of honor, nor necessarily have negative impact on the reputation of other family or community members. Namus, however, is an absolute value that, once lost, can never be regained. its individual loss has a collective impact. The female body is the epitome of honor and represents what is sacred to Turkish traditional society. Male and female behavior, though organized in dichotomous patterns, is complementary in terms of being equally directed towards preservation of the female body and by extension, namus.

Islamic Morality The honor/shame dichotomy is by no means an islamic concept. Yet, it coincides with and draws legitimacy from islamic morality. Men and women, from an Islamic point of view, may be classiied as equal in terms of fulilling the will of God and, therefore, being equally valued in his sight—but not in terms of gender equality. Men and women are ascribed different rights and obligations that complement each other. and this is why—although asma Barlas (2002: 171–2) in her book “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an has pointed to the fact that the Koran does not deine social reality in terms of female/male, public/private binaries—islamic traditions are often called upon when it comes down to legitimizing the moral principles of honor and shame. human sexuality, for instance, is limited to the realm of marriage. Marriage, however, means different “things” for men and women. While a man, according to classical islamic law, is entitled to marry and enjoy sex with up to four women, a woman is allowed to only have one sexual partner: her husband. kecia ali in Sexual Ethics & Islam (2006) has, moreover, pointed to the practice of slave concubinage in medieval islam. Based upon prescriptions in the koran and the Prophet’s sunnah, the four schools of classical islamic law acknowledged as permissible, men having sex with an unlimited number of slave concubines (ibid. 39–55, spectorsky 2010: 30). sexual acts between a man and woman who were neither married nor bound through a master-slave relationship were perceived as a serious transgression of morality (ali 2006: 57). similar to the concepts of honor and shame, men’s sexuality is seen as uncontrollable, and women’s as insatiable. This understanding of human sexuality inds expression in the idea of itna. The arabic word itna is used either to mark the divine temptation sent by God as a test of faith, or to describe a state of disorder, revolt, and chaos among Muslim believers (Gardet 1991: 930–931). The source of discord, chaos, and disorder is frequently assumed to be female sexuality. since women are seen as seductive and sexually irresistible for men, female charms need to be concealed and controlled. Otherwise, they would arouse men’s overpowering sexual desires, leading to the described state of disorder and chaos. For the sake of faith and unity, and to prevent the collapse of social order, female sexuality, therefore, has to be disciplined and restrained (Farahani 2006). This idea is relected in Koranic provisions on

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sanctioning adultery (surah 24, 2), concealing/veiling the female body (surah 24, 31, surah 33, 59), and promoting the ideals of modesty and chastity (surah 24, 30–31). koranic traditions, in that sense, contribute to a perpetuation of male dominance, and by the same token, lead to a “sacralization” of female inferiority (Tomiche 1991: 467) that is equally inherent to traditional notions of honor and shame. There are, of course, variations to the above-outlined concepts of gender and morality—even amongst islamist actors, or within Turkish village communities. Particularly in Turkish urban society, today we ind multiple forms of masculinity and femininity. General principles on tradition and islamic sexuality are, however, internalized by the vast majority of the Turkish population. and though they are not necessarily collectively valid, they are collectively shared in terms of representations of common knowledge. Meanwhile, however, concepts of sexuality have been undergoing shifts in meaning. These shifts of meaning are related to altered living conditions, new options for forming personal identity, and economic challenges in everyday life. Modern Turkish society has put pressure on traditional concepts of morality. The process of socialization is no longer limited to the realms of village and family. instead, other sources of socialization—school, university, work, media, and so on—have been adding to people’s understanding of the world. Moreover, economic conditions have brought change to people’s lives. Women might need to participate in working life in order to feed their families, and economically independent individuals might choose to refuse traditional norms and values, as they no longer need to rely on the respect of surrounding society. as lilo schmitz (1985: 62) in a study on women and sexuality in Turkey has already pointed out, it is economic rather than normative conditions that determine whether or not people observe traditional and religious customs of the past. But how does the lengthy discussion on patriarchal morality relate to metal and gender? in order to learn more about the subversive potential of doing metal, i investigated how Turkish metalheads attach meaning to the ideas of honor and shame.

Metal and Honor Şeref and namus? [laughs] are there words like that? i mean, i don’t believe there are words like that. [pauses] as i say, it has nothing to do with me. But just ask any Turkish guy. it is fucking really important, man.

The sarcastic response to whether he could explain the meaning of şeref and namus to me came from Panterakay, a former writer for Şebek. his reaction suggests a triple meaning: recognition, rejection, and relevance. That is, although he appears to recognize the underlying concept of honor, he yet denies any involvement with its moral implications (“it has nothing to do with me”), and at the same time conirms its general relevance for Turkish society, because for “any

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Turkish guy it is fucking really important.” This pattern of recognition, rejection, and relevance turned out to be repeated by most metalheads when they were confronted with issues of honor and shame. The following excerpt is taken from a discussion with Bahadır, Murat, and Burak. The interview was conducted on the roof terrace of the katarsiz rock bar on a sunny afternoon. all three interviewees were in their late 20s and had been actively participating in the scene for the past ten years, lately by editing Deli Kasap. With regard to their social backgrounds, they all had university degrees and worked regular jobs. after an intensive discussion on the emergence of rock and metal culture in Turkey, they were taken by surprise when i mentioned the words “şeref ” and “namus”: Bahadır: Wow, eh … it means nothing to me. Like … I didn’t have a problem with that until now. and no one raped my girlfriend or something like that. But i would probably kill him. and i mean it, when i say: “kill him!” When i watch the news and see bad things happening to other people—like someone rapes a child or cuts his wife in pieces—i go like: “What would i do?” You know. it’s my namus, you know. i would go berserk, go crazy. Yeah. Pierre: and şeref ? Bahadır: I don’t feel anything about şeref. i don’t know. What does it mean? it doesn’t mean anything to me. Murat: if you do the right things, you are an honorable man. if you do the right things. Maybe you should ask some men from the villages. They will tell a lot of things about şeref. But in the cities, they do not care about it. Because it’s very different in Turkey. Burak: i don’t know [laughs]. Şeref, namus … i don’t know the exact meaning of them. really! Because everyone tells [different things about] what şeref means. cause it’s not like a glass [puts his beer mug on the table]. it’s a different thing. But i can say: “Ben şereli değilim ama namussuzum.” Böyle.3 [laughs] Murat: in Turkey all these empty people, all these stupid people say: “i am şereli.” Bahadır: Honor. I don’t have it. Burak: it’s a personal thing, because i can say: “i’m namuslu”—“Ben namusluyum.” But you can say: “You’re not namuslu!” What is namus?

3

Translation: “‘i don’t have şeref, but i am without namus.’ That’s it.”

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Murat: in the southeast of Turkey namus is misunderstood … if some motherfucker is raping a girl, the family thinks she’s not namuslu and kills her.

after a short moment of irritation, hesitation, and thinking, the three appeared to be amused, and, in the case of Murat, even emotionally aroused when thinking about the social implications of both words in a traditional context. On the one hand, the discussion reveals a number of analogies to the traditional meaning of şeref and namus; for instance, when Bahadır imagines his girlfriend being raped, or when Murat describes an honorable man as someone who does the “right things.” at this point, namus could be portrayed as a moral reaction for the sake of protecting loved ones and şeref as a moral appeal to behave in a socially appropriate way. in both cases, the implications of şeref and namus remain the same as in a traditional context. On the other hand, however, Bahadır, Murat, and Burak draw clear lines between their personal perceptions and other, traditional notions of şeref and namus. Murat draws a line between “all these stupid people” in “the southeast of Turkey” who are allegedly ready to kill their own daughters for the sake of honor, and people who are living in the cities (“in the cities they don’t care about it”). From this perspective, crimes committed for the sake of sexual integrity are considered immoral. Most striking in terms of contradicting previous anthropological studies is the fact that the three young men do not attach apparent relevance to şeref and namus when it comes to their everyday lives. Previous studies, as outlined before, depicted the concept of honor and shame as an essential part of Turkish society (Schiffauer 1983, 1987 Petersen 1988, Kehl and Pluger 1997 [1988]). Remarks such as: “i don’t feel anything about şeref,” “i don’t know the exact meaning of them. really!,” “honor. i don’t have it,” and “What is namus?” suggest that Bahadır, Murat, and Burak seek to avoid attaching personal relevance to the concept, though they are able to outline its meaning from a traditional perspective. Burak’s ironic comment “Ben şereli değilim, ama namussuzum”—“i don’t have şeref, but i am without namus,” which is followed by laughter, clearly strengthens this impression. A person who attaches moral signiicance to both terms would not make fun of it by calling himself “şereli değilim” or “namussuzum.” Moreover, Burak points to the multiple meanings of şeref and namus by using a metaphor: the two terms are not as clearly deinable as a physical object such as the glass he puts in front of him on the table. it is “different,” a “personal thing.” Before drawing a inal conclusion out of the outlined indings, it is necessary to examine some further reactions of Turkish metalheads on the terms şeref and namus. The next excerpt is taken from an interview with Maksim of the istanbulbased death metal band Soul Sacriice. The interview took place in the early afternoon, just hours before the band was scheduled to play a show in a small club in antalya. at the time of the interview, Maksim was in his late 20s and worked as an engineer for an international textile company:

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Turkish Metal Şeref ve namus?! Şeref ve namus. it’s a strange word. Namus, şeref. Şereli olmak [“to be şereli”]. ah, it’s a strange word. i didn’t think about this before! [laughs] You catch the point, actually! [pauses and thinks] Namuslu olmak [“to be namuslu”]. it’s a … you need to know much about literature to understand these two words, actually. as i told, i didn’t think about those two words in total, but to be a good person, to ight to be a good person is to be şereli. Onurlu [“proud,” “honorable”] and şereli. For namus i can’t say anything. Maybe … i can say again: to be a good person is being a namuslu person again—with good ahlak [“morality”] … You behave toward a person in a good manner. Then, if you don’t drink too much, smoke cigarettes, use drugs, if you don’t cheat your friends, if you don’t lie too much. something like that. it’s a little bit of a strange thing. it’s totally in the Turkish kind of thinking, i think. in my opinion, it’s so ridiculous and so old kind of stuff. But it still exists in Turkey. For example, if, let’s say, you have a sister and she’s together with a boy and she’s not married with that boy, then you are not namuslu. You are not! Not she! What does it mean? it’s so ridiculous! it’s so ridiculous! i don’t believe in those kinds of things. i think, it’s a little bit stupid and ridiculous stuff.

Similar to Bahadır, Murat, and Burak, Maksim is taken by surprise. He repeats the two terms several times, pauses, and obviously needs some moments to relect upon their meaning. He even admits to never having thought about the meaning of şeref and namus before. Moreover, he describes namus as “a little bit stupid,” “ridiculous and so old kind of stuff.” This leads to the assumption that he does not attach personal relevance to the concept. Although he deines şeref and namus in a way which is quite similar to common traditions—şereli, according to Maksim, means “to be a good person,” namuslu to be a person “with good ahlak” (“morality”)—his deinitions are not derived from personal experience or involvement, but relect an impersonal, distanced view on a traditional, personally irrelevant concept. however, he laughingly admits: “You catch the point actually … it still exists in Turkey.” Maksim’s opinion, which obviously considers the concept of şeref and namus still relevant to Turkish society, is shared among all metalheads who spoke about the subject in conversations or interviews. This goes particularly for the meaning of namus in terms of referring to the integrity of the female body. ayfer, a young PhD student and metalhead herself, spoke about the relevance of şeref and namus in the everyday life of people in istanbul: a lot of people in Turkey are constrained by these two principles. Women especially have to suffer enormously or restrain their lives, or they are unable to live the way they want … although families in istanbul are partly very modern, i think daughters are still under enormous pressure behind closed doors. especially the daughters. it doesn’t matter how modern they are. it’s the same with my friends. Partly, they can’t go out in the evenings or move freely, even though they wear miniskirts or have a boyfriend. But nonetheless, there

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are unspoken things, which are taboo—for example, to go on holiday with her boyfriend, or she can’t stay with him overnight, or to walk hand in hand with her boyfriend on the streets. however tolerant the parents may be, there are unspoken codes referring to namus.

ayfer stresses that girls still experience social pressure from their families due to moral issues. although traditional notions of morality seem to have changed— according to her, having a boyfriend or wearing a miniskirt is acceptable for many parents—there are still taboos about male-female relationships. Namus, in terms of social control, remains a relevant category to the lives of most young women in the metal scene. Going out at night, wearing a miniskirt, or having a boyfriend is not necessarily equivalent to free sexuality, and, in fact, most parents still do not tolerate premarital sexual relationships by their daughters. although this plea for chastity may not truly represent the parents’ personal convictions, they remain afraid of the social consequences premarital relationships could have for their children. even if parents accept their daughters’ premarital relationships, they usually advise them to maintain a low public proile on these issues. social behavior with regard to namus depends very much upon social and spatial contexts. While some parts of istanbul have been evolving towards accepting liberal moral practices, others remain characterized by stricter social control. ayfer describes this situation in the following way: My female friends walk hand in hand with their boyfriends as long as they are in Taksim [the city center], but as soon as they are on the other side [of istanbul] where they live, they stop. Okay, this is a generalization. i think, it varies from family to family and depends upon the level of education.

Today, istanbul’s centers of entertainment and nightlife provide multiple social spaces that are free from social control. While in a regular restaurant, which attaches great importance on attracting a family clientele, certain practices such as publicly kissing each other would not be tolerated, whereas rock bars provide spaces in which a couple can behave freely, walk hand in hand, sit arm in arm, or kiss each other. here, as already mentioned in chapter 3, young metalheads are not obliged to keep to the moral norms of the outside world. ayfer, although she points to the social pressure pushing down Turkish women, describes male-female relations in the scene as liberal and permissive.4 Generally speaking, men and women equally oppose the above-mentioned traditional notions of morality. This is what seyda, another female metalhead, has to say about şeref and namus: Oh, God! This is all bullshit! Şeref ve namus. in the Turkish sense of the word, i am completely against it, because it’s directed against women. it’s all misogynistic, and therefore i loathe these two words … Şeref ve namus should 4

This statement refers to another part of the interview, which is not presented here.

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Turkish Metal be completely different things than assumed by our people … Şeref, i would say, refers to human dignity. and namus is not what is between your legs, but what is in your head. Trying to be a good person, not to cheat people or something like that. … Namus should be about trying to be good, about being just. But it has nothing to do with people’s sexual lives.

seyda not only categorically rejects the traditional meaning of şeref and namus, but, moreover, attaches personal meaning to both terms by briely explaining what şeref and namus, according to her, should actually be about. This double theme of rejection and redeinition appears in the majority of interviews dealing with şeref and namus. Before coming back to this at the end of this section, let us have a look at another individual notion of honor. The following interview with levent was conducted in a spanish restaurant near the historic Galata Tower where he worked as a barkeeper. The biographical interview lasted for more than two hours and my request to explain the meaning of şeref and namus ended up being one of the inal aspects that I wanted to discuss. Only a few minutes later, when we were still discussing the subject, two beautiful young girls came in, and all of a sudden, levent’s attention was gone. When i left the restaurant, the three were sitting on stools in front of the bar with levent having his arms around the young girls’ waists. This is how he sees the subject: ah, yeah. sure. honor. everyone has his own … for me it’s different. same with namus, you know. i mean, if someone’s looking at someone else’s girlfriend in the streets, they get killed sometimes. You know, like: “Why are you looking at my wife?,” or something. For me it’s different. if someone’s looking at my girl, i’m like, i get proud of that. like: “she’s good and we look good together,” or something like that. Till they touch. Till they try to touch! i’m bothered by that. i beat the shit out of them! But looking … You know, Turkey is still a closed country. it doesn’t look like that, but it’s still … well, you can be like americans in fashion. everyone has like a fucking mobile phone. everyone hangs out like this. in the streets, in the bars, you know. and everyone tries to protect their wives and their girlfriends. When they go out, they look out, you know. That’s horrible! i don’t know. and they talk about it like: “Namus is very important and şeref !” Fuck that, man! if you don’t have it, you don’t have to show like you have it, you know.

levent condemns the overprotection of women in everyday life whereupon even a casual glance could result in violent conlict. In contrast to that, he states: “if someone’s looking at my girl, i’m like, i get proud of that.” With regard to drawing moral boundaries in everyday life, his words are important for several reasons: irst of all, he emphatically rejects Turkish society’s traditional notions of morality (“Fuck that, man!”). secondly, his words reveal that there are different notions of what is perceived as a violation of moral boundaries or, more precisely,

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of what is perceived as a violation of the line that demarcates the public from the private. From a traditional perspective, to cast a glance at someone else’s wife could already become a matter of boundary violation. For levent, the boundary remains intact “till they try to touch.” Though his willingness to physically protect “his” woman corresponds to traditional concepts of masculinity in Turkish society, the moment of boundary violation has clearly changed. as a consequence, we can say that moral boundaries, in levent’s case, shift rather than dissolve completely. at a certain point, however, levent’s argument goes beyond the shifting of boundaries. in fact, he reverses a central principle of morality when he states: “if someone’s looking at my girl, i’m like, i get proud of that.” From a traditional point of view, a woman who publicly displays her female charms is potentially stared at by strangers and would, therefore, harm the social prestige (şeref ) of her man, as long as he does not sanction her behavior and act against the outside threat to his honor. levent, in contrast, gives a new meaning to the ( jealous) glances of other men and reinterprets them as a matter of pride and social prestige (şeref ). A inal point, which has to be mentioned here, is that Levent, like most other metalheads, perceives şeref and namus as still relevant within Turkish society. accordingly, it appears that the concepts of honor and shame seem to persist in urban contexts. Erdem, who is the vocalist for the Istanbul punk metal band Nitro, exempliies his indifference to traditional standards of morality by presenting some personal experiences: erdem: Şeref, namus … What can i say? i don’t care about either of them. i don’t care! Şeref may be something like honor or pride or something else. Whose pride? This is my life. i live my life for myself. so my pride is only for me. if i feel proud of myself, that’s enough for me. i don’t want to be … how can i say?—an idol, an icon for other people. Pierre: But nevertheless, you use the term “şeref.” erdem: We only use it when we are drinking: “Şerefe!” [“skoal!”—laughs]. Nothing more. For example, i’m not proud of being a Turkish guy, but i’m proud of releasing two albums, because i made it. i worked for it. so, i’m proud of it. For the namus thing i don’t care! i don’t care! Because sex is not everything. Those kinds of things. i know lots of people who talk about namus a lot, but i know what they are doing … i have a lot of friends who try to control themselves and not to be seen as bad in public. But i don’t care. it’s my lifestyle. When i had my haircut like this [erdem used to have long hair, but at the time of the interview, was wearing a short Mohawk], a friend of mine said: “Oh, people will look at you, like blah, blah, blah …” Who cares? This is what i like. if he has a moustache, do i look at him? No. it’s okay. i have this haircut.

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Turkish Metal i don’t care about it [namus]. For example, my father’s cousin has two daughters. One of them is now twenty-six years old, the other one is twenty-two years old, and they are really beautiful girls and … how can i say? [pauses] One night, we went out together and … with the older one. elif is her name. We were out with elif and her boyfriend was also there. and they were kissing each other in the bar. i didn’t care. Why should i? it’s her choice. and also eh … the younger one. she fell in love with a friend of mine. she wanted to meet him, and i introduced them to each other. No problem. But i warned my friend like this: “if you want to have a one-night stand: Fuck off! if you want to live in love with her: Okay, man.” [laughs.] i don’t care about what they are doing. Pierre: so, you think, it only matters in rural areas? erdem: No. it’s not this thing. i have lots of friends from the metal scene who think like this. his sister cannot go out with a boy or something. it’s unbelievable. Pierre: so, these guys want to marry a virgin? Erdem: It’s shit! I don’t care! I’ve never been the irst man for a girl, and I didn’t care about it. it’s not a problem for me.

Clear statements such as “I don’t care! I’ve never been the irst man for a girl” or “sex is not everything,” as well as the story about his two female cousins, underscore his personal indifference to traditional notions of honor and shame. erdem does not attach personal relevance to şeref and namus and, instead of intervening, supports his female cousins in establishing premarital relationships. Moreover, his words reveal deeply individualized conceptions of honor and selfrespect: erdem sees himself as accountable to no one but himself. his personal notion of şeref is derived from self-determined standards of value, and from personal achievements such as releasing two albums. he is proud of that, and does not rely on the respect paid or denied him by society. at the same time, he pleads for individual freedom and mutual respect (“if he has a moustache, do i look at him?”). One inal point to be mentioned here is his reference to the metal scene. erdem says: “i have lots of friends from the metal scene, who think like this,” thereby referring to traditional notions of honor and virginity. in fact, it is very hard to deinitively ind out how Turkish metalheads consider traditional concepts of morality relevant to their everyday lives on an individual basis. it would be pointless to extrapolate from the empirical data to the Turkish scene as a whole. although only one interviewee attached personal importance to namus in terms of sexual integrity and female virginity, it would be misleading to claim that traditional notions of morality no longer exist. concerning the results derived from participant observation, the terms “şeref” and “namus” were only used in connection with sarcastic or ironic comments, for instance, when swearing at other

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people or kidding with each other. Generally speaking, both terms did not appear to be relevant in terms of the need to adapt one’s life to their implications. erdem, as already mentioned, relates şeref to his personal achievements in connection with releasing two albums. Music as a source of dignity and selfrespect also appears in an interview with 20-year-old ali, a die-hard black metal listener and member of an istanbul black metal band called kaoskult: Well, şeref. Şeref and namus … everybody has his own şeref and namus. But virginity has nothing to do with honor. i don’t think so. There are people … there are girls, who are under pressure from their families, and they can’t have sex for the sake of virginity. and then, they are having anal sex. is this honor? Well, honor is in your soul. You’re a person of honor if you do what you believe in. i have honor for playing black metal. i live for that. This is my honor.

ali detaches şeref and namus from a sexual context and criticizes the social pressure on young women to protect their virginity.5 instead of referring to traditional notions of honor and shame, he attaches individual meaning to both terms, summarizing them as “honor.” Honor, according to Ali, not only relects what “is in your soul,” but also implies you should act according to “what you believe in.” With this in mind, we can say: şeref and namus relect what is sacred to him. accordingly, both terms assume meaning in a black metal context. as ali deines himself through black metal (“I live for that”), his personal notion of honor is bound to black metal (“i have honor for playing black metal”). This assumption is strengthened by an explanation of Bekam, the editor of izmir’s Headbangers magazine. Bekam is an active member of the Turkish communist Party (TkP). consequently, he chooses an example from the political context in order to explain the meaning of namus: That’s very hard. [laughs] i mean it depends on from which side you see it. Virginity, for example, is not important to me. how can i explain this? [pauses] i mean, you must not steal. You must not steal people’s work. i mean politically. if i work and the bourgeois class is gaining from that and i’m not gaining anything, they steal my work. They are namussuz [“without namus”]. and şeref ? i never thought about it. so, it’s hard to say. Şeref, namus [laughs].

Bekam applies a moral frame that is completely different from the rural contexts from which the concepts of honor and shame have emerged. Nevertheless, namus represents what is sacred to him: any behavior related to labor exploitation is considered shameful (“namussuz”). consequently, we can say that in this case, 5

in a separate interview, saro, a close friend of ali, reacted in a similar way: “and namus … how can i say? … You can use it in lots of meanings. For example, my girlfriend is not a virgin and people look at her like a bitch. i don’t think so. a girl can love someone, make love to him.”

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namus applies to revolutionary socialism in the same way as it applies to the female body or the ideal of sexual integrity. One inal explanation by Taylan Bilgiç, an aforementioned newspaper journalist and metalhead, further clariies the ambiguity and relevance of namus in present-day Turkish society: Namus. Namus is the country. [laughs] if someone’s really concerned about his honor, his namus, he has to be concerned about the situation of the country. Namus is not only about a woman, or a man, or a family. it is about the country. and they are trying to make this country into a whore! so that is what i understand about these terms. But, of course … namus and honor may take different meanings … namus is a feudal institution and it implies the protection of society from the ‘bad doings’ of the individual. On the other hand, it may itself result in bad things as well—all these honor killings, etc. But it protects the individual against outside things, outside problems. it is also an institution to protect the “good individual.” a form of social shield [laughs]. so, it has deep roots … namus … has many faces! as i said, it’s a protective shield of the society. and most importantly, namus has links with the land you live on, with the country you are living in. Your country is your namus. Your country is your honor. This has links with patriotism. When foreign corporations are coming and, you know, ruining the lands of Pergamon with their cyanide mining, this means that the namus of the land is gone! This is the people’s thinking and it’s a good thing. You see, it has many faces! You see it as a part of yourself, as a part of your life. Part of your life is your namus and you draw an area, you draw a red line against others. if they cross the line, they have violated your namus. and this concept, though you may mainly think of male-female relations, it applies to anything.

Taylan, as distinct from most interviewees, does not categorically reject the basic idea of namus. instead, he outlines its ambiguity and relevance by pointing to its different meanings in various contexts: he highlights its rural (“feudal”) roots, thereby referring to its positive and negative effects, and points to its patriotic connotation in connection with protecting the country against foreign interests. accordingly, being unable to protect the land from international mining companies, which are “ruining the lands of Pergamon with their cyanide mining,” has to be seen as a matter of deilement and shame. If “namus is the country,” any desecration of its sovereignty is equivalent to a loss of dignity and self-respect. Taylan concludes that namus “has many faces” and ultimately “applies to anything.” consequently, the idea of honor can be equally related to “things” such as gender relations, political concepts, solidarity within a trade union, allegiance

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to a football club, or—as in the case of ali and erdem—to metal music.6 Taylan’s remark on the imaginary “red line” shows further importance, delineating the realm of the sacred (that is, the realm of namus/honor) from that of the profane. considering this, we may conclude that the concepts of honor and shame can be applied within manifold contexts, therein assuming different meanings. although the meanings of şeref and namus are dynamically changing, depending on individual and social settings, they appear to always be related to what is individually considered sacred in one’s life. To sum up, one of the key indings of the present chapter, so far, is that the interviewed metalheads unanimously reject and individually redeine the moral implications of the honor/shame dichotomy. Meanings of honor relating to gender and sexuality were largely criticized and verbally opposed. This, however, does not yet shed light on how metalheads relate to gender in everyday life. One could still claim that what they say does not necessarily correspond with what they do. so, how are gender relations structured within Turkish metal? Do men and women equally participate in the scene? are patriarchal gender roles being rejected, or reproduced?

Women in Metal? “Women in heavy metal? No way! That’s it! That’s what i’m saying! Female metalheads? That’s impossible!!!,” Yasemin echoes a common cliché before bursting into cheerful laughter “That’s a lie, of course,” she resumes, “but men are very serious when saying that. really! it’s like all women are [seen as] sexual objects anyway. No one can deny that … [but] this doesn’t sound right to me. For me as a woman, this does not sound right!” Female presence in Turkish metal is evident, and women don’t do metal any differently from men. They listen to the music, dress in black, have long hair down to their waists, go out to bars, drink beer, have fun, and talk about the latest record releases. Yet, it is also evident that patriarchal norms continue to persist. Doing metal, in many ways, corresponds to prevalent concepts of masculinity in Turkish society. The public performance of anger, aggression, passion, and emotion during concerts, or simply the habit of drinking, smoking, or behaving extrovertedly is still labeled as typically masculine and contrasting with femininity. accordingly, many men in the scene, though they do not seem to regard metal as an exclusively male space, doubt women’s capabilities of really “being metal.” Women are commonly depicted as naïve, uninformed, not dedicated enough, and as only participating in the scene out of fancying the guys. authenticity and commitment are important criteria for being socially accepted—not only for 6 in a different extract from the same interview, which is not presented here, Taylan uses solidarity amongst workers organized in a trade union, as well as allegiance to a football club, as further examples to illustrate the complexity of the subject.

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women, but also for men. For women, however, it appears to be more dificult to be respected, and not to be seen as a “sexual object.” seyda, another female metalhead from istanbul, puts it in the following way: “if you want to gain men’s respect, you have to prove yourself … You really need to be well informed [about metal], you need to be able to have a say, and not to behave like the silly little girl, dressed in black and trying to be part [of the scene].” statements like this underscore Weinstein’s above-cited assumption that women who join the scene “must do so on male terms.” But why would women need to be respected by men anyway? are they prevented from doing metal by male dominance? The scene and its infrastructure are in fact male-dominated—most musicians are men, most concert organizers are men, all sound engineers and shop owners appear to be men, and only few women make a regular appearance as fanzine writers or radio hosts. it is hard for women to establish themselves within this male-dominated environment. Female artists, to a large extent, have to rely on men to organize gigs or get their releases reviewed in fanzines. in that context, several women i talked to complained about not been taken seriously or experiencing uninvited sexual advances. Women in Turkish metal are, however, not as suppressed and subordinate as it might seem from the above-mentioned examples. Based on a series of interviews with young women, along with a long phase of participant observation, i would rather argue that women appeared to be well integrated and self-conident. When asking Yasemin, who previously had complained about sexism within the scene, whether she felt suppressed or bothered by men, she was quick to reply: “certainly not!” Further on, she explained that most of her friends were men and that she felt well accepted. at another stage of the interview, she stressed the female presence in metal: You know I have at least ive [female] friends who are die-hard listeners. When we sit together, when we come together from time to time, we never stop talking about heavy metal and rock ‘n’ roll … and, you know, when we go to a bar, ive female friends, no man would approach our table. We headbang intensely, drink—no man would [dare to] approach us.

her description, on the one hand, illustrates the female presence in Turkish metal; on the other hand, it provides an example for women who draw a line between themselves and their male-dominated environment (“no man would approach our table”). They create their own female space within metal—even though, in that case, it is not completely detached from its social surrounding: the bar they sit in. The emergence of female spaces can also be observed in the form of an increasing number of all-female bands and projects (for instance, ancestry, Femme Fatale, İlkim Oulanem, Kırmızı, Sirannon, The Pigskins). In the end, it is hardly possible to draw a full and representative picture of gender relations within Turkish metal. certain patriarchal norms appear to persist, while others dissolve. Moreover, individuals behave quite differently from each other. What becomes

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clear, however, is that the traditional idea of socially and spatially separating the male from the female has increasingly become irrelevant. This inding brings us back to the present chapter’s key question.

Female Emancipation is metal contesting the dominant concepts of masculinity and femininity in Turkish society? Yes, it is, but in what ways, and is there a gender-speciic aspect to it? Female metalheads violate dominant concepts of morality, by, for instance, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, or hanging out in rock bars until late at night. in other words, they are appropriating particular social practices that originally had been reserved for men. Male metalheads, by the same token, are violating genderspeciic forms of behavior by, for instance, having long hair or wearing earrings. They appropriate allegedly non-masculine aesthetics and, therefore, represent an antithesis to what is considered socially appropriate male behavior. as a consequence, they are often teased for behaving “like a girl” or allegedly being gay. at the beginning of this chapter, i pointed out that a performance by the band Postmortem appeared to me as an act of resistance against dominant gender conventions. The same could be said about Kırmızı and their 2011 album İsyan (“Revolution”). The ive musicians cultivate an image of female power and strength that is equally inherent to their stage performances, album cover artwork, promotional photos, and video clips. The album cover, for instance, depicts Kırmızı’s vocalist İdil Çağatay surrounded by her bandmates, looking coldly and holding a blood-stained, nail-riddled red apple in her outstretched hands. The image obviously intends to convey a symbolic meaning. At irst glance, the bloodstained apple could be perceived as a bleeding heart ripped out of a human chest, and at second glance, as an allusion to the biblical story of eve, tempting adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In the latter case, however, İdil Çağatay rather plays the role of the deviously knowing female serpent than that of naïve eve. Though the Fruit of knowledge and its medieval adaptation in the form of a luscious apple ind no equivalent in Islamic traditions, its symbolic meaning is well known in Turkey as a part of global popular culture. Both interpretations, at any rate, convey an image of female strength and power. in the video clip to the song Çekilim Başımdan on the same album, the ive women present themselves in skintight, spike-studded black leather, showing off their tattoos, naval and facial piercings, and delivering an altogether pretty ierce performance. İdil Çağatay, this time, is involved in a “ight” with male guest star Hayko Çepkin, who responds to her aggressive but melodic vocals with some death metal-style growls. The performance, all in all, again supports the band’s tough and powerful image. regarding evidence of how women perform their gender identities within Turkish metal, it appears justiied to speak of metal as a means of female emancipation. Public reactions towards the young women’s behavior provide further evidence to this.

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Figure 6.1

The cover of Kırmızı’s İsyan album. reproduced with the kind permission of red rec

in the summer of 2009, i had the chance to meet with saba and elif from The Pigskins (formerly Postmortem). During the interview, i asked them to tell me about how people in their environment react towards their appearance and music. First of all, they referred to their families: Saba: It’s been very dificult for our mothers to get used to it. You know, they are very modern people, of course. Our families are not interested in islam, but they always wanted us to be more girlish. Pierre: What did they mean by “more girlish?” saba: When saying “more girlish” eh … What can i say? i don’t like wearing skirts at all. i love my jeans [pauses]. how can i explain? Once, i had no hair. i was completely bald, shaved. so, she wanted me to grow my hair again, and although I was absolutely against what she wanted, I inally grew my hair anyway. You know, now they like it a little bit more.

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elif: … You know, our compositions were more intense and harder than the usual female aesthetics—full of anger and hatred.

saba and elif’s explanations make clear that even within “modern families,” doing metal is perceived in contrast to prevalent concepts of gender and femininity. They are expected to behave “more girlish,” pretty themselves up (with skirts, long hair), and to not publicly show any personal hatred or anger. in addition to their parents, disapproval to their lifestyles also came from another direction: saba: [Once,] we had a very nice encounter in izmit … My head was completely bald-shaved. elif had piercings all over her body. We didn’t have tattoos these days. i was wearing a Morbid angel t-shirt and she had a Marilyn Manson t-shirt. When we were walking down the street, ive or six young men with prayer-beads in their hands approached us and were like “What’s that?!” … They got totally angry: “You are Muslim youths! how can this be?” We had an argument.

Figure 6.2

The Pigskins, death metal from izmit

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The young men apparently harassed the girls—who, back then, were still in their teens—because they considered the girls’ appearance un-islamic. The way saba (and elif) described the men marks them as islamic conservatives, who probably would not tolerate a Turkish woman being anything else but Muslim, and who should behave accordingly. The social pressure to adapt to Muslim majority society’s moral norms and values is high. saba and elif’s descriptions culminated in the following story: saba: They shot at our [rehearsal] studio twice—with guns. While we were inside. [pauses] Just people from the streets. They heard the music and they knocked at the door. i supposed they were friends, so i opened and i saw a man i didn’t know. and i just shut the door. and he knocked again, knocked again, knocked again. and when i opened, he said: “i want to listen. can i come in?” i said: “You can listen from there. There is no need to come in. We are rehearsing.” He said: “Okay.” And I shut the door. We played for ive minutes, maybe less than that. and there was a big bang. They were hitting the door with a crowbar or something. We were shocked, not knowing what happened. But they couldn’t open the door. so, they went. We were very scared. and then, they shot at the door and the windows of our studio and we lay down. and they went. [pauses] and there is a police station close to the studio. [pauses] and it didn’t stop yet … About ive months later, when we arrived at the studio one day, we found all doors wide open—we also didn’t play for three months, because we were afraid … everything in the studio was upside-down. and everywhere—i mean they really didn’t miss anything … They masturbated at our studio. all the loors were wet. It was disgusting. They broke into the studio and masturbated. We irst thought they had sex in there, but there was no clue for them having sex. It was disgusting. The drums all wet, the ampliiers all wet. The microphone, all wet. it needs ten people to do it. One person alone can’t do it. and after that, just two weeks after that, they burned it. Burned it! and we called the police … We wanted to ind the criminals. They looked at the walls. There were lyrics on the wall. There was a Turkish song from 90s heavy metal band Whisky—a Turkish band. and the song’s name is Yak Bizi [“burn us”], and they burned it. and the policeman saw the lyrics—yak bizi—and he said: “You burned your own studio. You are satanists. i can’t do anything for you.”

During my time in Turkey, i heard many stories of metalheads who had been insulted, harassed, and beaten up for their deviant appearance and behavior. Yet, this was the irst and only case involving the use of irearms and sexual harassment, or, phrasing it more strongly, gender hate crimes. Male metal bands are maybe confronted with verbal and sometimes even physical attacks, but deinitely not with a bunch of young men masturbating in their studio. This act of sexual deilement was deliberately directed against women. It possibly relects a mixture of sexual attraction and incapability of dealing with young, conident women who make aggressive music and “behave like men.” in the end, however, the series of

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attacks against Postmortem aimed at driving the band out of the neighborhood. The role of the police in the scenario is of further importance. although there was a police station in close range to the band’s rehearsal studio, policemen pretended to be unaware of what was going on. The shots during daytime went unheard and the investigating oficers even blamed the young women for setting the studio on ire themselves. The rationale behind that argument (“you are Satanists”) reveals the deep-seated stereotypes about metal in Turkey. The police not only denied assistance and protection to the victims, but, moreover, appeared to support the actions of the perpetrators by turning a blind eye to the events. In addition to the above-mentioned forms of deviance in gender-speciic behavior, it has been gender relations within the scene that have been publicly perceived as contesting traditional concepts of morality. Due to unconventional (and immoral) social intercourse between the sexes, metal has been frequently blamed for fostering premarital or extramarital relationships. Not only are both sexes freely meeting and mixing in the public sphere, but unmarried couples could be (sporadically) spotted walking hand in hand, hugging each other, or sharing kisses. Even though today, one can even ind Islamic cafés that accept and encourage the intermingling of men and women as morally appropriate—as outlined in Uğur Kömeçoğlu’s 2004 article New Sociabilities: Islamic Cafes in Istanbul—the situation in the 1980s and 1990s was considerably different. another comic strip from Aptülika’s Grup Perişan illustrates the various conlicts that arise from violating the line between the male and the female in the public sphere:

Figure 6.3

Comic strip from Aptülika’s Grup Perişan, Hıbır No. 27, 2 November 1989, p. 9. reproduced with the kind permission of Abdülkadir Elçioğlu.

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The cartoon depicts Mazhar and his girlfriend as they are kissing each other in a number of public places—in the middle of the street, on a park bench, and while taking a cab ride. But wherever they go, they meet trouble and are verbally insulted. aptülika even indicates that Mazhar was beaten up: when he returns to his home accompanied by his girlfriend, blood is dripping from his face, his eyes are swollen, and there is a bandage on his right cheek. again, aptülika uses particular visual codes in order to distinguish the characters in his cartoon. Due to his full beard, headgear, and a string of prayer beads in his hand—of which only three can clearly be seen—the man in the lower right-hand corner of the irst frame can easily be denoted as an Islamist. His calling the young couple “nonbelievers” and “inidels” further underscores this impression. The piously dressed woman on the left side of the picture looks deeply embarrassed and shocked as she raises a hand to her mouth. her style of headscarf and coat depicts her as belonging to the socially lower, uneducated, and traditional classes of Turkish society. The same applies to the two men in the upper right-hand corner. With their huge moustaches, they represent prototypes of an uneducated Turkish prole. Furthermore, their words reveal a nationalist connotation. The second frame shows a policeman and a taxi driver who are both harassing the young couple in their own ways. The inal picture depicts Mazhar and his girlfriend naked in bed together, thereby pointing to the behavioral and moral distinctions that are commonly made between the public and the private sphere. While an “innocent kiss” in public causes widespread moral concern, having sex in private goes unpunished. in other words, while the act of kissing each other in the public sphere comes as an open challenge to the moral standards of society and is possibly perceived as a threat to the very fabric of society, anything that happens in private is ignored, as it is not perceived as having the power to undermine social order and the established way of life.

chapter 7

Metal Matters

The visible presence of metal has been widely perceived as a threat to public order and morality in Turkish society. Accordingly, conlicts between metalheads and “normal” people had been commonplace, particularly in the early days of Turkish metal in the 1980s and 1990s. at that time, verbal and even physical insults could occur anytime, anyplace—when walking down the streets, using public transport, attending a cultural event, or sitting in front of a café or restaurant. although Turkish metalheads succeeded in claiming public spaces of their own, mainly in the form of bars and cafés, and some formerly deviant practices gradually became accepted—such as long hair on male movie actors or musicians—their lifestyles remain contested to this day. The present chapter revisits the public discourse over metal by focusing on different realms of conlict in everyday life, namely on the street, within the family, at work, in the nation, and in religion. This, once more, illustrates how metal assumes meaning in a Turkish context and, at the same time, provides a chance to investigate the biographical effects of being and doing metal.

Street in order to illustrate the various ways in which young rockers and metalheads were confronted in everyday life, i will use interview narratives along with a comic strip of Aptülika’s Grup Perişan. Not only is Aptülika’s work outstanding for depicting real-life situations in an exaggerated, satirical, and funny way, but he also provides astute and subtle insight into social and moral issues of the times. The following cartoon shows one of the countless occasions in which Mazhar, aptülika’s rocker hero (here, together with one of his punk rock friends), is being beaten up by two rude-looking prototypes of Turkish machos: Aptülika attaches meaning to his cartoons by using speciic visual features that can be easily decoded and understood by his readers. anybody who is familiar with a Turkish context is most likely to classify the different characters of the above-pictured Grup Perişan comic strip according to similar social, political, and religious categories. The visual codes used by aptülika thereby not only give information on the characters’ social, political, and religious attitudes, but also help to maintain the line between Turkish rockers and metalheads and their social surroundings. In the irst picture of the cited Grup Perişan strip, we see Mazhar and one of his punk rock friends walking down the streets with their hands buried deep in their pockets. Both have clean-shaven faces and wear military boots and torn jeans.

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Comic strip from Aptülika’s Grup Perişan, Hıbır, No. 69, 23 July 1990, p. 9. Reproduced with kind permission of Abdülkadir Elçioğlu.

While Mahzar, with his long hair and skull print T-shirt, can be clearly denoted as a metalhead, his punk rock friend relies on a series of different visual codes like a spike stud wristband, a leather jacket, a Dead kennedys T-shirt,1 a chain bracelet, two safety pins—one attached to his jacket, the other one pierced through his right ear—and a fanned Mohawk. The two middle-aged men in the same picture consider the young rockers’ appearance incompatible with “Turkish traditions,” and sanction their behavior by beating them up. in terms of visual appearance, they represent the very antithesis of Mazhar and his friend. While the two young rockers, from a traditional point of view, make a strong impression with decisively non-masculine or even feminine aesthetics (clean-shaven, long-haired), their two co-characters are bursting with masculinity. unshaven and scarred faces, enormous moustaches and eyebrows, a shirt unbuttoned to reveal loads of chest hair, and a pair of prayer beads in their hands2 are visual demonstrations of masculinity that correspond to traditional notions of gender identity and, at the same time, are mocked by the artist. For the young readers of Grup Perişan, Aptülika’s hyper-masculine cartoon characters must have come across as laughable stereotypes, evoking associations with traditionalism and ignorance. Not only are the two characters portrayed as 1 Dead kennedys was a us-american hardcore punk band that formed in the late 1970s. since then, the Dk logo has become an international punk rock icon. 2 The wearing of prayer beads (tesbih) is usually coded as male, and therefore has to be regarded as an indicator of masculinity rather than a symbol of religious devotion.

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violently brutal and incapable of understanding the meaning of rock and metal culture, but they are furthermore depicted as uneducated and dumb: their lack of education is indicated by their crude and grammatically incorrect language, and their ignorance in being unaware of their own state of “westernization.” Despite blaming the rockers for deviating from Turkish traditions, they are themselves wearing american levi’s T-shirts, and plan to join in a local halloween celebration. The rockers, as portrayed by aptülika, are contesting traditional concepts of morality by not adapting their behavior to traditional gender-speciic patterns. They are violating the line between the male and the female, thereby challenging prevalent concepts of masculinity and femininity in Turkish society. adding to aptülika’s visual depictions, the following interview excerpts give an impression of how metalheads experienced the situation in the 1980s and early 1990s: Özer: In the early 1980s … [pauses] You know, it was a bit dificult, because this is a volatile country. as you know, people react to people like us. here [in Turkey], it is still massive. In the early days, we were constantly ighting, constantly involved into clashes with other people. [pauses] We used to walk around as a group and got involved in ights many times. You know, someone made a remark, asking for trouble. On our way from Tünel to Taksim [a distance of approx. 1.5 km], we were quarrelling, ighting in ten, maybe ifteen different places. That’s how bad it was. [laughs] engin: if you had long hair ten years ago, people behaved towards you in a very conservative way. They called you gay, because you had long hair … For example, when walking down the road, two guys stopped and asked me: “What kind of guy are you? Why do you have long hair? Don’t you have a family?” These kinds of things. and they said: “You know, you’re a son of a bitch!” i got pissed off and said: “Why?” “You have long hair! You are not a man! You are gay! You are against Turkish traditions!” They said that, and one of them tried to hit me, actually. And … we had a ight.

Both statements underscore what aptülika has already depicted in his comic strips: physical insults against metalheads, as a means to sanction their deviant behavior, occurred on a common basis. as can be inferred from Özer’s words, Turkish metalheads drew intense reactions from their social surroundings. he also says this in explaining how he and his friends were constantly getting involved in “ighting” and “clashes with other people.” Admittedly, the fact of getting involved in physical disputes does not yet tell anything about who initiated the ight or, more precisely, about the social mechanisms that triggered the ight. Engin’s description tells us more about the process of conlict: due to his long hair, two strangers denounced him as being gay and acting against Turkish traditions. Faced with such an affront against his personal integrity and manliness, he had no option but to react, thus getting involved in a physical confrontation. This behavioral logic becomes even clearer in the following statement:

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The verbal insult “look at that fag,” is a challenge to Turkish masculine identity. The speaker transgresses an imaginary red line that marks the realm of personal integrity and honor (namus). Taylan had to respond and defend this line, as he did not want to lose his self-respect, dignity, and prestige (şeref ). in doing so, he was fully aware of and willing to bear the (physical) consequences of his violent reaction. in addition to the already outlined myriad of verbal and physical insults, there is also another dimension to being metal in everyday life, as Yavuz explains: in this era … we were very popular. We were like the … There is a religion over there and we were the practitioners of it, the true practitioners of it, and we were like the clergymen! [laughs] having all this hair, having all these earrings and piercings i was one of the clergymen! and we were considered to be like holy, you now. like these younger kids come and say: “Oh!” i mean, you could see the admiration in their eyes, because they want to grow their hair long, and they can’t do it … Girls were [also] liking us … i mean, to have long hair, to listen to this music was a trademark, was a point for you … Girls would go out with no one, but with the rockers. We were popular. in the university, in the campus, in the shopping streets, while walking on the streets, we were popular for the girls, but the enemies for the others. The dudes. The girls would like us, and these guys get more angry, angrier and angrier … because we were looking like a girl, but fucking the girls! [laughs] … i mean, i’m just being ironic here. These guys just couldn’t understand this point: “Why are those weird-looking guys so very popular? Why aren’t we?” [laughs]

Yavuz describes the positive and negative aspects of being “popular.” The rockers drew the admiration and respect of young high school kids as if they were the “true” followers of a new “religion.” With their long hair, leather jackets, earrings, and boots, they, moreover, introduced a new aesthetic of masculinity that apparently appealed to many young girls. Being a rocker, according to the abovequoted narrative, effectively increased a man’s sexual attractiveness. at the same time, however, it also provoked the anger of other young men, who begrudged the “weird-looking guys” their success with women. The new aesthetic turned traditional gender conceptions upside down (“we were looking like a girl, but fucking the girls!”) and apparently confused and intimidated many people. Yavuz sums up:

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it was, as i said, lovely in the group, splendidly lovely among the community, but it was like hell outside the community. it was like you are seen as the other. When you get into a dolmuş [minibus] … people are just looking in a very weird fashion at you. They see you as like the total alien: “Who is he? Where does he come from? is he Turkish or not?” You know, you have some problems with your nationality, because they couldn’t even believe that you are Turkish. Because Turkish in their frame of mind is something like well-identiied, welldeined, well-described, well-portrayed kind of igure. But you are with long hair, with different moustaches. The way of appearance was not typical Turkish to them. so, that confused them a lot! That confused them. They were confused! so, sometimes this confusion made them act in a strange way, in a violent way. sometimes this made them to act in a shy way. They were shy about you! They couldn’t look into your eyes while talking to you. [laughs]

The text describes the hostile environment Turkish metalheads were confronted with in everyday life. Besides this, it once more addresses aspects of national identity. The young rockers and metalheads did not it into the allegedly “welldeined” image of Turkishness. A “real” Turk was expected to behave differently or, more abstractly speaking, metal is perceived as a negative relection of what is assumed to represent Turkishness. On a inal note, it has to be pointed out that the presence of metal apparently also generated confusion and fear. People, as described by Yavuz, appeared to be scared by the young rockers’ and metalheads’ behavior (“they were shy,” “they couldn’t look into your eyes”). The metalheads’ deviant appearance apparently gave them the power to confuse and, to a certain degree, intimidate the Turkish public.

Family Another realm of conlict is the family. It would be wrong, however, to assume that parents rejected their children’s love for metal in general. indeed, many metalheads grew up in families with a secular background in which, for example, drinking alcohol or listening to rock music was not uncommon. Parental reactions depend very much on a person’s particular social background, as well on as the social environment in which they live. in other words, most parents want their children to behave in a socially desirable way, either in order to save them from getting into trouble, or prevent them from bringing shame upon the family. Batu of the grindcore band cenotaph, for instance, recalls that his parents were pretty tolerant, since they were convinced that “this phase will pass.” Nevertheless, his father constantly bothered him by saying: “When will you cut your hair? You look like a girl! everybody’s looking at you!” his reaction is indeed characteristic for how metal is perceived by many families. First of all, being metal is regarded as something temporary (“this phase will pass”) that need not be taken seriously. accordingly, the reaction could be also denoted as disrespect for metalheads’ way

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of life. Besides, Batu’s father opposed his son’s long hair, as it not only contradicts traditional concepts of gender identity (“you look like a girl”), but also draws attention and disapproval from society (“everybody’s looking at you”). a rather ambiguous parental reaction is described by levent. at the time of the interview, he was 33 years old and had long, bleached blonde hair as well as tattoos and piercings all over his body: anyway, when i was a teenager, i was really getting into rock ‘n’ roll. i was like the rock ’n’ roll kid of the family, you know. everyone liked it, but when i turned sixteen, problems began. Because when i was younger, they thought it’s only a period of my life and i will pass it like all the kids, you know. But i didn’t pass it. i couldn’t pass it. i was really into that. it wasn’t something removable in my life … My parents used to bring me clothes, rock ‘n’ roll and punk style clothes from Switzerland. It was very hard to ind in Turkey. So, my parents used to bring me torn jeans and t-shirts, you know. They liked it on me. That’s something strange. They hated it, but they kept bringing me this stuff, you know. like cassettes, you know … so, they didn’t like it, but they supported me all the time. i never really had big fucking problems about it, ‘cause they didn’t want to tell me anything about it. But they were afraid of the neighbors. You know, they talked too badly about me. Gossip, you know … [Once i went to] the hairdresser and had a more different style. My father, when he saw that, he got like completely red-faced and got angry and: “shave it all!” it happened like ten times. i used to dye my hair red. coming home my mother passed out and said: “Change it! Change that color!” Just like that, you know. and so they accepted it. They did respect it after a while, because everyone said like: “When he turns sixteen, he’ll forget about it and he’s gonna have a normal life.” When i got sixteen, they were like: “When you get eighteen you’re gonna forget this. it’s gonna pass. You’re gonna laugh about it.” i got eighteen and twenty and so on.

levent was born in switzerland, where he spent his early childhood together with his family. after returning to Turkey, his father kept providing him with rock albums, video clips, and clothes, which were not available on the Turkish market. levent’s father supported his son’s love for rock music, for he himself used to listen to rock ‘n’ roll and adored, for example, elvis Presley. after a certain age, however, his family’s initial appreciation turned into skepticism and critique. as in the case of Batu, levent’s parents regarded his appearance and behavior as a temporary phase that would pass as soon as he reached adulthood. Yet, for him it shaped his self-perception and identity (“i couldn’t pass it. i was really into that. it wasn’t something removable in my life”). Although his appearance caused conlict with his parents, as they were, for example, afraid of their neighbors’ reactions, his father and mother went on supporting him and seemed to accept his individual way of life. levent’s words provide an example of the ambivalence of opposition

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and support that often characterizes the relationship between metalheads and their families. Family conlicts would not only erupt over long hair, especially amongst women. Going out at night, visiting rock bars, and meeting with male friends could easily damage a woman’s reputation and bring shame upon the family. Consequently, young women often ind it hard to gain the conidence and support of their parents. The following quotation is taken from an interview with 24-yearold Yasemin. at the time of the interview, she worked as a saleswoman in the Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı), one of istanbul’s main tourist attractions. since she was a half-orphan, she lived with her mother and one of her older sisters in a working-class neighborhood near Bakırköy. Her social background could be described as secular working class. Yasemin had worked several different jobs before and showed pride in being independent from her family’s money. she had been actively participating in istanbul’s metal scene for almost a decade and, over weekends, was a regular visitor to caravan and Dorock. Yasemin describes how she dealt with her family’s concerns: i still love alcohol very much, but as it harms my stomach i don’t drink. i got some stomach problems, where i feel slightly ill. i don’t drink more than two or three [beers]. My family was blaming me for that [for drinking too much alcohol]. i experienced quite some problems with my family, because they were afraid i would take drugs. although i didn’t, they were very afraid. But i proved it to them. They know, they learned that i don’t do it [that is, take drugs]. i still listen [to metal music]. They don’t say anything about it … [since] i am standing on my own feet. so there is nothing they could say. They don’t say anything against the music that i am listening to. i sometimes even go to concerts together with my uncle. What can i say? My mother listens to the same music.

What becomes clear is that her family did not have moral concerns about metal or alcohol in itself. instead, they were worried about an excessive, healthdamaging consumption of alcohol and the danger of drug abuse. These were the boundaries she was not supposed to transgress. indeed, she had to negotiate her personal freedoms and to “prove” that she was not doing anything wrong. With regards to that, she could rely on a basic level of understanding; as she mentioned, she went to concerts together with her uncle, and even her mother likes rock music. Though her mother might appear conservative, as she wears a headscarf in public, she reportedly loves alice cooper and used to listen to rock music when she was young. accordingly, the moral controversies over metal can neither be simply read as an intergenerational (mother versus daughter) nor as a class conlict (working class versus upper-middle class). The inal interview excerpt within this section leads us from the realm of family to the realm of work. engin tells about his family’s reaction to his long hair. at the time of the interview, he was about 30 years old and had long hair reaching down to his buttocks:

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My mum also didn’t accept my long hair. it took her very, very long to accept me with my long hair. even though we were living together, me and my mum. But over time, she got used to it. The Turkish community did not get used to long hair, but it is much more okay now than it was before … When i started to grow my hair long, i had the possibility to start working in our company. When my father died, we had our own company. My older brother told me: “look engin, if you want to join the company,” which remains from our father, “you have to cut your hair! Otherwise,” he said, “don’t come!” he was right. i’m not blaming him, because we were selling truck parts and in that job you are dealing with lorry drivers, truck drivers—the conservative and easy type of people, let’s say. so at that time, you could not work easily with truck drivers and have long hair. They would deinitely get pissed off. So, I’m not blaming him, but i chose to have long hair in order to … You know, i chose to be free. That’s why long hair means something to me. My freedom, let’s say.

in contrast to the previous interviews with levent and Yasemin, engin could not rely on his family’s understanding. instead, he had to bear the consequences of opting for having long hair, and search for a job outside the family business. in his brother’s rejection of him working in the company, the boundary between the private realm—in which long hair might still be tolerable—and the public realm of work, becomes clearly visible. Finally, he speaks of the symbolic meaning of long hair: by not cutting his hair, he “chose to be free.” This brings us back to the general inding that social practices assume different meanings in different social contexts. While in a traditional context, long hair is regarded as an epitome of femininity or—in connection with men, homosexuality—in a metal context it functions as a sign of individual freedom.

Work After inishing university, Engin found a job in the media. Since then, he has been working for a number of Turkish daily newspapers as journalist and online editor. he describes his situation on the job: Well, thank God i’m working in the media. in the media, people are much wiser and open-minded—not all of them, of course. But in the media, there are a lot of guys like me. so, it’s okay for me. i mean my friends, especially my colleagues, accept me as i am. i started in Radikal newspaper, which is quite open-minded. so, i was normal for them, and i was not the only one who had long hair. a lot of long-haired guys were working there. But you know it’s like a minority club …

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look, it happened to me that ufuk Güldemir, who was editor-in-chief of Sabah newspaper, told me: “look, if you want to keep on with your job in Sabah, you have to cut your hair, because i’m going to send you with some businessmen to south america.” i said: “look, this is me, and i will not cut my hair by order!” he said: “Okay, that’s your problem!” i quit my job at Sabah. This is one of the important things. But in Hürriyet … i didn’t feel so much pressure.

While working for Sabah, he decided to quit his job instead of giving in to his boss’s demand to cut his hair to take on a job in south america. in the media, Engin inally found a niche to work without having to cut his hair. Although he feels accepted by his colleagues, he calls it a “minority club” and admits that his long hair minimizes his chances for promotion.3 engin proceeds: The media is much more open-minded, but i could never work, for example, for a bank or one of the big companies. i could never work for them. in the media, i’m doing okay, but in the big companies i know that it is impossible for me to work because of my long hair. For example, nobody thinks that i’m a believer. With long hair, most people think that you are an atheist. You are an atheist, because you have long hair and you are living this heavy metal lifestyle, let’s say.

again, he describes the media as a space that is more “open-minded” and tolerant than other realms of society. Moreover, he is convinced that he would not be accepted at “a bank or one of the big companies.” he further explains this in the inal paragraph by addressing the meaning conveyed by long hair. Accordingly, long hair is perceived as a sign of atheism and religious disbelief. Further on, it is associated with what he calls the “heavy metal lifestyle.” in a nutshell, long hair has a strongly negative connotation that goes even beyond the transgression of traditional gender identities. referring to the entirety of interviews for the present study, Turkish metalheads, insofar as they were neither unemployed nor students, worked a variety of jobs—as salespeople, engineers, real-estate agents, product and graphic designers, journalists, barkeepers, waiters, airport and bank employees, writers, shoemakers, translators, musicians, school and language teachers, holiday reps, security guards, and architects. To ind a job and make a living is an essential part of life and, therefore, hardly avoidable. The realm of work, however, represents a ield of constant negotiation, for it sooner or later confronts the individual with the question of how to deal with job-related demands on personal appearance and behavior—demands that contradict the cultural codes of metal. certain aesthetics, such as displaying tattoos and piercings, having long hair, or wearing a different style of beard are often critical issues when it comes to applying for and working 3

in a section of the interview not quoted here.

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at a job. Though a considerable number of the male metalheads working at regular jobs kept their hair long, almost everybody appeared to make certain concessions concerning his or her bodily appearance at work. Yasemin explains: six out of seven days a week i wear white, not black. i mean, i have to wear colorful clothes [at my job]. Whenever I wear black—let’s say for ive days I have been wearing white and the sixth day i am wearing black—they are like: “ah, here comes the satanist.” Because they know what kind of music i listen to. They understand that, because i am neither a clubber nor a hip-hopper. My style is clear. My hair is still long—i mean, not like the hair of a modern girl with a layered haircut. at least from my shoelaces or whatever—from the rings that I wear, they can igure out. That is why there are still people who are meowing [like a cat] behind my back.

Yasemin chooses to forego wearing black clothes at work all week. On the one hand, she is obliged to do so by her boss, and on the other hand, she does not like being bothered and mocked by her colleagues (“here comes the satanist”). in other words, her identity is being contested. Nevertheless, she keeps to certain codes concerning, for example, the rings she wears or her hairstyle, which do not correspond with the latest fashion. For men to dress in a way that fulils the expectations and regulations of their employers is often dificult. As already mentioned by engin, tolerance toward, for instance, long hair is low, and those who try and insist on their long hair face dificulties and disadvantages. Maksim works as an engineer in the Turkish textile industry. he describes the problems he has faced due to his long hair, beginning with the job interview, to situations dealing with small manufacturers. Over the past couple of years, he had been employed by several major textile companies: it begins with the job interview, actually. You are sending a cV with a picture on it. But … in the picture you can’t see that i have long hair [that is, it is tied back behind his head]. and in the picture i don’t have the beard as well. You understand? When i go to the interview, they see that: “Oh, no! he has almost one meter of long hair! What does it mean?” … They think like: “he’s not the person that we are looking for, because he has long hair, he has a beard like this … he doesn’t look like an engineer. he doesn’t look like a person that can concentrate on the job.” These are the irst impressions that they have in their mind, actually. In my irst company, I didn’t face too many problems, because I was working in the ofice … But in my second job, I was getting in touch with the manufacturers …and they think you’re a crazy guy with long hair, beard—like a small guy [in the hierarchy of the company]. But as soon as you start to shout a little bit … they are shocked … You need to be strong and you need to be very careful and you

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need to show that you’re a professional. Because we have some disadvantages because of our appearance: we have beards, we have long hair, we do not think like them. We are totally different guys!

The hurdles to being accepted and getting the chance to establish oneself at a regular job without adapting to dominant (dress) codes and norms are high. and even those who make it into a Turkish company without cutting their hair “need to be strong,” “very careful,” and “professional” in order to earn and secure the respect of their employers and colleagues. They constantly have to prove themselves against prejudices and stigmatization and, in doing so, have to work harder than the rest and avoid making mistakes in order to not allow the people in their surroundings to feel vindicated in their prejudices. Within this, they frequently develop a feeling of being “totally different.” The experience of feeling different and being perceived as different has been repeated over and over again during conversations and interviews. Developing an awareness of difference may, on the one hand, strengthen the bonds among metalheads; on the other hand, it causes individual stress and dificulties in coping with the situation of “being different.” This is illustrated through a narrative by erdem of punk metal band Nitro. after years of working as a freelance translator and concert promoter, erdem was offered a regular job at a major insurance company. in expectation of greater inancial security and independence, he joined the company’s trainee program and inally began working at the new job. For that purpose, he was also ready to adapt to the required dress code—to cut his hair, shave off his beard, and wear a suit and tie. Yet, after a few months in the company, he decided to quit. he explained his decision by being unable to identify with the company’s corporate philosophy (“the life insurance thing is a lie”) and by a strong feeling of constraint—caused by a working six-day week, long hours, certain behavioral expectations, a desire for greater individual freedom (“i don’t want to be a slave”), and—maybe most importantly—the experience of being different. he illustrated this by sharing an episode from his working life. His former colleagues all used to have lowers or framed photographs of their loved ones on their tables. Yet, his own desk was decorated with a picture showing him together with Soully vocalist Max Cavalera. While the picture represented something sacred to him, he was met with total incomprehension and irritation by his colleagues. They simply could not imagine why he would place a photograph of this odd and unkempt “scum” in his ofice. A few days after quitting his job, he met one of his former colleagues in the streets, this time wearing what erdem calls his “normal” clothes—a T-shirt of irish punk metal band Therapy?, and worn-out jeans and sneakers. his colleague, who only knew him wearing a suit and tie, appeared to be shocked and asked: “What’s that?!” erdem simply replied: “That’s my real life.” since then, he restarted working as a concert promoter with an uncertain income and no job security.

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Nation as already illustrated in connection with aptülika’s comic strips, metal was widely perceived as contradictory to Turkish national identity. Particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when metal was still relatively new and Pan-Turkish ideas were on the rise, metalheads were frequently involved in clashes with ultranationalist and fascist groups. a major controversy over metal and nationalism was sparked by a concert of the German thrash metal band sodom in istanbul in 1992. Only days before the concert, local newspapers had published (baseless) reports that blamed sodom for being a fascist, outspokenly anti-Turkish band.4 consequently, Turkish metalheads were perceived as being against the Turkish nation, and nationalist groups were called to forcibly prevent the concert. Maksim recalls the event: There had been too many ights! One day, it was 1993 as far as I know. 1992 or 1993, i can’t remember very well. sodom was planned to play here together with Pungent Stench … The concert was planned to take place in Bostancı Gösteri Merkezi on the Asian side [of Istanbul]. We came together in the Bakırköy centre. We were around 25 people. We just took the sea bus … [and] went to the Bostancı port. There—it was so strange—the MHP guys were waiting for us.5 Too many! Too many of those guys! The fascists! They were waiting for us with sticks in their hands. Somehow, some friends called the Kadıköy Crew, the Kadıköy guys [the Kadıköy metalheads] and said: “Let’s join together! We should be altogether, because the MhP guys are here!” somehow, they didn’t touch us, because we were too many. We went to the festival area. Pungent stench started. They played very well. When sodom was about to start their show, we heard news that outside the concert area a huge crowd of MhP guys was gathering. When i looked outside, i saw maybe thousands of people with sticks in their hands. at that time, the police came in and told us to sit down inside of the concert area. We were around 4,000, 5,000 people—only metalheads! There would be a huge ight! There would be a huge ight. Deinitely, there would be a huge ight!

in telling the story of the sodom concert, Maksim stresses the solidarity among istanbul’s metalheads. Despite sporadic rivalries between, for instance, the “crews” of Bakırköy and Kadıköy,6 metalheads were standing together against the “MhP guys.” in another act of solidarity, as Maksim proceeds to relate, younger 4

sodom, in order to demonstrate that they were not anti-Turkish fascists, went on stage with a Turkish lag. 5 The MHP is an ultranationalist political party founded by Alparslan Türkeş. 6 Turkish metalheads use the word tayfa (“crew”) in order to refer to different local scenes like, for instance, Kadıköy Tayfası or Bakırköy Tayfası—the Kadıköy Crew and the Bakırköy Crew.

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metalheads like him were taken into the middle of the group in order to protect them from attacks by the fascists. events like this created an awareness of self and others and strengthened the feeling of community within the scene. The story, however, continues: Somehow the police protected us. They made a big corridor from Bostancı Gösteri Merkezi to the port area. Two lines! Too many police! Maybe 2,000. Maybe more than that. and just behind the police the MhP guys armed with sticks. it was really a strange thing!

The depicted situation reveals a high potential for violence, to the extent that even a major police force had to be sent in to prevent a riot between ultranationalists and metalheads. From a nationalist perspective, metal was considered a product of westernization that caused alienation of Turkish youth from their own culture.

Religion Public discourse has often depicted metal as contradictory to islam. Media reports on satanism, atheism, and immoral, anti-islamic behavior have never stopped completely. aside from media-incited moral panics, Turkish metal is indeed a secular culture that opposes islamization of the public sphere, as fostered by the Muslim conservative government (hecker 2011: 61–3). Turkish metalheads, in interviews and conversations for the present study, usually displayed a vehement antipathy toward government policies of increasingly limiting the consumption of alcohol, preventing the public display of nudity, fostering the re-emergence of headscarves at university campuses, or hampering the teaching of evolutionary theory in the classroom. Just mentioning the name of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or President Abdullah Gül commonly provoked intense swearing from my counterparts. This, however, does not mean that Turkish metalheads are necessarily anti-islamic. What became apparent during my research is that Turkish metalheads all showed individualized notions of religiosity and Muslimness. This became evident, for instance, in an interview with ankara death metal band cidesphere. Questioned about their personal beliefs, the musicians replied: Oral: i believe in God. i’m a Muslim. it makes me better. i believe in religion. Pierre: can you elaborate a bit on what it means to believe in God and be a Muslim? Oral: i’m not a hard believer, but i think you need to be a good person. i believe in all religions, whether it’s Christianity or Islam or Judaism. It’s not important. if it makes people have a good character and behave well, if it makes them good people, religion is necessary, i think. For example, i don’t support the

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Turkish Metal sacriicing [of animals] on the religious days of Islam.7 i don’t support this … The important thing is to be a good person. Başar: I don’t believe in God … And I don’t think there’s any need to believe in something or someone—except in myself. Taylan: i just believe in a creator. so, religion doesn’t matter. i just believe in God or something like that. You know, it’s deism. so, it’s just like this, and it doesn’t matter. i don’t make a difference between people who are atheist or who believe in God.

The text reveals three distinct individual positions of religious belief that are characteristic for the metal scene as a whole—secular (Oral), atheist (Başar), and deist (Taylan). “secular” means that the interviewees, though they emphasized their Muslim identity, do not attach much relevance to daily religious routines. in fact, many of them behave rather indifferently toward religious practices and provisions in everyday life—for instance, they do not conduct ritual prayers, do not abstain from alcohol, or, in the case of women, they reject wearing the islamic headscarf. Generally speaking, the commitment to adhere to a strictly islamic code of living is low. however, they may reject having tattoos, keeping to islamic dietary rules, or for example fasting during the holy month of ramadan, praying or going to the mosque from time to time. Yet, religious practices are subject to individual variation. in summary, the group of secular Muslim metalheads can be described as following an individualized interpretation of islam, including being tolerant toward other religions, and supportive of the idea of a secular state and society. The following interview excerpts further illustrate this position: engin: i believe in God. i have a belief. You know, i am Muslim. i believe in religion. i mean, not in the way i’ve been raised. it’s a way that i choose. i mean, i believe in God, and i believe that religion is the path, but it’s also just one way. and it’s a personal thing, i believe. i mean, nothing more. i believe, and it’s just an interest. For example, nobody thinks that i’m a believer. especially with long hair, it’s very odd for Turkish people. Most people think that you are an atheist. at least, you are an atheist, because you have long hair and you are living this heavy metal lifestyle, let’s say. What else? i mean religion doesn’t take a huge part in my life … What i’m trying to do, is be a good person. … This is one of the main things of religion, i mean.

7 He refers to the annual Festival of Sacriice, which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The ceremony involves the ritual slaughter of animals, preferably a sheep or a lamb.

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Bahadır: Religion … I think everybody has got his own religion and I got mine … i believe in God, but i’m not a religious guy. everybody’s got his own beliefs and no one should question another’s belief … i consider myself as Muslim. i believe in the holy Book, but i don’t think that religion should be standard for everybody.

in addition to secular notions of Muslim-ness, deist notions of religiosity are being expressed. The deist position can be described as the belief in a universal creator or God, which is often combined with a clear rejection of religious ideology. religion is mostly perceived as suppressive, irrational, dogmatic, and divisive in terms of separating human beings from each other by drawing sectarian and confessional lines. Turkish metalheads expressed the idea in the following ways: Taurnas: We believe in a creator, but we don’t believe in religions. erdem: [referring to religion:] it’s a lie! as i said before, it’s a swearing at God. i believe in God, but not in religion. Maybe it was important in the old ages, but now it’s worthless. it’s not worth anything. Because most of the things written in the holy books are lies.

Both interviewees draw a clear line between God and religion. in the second quotation, religion is connoted negatively, in being described as a lie and an insult against God (“swearing at God”). in addition to containing very personal statements, the next example provides at least some information as to the role of religion within the family. it is extracted from an interview with one of the few metalheads from a christian background on the Turkish scene: Maksim: Before high school, before college, i was a really religious guy. i believed in christ, and i was a very strong christian. i was pushing my father and mother to go to church each sunday. But it’s so strange: my mother and my father, they are real communists! My father is a real communist. he says: “Why are we going to church? To hold his balls? [laughs] he’s a crazy guy. he’s a funny guy. But they never pushed me to be like that … But in high school i learned too many problematic things about religion. i mean … The problem is that they are using religion for political purposes, and … i started to realize: Okay. christ is a big philosopher. he’s a good man. he wanted all people to be as good as possible … i started to think like that. Then, in university, i was an atheist. i started not to believe in God as well. But some years passed and right now, i’m a deist … i believe in a power, but i can’t name it God. i believe in a power … May be it’s a god … let’s say i believe in God, but i don’t believe in religions.

an atheist family background and a father with a tendency towards blasphemous remarks may be something of a rarity, but it is at least possible to say that many

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metalheads grew up in a secular context. Yet, this does not ultimately support the conclusion that a secular family background necessarily spawns secular or atheist attitudes among children, as the above-quoted interviewee—who speaks of a strong religious belief during his teenage years—demonstrates. Moreover, a considerable number of interviewees described their families as religious, or even strongly religious, and claimed to be raised in a religious context. aside from information on family background, the interview excerpt contains a reference that relates religion to politics (“they are using religion for political purposes”). This connection was often mentioned in itself as a reason to reject religion. One inal deist position to be quoted here gives insight into a rather pragmatic approach towards dealing with religion—or, more precisely, with places of religious worship: levent: religion? [laughs] Well, why are you asking me about it? religion is … i’m not into religions. i believe in God. if you believe in God, you have to believe in satan. You know God made him an angel. like … You know, you can read it in the religious books like the Bible or koran or somewhere. i respect them, but i want them to respect me. i got no problem with religion or religious people. My problem is, they got a problem with me. You know when they saw me on TV, they shit on me. Or out in the streets. i like to go to church. Not about religion [pauses and laughs]. You know, you don’t have to take your boots off in the church. When you go to the fucking mosque, you have to take your boots off. sometimes, i used to take the bands to the historical sites like [the] sultan ahmet [Mosque], you know. sometimes they got in. i’m like: “No. i’m gonna wait for you at the exit.” i sent them in. You know, i’m not really into that. i like gothic stuff. Gothic buildings. i love the churches around this area. so, i used to go there to steal candles, you know. i used to, you know, have sex in the confession box. i told you. [laughs] in winter it’s warm, in summertime it’s a pretty chilled place for me. like when you got really hot by walking on the street just go into the church, have a break you know. i like churches.

The interviewee declares his belief in God, puts islam on the same level as christianity (by mentioning side-by-side both the Bible and the koran, church and mosque), and refuses to submit to religious norms. his explanation that he prefers to go to church rather than to the mosque, because in church he does not have to take his boots off, appears to be an individual protest against particular religious practices. Yet, he does not openly challenge religious norms by trying, for example, to enter a mosque with his boots on. instead, he simply stays away from them and boycotts the mosque as an islamic institution. his preference for churches stems from pragmatic rather than spiritual desires—a love for gothic buildings, a need to take shelter from the summer heat or winter cold, and some more delicate issues. in this sense, his love for churches does not relect a preference for Christianity over islam. Besides this, he mentions that he experiences disapproval from religious

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parts of society (“i got no problem with religion or religious people. My problem is, they got a problem with me”). The inal, atheist position addressed during conversations and interviews can be subsumed under the renunciation of God and religion. The following interviewees distance themselves from both: ali: as i said, i can’t accept this. Neither can i accept these religions nor their characters … i certainly don’t accept christianity and islam … i cannot orient myself towards a holy book that another human being has written. i have my own thoughts. i have my own belief. But i don’t believe in these religions that have been written down in the past. i don’t believe in them. Be it christianity or islam or satanism or anything else. Zehra: it’s bullshit! i mean, i renounce it. i didn’t strongly believe, anyway. You know, it’s not like i didn’t believe at all. i was a Muslim, but i neither believed in God nor in the ritual worship, nor in anything else … You know, religion is bullshit. and God is also bullshit, i think. There is neither religion nor God. Güray: religion means nothing! [laughs] i’m an atheist. Well, i don’t care. i think it’s a lie. i don’t like it. Too many crazy people in both religions. You know a lot of religious people are hypocrites. and there is a lot of bullshit, there is a lot of sexism in it. There is a lot of fascism in it. lots of stuff. i don’t wanna be part of it! Taylan: i read the koran. i read the discussions [koran exegesis, tafsir]. i read the Bible. i read the Torah. There was a short period of satanism [laughs out loud]. And I came to be an atheist. That was the logical thing. But I had to ind it myself … I tried to ind my own truth.

The reasons for drawing a line between religion and their personal lives are diverse. Atheism is either described as the logical consequence of self-relection and human reason, or explained by the assertion that religion is full of hypocrisy, sexism, fascism, and other further, unspeciied maladies. All three positions— secular, deist, and atheist—are subversive in the point that the individual claims authority over his or her religious beliefs. islamic authorities are either being rejected, ridiculed, or simply not taken into account as far as individual religiosity is concerned. The importance of individual autonomy is underlined by the fact that individual notions of Muslim-ness frequently contradict the teachings of religious authorities—or, as a young metalhead put it: “i am Muslim and i drink beer, but it’s an individual thing between me and God.” Reconnecting to the initial inding that metal has been largely perceived as a threat to public order and morality, the preceding paragraphs on “street,” “family,” “work,” “nation,” and “religion” above outlined some of the various transgressions and conlicts in everyday life. The text also provided information

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on how Turkish metalheads have dealt with these conlicts and stereotypes. Yet, the information only shed limited light on the personal meaning of metal. in order to ind out more about the biographical impact of metal, I conducted a series of narrative interviews in which, among other things, i asked my counterparts to recall their initial encounters with metal music. The intent was to learn more about how individuals were socialized into metal and how this further affected their lives. The biographical impact of being metal is already evident elsewhere in this study—for instance, by choosing a job that would allow a man to have long hair, by deciding not to become a priest (see chapter 5), by being ready to bear the (physical and psychological) consequences of conlicts in everyday life. The following and inal section of the present chapter now aims to delve deeper into the lives of Turkish metalheads, and to learn more about how they attach meaning to metal.

Life The irst time I listened to Iron Maiden … I was afraid of that music. I was very afraid. it was maybe repulsive to me, and i didn’t like it! at that time, it sounded inhuman to me. i remember that feeling. But then, it starts feeding on you, and you start to ind something in that music … you ind something of yourself in that music. i don’t know. i can’t explain what it is … but inside all these bla-blamusic [referring to pop music] and all that meaningless life, that sounded like something meaningful to me … You listen, and it feeds on you. and you start to need to listen more. so, that’s how it came.

Taylan, who at the time of the interview was in his mid-30s, describes his initial encounter with metal music as “repulsive.” The sonic representations of metal did not match anything he had listened to before. it sounded “inhuman” to him, and he was scared. From the present perspective of a globalized world with unrestricted internet access, this might sound odd. From the perspective of a young boy from the anatolian countryside living in the post-coup d’état era of the 1980s, it was probably a pretty normal reaction. Taylan further explains that, at that time, he “had no idea what music was, let alone rock ‘n’ roll.” he did not even feel a need to listen to music. His irst encounter with rock music took place only after he had won a competition that allowed him to study at the anatolian high school in ankara. he describes his classmates as “spoiled” middle- and upperclass kids who, although they initially disliked his rural origin, introduced him to rock and pop music. Within this situation, metal music inally “sounded like something meaningful” to him. The music resonated with his emotional needs (“you ind something of yourself in that music”), and he no longer felt repulsed, but rather, attracted. elsewhere, he further mentions that through listening to rock and metal music, he was seeking distance from his “arrogant” classmates and their “meaningless life.” listening to metal was a means to symbolically separate

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himself from their afluent lifestyles, which he personally despised. From this point of view, metal provided a means of individual self-assurance and resistance. since then, he never stopped listening to metal and, after relocating to istanbul, became involved in the scene as a journalist and writer, and even sporadically as a musician. The following narrative by another metalhead named Yavuz shows certain similarities to Taylan’s story. Yavuz was also born in the irst half of the 1970s, and grew up in a small town near Diyarbakır, the capital of the same-named province in eastern Turkey. Even today, Diyarbakır does not have a vital rock or metal scene that can be compared with local scenes in other major cities of Western Turkey. In fact, the region of Diyarbakır is infamous among metalheads for being extremely conservative and religious. This is also relected in a part of Yavuz’s narrative that is not quoted here, and in which he describes how he found himself feeling different and alienated from his social surroundings. He irst and foremost relates these feelings to differences in language and culture (as an ethnic Turk, he encountered serious problems attempting to communicate with kurdish youths of the same age), as well as to the “tough” lifestyle in the east, with which he could not relate. His irst encounter with rock music was so decisive, that he still remembers the exact situation of buying the kiss Crazy Nights album from a local music store. he himself calls his initial encounter with rock music an “instinctual relation,” and depicts the moment of irst listening to Crazy Nights as an experience of almost spiritual importance: One day, i can never forget it. it was a winter day. i just went to the music shop [in Diyarbakır]. I just wanted to buy an album and I just … I mean, I didn’t read anything. i didn’t read any magazines about rock or metal. i didn’t hear from one of my friends. i didn’t have a cousin who listens to this music and suggested to me, recommending to listen to it. i didn’t have an elder brother or sister to recommend it to me. i was just alone. i was a lonely kid. i was in the music shop. I just saw this record. It was like a shattered glass with four igures of four guys. i didn’t know what it was. i just said: “i want to buy this album.” it was like pure instinct [laughs]. so, i just bought the album and went home, put the cassette to my cassette player, pushed the play button, and it was like [sings]: “it was a crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy nights”—like Paul stanley and all the guys [from Kiss]. This was my irst encounter with rock ‘n’ roll … Out of the blue this album came into my life … i just liked the sound of it … i didn’t know it was a trend. i didn’t know it was something. it was music, and it was cool. after kiss, i just got into iron Maiden … and all these [rock and metal] albums were changing my life! i was … i was loving it! i was loving it a lot, even though i didn’t want to. i just loved the sound! There was a bass. i didn’t know it was a bass, but it was cool. There was a guitar. i didn’t know it was a guitar, but it was cool … You know, this was a miracle for me. it was a miracle! it was making me feel good!

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Yavuz portrays his initial encounter with rock music as an incisive moment in his life. he seems to be able to recall every single detail without much thinking. he speaks quickly, without hesitation. in doing so, he underscores the impact rock and metal music had on his life (“these albums were changing my life”) and mentions that the sound contributed to his emotional well-being (“it was making me feel good”). Yavuz continues: In Diyarbakır there was no rock ‘n’ roll scene. There was not like a heavy metal scene. i was the only kid … heavy metal was like a world to me, but it was a world far away … it was like on a far planet, and i was on another planet. and we didn’t have any contact, but i was hearing something from there. i was listening to some of the sounds coming from there. it was the albums i was buying, but still i didn’t have any relations with this planet, but i really wanted to go to that planet.

To make his dream come true and reach this faraway “planet,” he made every effort to move to ankara, where he knew there was rock scene. Finally, he succeeded: and then, i just enrolled at university [in ankara] … and guess what, i just started to have my hair long! Because i was released. i was released out of the boundaries of these high school necessities and all these obligations … i was free now! The irst thing I did was to have my hair long and then, have a beard. and instantly, i bought a leather jacket. Yeah. i had this leather jacket. i had my boots. it was like … You know, in the summer time, even on the hottest days i was like, having these boots, having my tight jeans … i was walking like a heavy metal guy at that time … I had my earrings. It was like a butterly thing, you know. The caterpillar turns out to be a butterly, because I was released. I was on parole [laughs]. i was released and i was free! i was at the university. i was a rebel guy! i had my hair long. everybody was looking at me. everybody was talking about me … We [also] started to have our own tribes. This is a thing very important to us. as a cultural phenomenon i think we learned that we should stick together.

as soon as he found himself “released” from the constraints of his previous environment, he began to adopt the visual codes of metal culture. his long hair, beard, leather jacket, tight jeans, earrings, and boots were symbols of his newly gained freedom (“I was free now,” “I was on parole”) and functioned as signiiers of his identity. To appropriate the visual codes of metal culture not only guaranteed public attention (“everybody was looking at me”), but also generated a sense of community and friendship (“we [had] our own tribes”). To ind out more about the individual meaning of metal, I followed a two-part strategy, and in addition to gathering narratives of people’s irst encounter with rock and metal music, i also asked several dozen of my interviewees whether

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they could explain what metal personally means to them. The question aimed at producing snapshots of what came irst to their minds. Answers turned out indeed to be short, mostly consisting of no more than a few words or sentences. Due to their brevity, it is possible to allow a greater number of metalheads have their say here: Akay: It’s really simple, I mean. The fucking irst word that comes to my mind: life, man! it’s fucking life! ali: i’ve been listening to metal … for twelve years. Metal is my life. life! i grew up with it. it formed my personality. Metal is everything. My whole life is, and will be, about metal. Altuğ: Metal? That’s our life! It’s the most important thing in our life. [laughs] Our freedom. Maybe an escape from community. it’s your liberty. everything you want to feel, everything you want to hear. arman: if one day, i won’t [be able to] listen to slayer, sodom, or kreator, or Overkill [anymore], i’ll go insane! ayfer: For me it’s a way of life, a way to express myself, and also a style of dress. it is something i like a lot. and you know, i’m very happy that there is metal! it’s like an addiction. Once you get started, you can’t quit anymore. and i feel ine with it. I feel good within the scene … You know, the music helped me to cope with psychological stress. Bekam: i mean, i can’t think of myself without metal, without listening to metal. Because it’s a very [integral] part of me. i mean, when i wake up, i press the play button and listen to my favorite bands. and it’s meaningless without metal. i mean living without metal is meaningless for me. That’s all. cenk: My heartbeat, man! it’s my lifestyle. eda: Of course, it’s my life! Metal is my life and when i listen to it i become really happy … You know, heavy metal changed my life, changed my [circle of] friends. emre: My life! erdem: Well, there are a lot of things that i don’t like in metal, but there are lots of things that i love! and i believe listening to metal changed my mind a lot.

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a word that is constantly being repeated is “life.” it is so omnipresent in the aforementioned statements, that it is only obvious to join the choir and emphatically conclude: metal is life. Metal is the “heartbeat” that deines “everything.” And “living without metal is meaningless.” What becomes clear from the various responses—even if we take up a more distant and less emphatic position—is that metal represents an important signiier of identity within the interviewees’ lives. and this, according to their statements, goes without exception. Now, what is the individual meaning of metal when used as a signiier of identity? The texts provide a variety of answers to that, and, indeed, it is possible to identify a series of recurring patterns: several statements reveal a relation between aesthetics and identity—bodily and musical aesthetics that are being appropriated and function as cultural codes of identiication (“style of dress,” “the sound of distorted guitars”). Besides all aesthetic aspects, metal functions as a metaphor for what is considered meaningful in life. People identify with metal through particular meanings that they personally attach to it. in the aforementioned interviews, metal is, for instance, being associated with notions of “liberty,” “freedom,” “excitement,” “anarchism,” “rebellion,” or—as mentioned in previous interview

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excerpts—“aggressiveness” and “negativity.” What is perceived as individually important is projected onto the realms of metal, though this may cover a variety of different things. consequently, we see a variety of individual options of what “being metal” stands for. it may equally stand for “being against the bad things,” as it is associated with “negativity” and “aggression.” Metal music also appears to correspond to people’s mental and emotional needs. some interviewees describe listening to metal as an addiction (“once you started, you can’t quit anymore”). Metal music is “like a drug” that allows the brain to be “feeling satisied.” It makes people “happy” and “feel ine.” One interviewee even claims that he would go insane if he didn’t listen to metal. in another passionate and vivid explanation, listening to metal literally takes up the status of a bodily need (“it’s like food for me. i need it. For my personality. For my mental life. For my soul. i need it”). additionally, metal is described as an “escape.” This corresponds to a inding by Bradley C. Klypchak in his dissertation Performed Identities: Heavy Metal Musicians between 1984 and 1991. in the introductory chapter, he assumes that metal matters, as it allows “an escape from the mundane” (klypchack 2007: 2). in summary, the aforementioned interview excerpts reveal aesthetic, metaphorical, and emotional dimensions of identity formation. To identify with and “to be” metal appears as an essential part of many peoples’ lives. another crucial aspect of identity formation is the role of community. This is voiced in statements such as: “i feel good within the scene,” or “metal changed my [circle of] friends.” in considering themselves as “being metal,” metalheads develop a sense of community that is closely related to the availability of shared meanings. During conversations in istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey, many metalheads described the metal scene as a realm where they felt understood. The community of metalheads provided a space where they did not have to explain themselves, where they were not asked about the meaning of their long hair or black clothes, and where their deviant bodily practices were not perceived as a provocation. From this perspective, the metal scene represents what sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has described as a “community of common understanding” (Bauman 2001: 14). in Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World, he points to the importance of shared meanings with regard to the formation of collective identities. a community that draws on a system of shared meanings, according to Bauman, remains essentially united, as its members do not have to ask the question, “What do you mean?,” in order to reach a level of common understanding (Bauman 2001: 9–10). referring to the above-mentioned dimension of emotional needs, it appears that the respondents feel good because they feel understood. A inal point to be made here is related to the intellectual impact metal has on peoples’ lives. listening to metal makes them think differently (“[it] changed my mind”), enlarges their intellectual worlds (“i became more open-minded”), and forms their personalities. This is also evident from interviews presented in chapter 5, when investigating the meaning of black metal.

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at the initial stage of this study, i was frequently confronted with questions about the academic relevance of studying metal. in fact, i had the impression that many friends and colleagues doubted that writing a book on Turkish (?!) metal could be of any academic interest. Why then is it relevant to study metal? Why does metal matter? The answer to this question is: metal matters, for it gives meaning to people’s lives. it affects their biographies, shapes their identities, and molds their way of thinking and perceiving the world around them. Metal furthermore matters, for it relects and initiates social and cultural change. Turkish female metal, for instance, could be seen as manifestation as well as means of emancipation. Metal, for these reasons, needs to be studied. The purpose of this book is then to strengthen and to stir up further academic discourse on doing and being metal in everyday life.

appendix: list of interviews

abdül, aka “aptülika,” caricaturist and editor of Şebek, istanbul, 24 December 2003, conducted in Turkish. Adil, Ervin, Gürol, and Halim of thrash metal band Abraxas, Istanbul, 22 June 2003, conducted in english. akay, aka “Panterakay,” former writer for Şebek, Istanbul, 15 July 2003, conducted in english. Ali of black metal band Khaoskult, Istanbul 24 June 2003 and 18 July 2003, conducted in German. Ali, Hasan, and Kemal of the “Bakırköy Crew”, Istanbul, 21 July 2004, conducted in Turkish. alper, author and former writer for Hıbır, Istanbul, 21 July 2004, conducted in english. Ant, Cenker, and Onur of the death metal band In Spite, Izmir, 4 July 2003, conducted in english. Arman, vocalist of thrash metal band Assault, Antalya, 17 July 2004, conducted in english. Ayça, musician and die-hard black metal listener, Istanbul, 16 July 2003, conducted in english. ayfer, long-time scene member, istanbul, 6 august 2004, conducted in German. Bahadır, Burak, and Murat, editors of Deli Kasap, Istanbul, 20 July 2003, conducted in english. Bahadır and Fatih of black metal band Moribund Oblivion, Istanbul, 28 April 2003, conducted in Turkish. Baran, Gökhan, and Serkan of black metal band Black Omen, Eskişehir, 12 December 2004, conducted in english. Barbaros, musician, Istanbul, 26 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. Başar, Oral, and Taylan of death metal band Cidesphere, Ankara, 14 December 2003, conducted in english and Turkish. Batu, vocalist of grindcore band cenotaph, runs a distro, istanbul, 2 October 2005, conducted in German. Bekam, editor of Headbangers magazine, Çeşme, 5 July 2003, conducted in english. Çağlan, editor of Laneth and Non Serviam, radio host, istanbul, 26 November 2003, conducted in Turkish. cenk, musician, played in various thrash/death/black metal bands, istanbul, 29 November 2003, conducted in english.

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Eda, scene member, Istanbul, 30 June 2003 and Eskişehir, 21 October 2005, conducted in english. Eden of Israeli metal band Orphaned Land, Istanbul, 5 July 2004, conducted in english. Emrah and Kerem of thrash metal band Afliction, Izmir, 3 July 2003, conducted in english. Emre of the black metal bands Dishearten and Kara Budun, Istanbul, 24 June 2003, conducted in Turkish. engin, newspaper journalist and long-time scene member, istanbul, 1 December 2003, conducted in english. Enis and Haluk, owners of Hammer Müzik, 24 June 2004, conducted in English and Turkish. erdem, editor of Metal Monster magazine, vocalist of heavy metal band hellblazer, Istanbul, 20 October 2002 and 12 July 2003, conducted in English. Erdem, guitarist of black metal band Sagu, Istanbul, 29 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. erdem, vocalist of death metal band antisilence and metal punk band Nitro, Istanbul, 8 November 2002 and 10 July 2003, conducted in English. Eren of black metal band Sithicus, Istanbul, 18 July 2003, conducted in Turkish. Ferhat and Mert of thrash metal band courtyard, istanbul, 17 October 2002, conducted in english. Gülnur, rock and heavy metal listener, Istanbul, 5 December 2003 and 7 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. Güray, editor of several fanzines (Yer Altı, I Feel Like Shit, I Feel Like Nick Cave), istanbul, 6 august 2004, conducted in english. Güven, TV and radio host (Yüxexes on Dream TV), Istanbul, 5 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. Hakan, former street seller and owner of Eloy café, Istanbul, 21 July 2004, conducted in Turkish. Karay, Onur, Yalın, and Yaşam of heavy metal band Battlorn, Istanbul, 17 October 2002, conducted in english. Kobi, vocalist of Israeli metal band Orphaned Land, email-interview, 14 July 2004, conducted in english. kuzu, former vocalist of black metal band Witchtrap, istanbul, 4 December 2003, conducted in english. Levent, long-time scene member and barkeeper, Istanbul, 18 June 2003, conducted in english. Maksim, guitarist of death metal band Soul Sacriice, Antalya, 18 July 2004, conducted in english. Maksim and Özgür of death metal band Soul Sacriice, Istanbul, 15 July 2004, conducted in english. Melih, metal listener, Istanbul, 16 November 2003 and 12 June 2004, conducted in english.

Appendix: List of Interviews

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Mete, radio host of Beton program on Açık Radyo, Istanbul, 12 October 2005, conducted in Turkish. Murat of thrash metal band Notwithstanding, Izmir, 1 July 2003, conducted in english. Onur of heavy metal band Northern Lights, Istanbul, 8 July 2004, conducted in english. Onur, owner of crackpot Distro, istanbul, 22 October 2002, conducted in english. Orçun, plays in a black metal band, Istanbul, 18 July 2003, conducted in Turkish. Osman, long-time metal listener, istanbul, 28 November 2003, conducted in english. Ozan of death metal/hardcore band self Torture, istanbul, 22 May 2004, conducted in Turkish. Özer of thrash metal band Kronik, former radio host, Istanbul, 14 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. Özgü of death/thrash metal band Ascareus, Istanbul, 21 June 2003, conducted in english. Rawad of Syrian/Lebanese heavy metal band The Hourglass, Istanbul, 4 July 2004, conducted in english. Rudy of Lebanese death metal band Necroblast, email-interview, 3 January 2005, conducted in english. saba and elif of death metal band The Pigskins, istanbul, 8 september 2009, conducted in english and Turkish. Şanver, writer for Şebek, editor of Kuzey Ormanı, istanbul, 20 December 2003, conducted in Turkish. Saro, long-time scene member, Istanbul, 7 July 2004, conducted in English. selçuk of black metal band Gece, istanbul, 8 May 2003, conducted in Turkish. seyda, long-time scene member, istanbul, 28 November 2004, conducted in German. Shant, guitarist of Syrian heavy metal band Nu.Clear.Dawn, Istanbul, 5 July 2004, conducted in english. soner, guitarist of heavy metal band almora, istanbul, 27 October 2002, conducted in english. Tanju, vocalist of the death metal bands asafated and uck Grind, istanbul, 25 May 2003, conducted in Turkish. Taurnas, vocalist of black metal band Pogrom, Istanbul, 13 July 2004, conducted in Turkish. Taylan, newspaper journalist and writer for Ağrı Kesici, Istanbul, 11 November 2002 and 31 May 2004, conducted in english. Ufuk of heavy metal band Hazy Hill, email-interview, 4 January 2008, conducted in english. Ulaş, vocalist of death metal/grindcore band Hecatomb, Izmir, 2 July 2003, conducted in english and Turkish. Veysel, metal listener, istanbul, 6 august 2004, conducted in Turkish.

208

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Yalım of heavy metal band Stoneheads, Berlin, 30 December 2003, conducted in German. Yasemin, long-time scene member, Istanbul 1 June 2004 and 29 July 2004, conducted in Turkish. Yavuz, long-time rock and heavy metal listener, former barkeeper in Kemancı, Istanbul, 27 and 28 June 2003 and 14 July 2003, conducted in English. Zehra, rock and metal listener, Istanbul, 4 June 2004, conducted in Turkish. Zeki, owner of Kemancı rock bar, 8 December 2003, conducted in Turkish. Zihni, owner of Zihni Müzik, 28 september 2005, conducted in Turkish.

Discography

accept (1985) Metal Heart. Portrait. almora (2002) Gates of Time. Zihni Müzik. assault (2004) SS Feuersturm. Demo. Barış Manço & Harmoniler (1962) Do the Twist/Let’s Twist Again. emre Grafson Müzik. Barış Manço & Harmoniler (1962) Twistin USA/The Jet. emre Grafson Müzik. Barış Manço (1970) Dağlar Dağlar. sayan. Barış Manço (1975) 2023. Yavuz Plak. Barış Manço (1976) Baris Mancho. cBs records. Benediction (1990) Subconscious Terror. Nuclear Blast. Black Omen (2003) Black Omen. Demo. Black Omen (2005) When Pure Darkness Covers … Poem Productions. Black Omen (2007) Sinphony. Poem Productions. Black sabbath (1970) Black Sabbath. Vertigo. Burzum (1993) Aske. Deathlike silence. celtic Frost (1985) To Mega Therion. Noise. celtic Frost (1987) Into the Pandemonium. Noise. Cem Karaca & Dervişan (1977) Yoksulluk Kader Olamaz. Yavuz Plak. cem karaca & edirdahan (1978) Sainaz. kalan Müzik. cem karaca (1984) Die Kanaken. Pläne. cenotaph (1997) Voluptously Minced. hammer Müzik. coven (1969) Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls. Mercury. cradle of Filth (2003) Damnation and a Day. sony. Danzig (1992) How the Gods Kill. Def american recordings. Deicide (1998) When Satan Lives. roadrunner. Destruction (1987) Mad Butcher. steamhammer/sPV. Dissection (2006) Reinkaos. Black horizon/The end. ebonsight (1994) The Ocean Ebon. Demo. ebonsight (1997) As the River Runs Through the Pain. Demo. elend (1994) Leçons de Ténèbres. holy records. elend (1996) Les Ténèbres du Dehors. holy records. elend (1998) The Umbersun. Music for Nations. episode 13 (2005) Tabula Rasa. DJ Club. episode 13 (2008) Pitch Black. DJ Club. erkin koray (1962) Bir Eylül Akşamı. Melodi. erkin koray (1974) Elektronik Türküler. Doğan. hecatomb (2006) Impaled Apocalypse. Poem Productions.

210

Turkish Metal

helloween (1985) Walls of Jericho. Noise. infected (1998) Lost Loser in Dreams. Zihni Müzik. infected (2000) Breathless Kiss on the Lips of Melancholia. Zihni Müzik. infected (2002) Chaosium—The Ruins of Elysian Era. Zihni Müzik. iron Maiden (1982) Number of the Beast. eMi. Judas Priest (1986) Turbo. columbia. Kırmızı (2011) İsyan. red rec. kiss (1987) Crazy Nights. Mercury. Marduk (1991) Fuck Me Jesus. Osmose Productions. Mayhem (1987) Deathcrush. Posercorpse. Mayhem (1993) Live in Leipzig. Obscure Plasma records. Mayhem (1995) Dawn of the Blackhearts. Warmaster records. Moğollar (1971) Anadolu Pop. Yavuz Plak. Moğollar (1971) Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie-d’Hier d’Aujourd’hui. cBs records. Mor ve Ötesi (2006) Büyük Düşler. rakun. Moribund Oblivion (2002) Like a Fallling Haze. Blackpro Music. Moribund Oblivion (2003) Khanjar—The Ruins of Kara-Shehr. DJ Club. Moribund Oblivion (2006) Machine Brain. atlantis Music. Moribund Oblivion (2007) Time to Face. atlantis Music. Moribund Oblivion (2008) K.i.N., atlantis Music. Mötley Crüe (1983) Shout at the Devil. elektra. Motörhead (1980) Ace of Spades. Bronze/Mercury. Nirvana (1991) Nevermind. DGc. Pagan (1998) Heathen Upheaval. Demo. Pentagram (1990) Pentagram. Nepa. Pentagram (1992) Trail Blazer. Nuclear Blast. Pentagram (1997) Anatolia. raks and centruy Media. Pentagram (1998) Popçular Dışarı. raks. Pentagram (2001) Unspoken. sanctuary. Pentagram (2002) Bir. Böcek Yapım and Universal Records. radiohead (1993) Paplo Honey. Parlophone/capitol. rotting christ (1994) Non Serviam. unisound. saboath (1998) Epic of Turks. hades records. sacred reich (1990) The American Way. Metal Blade. Şebnem Ferah (2005) Can Kırıkları. Pasaj. slayer (1985) Hell Awaits. Metal Blade. Soul Sacriice (2005) Stranded Hate. Major Müzik. The Great kat (1990) Beethoven on Speed. roadracer. Various (1993) Judgement Night: Music From the Motion Picture. immortal/epic Venom (1982) Black Metal. Neat. Whisky (1986) Babaanne. self-released. Witchtrap (1992) Witch. Demo. Witchtrap (1993) Incubbo Succubo. Demo.

Discography

Witchtrap (1997) Witchting Black. hammer Müzik.

211

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index

aarseth, Oystein (euronymous) 68, 131–2 abaddon 26 ac/Dc 20–1 accept 6, 22 Açık Radyo 60–1 adams, Bryan 68 aerosmith 20–1 aesthetics 14, 17, 129, 175, 177, 182, 189, 202 agathocles 45 Ağrı Kesici 55, 111 ahmet, aziz 33 akbaba 62, 67 akmar (Passage) 10, 39, 50, 62–3, 66, 101–2, 111 aksi Nota 59 akyol, ercan 105–6 alcohol 9, 21–3, 48, 69–71, 77–8, 83, 94, 126, 185, 187, 193–4, 202 alevi 64–5 ali, kecia 85, 162 alice in chains 21 almora 65 Alternative Mag 55 alternative rock 21, 52, 54, 66, 68 Anadolu Rock see anatolian rock anatolian Folk (halk müziği) 7, 28–34, 62, 64–5 anatolian rock (Anadolu Rock) 27, 30–5, 37, 62, 65 ancestry 174 angelripper, Tom 26 ankara state conservatory 28–9 anthrax 22, 26, 62 anti-christian sentiments 17, 26, 129, 137, 144, 150–1 anti-christian symbols 3, 85, 136–143 anti-islamic blasphemy 138–9 anti-islamic sentiments 144–5 anti-islamic symbols 137, 140–1

anti-satanist task force 107 anti-semitism 129, 148 antisilence 120, 125 apostasy 84, 101, 140 Aptülika (Abdülkadir Elçioğlu) 48–50, 53, 59, 62, 74, 179–83, 192 arch enemy 155 Ardıç, Engin 82–7, 90 arka sokak 9 arslan, engin 91–3, 96, 107 asafated 8, 43, 125 Aşık Dertli 64 Aşık Veysel 64 assault 148 atatürk, Mustafa kemal 27, 29, 71, 111 Ateş, Zeki 73–4, 76 atheism 94, 189, 193, 197 athena 66–7 atlantis Music 39, 135 atlas shopping arcade 89 authenticity 4, 8, 21–2, 67, 130, 134, 148, 173 Ay, Savaş 74 Ayvazoğlu, Beşir 98 Azı Dişi Kerpeteni 58–9 Babaoğlu, Seyda 4, 73, 122, 125, 167–8, 174, 202 bağlama 30, 33 elektro 30 see also saz Bakırköy Crew (Bakırköy Tayfası) 77, 192; see also Kadıköy Crew Barışa Rock Festival 34 Barlas, ama 162 Bartók, Béla 29 Baş, Engin 109–12, 118, 183, 187–90, 194 Bathory 64, 129, 134–5, 144 Batıbeki, Tuncay 74 Baudelaire, charles-Pierre 98

222

Turkish Metal

Baulch, emma 18 Bauman, Zygmunt 203 Bäumer, ulrich 18 beards 26, 30, 94, 180, 189–91, 200 Beavis and Butt-head 21 beer house (birahane) 69–76 Beethoven, ludwig van 22 Beh-Yehuda, Nachman 80 Bellaphone 40 Benediction 42 Bennett, andrew 17 Benton, Glen 151 Berkay, cahit 30, 33 Berkes, Turgut 66 Beton 60–1 Biçacı, Nedim 106 Bilgiç, Taylan 109, 111–2, 140, 172–3 Bilsak rock Bar 77 birahane see beer house black metal 3, 8, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 49, 51, 97, 128, 129–54, 203 meaning of 153–4 National socialist (NsBM) 129, 146–9 Norwegian 68, 127–8, 130–3 Turkish 52, 68, 90, 118, 121, 124, 125, 127, 134–54, 171 Black Omen 134–5 Black sabbath 19, 20, 22–6, 91 Blasphemer (rune eriksen) 133 blasphemy 2, 23, 26, 136, 138–9 anti-islamic 139 Blomberg, Jan Axel (Hellhammer) 132 Bon Jovi 21, 68, 121 bootlegs 3, 37–40, 47, 77 Bostancı Gösteri Merkezi 62, 67, 192–3 boundaries 9, 13, 15–7, 22, 24, 75, 96, 112, 127, 139, 152–3, 187, 200 ethnic 6 moral 82, 168–9; see also morality national 6, 555 racist 152–3; see also racism religious 6 bouzouki 25 Bozdağ, Hicri 53, 61, 114, 117 Bronx 9, 131 Burzum 128, 130–3 cannibal corpse 26

caravan 7, 9, 46, 75, 77, 123, 152, 187 carcass 26 cavalera, Max 191 cBs records 33–4 celtic Frost 129, 134–5 cenotaph 43, 46, 141, 185 century Media 63 christe, ian 19–20 cidesphere 122, 193 cinderella 21 classen, sabina 155–6 coffeehouse (kahvehane) 69–75 cohen, stanley 79–80, 82–3 connectivity 17 global 2 translocal 43, 55, 129, 134, 144 corpse paint 129–30, 135, 137, 142–3 countess Omnious Demoness 135 coven 23 cradle of Filth 52, 130 crematory 26 cripper 155 critcher, chas 80–1 cronos 26 crowd-suring 27 crowley, aleister 23, 98, 151 crown of autumn 52 cultural codes 98, 138, 148, 189, 202 cultural representations 3, 13, 17, 25–7, 114, 129 sonic representations 25 verbal representations 26 visual representations 26–7 cultural turn 15 culture 2, 13–5 cura 33 cymbal choke 25 Çağatay, İdil 175 Çakır, Ruşen 99 Çapar, Erdem 120, 125 Çelik, Ömer 12, 91–4, 107, 110, 117, 122, 124–8 Çepkin, Hayko 175 Çöpdemir, Kadir 58 Çoşkunfırat, Şehriban 1, 91–4, 100, 103, 109, 111, 119, 124–5

Index

D.r.i. 48 Dark Funeral 130, 151 Dark symphonies 41 Darkthrone 130 Darülelhan 28 Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin) 26, 68, 128, 131–2 Dead kennedys 182 death metal 19, 21–2, 24–5, 32, 42–3, 52, 67, 77, 115–6, 118–9, 122, 128–9, 148, 150, 165, 175, 177, 193 Deathroom 43 Deep Purple 19–20, 24 Def leppard 20 Deftones 21 Deicide 150–2 Delaney, carol 159 Deli Kasap 54–5, 67, 111–2, 122, 164 Demirkan, Demir 65 Der Tod 118 Dersaadet 77 Destroyer 50 Destruction 26, 54, 62, 67 Devecioğlu, Barbaros 59 deviance 79–82, 84, 160, 179 deviant appearance 30, 178, 185 deviant behavior 30, 75, 81, 94, 143, 178, 183 deviant practices 78, 181, 203 Devil 35, 62 devil, the 23, 49, 92, 105, 117, 121, 136–7 depictions of 26, 124 islamic notions of 136 sacriice for 91–103 worshipping 91–103 see also iblis, satan Diamond head 20 Dickinson, Bruce 120 Dinçer, Zinnur Gülşah 91–3, 107 Dinler, Bahadır 67 Dishearten 134, 146 Dissection 130–2 doing metal 3–4, 156–7, 159, 163, 173–4, 177, 181 doom metal 21, 24 Doors, the 119 Dorock 9, 158, 187 down-tuning 25

223

Dr. skull 62 Dream TV 35, 61, 136 drugs 23, 90, 94, 126, 166, 187 Durkheim, emile 15 Dynamo Open air Festival 51 earache 60 earrings 5, 26, 48, 89, 115, 175, 184, 200 ebert, carl 29 ebonsight 135 edles, laura D 13–4. egzotik Band 62 ehrimen 134 eithun, Bard (Faust) 131–2 Elçioğlu Abdülkadir (Aptülika) 47, 59, 74, 179, 182 elend 52 ellsworth, Bobby 60 eloy 77–8 emancipation 2, 5, 52–3 female 157, 175, 204 emotional needs 154, 198, 203 emperor 130–2 enochian key 139 Enred 55 entombed 26 episode 13 Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip 193 erener, sertab 65 eriksen, rune (Blasphemer) 133 erkal, Güven erkin 35, 61 eternal rise 134 euronymous (Oystein aarseth) 26, 131–2 european song contest 65–6 exodus 62 extreme metal 18, 24, 59, 129 extreme Noise Terror 42, 45 Falay, lara 104–7, 119–20 Fantasy role Playing (FrP) 105 fanzines 3, 5, 10–1, 13, 24, 26, 37, 40–55, 63, 67, 69, 95, 102, 109, 111–2, 118, 125, 132, 135, 174; see also Ağrı Kesici, Alternative Mag, Deli Kasap, Enred, Gırgır, Gothic and Machines, Headbangers, Hıbır, Holy Sin, I Feel Like Nick Cave, I Feel Like Shit, Köprüaltı Heavy

224

Turkish Metal

Metal Dergisi, Kuzey Ormanı, Laneth, Mega Metal, Metal Monster, Nefret, Non Serviam, Rock Station, Şebek, Sonic Splendor, Stüdyo İmge, Woeful Cry, Yer Altı, Zor Faust (Bard eithun) 131–2 female body 85, 97, 157, 160–3, 166, 172 femininity 3, 155–9, 161, 163, 173, 175, 177, 183, 185 feminism 157 Femme Fatale 174 Ferah, Şebnem 65–6 itna 162 lyers 1, 3, 5, 10–1, 26, 37, 40–3, 45–6, 66 Foucault, Michel 18 Funeralmoon 135 Galata Bridge old 61, 69, 73, 73, 76 new 9 Gandalf 9 Garaj 59 Gargoyle 135 gay 175, 183–4 Gece 134 Geertz, clifford 15 Genç radyo 58–9 gender x, 3, 85–6, 172–3, 174, 175, 177, 183, 184 conventions 159 equality 157, 162 gender-speciic behavior 158, 160, 175, 179 hate crimes 178 identities 159, 161, 175, 182, 186, 189 and islam 162–3 metal and 155 et seq. relations 172, 173, 179 roles 156, 161, 173, 174 in Turkish society 159–62 Genocide 42 George hayes Orchestra 33 German high school istanbul 30, 88, 103–4, 118, 120 Gertel, Jörg 6 Giddens, anthony 6 Giger, hans rüdi 76, 134

Gırgır 47–50, 53, 179, 182 Gitanes Bar 77 Gitar 75, 77 glam metal 21, 75 glam rock 21, 26 Godwin, Jeff 18 Gökalp, Ziya 28 Gökturks 145 Golden Microphone contest 31–2 Gomorrha 42 Goode, erich 80–2, 90–1 Gorgoroth 130,143 Görtz, Britta 155–6 Gossow, angela 155, 157 Gothic and Machines 55, 133 Gözübüyük, Tarkan 65–6 Great katt, the 22 Grieg, edvard 22 grindcore 19, 21, 24, 25, 42, 43, 45–6, 129, 141, 185 Grinder 67 Groinchurn 43 growling (vocals) 24–5, 138,155–6, 158, 175 Grup Perişan 47–9, 62, 74, 179, 181–2 Güç, ahmet 18 Gül, abdullah 193 Güldemir, ufuk 189 Gündüz, Asım Can 35 Guns N’ roses 68 Gürel İlyas 73–4, 76 Gürses, Müslüm 117 halk müziği see anatolian Folk hall, stuart 80 hammer Müzik 8, 39–41, 43, 60, 102, 122, 135 harbiye Open air Theatre 48, 67, 75, 82 hard rock 20, 21, 62, 66, 68, 121, 123, 140 hate squad 26 haugen, Tomas (samoth) 131 hayal kahvesi 77 hazy hill 38, 62, 133 headbangers’ Ball 20 Headbangers 55, 171 headbanging 19, 24, 27, 66, 124, 158 headscarf 100, 115, 157–8, 180, 187, 194 ban 158

Index heathen records 41 hebdige, Dick 79 Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) 26 helloween 22 helmet 22 Hetield, James 147 Hey Dergisi 33 Hıbır 47–50, 53, 179, 182 hindemith, Paul 29 hole in the Wall 67 holy Moses 62, 155 holy records 8 Holy Sin 55 homosexual 84–85, 103, 132, 161 homosexuality 85–6, 188 honor (namus) 3, 67, 85, 145, 157, 159–73, 184; see also social prestige (şeref) and respect (saygı) concept of honor and shame 3, 85, 159, 162–5, 169, 170, 171, 173 hopper, Dennis 19 hopkins, stephen 22 house of Pain 22 hür FM 59 hyper-masculine 182 I Feel Like Nick Cave 42, 44 I Feel Like Shit 42, 44 iblis 136; see also devil, satan ice-T 22 iconography 26 metal 26, 85 icons 26–7,49 İlken, Murat 65 immorality 87, 89,127 immortal 130, 144 impaled Nazarene 130 in spite 128 infected 135, 146 inverted cross 23, 26, 49, 85, 95, 104, 137, 139–41, 150–1 iron cross 147–8 iron Maiden 6, 20, 120, 198, 199 Işıksaçan, Tayyar 83–4 islam 6, 18, 27, 64, 84–5, 89, 94–5, 97, 99, 110, 136, 144–5, 162, 176, 193–4, 196–7 apostasy from 140

225

islamic 32, 64, 85, 145 actors 157, 163 cafés 72, 179 concepts of evil 136 conservatives 178 femininity 158 headscarf 157–8, 194 identity 157 law 70, 85, 162 notions of the devil 136 morality 162–3 symbols 139, 142 desecration of 139 traditions 85, 162, 175 islamism 87 islamist 84, 87, 107, 111–2, 119, 122, 180 islamization 144–5, 193 istanbul agop 10 istanbul Mehmet 10 Jackson, Peter 105 Jefferson, Tony 80 Judas Priest 19, 21, 101, 156 Kadıköy Anatolian High School 38, 66 Kadıköy Crew (Kadıköy Tayfası) 192; see also Bakırköy Crew kahn-harris, keith 18, 24, 41 kahvehane see coffeehouse kara Budun 134 kara Tren 58–9 karaca, cem 30–2, 34–5 Karaköşe, Bülent 74 katarsiz 9, 149, 164 kemalism 157; see also Mustafa kemal atatürk kemalist music revolution 27, 28–30, 34 Kemancı 46, 69, 72–7 under the bridge (köprü altı) 48, 69, 73–6, 128, 133 in Sıraselviler Street 9, 76, 123 kent FM 58–9 Kerrang! 38,50 khaoskult 118, 134, 150 kilmister, lemmy 147 king, stephen 135 Kırıkoğlu, Maksim 77, 115–6, 148–9, 165–6, 190, 192

226

Turkish Metal

Kırmızı 174, 175–6 kiss 199 Kızılkaya, Enis 39, 102 Kömeçoğlu, Uğur 72, 179 Köprüaltı Heavy Metal Dergisi 63, 113–4, 117, 121 konuk, ceylan 103–5, 119–120 koray, erkin 30–4, 102 korn 21 kramp 62, 65 kreator 62, 201 kronik 55, 59, 62, 65–6, 75 kurucan, ahmet 89 Kuzey Ormanı 69 kuzkaya, hüseyin 159 l’argilière, Philippe de 8 lady Tronons 135 laibach 148 laicism 85 Laneth 39, 42, 50–2, 54, 61, 66 last episode 41 laVey, anton szandor 91, 98, 105 led Zeppelin 19–20, 23–4, 91,114 Leman 34 les Mistigris 33 leviathan 135 levin, ira 98 leVine, Mark 18 lilith’s spell 135 long hair 1–2, 5, 7–8, 16, 24, 26, 33, 35, 48, 68, 75, 79, 89, 92, 96–8, 101–2, 104, 107, 109–11, 113–7, 121, 123, 129, 148, 169, 173, 175, 177, 181–91, 194, 198, 200, 203 lucas, George 124 lucifer 52, 136–7 Machinery Productions 41 Mahşer 59 Manço, Barış 30, 32–4 Manga 66 Manhattan 109 Mantas 26 Marduk 130–1, 139 Marilyn Manson 177 masculinity 3, 116,155–7, 159–61, 163, 169, 173, 175, 182–4

Mastic scum 45–6 Maximum rock 61 Mayhem 26, 67, 68, 128, 130–3, 143 Mega Metal 50 Megadeth 62, 114, 120 Mercyful Fate 156 Meridyen 56 Metafor 62, 66 metal global underground 6, 8, 18, 40–1, 43, 133 history 19–22 icons 26–7, 49 music and culture 1, 2, 13, 17, 23–7, 37, 62 panics 22–3 studies 2, 17–9, 23, 155 Metal Blade 60, 100 Metal Hammer 38, 50 Metal Monster 55, 111 Metalium 39, 50, 62, 66 Metallica 8, 21, 48, 62, 68, 101, 114, 117, 147 meyhane see wine house Milton, John 52 Misanthrope 8 misogyny 155 mjolnir 26 Moda cinema 39, 66; see also the legendary Moda concert Moda concert, the legendary (efsane Moda konseri) 66–7, 133 Moğollar 30–1, 33–4 Monarchy 135 broadcasting monopoly 56–8 Mor ve Ötesi 66 moral panics 79–82 over metal and satanism 3, 8, 18, 23, 54, 65, 79, 82–107, 109–28 moral subversiveness 84, 90, 97, 103, 105 political 86 religious 84–5, 103 sexual 85–6, 103 social 86–7 morality 22, 81–5, 87, 94, 162, 163, 166, 169, 181, 197 islamic 162–3 islamic concepts of 2–3

Index patriarchal 157, 159 traditional concepts of 2, 85, 163, 167–8, 169, 170, 179, 183 Morbid angel 42, 177 Morbid records 41, 43, 60 Moribund Oblivion 134–5, 145 moshing 27, 66 Mötley Crüe 39, 156 Motörhead 20, 55,147 Moynihan, Michael 19, 23 MTV 20–1 Mudrian, albert 19, 42 Murder king 158 Muslim-ness 193, 195,197 My Dying Bride 22, 25 Myspace 46, 134 namus see honor; see also social prestige (şeref) and respect (saygı) Napalm Death 26, 42, 45 Napalm records 41 National socialism 86, 147, 149 Necrobutcher (Jorn Stubberod) 26, 132 Nefastum 135 Neferios 150 Nefret 55 Net, Murat 65 New Wave of British heavy Metal (NWBhM) 20 ney 9, 30, 33 Nietzsche, Friedrich 91, 98 Nilsson, Magnus 18 Nirvana 21, 54 Nitro 120, 169, 191 Nödtveidt, Jon 132 Non Serviam (fanzine) 52–3, 54, 95, 114–5 non serviam (“i will not serve”) 52–3 Norton, edward 149 nu metal 21–2 Nuclear assault 26 Nuclear Blast 40, 42, 60, 63 Nuri, Mehmet 99 Objektif 62 Obscene Productions 41 Oluoğlu, Şanver 53, 69 Ohlin, Per Yngve (Dead) 68, 128, 131–2 Oksijen 77

227

Onen, ufuk 38, 133 Öngür, Taner 33 Oral, sibel 113 Orion 58–9 Orphaned land 25, 64, 139,150, 152 Ortaköy incident 96, 114, 117, 123, 128; see also Ortaköy murder Ortaköy murder 95, 102–4, 107, 112, 117, 122, 124, 127, 138; see also Ortaköy incident Osbourne, Ozzy 19 Ottoman classical music 28, 32 oud 25 Oulanem, İlkim 174 Overkill 60, 201 Özal, Turgut 32, 35 Özdemir, hasan 101 Özgür, Ozzy 53 Öztürk, Zarife 115, 117 Pagan (band) 125, 134, 135, 145 pagan 3, 26, 64, 129, 131, 144–6, 151–2 Page, Jimmy 23 palm-muting 25 Panterakay 53, 163 Paradise lost 52 Peaceville 60 Pearl Jam 21 Pegasus 50 Pena 61–2 Pentagram (band) 39, 48, 62–7, 135 pentagram (symbol) 26, 49, 77–8, 104, 120, 141–2, 151 Pentagram Metal shop 39, 50 Pesch, Doro 155–6 Pestilence 26 Petersen, andrea 159 piercings 26, 115, 121, 175, 177, 184, 186, 189 Pigskins, the 174, 176–7 Pink Floyd 121 Pir sultan abdal 65 Plant, robert 20 Pogrom 134, 146–7 Poison 21 Polanski, roman 98 Police radio 56, 134 popular culture 14, 22, 98, 127, 147, 175

228

Turkish Metal

Postmortem 158–9, 175–6, 179 Powers, robert l. 18 pre-islamic 145–6 Presley, elvis 186 promiscuity 85, 156, 161 Protector 67 Public enemy 22 public sphere 68, 82, 124, 157–8, 179–80, 193; see also public spaces Pungent stench 67, 192 Purcell, Natalie J. 19 ra 62 rabin, eden 139 racism 152 racist 32, 129, 146, 150, 152–3 boundaries 153 categories 148, 152 ideas 129, 146–7, 149 ideologies 144, 152 radio and Television supreme council see rTÜk radiohead 88–9, 120 radyo eksen 61 Radyo İstek 61 radyo klüp 61 radyo Vizyon 61 raven Music 8, 41 rebellion 2, 23, 26, 52, 64, 202 reckwitz, andreas 13–4 reD FM 59 red stream 41 relapse records 60 religion 27, 95, 138–40, 144–5, 150–1, 158, 181, 184, 193–8 resistance 5, 64–5, 80, 145, 155–6, 159, 175, 199 respect (saygı) 8, 18, 67, 128, 149, 150–1, 153, 155, 160, 163, 170, 174, 184, 186, 191, 196; see also honor (namus) and social prestige (şeref) rock ‘n’ coke Festival 34 Rock Dünyası 56 rock FM 61 rock station 114 Rock Station (fanzine) 55, 65 rock station (radio) 61 rock station (TV program) 136

rock station Festival 32 roots Bar 77 rosenthal, Gabriele 11 rotting christ 51–2 rTÜk (radio and Television supreme council) 57–8, 60 saadeth 39 Sabancı, Özdemir 93 saboath 134, 145–6 sacred reich 100 sadistic spell 134 sagu 134, 137, 146 samoth (Tomas haugen) 131 sanctuary records 63 Sanlısoy, Ögün 65 sarcophagus 135 Sarısakal, Özer 55–6, 59, 75, 183 Sartre, Jean-Paul 98 satan 23–4, 50, 52, 64, 79, 83–4, 88, 91–3, 95–7, 100, 110–1, 121, 128, 136–87, 150–1, 196 satan’s revolt against God 52 satanic panics 12, 112, 114–6, 119, 121–2, 125, 146 satanic references (in metal) 23, 136–42 satanic salute 23 (see sign of the horns) satanic Verses 135 satanism 2, 3, 8, 12, 18–9, 23, 54, 65, 79–107, 109–14, 117, 119–27, 136, 151, 193, 197 invention of 109–28 satanist terror network/organization 95, 97, 101–2, 113, 124–5 satanized 135, 141–2 satyricon 130 saxon 20 saygı see respect saygun, ahmed adnan 29 saz 9, 25, 30–3, 64–5, 114, 117; see also bağlama schei, Terje Vik (Tchort) 131 schiffauer, Werner 159 schmitz, lilo 163 schütze, Fritz 11 scorpions 20 scott, ridley 134 seeds of hatred 5–6

Index sentinel steel 41 sepultura 26, 39, 64, 91 ses, Murat 33 Sewell, William H. Jr. 13 sexuality 84, 96, 167, 173 islamic concepts of 85–6, 162–3 traditional concepts of 160 shamanism (şamanizm) 145 sharpe-Young, Garry 19 sign of the horns 23 sirannon 135, 174 sithicus 134, 146, 150 skinhead 123, 148–9 skyclad 22, 25, 64 slam-dancing 27 slayer 16–7, 22, 26, 39, 49, 52, 62, 91, 101, 148, 201 slipknot 21 social prestige (şeref) 85, 149, 159–61, 169; see also honor and respect socialization 12, 16, 163 into metal 12 soderlind, Didrik 19 sodom 26, 48, 62, 67, 192, 201 Sohtaoğlu, Mete 60–1 Sonic Splendor 55 Soul Sacriice 65, 77, 115–6, 148–9, 165 Soully 191 soundgarden 21 soyhan, Tolga 59 spaces 148, 167, 18 female 174 metal 26 private 11, 139 public 2, 11, 68–72, 76, 79, 124, 143, 181; see also public sphere religious 157 of sociability 39 social 1, 75, 167 urban 68, 72 speed metal 21, 63 spillman, lyn 13–4 stage-diving 24, 27 staind 21 sTar 1 57 star of David 120, 139 steppenwolf 19 Stubberud, Jorn (Necrobutcher) 132

229

Stüdyo Imge 58 stüdyo Ümit 133 style subculture 19, 79, 99, 155 subversiveness 70, 96 moral 84, 90, 97, 103, 105 political 86 religious 84–5, 103 sexual 85–6, 103 social 86–7 subway to sally 25 suffocation 26 sus 58 swearts, Yishai 8 swedenburg, Ted 18 swedish Misanthropic luciferian Order 132 system of a Down 21 Şardan, Tolga 106 şamanizm (shamanism) 145 Şebek 53–5, 112–4, 163 şeref (social prestige) 159–62, 163–73, 184; see also honor and respect Şiringöz, Mazhar 39 Tagraht 135 tambur 33 Tamdeğer, Mehmet 10 Tankard 62, 67 Tanzimat 69–71 tape trading 7–8, 13, 40–7, 55, 63, 132 taqiyah 139 tattoos 26, 101, 107, 115, 124, 140, 175, 177, 186, 189, 194 Tchaikovsky, Pyotr ilyich 22 Tchort (Terje Vik schei) 131 Tears of Beggar 43 teenage suicides 79, 87, 88–91, 103–7 Tekil, Çağlan 39, 50, 61, 66 Tekin, Özlem 65–6 Teoman 66 tesbih 182 Testament 62 Tezgör, Hilmi 59 thrash metal 17, 19, 21, 24–5, 49, 52, 62, 100 German 54, 62, 67, 192

230

Turkish Metal

Turkish 38–9, 55, 62–3, 66 Tolkien, J.R.R. 105 Tomurcuk, agop 10 transgression(s) 24–5 in everyday life 197 production of 24; see also keith kahnharris religious 129 sexual 85 sonic 24–5, 129 of traditional gender identities 189 visual 25 verbal 25 Tucker, John 19 Tüfenk, Necati 59 Tunçay, kerim 51 Turanlı, Cenk 124–5 türban 157 Türkcan, Metin 65 Turkish copyright act 40 Turkish psychedelic rock 32–3 Turkish radio and Television corporation (TrT) 33, 47, 55–8, 136 Turkish viking metal 143–6 Turkuaz holding 58 Tygers of Pan Tang 20 UÇK Grind 8 Uludağlar, Bahadır 53, 135, 145 united Guttural records 41 universal records 63 uriah heep 19 Ünal, ahmet 98 Ünnü, cenk 48, 53, 62–3, 66 Üsküdar american high school 104 Venom 26, 49–50, 129, 134–5, 137 Vertigo 59

Vikernes, Varg 128, 131–3 Vintage solemnity 135 Volvox 66 Wallach, Jeremy 18 Walser, robert 18–9 webzines 47, 54–5, 112; see also fanzines Wedge, Thomas W. 18 Wehrli, reto 19, 23 Weinstein, Deena 6, 17, 26, 155 Westernization 86, –7, 101, 183, 193 Whisky 62, 65, 178 wine house (meyhane) 70, 72 Winger 21 Wintermoon 118 Witchtrap 134–7, 142 Woeful Cry 55 World chaos Production 41 Yalçın-Heckman, Lale 161 Yardımcı, Aslı 88–91, 119 Yer Altı 42–4, 132 Yıldız, Şener 56 Yılmaz, Fatih 103 Yörükoğlu, Engin 33 Young, Jock 79 youth 2, 6, 7, 38, 47, 79–80, 89, 91, 99, 103, 105, 111, 177, 193, 199 YouTube 46, 134 Yudum 73–4 Yuğaç, Alp Cenan 88–91, 119 Yüxexes 35, 61, 136 Zadeh, aziza Mustafa 64 Zat, Vefa 70, 72 Zerubavel, eviatar 16 Zihni Müzik 39, 146 Zor 55–6