Black Sabbath is a British Heavy Metal band, and arguably the most influential metal act in history. Upon reading “Black Sabbath” what images, thoughts and opinions come to mind? Perhaps your first thoughts are of a day of worship for some evil religion, or maybe you imagine Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat? Both activities are considered “deviant” in their own right to many so is Black Sabbath. Additionally many of the metal acts that followed in the footsteps of Black Sabbath are also considered “deviant.” But what is deviance? The obvious answer is things that deviate from the norm. Deviance is described by Becker as violating rules established by a group. More specifically he states “social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance (Becker, 6).” In other words, deviance is essentially a social construction; it is what we, society, say it is. As a society we have an ideal of what people are suppose to look and act like, and anyone who is not this socially constructed ideal is labeled deviant. For example, “Metal Heads,” is a term generally associated with people who have long hair, listen to Metal, drink and party probably more than one should, and some even assume they are satanic worshippers. What is interesting is that these groups of “deviants” have their own rules and ideals of deviance. In fact, it is often the adherence to these rules that make the “members” of said groups social deviants. However, according to the deviant group (i.e “Metal Heads”) it is everyone else who is supposedly deviant. At the core of the issue, the only difference between what mainstream society considers to be deviant and what a smaller group like “Metal Heads” consider to be deviant, is one groups power and privilege to enforce their rules and ideals of deviance on others. All clique’s and groups within society have their own social constructions of what is deviant. Consider metal heads and their preferred genre of music, metal, which is very generally characterized by aggressive guitar riffs, heavy drums and a fast paced intricate music structure and also has many sub-genres. This genre, especially today, is deviant from most social norms. What constructions of deviance can one extract from the lyrics of lead acts in the metal genre? One example of what is considered deviant within the group of “metal heads” is religious beliefs. To illustrate, this I will consider four songs, “After Forever” by Black Sabbath, “Leper Messiah” by Metallica, “Opiate” by Tool and “War” by System of a Down. None of them explicitly say they dislike religion, but religion can be inferred as a theme of deviance in metal.

Consider first “After Forever,” for a better understanding of the context of the song listen to it here. Although the song itself is obviously in favor of a belief in God, its implications are deeper. Specifically the line “Could it be you’re afraid of what your friends might say if they knew you believe in God above?” Consider the primary audience listening to this song, “metal heads” and that many of their friends are also “metal heads.” These lyrics then imply that the majority of metal fans don’t believe and God, making those that do deviants. “Leper Messiah,” is about TV Evangelists, and how they ask for me to prove your faith and its followers are “spineless.” This common theme, that blind followers of faith lack autonomy, is also illustrated by the lyrics in “Opiate.” Lastly there is “War” this song attempts to illustrate the evils of war brought on by religion. Referring to how religion has been used as justification for war, when there were possibly other motivations. I believe the lines “Was it the riches of the land, the powers of bright darkness that, that led the noble, to the east, to fight the heathens.” All four of these songs have negative connotations of religion within their lyrics, implying that this group of deviants considers religion to be deviant. Which in and of itself makes them deviant from the norm, as it is enforced by the people with the power and privilege to do so (Becker, 12.)  Word Count: 697.