While in Italy the acculturating musical debate is divided between those who support Tony Effe and those who don’t, in the rest of the world there are those who carry forward really important issues: have you ever heard of native musicians? Real ones heavy metal bands who write on a wide range of topics, from rurality to discrimination to the various nuances of colonialism. Without forgetting the climate crisis.
Heavy metal often has lyrics related to dark themes with very powerful instrumentation and an immense variety of subgenres. And it’s almost universally accepted that it began with Black Sabbath in 1968.
But not everyone knows that, just as the British quartet was laying the foundations of the new genre, XIT, pronounced “exit,” was singing to the world about Indigenous life and experiences on its 1972 album Plight of the Redman. And heavy metal also began there among the indigenous populations.
5 indigenous heavy metal bands you (maybe) don’t know
Once considered the “first commercially successful Indian rock band“, they sang with extreme transparency about the effects of colonization, poverty and loss of indigenous traditions. A new and different way that was not immediately liked and did not arrive immediately: his politics and his performances at American Indian Movement rallies, for example, pushed the FBI to try to suppress that music, but this did not stop XIT from touring Europe three times.
Led by the singer and guitarist Cree Nik Alexanderhad been exploring similar themes since 1979 with an anti-colonial and pro-environmental message which could have been written today:
Man has his machines in mother earth, killing balance and destruction woven into our destiny, Alexander sang in “Selfish Man”.
The song questions whether destroying the earth for nuclear energy is worth it: “They say nuclear energy is good, like the light that makes the night bright. But that doesn’t mean you can have my birthright, right, selfish man?” (Then, as now, indigenous peoples were at the forefront of opposition to nuclear energy.) The band was popular enough to perform with the likes of Van Halen and Motley Crue and earned a slot at the US Festival in 1983, but disbanded a year later.
They represent the people Tsimshian in the Pacific Northwest region and are a black/death metal band who sing primarily in their native language of S’malygax. Their sound is bare and incorporates some elements of the traditional flute. In recent years, they prepared their “first new release in a decade”, with profits donated to charities benefiting First Nations peoples.
De facto standard-bearer of the so-calledrez metal” (“rez” short for “reserve“), sing from the southeastern Navajo Reservation in New Mexico and have made it their mission to inspire Native youth with their positive message. Their 80’s inspired song “Live for Something, Die for Nothing” is a huge sounding anthem with a message against colonialism and the protection of their traditions:
They represent the pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures of Mexico and draw on Aztec mythology and a wide range of traditional instruments to create their brand of “folk metal”. The band (cemican is a Nahuatl word and means “the duality of life and death”) makes generous and skillful use of theatricality in their live show, performing in stylized Aztec warrior armor.
