Respect for heavy metal

Music student Eric Hardiman in the Dal Arts Centre. (Danny Abriel Photo)

Sweaty biceps, skin-tight leather, loud, distorted guitars and power vocals that blow off the Richter scale—heavy metal appeals to the discerning music fan.

Fans like Eric Hardiman, who keep heavy metal alive and thrashing through the waxing and waning of its popularity. As the Halifax resident studied music at Dalhousie for his undergraduate degree, his love of heavy metal sometimes grated against the Department of Music’s emphasis on classical music. But he was able to bring the two interests together—culminating in his performance of a classical violin concerto on electric guitar during Dalhousie Concerto Night.

Discovering Robert Walser’s Running with the Devil, he found a kinship with an academic who could see parallels between 19th century Romanticism and heavy metal. Posits Dr. Walser: Is the “aural adventure” of Van Halen’s Eruption a huge stretch from Prelude in C Major? The virtuosity of Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore much different from the brilliance of Liszt or Paganini?

Reading Running with the Devil was an eye-opening experience. A professor of music at UCLA, Dr. Walser brings legitimacy and respect to the study of heavy metal. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a dense guitar-and-drums-centred sound, characterized by amplified distortion and blistering guitar solos. As Mr. Hardiman remarks, “it’s not just thoughtless, head-banging music. There’s something to be said for virtuosity and proficiency at playing, the speed and aggressiveness of the sound.”

As the first student to enroll in the Department of Music’s new master’s of musicology program, Mr. Hardiman also aims to bring recognition to heavy metal music. He recently received a Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to embark on his research.

Specifically, he’s interested in the contributions women have made to the testosterone-fuelled genre, from the management savvy of Sharon Osbourne, to the vocal prowess of Ann Wilson in Heart and the influence of vocal instructor Melissa Cross, “who teaches men to be men,” he says. And it’s on the point of the gender where he begs to differ with Dr. Walser and other critics, who argue heavy metal is strictly “no-girls allowed.”

A longtime guitar instructor, now with Long & McQuade in Halifax, Mr. Hardiman says he grew up listening to bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Metallica and playing music with his “metalhead” drummer brother. Once he finishes his thesis, his aim is to become a professor and teach musicology.

“Teaching is like a rock show without the lights,” he says.