Funeral doom metal as the rhetoric of contemplation: A Burkean perspective

Abstract

Consulting the texts of twentieth-century rhetorician Kenneth Burke, this article maps a particular way that funeral doom metal acts as a tool of social communication. The investigation specifically examines how the music sparks contemplation in its listeners. To better understand this rhetoric, this article highlights the role of nonknowledge, negative space and solemnity to show how this musical rhetoric leads listeners into modes of transcendent thinking. Specifically, this examination gestures to several funeral doom artefacts from early 1990s, including albums from Cathedral, Skepticism and Thergothon. The article concludes by celebrating why ‘mystical’ attitudes can be valuable within social communication ‐ and how funeral doom metal can serve that function.