The Goat-God Motif in Heavy Metal Music

Since its emergence as a recognizable artistic endeavor, heavy metalhas brought and enabled an authentic aesthetics in the wider culture: notonly has it shaped its own unmistakable sonic “landscape”, but it has alsoshaped forms of visual presentation. Taken together, heavy metal has anadequate language for the communication of the ideas and motifs that arein its foundations. As art is one of the ways in which human beings gainan understanding of the self and the world (the other ways are philosophy,science, mythology, etc.) it is no surprise the art engages with various waysof perceiving. It is not only that these different ways correspond with eachother, but are often the subject of one another as well. Heavy metal music isno exception as it also relies and draws its content from the phenomena ofthe world at large, and from introspection as well: the realms of the psyche.The mythical motif of the goat-like god Pan is a motif relating to both theoutside world and the psyche: it expresses many things: divinity, humanity,nature, animalism, horror, psychosis, sexuality, countermovement andcontrast as well as the cultivation of the individual and the communityin the arts of dance and music. Claiming that Pan as motif has attained asignificant place in the art of heavy metal as a symbol is an understatement,given that the discursive approximation and the exegesis of the Pan Mythos can indeed clarify the overall aesthetic and form of heavy metal and someof its numerous subgenres specifically. The aim of this article is to provide acomparative analysis of the descriptions of the goat-god Pan originating inancient culture, with its form and meaning in the domain of heavy metal;most notably in the artistic endeavour Arckanum.