10 | MARCH 16 • 2023 

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column
A Rabbi’s Guide to Extreme Metal
I 

know the title of 
this article is kind of 
surprising, and if you 
don’t know me, sounds like 
the beginning of a joke. Even 
if you do know 
me, it might 
sound funny. I 
am a middle-
aged rabbi 
who teaches 
meditation, 
does yoga 
and is, on the 
exterior at least, pretty calm, 
if not placid. I have the 
range of facial expressions 
of a cat, which does not 
correspond with the cliché of 
the headbanging metal fan 
wearing a heavily patched 
denim jacket with the sleeves 
cut off and a permanent 
sneer.
I have been a metalhead 
since I was 12. There was 
a segment on the news 
warning families about the 
dangers of the band Black 
Sabbath, and they played a 
little of their music. It was 
magic. Power chords, weird 
imagery and drums that 
went right through. I was a 
pudgy, husky clothes, glasses-
wearing nerd. It was the 
sound of how to transcend a 
boring and mundane life. 
I then heard Led Zeppelin 
IV and Rush. Geddy Lee of 
Rush was not just Jewish, but 
the child of a survivor, like 
me. Then, of course, there 
was Kiss, which featured 
not just one, but two Jewish 
boys. The music gave me the 
strength and adrenalin to 
get through some difficult 
moments.

My interest in metal 
remained as I got older, but 
I developed an interest in a 
lot of other kinds of music 
as well. Two things brought 
me back to listening to 
metal, particularly in its most 
extreme forms. The first was 
becoming a rabbi. The other 
was the death of my parents.
I have been a rabbi since 
I was 28 and have officiated 
at more funerals than I ever 
would have imagined. I have 
seen more death and dying 
and have spent more time 
in cemeteries than the most 
grizzled metal musician. 
I am almost 60 now, and 
it never gets easier. I don’t 
want it to get easier because 
that would require becoming 
jaded and closed off. I 
promised myself I would quit 
the day that happened.
My father died in 2018, 
and my mother died in 2022. 
Their lives and my life with 
them were complex; at times 
uplifting and life-affirming, 
at times not, as many family 
relationships are.
Extreme metal music 

has helped me navigate the 
emotions of being involved 
in the worst moments of 
people’s lives and my own. 
It is one of the few forms of 
music that looks at death and 
not away from it. It confronts 
our fears and anxiety and 
gives words for it. It provides 
catharsis, not solipsism. It 
is often a tough and brutal 
listen, and it rarely reveals 
itself at once, but with 
patience it can take feelings 
that have been long pushed 
down into my soul and bring 
them into the light of day 
and give feelings of hope and 
redemption. 
It is not for young kids, 
and it might not be the place 
to start if you are currently 
in great emotional distress. 
If you are seeing a therapist, 
I would discuss it before 
exploring the discography.

DEATH, DOOM, THRASH 
AND BLACK
There are several categories 
of extreme metal, but most 
fall into the categories of 
death, doom, thrash and 

black, with lots of subsets 
and overlaps of each. They 
tend to vary in speed and 
atmosphere, some blazingly 
fast and others funereally 
slow, some bleak and others 
uplifting. I will give one 
example of each.
Chuck Schuldiner, whose 
father was Jewish by birth 
and whose mother was 
Jewish by choice, was one 
of the most influential 
musicians in the metal world. 
He started a band called 
Death, which is one of the 
reasons this variety of metal 
is called that. He dealt with 
deep and painful existential 
issues and questions of what 
it means to be human, and 
constantly evolved musically 
and intellectually. 
The music is fast and 
technically challenging. He 
passed away from a brain 
tumor at a young age, but 
his music continues to be a 
deep influence on younger 
musicians. Some of the 
music is explicit and gory. It 
is not for young kids, and I 
would not start with his early 
music.
Anthrax is a thrash band 
whose longtime guitarist is 
Scott Ian, who has spoken 
publicly about his being 
Jewish, and even was part 
of a show called Metal and 
Matzah. Thrash tends to be 
loud and fun, with lots of 
headbanging and mashing, 
though it can also be very 
political. I listen to it mostly 
in the gym.
Doom is much slower 
and much more connected 
to death and loss in an 

KOBER/WIKIPEDIA

continued on page 12

Rabbi Aaron 
Bergman

Israeli band 
Orphaned Land 
at the Tbilisi 
Blitzkrieg Fest 
2014

