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Among real Metalheads, if you are a Metal musician, the way you look is irrelevant and will not help your career.
In fact, Heavy Metal is probably the only music genre in which being considered good-looking is not an advantage. On the contrary, if you are “too good-looking”, it could have the opposite effect.
This is also valid for females. A female musician could be hot, but despite looks, it won’t truly “stick”, work or stay without musical talent.

In the Metal world, talent and skill trump aesthetics; even if charisma helps, I dare to say that physical looks are secondary.
Regarding Black Metal, corpse paint is meant to have the opposite effect, and the goal is to look as scary as possible.
Aesthetics do have an important place: the outfits, visuals, accessories, and makeup help to create nearly theatrical looks, and this whole atmosphere is more important than how good you look wearing them.
There are also the band T-shirts and battle vests, which are a big deal and a way to honour our favourite bands and to display clearly what sort of Metalhead we are.

Talking still about “image”, these visual aspects associated with the angry music helped people to paint and form a simplified vision, a “Metalhead stereotype”.
There is also the depressed, apathetic, similar version that may also be “angry” and wearing corpse paint with Black Metal looks. Black Metal became known because the genre grew a lot and was shown in documentaries after the Mayhem events and also in a few movies.
The “General population” is known and called humorously by Metalheads as “civilians”.

About “anger”, some Metalheads will say that anger issues and music are not related, but there could be a correlation for some of us.
The aggressive lyrics, powerful drums and riffs may work for some as a way to express and let part of the anger within get out in the healthiest way possible: through music.
I think personally that the main pull people have towards Heavy music is the appreciation of elaborated music in terms of compositions and arrangements (a large number of Metalheads are also musicians) and this liberating aspect in which everything is allowed within our music, even emotions and behaviours that are perceived as negative, such as anger.

I don’t want to sound patronizing, but I want to clarify what I understand with the words *”archetypes and symbols” because I don’t want to be misunderstood or reinforce the stereotypes associated with us. On the contrary, I want to talk here about identity and what unites us beyond music: common characteristics such as depth and values such as loyalty and a sense of community.
Most individuals who enjoy heavy music show depth in their personalities and a developed capacity to assimilate and process musical stimuli. Some studies claim Heavy music listeners may be cleverer than average.

Of course, this is not always the case, and some folks just like to “blast heavy sound” and call themselves “Metalheads” or people who pass through a “phase”, but the truth is: between ourselves, we recognize each other. Even without band t-shirts, spikes and leather, you talk for 10 minutes to someone, and you know it.

*An archetype is a universally understood symbol, term, or pattern of behaviour.
Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling across different cultures. A symbol is a word or object that stands
for another word or object. The object or word can be seen with the eye or not visible. For example, a dove stands for Peace.
The dove can be seen, and peace cannot. The word is from the Greek word symbolism. All language is symbolizing one thing or
another. However, when we read, for example, the book of Genesis, it talks about a few symbols. In the story of Adam and Eve, when Eve ate the apple, the apple stands for sin. Another reading is Cain and Able. The two brothers stood for good and evil, humility and pride.
Cain pulled Able to the fields and killed him. In this, it is a hidden symbol. It shows that Cain stands for the bad, and Able
stands for the good.