BY THE ALIMOCHE TEAM
12 September 2022
Foreword: Welcome to the first article of Alimoche, our boundary-pushing avant-garde arts and cultural magazine. This piece is inspired by my husband, the love of my life and my eternal muse, Kirk J A MacRae. Thank you for constantly spurring me on and devoting so much dedication to every second spent together my love.
“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” This harrowing statement cited to Benjamin Franklin in 1789 highlights the permanence of death’s inevitability.
Such inevitability present within human history, including through religious and esoteric descriptions of the looming nature of the ending of life, has nonetheless contributed to the personification of death as a concept, most notably through the infamous character of the Grim Reaper, often a gaunt skeletal figure shrouded in a shadowed mantle, fleshless fingers clutching the handle of a sickle gleaming in the moonlight. The Grim Reaper wordlessly marks the cessation of life, and silently accompanies the deceased to the afterlife. Yet despite guiding the newly departed soul into its final state of being, the presence of the Reaper is vilified and feared within its depictions in popular culture, pervading sentiments toward death within the current human experience. However, within the metal musical genre, attitudes toward this negative presentation of the Reaper are changing, and in conjunction with alternative fashion and spiritual practices departing from organised Abrahamic religion, the modern paradigm of the Reaper as a villainous entity is slowly shifting as it diverges from the mainstream reputation.
Snippet from “Love’s Passing”- Evelyn De Morgan 1884
The Reaper in Religion
One of the main culprits to the negative image of death, and therefore the Reaper itself, is the Bible. Revelation 6:8 presents death as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In natural Biblical fashion, disparaging anything against the unattainably delusional desire for constant truth, light and virtue, death as one of the apocalyptic quartet sits astride a pallid green horse, weaponless amongst his brethren. This presentation of death as an evil figure, as supreme destroyer amongst the destructive forces of vengeance, is one of the oldest and most widespread influences on the human perception of death, and subsequently due to the sheer impact of the Bible within human culture, has greatly enabled the antagonism of death thus further contributing to the vilification of the Reaper.
Death on the Pale Horse”- Benjamin West (1796)
In contrast to the esoteric presentation of the Reaper and death via the Thoth tarot deck created by Aleister Crowley, the concept of death is a blackened skeleton in the throes of dance macabre, and the Reaper aspects of the hooded cloak and the scythe are present within the Hermit and Death cards respectively. Within Thoth tarot, Death symbolises change and the Hermit symbolises selflessness and truth. In this way, it is evident alternative esoteric spirituality endeavours to deify the Reaper, instead of its malicious Biblical counterpart; and deification in the sense of the Reaper as the selfless altruistic guide rather than the vengeful rider in the apocalyptic cavalry. However, a resurgence in alternative spirituality, including tarot from both Rider-Waite and Crowley-Harris* Thoth decks and occultism heralds the gradual emergence of a positive empyrean affinity with the Reaper, completely diverging from its vitriolically widespread Abrahamic roots and perception.
Above: Death and The Hermit, Tarot of Stars Eternal (Roberto Negrini and Andrea Serio)
The Reaper in Metal
Further unlike its Abrahamic presentation within mainstream media, the glorification and sympathy toward the Reaper can be seen within the metal musical scene. Traditional views of the Reaper are here abandoned, in lieu of a fascination and almost reverence of death itself. This deification of the Reaper can be seen in the Reaper’s godlike status as the central character in the Children of Bodom discography. Within Children of Bodom’s discography, the inherent transfixion with death and the Reaper is first witnessed through its omnipresence as the main motif in the majority of the band’s cover art, wherein a solitary figure stands, mutely waiting, in the image of the silent guide for the afterlife. Within the Bodom album art collection, much of the skeletal gauntness of the Reaper is removed, instead depicting a much more fleshed-out Reaper.
“Something Wild”- Children of Bodom (1997)
The shadowed hood and sickle still remain, but the removal of the stereotypically skeletal superficial appearance of the Reaper instinctively produces a mostly more positive view of said character. The most notable presentations of this more fleshed out Reaper, almost completely presented as more of a living human in the garb of the death guide can therefore be argued to be much more likely to be deified, as in the context of human nature, in Catholic saints, but also the effigies of most divine beings in most religions and spiritual affiliations, the closer the degree of anthropomorphism to complete or quasi-humanity, the more likely to be accepted and revered within the human experience. Thus by diverging from the skeletal appearance of the Reaper, the Children of Bodom Reaper can be argued to display much more of a positive, but also less unsettling countenance, and thus can be vilified and feared less, enticing the audience to indeed release their inhibitions and Follow The Reaper.
The Reaper in Alternative Fashion
Killstar- Dungeoness Hoodie
There is an undeniable link between the convergence of fashion and music; for fashion itself is a visual guide to the identity and inner dialogue of a person’s self-expression. Consequently, whilst flannel shirts and cowboy boots denote the country music scene, the metal music scene is dominated by alternative, gothic and industrial fashion, much of which is available from online boutique retailers, including Killstar, Dolls Kill and Disturbia. As much of the alternative fashion scene is dominated by women, pieces including the Dungeoness Hoodie from Killstar emulate Reaperesque clothing, bringing these macabre elements of the look into curated fashion. Whilst Reaper elements are common within certain collections, including various Rick Owens collections, alternative fashion due to its subcultural links with music emphasises and dramatizes these elements, including via exaggerated drapery, dramatic sleeves and oversized hoods. The Dungeoness Hoodie specifically implements the Reaper elements, through the oversized hood detail, in addition to the dramatic draped sharkbite hem. Layered elements within alternative womenswear emulating the style of the Reaper include floaty, haphazardly-cut mesh layers and bell sleeves, mimicking the natural drapery of the Reaper’s robe. But the question posed is: how does alternative womenswear deify the Reaper? Due to the sanctity of the female form, and the juxtaposition of femininity with the often-masculine presentation of the Reaper, alongside the increased interest in drapery and other details within alternative clothing, the Reaper is deified within alternative womenswear as a provider of fashion details. Additional faux canonisation is given to the Reaper within the fashion sphere through these styles becoming more commonplace and therefore more socially accepted, whilst still highlighting the individuality and musical aspects of the subcultural fashion scene. Glorification of the Reaper is therefore present as the Reaper is not vilified, but instead celebrated through these details, including oversized hoods, dark heavy fabrics including velvet and jacquard, mesh drapery, bell sleeves and sharkbite and handkerchief hems, emphasising the macabre and morbid fascinations within fashion.
Whilst nothing is certain except death and taxes according to Franklin, it is therefore wrong to assume the homogenous mainstream villianising of the Reaper will be sustained within non-Abrahamic spiritual practices, in addition to metal music and alternative fashion. Instead of fearing the Reaper, the Reaper is followed, and deified not in the sense of Hades being a god of the dead, but instead as a silent guide of the dead, bestowing the realistic truth of the cycle of life and death and escorting departed souls to their resting places. Whilst the certainty of death and taxes remains, the certainty of the Reaper being a constant villain crumbles, within the areas analysed, but also within this apologia and love letter to the Grim Reaper.
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