Woman as gorgon, woman as temptress: the classical and biblical mythology which has dominated Western thinking defines women in a variety of patriarchally encoded roles.

My main research findings were that artists often have detailed knowledge of the epic and that the lyrics are embedded within Finnish national identity through the myriad connections made with the Kalevala, other folk poetry, works of art important for Finnishness and their referrals to the four markers identified during the interviews. During the final step of my research, I contextualised the findings of my thesis so far and it became clear that the four markers of Finnishness were apparent across the different lyrics analysed. From the interviews, I established four markers of Finnish national identity: art, history, nature, language. These interviews were aimed at better understanding the legitimations for reworking Finnish folk poetry, their views of Finnish national identity and the place of their lyrics within that identity. After the lyrics analysis, I conducted interviews with (most of) the lyricists. The lyrics’ analysis showed that the lyrics make different connections to the Kalevala but also to other sources important for Finnishness, such as classic novels or historic events. This proposed method is exceptionally suitable as it allows for comparison between different texts to take the social, cultural, and historic context of the texts into account, and analyses lyrics for themes and on a stylistic level. From the taxonomy I chose eight lyrics to interpret with a method I propose based on other relevant methods, such as ethnopoetics, stylistics, and thematics. The taxonomy represents lyrics from allusions to the folk poetry through e.g., a place name, through to familiar stories retold in a different time or lyrics that are written in the traditional Kalevala-metre. This taxonomy exists of four categories: transposition, commentary, analogous transformation, and stylistic imitation. After the data collection of the lyrics, I proposed a taxonomy based on the types of reworkings found. This thesis focuses on the adaptation of the Kalevala (1849) – Finland’s national epic –, and other Finnish folk poetry in metal music lyrics from Finland. Representation matters, and the nuances of how the female gender has been portrayed throughout the centuries as reflected in the re-telling of a fairy tale is a subject that warrants a closer look through metal music and gender. As ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ traverses onward throughout the western society’s cultural consciousness, one can only hope for further metal music acts interpretations of this infamous fairy tale. Instead, it is the hallmark of a ‘great day’, and is something that should be celebrated. Meeting (or meating) a wolf that is hungry for you is nothing to fear in Type O Negative’s version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. In ‘Wolf Moon (including Zoanthropic Paranoia)’, the woman is rewarded for those experiences, by being permitted to indulge in her darkest desires. Real-life themes are undoubtedly found within fairy tales as well, with a special emphasis on how women who do not remain in their proper place are punished because of it. Any Women’s Studies programme student is attuned to how storytelling and imagery of those within the story influence gender roles and their perceptions. Both contain the same themes: the stigmatization of eroticism, reclamation of agency, along with the nuances of gender identity and representation. Subject to more critical examination, ‘Wolf Moon (including Zoanthropic Paranoia)’ can also be presented as a contemporary incarnation of the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ myth.

Type O Negative’s ‘Wolf Moon (including Zoanthropic Paranoia)’ seems to be a melodic ode to lascivious werewolves or to sexual intercourse during menstruation, which is transformative, allowing participation to channel animalistic instincts.

Typo negative wolf moon