Buddhist death metal band delivers enlightenment with headbanging beats in Taiwan

The Buddhist Channel, 10 Jan 2024

Taipei, Taiwan – In recent times, at several of Taiwan's major music festivals, an unexpected sight has graced the stage – a shaven Buddhist nun introducing a band of five black-clad musicians, their faces painted blood red.

As the initial riffs resonate through the venue, the band's music, though seemingly death metal, exudes a hard yet atmospheric quality. Death metal, an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal originating in the United States in the mid-1980s, is known for its guttural vocals, abrupt tempo, and relentless, discordant guitar riffs.

Contrary to the genre's typical themes, the Canadian singer's beastly growls are not conveying lyrics of sickness but are, in fact, genuine Buddhist mantras, bestowing blessings upon the entire audience.

Since their inception in 2018, Taiwan's Dharma has carved a distinctive niche, blending ancient Buddhist sutras in Sanskrit or Mandarin Chinese with the contemporary sounds of death metal. Standing out amidst thousands of heavy metal bands worldwide, they even feature two Buddhist nuns, Master Song and Master Miao-ben, joining them on stage.

Last month, the band marked a milestone by performing its inaugural overseas show at the International Indie Music Festival in Kerala. With offers of interest pouring in from North America and Europe, Dharma is poised to spread Buddha's message even further.

Jack Tung, Dharma's founding member and drummer, a significant figure in Taipei's underground music scene, shared, "We believe that in the 21st century, both heavy metal and ancient religions need to change."

Spiritual Intensity

Dharma's uniqueness lies in its subversion of the common perception of metal music and its fanbase, challenging the notion of it being an obnoxious and loud genre associated with degeneracy.

Since the 1990s, heavy metal has often been linked with Satanism and delinquency, such as Norwegian Black Metal, Venom and Black Sabbath. These alienated teenage musicians shocked the world with extreme actions such as burning churches and murder, all in the name of "musical authenticity."

In the realm of using death metal to convey Buddhist teachings, it might challenge conventional expectations and stereotypes associated with both death metal and Buddhism. The reaction to this unconventional combination could potentially trigger a form of "moral panic" within certain segments of society.

Stanley Cohen, in his book "Folk Devils and Moral Panics" argued that moral panics involve an exaggerated fear about a specific subcultural group perceived as tarnishing the community's core values.

Three decades later, as heavy metal and its derivatives anchor music scenes across the globe, Dharma envisions transforming the genre's globalized tropes into an effective vehicle for disseminating Buddhist teachings.