Abstrakt
The sublime is an aesthetic experience described most famously by Burke and Kant as a mixture of awe, fear, and beauty. In some forms, especially in the case of Kantian "mathematical sublime", this experience can have religious connotations, where encountering God is akin to an experience of the sublime.
In my presentation, I will argue that certain genres of metal music, particularly technical and progressive metal, can be interpreted as often attempting to invoke the feeling of the sublime in their listeners, be it knowingly or unknowingly. On the examples of the bands Mastodon and Gojira, I will attempt to sketch out certain characteristics of progressive metal music that could be taken as expressions of the sublime.