Dante's Inferno in hardcore and technical metal

Dante's Comedy has been a magnet for Outsider culture since it was written. The connection is a natural one. The brutal elegance of Inferno's fitting punishments have staying power in the minds of readers with the constitution to appreciate them. And to those so aesthetically inclined, there is a macabre beauty to the poetry that goes beyond a simple lasting impression. The discordant, tortured imagery of individual scenes in The Inferno compliment the order of Dante's well-organized cosmology. The chaos of tortured souls fill the circles of Inferno which are as organized, defined, and bordered as the Cantos that form them. It is the harmony of chaos and order that draws the Outsider to Dante's macabre aesthetic.

The Outsider also sympathizes both with Dante's quest for meaning and the futile desire without hope of the damned for peace. Dante presents himself as the ultimate outsider, a rebel poet. He is an initially directionless and alone, being guided through an unfamiliar, unsettling landscape witnessing and criticizing the sins of man in a divine quest for understanding. This narrative is constant in the art of Outsiders, who reject the simple social conventions of what life is supposed to be, and see themselves as tortured by apparent meaningless despite existing in a natural world with such apparent order. Again, the juxtaposed aesthetic of harmony and chaos.

In music, this aesthetic expresses itself best in the self-consciously post-structural genres of hardcore and technical metal. The initially jarring roughness of the vocals in this style of music is complimented by a methodical, ordered instrumentation that aims to rival the precision of a symphony. The appeal of the music is found in the harmony of order and chaos, as well as the raw, visual emotion that usually expresses itself as simultaneous anger and pity at the state of the world.

Many bands borrow directly from Dante, while countless more explore similar themes of human decency, suffering, and the feeling of purposelessness.

(I should note that lots of the bands I'm going to post below I don't personally enjoy, though I can appreciate them each in their own way.)

Transmetal - El Infierno de Dante

AFI - Midnight Sun(featuring a chorus taken from the gates of Inferno,
"Beyond and to all time I stand"

Ancient - At the Infernal Portal (Canto III)

Iced Earth - Dante's Inferno
(An epic, highly narrative song. Reading along the lyrics while listening recommended)

Sepultura - Fighting On(from the concept album Dante XXI, designed to mirror Dante's journey through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso)

Discipline - Canto IV