Citation and Recitation in Mystical Scholarship and Om's Drone Metal

In this article I compare the uses of texts designated „mystical‟ in two
traditions: the academic study of religions and the heavy metal music genre of
drone metal. Rather than attempting to define mysticism, I review the ways in
which quotations of texts have been employed in academic studies on
mysticism, noting that many scholarly works devoted to understanding and
categorising previous mystical texts have later been designated mystical
themselves. Then, taking as a case study a recent album by drone metal
group Om, I examine the related ways of reusing religious texts, sounds,
symbols and practices in drone metal music, culture and discourse. I compare
and contrast the uses of such texts, sounds, symbols and themes in both
traditions, and the implications of their differing epistemological and cultural
status. Setting up and then undermining a division between two kinds of
textual reference in citation and recitation, I suggest that „mysticism‟ in drone
metal and in mystical scholarship is constituted through both uses. In a final
example, I show how a webpage of listener comments attached to an online
clip of Om‟s music displays a range of these „mystical‟ textual practices.