A Sonic Analysis of Sound of Metal
By: Khadeeja Amenda
Tags: Riz Ahmed, Sound Design, Amazon Prime Video, Film Reviews, Sound Of Metal

Ruben plays drum Sound of Metal. Image courtesy: The Federal.

Sound of Metal directed by Darius Marder is an American drama released in 2019. The film got its over-the-top (OTT) release on Amazon Prime this December. It was the title of the movie starting with sound, that made me curious to give it an ear[1].

What is sonic analysis?

Sonic analysis is an attempt to ‘listen’ to a film, rather than watch it. Listening to a film is a different experience for a visually abled listener, as a medium like cinema is primarily meant to be ‘watched’. The popular form of film review, critical review and academic readings on films through the disciplinary lens of film studies is visually oriented. Be it in popular writings or academic ones, apart from the passive mentions on background score, a ‘sonic turn’ is yet to happen on writings on films[2].

Sound of Metal

Sound of Metal is about the sounds in Ruben’s life. The sounds he had listened, wish to be listened and wish not to be listened. (Spoilers ahead)

Ruben (played by Riz Ahmed) is a drummer in a band that plays loud and heavy music (heavy metal genre of music). He was addicted to heroin, but is clean since last four years. Louise (Olivia Cooke), or Lou is his girlfriend and lead singer in the band. They lead a gypsy life, somewhere near Missouri in the United States in an RV camper van. All set to start their first big gig in the form of a music tour mentioned throughout the movie.

The opening of the film is with an ear deafening music, or noise for an ear like mine unfamiliar with the heavy metal genre of music played in the film. The heavy chords of guitar, beats of drum and loud voice of the singer gives a backdrop of the noise (as mentioned by the otolaryngologist who diagnoses the protagonist’s ear loss) where Ruben’s professional life is surrounded with. Cut to the next scene on his private life the sound is as if in a sealed space with air to flow or as inside in an envelope. His transition to a clean life is shown in the smoothing maker’s sound that made a green drink and dedication to the upcoming tour by airing surface cleaner on the analogue audio mixer. Such an accurate mapping of everyday sounds by the sound designer gives the listener a sense of multiple lives of the characters the film is about. Along with this sonic mapping, it is also interesting to listen to the silence and absence of background score in their everyday life, as it happens in a shut RV van. As Ruben and Lou chases their dream of music tour, the RV van passes through numerous landscapes. In such shots, the only constant is the sound of RV with the changing sounds of city, tunnels, bridges with flowing water underneath and so on.

Sudden shrieks followed by silence is utilised to give a hint to the listener on the about to be lost listening ability of Ruben. On yet another normal day of musical performance, a sound check is done by Ruben and Lou’s mates. The irony of silence accompanying a heavy metal performance makes the listener understand that it is not yet another normal day in Ruben’s life. Suddenly the music excavates to the deafening loudness of the performance. The next morning after the gig, Ruben wakes up and follows the normal-mundane life. But with a difference, everything happens in silence. The machine mediated sounds like that of smoothie maker and water sprinkling from shower is shown in silence. To make sure of the silence surrounding him, Ruben makes sounds from his own body like blowing his own nose. As he rushes to the doctor’s place the city in the backdrop is also in silence. The loss of ability to hear is assessed through technology and the possibility of a machine cochlear implant is explained by the doctor. The major transition of ‘being deaf’ started from touch of the nurse at the doctor’s as Ruben waited for his name to be called upon. And it gets completed once he is at the community that does not believe in deafness as a handicap. A major portion of the movie is in silence as Ruben along with the community studies sign language. The frustration Ruben faces in this new condition of being deaf is shown in loud thuds and bangs, at times to the extent of playing drums in the silence of RV van parked among the stridulating crickets. Touch or the sense of being felt is beautifully used as means to enjoy music by those who cannot do it by the ear, be it from enjoying sounds of a piano or rhythmic beats made on an outdoor slide. One of the painful moment in the film is when Ruben finds Lou’s singing performance on the internet but is unable to hear her. As Ruben gets back his hearing ability with the help of the implant his listening sense is as if his ear is placed inside a radio in search of the right frequency. The everyday sounds like that of an airplane engine, laughs of a group of children and sirens that are undistinguished by the ear once again is back in Ruben’s life. But not as he is used to hearing it more with a grainy and distorted texture. As Ruben decides to take away the implant in the city of Paris, before going back to the deafening silence which he is comfortable with, the ringing bells of church echoes.

Historically, church bells are sonic reminders of past and present lives of spaces especially in the European context. Like those echoing church bells that connects Ruben’s past, present and the coming times in life.

[1] Everyday language is ocular centric, be it terms like bearing ‘eyewitness’ or ‘focus’. Give it an ear is a sonic mark for the popular usage ‘give it a watch’.

[2] There are major shift across cinema industries with regard to sound in film production and film reception. More will be written on this on a later time.