'Tis a rare occasion indeed when heavy metal works its way into the mainstream news media, and it's usually as the butt of a joke (remember that story last year about the Swedish gentleman who qualified for disability pay because of his obsession with metal?) Last week, Slate's "Dear Prudence" column answered a letter from a woman whose boyfriend could only perform well in bed while he was listening to brutal death metal:

"What really bothers me are the awful themes. It disturbs me that a seemingly well-adjusted man in his 30s is aroused by torture fantasies set to music. He says it's just about the 'energy' for him, but I really don't know what to think about someone who wants to listen to Cannibal Corpse when he makes love to me. "

Personally, I would love it if my hypothetical bedmate dug on Unleashed and Suffocation during sex, more because I would love the idea of HER getting in to it than any need I myself have for my porking to be accompanied by blastbeats and screaming. I'm probably in the minority though, and if I were Dear Prudence, I'd prescribe a healthy dose of communication to deal with this problem -- perhaps if the inquirer understood that not all of her boyfriend's musical choices involve torture fantasies, she would be more sympathetic towards the catharsis that peri-coital death metal can provide.

Kudos to Prudence for distilling the important point without directly denigrating dude's taste:

"You get through these sessions by trying to disassociate yourself from what is going on. This does not sound like a formula for sustained intimacy. "

 Let this be a lesson to porn directors worldwide: Not everyone is turned on by smooth jazz and 70s funk loops. [Slate]