The International Society for Metal Music Studies

DECOLONIAL METAL MUSIC IN LATIN AMERICA Nelson Varas-Díaz   “You want to make it sound like it came from a Latin American being,” said Luis, the lead singer of the Mexican band Acrania, as he explained why he integrated the trumpet and salsa arrangements into his death/thrash metal band. That encounter echoed many other experiences […]

Some exciting ISMMS announcements have us in good spirits! Awhile back we advertised for a Webmaster position on the ISMMS Board, and we’re happy to say that we now have Dr. Steven Gamble of University College Cork in the position. Steve is the author of How Music Empowers: Listening to Modern Rap and Metal (Routledge […]

If you ask metalheads why they love heavy metal music you will get loads of answers: the energy of the music, the intensity, the loudness…  But there will also be quite a few who will say that metal saved their life, or keeps them sane.  Music is a great coping strategy for many people, but metal in particular has only recently been understood within […]

Metal has often been critically reviled, subject to prejudice and persecution. Metal’s pretensions to art are frequently seen as laughable. It’s understandable, therefore, that the first scholars to take an interest in metal, were keen to emphasise its ‘seriousness’ as a genre. Pioneering studies by Deena Weinstein and by Robert Walser, published in the 1990s, […]

Borealism is essentially a form of exoticism, building on Edward Saïd’s “orientalism,” a concept detailing how European artistic depictions of African, Asian, and Middle Eastern cultures tended to emphasize violence, “primitiveness,” and sensuality. It is one way we define ourselves collectively by defining who we *aren’t*, often with a hefty dose of condescension. Borealism adapts […]

Ah nationalism and metal music… There are thousands of examples of groups promoting their history and their culture in the lyrics of their songs by using their national language, on their album covers with beautiful pictures of their landscape, or even in their music by utilizing traditional instruments. For many, simply evoking the equation “metal music + nationalism” raises a lot […]