Abstract: This thesis will demonstrate how Black Metal music became established in Japan, how it evolved, and how musicians situate themselves in a globalized form of community. It is a study of how Japanese Black Metal functions in the tensions between globalization and localization, a term called “glocalization” (Victor Roudometof 10). Japanese Black Metal is globalized around a set of rules and ideas, a term Deena Weinstein uses to describe Heavy Metal music called “codes” (Heavy Metal the Music 100). Additionally, as this music is localized, it reveals how many Japanese musicians express uniquely cynical viewpoints of religion and established authority using these globalized codes. Due to its anti-Christian and brutal history in other countries, Black Metal is seen as transgressive against mainstream society. Through electronic ethnographic research with Japanese Black Metal artists, this thesis finally examines how Black Metal is at once desirable yet also transgressive in Japanese society, a country with a comparatively low population of Christians.

Abstract: Since the revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has imprisoned musicians, especially punk, hip-hop, and hard rock bands, as well as those playing heavy metal subgenres. Extreme heavy metal artists and fans emerged in the 1990s. The government soon targeted them as Satanists and began a systematic crackdown on metalheads. The metalcore band Confess is the most well-known case. The band was arrested in 2015 on counts of blasphemy, disturbing public opinion through the production of music, participating in interviews with the opposition media and propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, among other charges. The majority of secular countries today do not consider extreme heavy metal to be transgressive. This is not the case in contexts where religious traditions have a significant influence on society. By analysing the narrative of the band Confess, the purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of how Iranian extreme metal musicians resist religious oppression, challenge their government, religious precepts, and social values through their music.