ISMMS announces two Book Awards for scholarly books about metal—one for an English language book and one for a book written in a language other than English. The requirements for both are: The Board will create a committee for reviewing and judging submissions based on number and language of submissions received. The decisions will be … Read more
Historically, heavy rock and metal music seems to have had a somewhat uneasy relationship with what became understood as rock radio. Deena Weinstein (2000) notes that during the late 1970s in the USA when bands such as AC/DC and Kiss were enjoying substantial success in terms of concert ticket sales and album sales, heavier bands … Read more
The website “metalbrasileirozines.com.br” is a recent online source (2024) that converges digitized fan zines of the Brazilian underground metal since the printed versions of the 80s. Navigating on the website is possible to filter the research of the digitized material by each of the twenty-six Brazilian states and the Federal District. People from many parts … Read more
Riffs has published a new open access special issue, Ozzy Osbourne (June 2026), edited by Asya Draganova and Benjamin Torrens. Following Black Sabbath’s final hometown performance, Back to the Beginning, in Birmingham and the global reflections about Ozzy Osbourne’s passing, the summer issue brings together a collection of perspectives about Ozzy’s legacy from academic researchers, … Read more
Book presentation and panel In late 2021, prof. dr. Nelson Varas-Díaz (Florida International University) published Decolonial Metal in Latin America, the book that bundles his years of research on the manifold ways in which metal music in Latin America has manifested to fight against different kinds of oppression passed down from colonialism. In this video, … Read more
The Metal Music Studies journal has a new special issue on Metal and the Holocaust, co-edited by Keith Kahn-Harris and Dominic Williams. The table of contents is: KISS: Jewishness, hard rock and the Holocaustpp. 277-297(21)Author: Stratton, Jon From ‘The Fading’ to ‘Scream with Me Never Again!’: Shoah and Jewish identity in Israeli and US metalpp. 299-318(20)Author: Jackson, … Read more
Dr Nelson Varas-Díaz plans to follow his 2019 documentary Songs Of Injustice with the new film Acts Of Resistance – once again in collaboration with Metal Hammer: https://www.loudersound.com/news/acts-of-resistance-new-film-on-latin-american-heavy-metal-revealed
The latest publication from musicologist Camille Béra: “From Plato to Dodecahedron: The contribution of Ligétian textures and electronic music to the compositions of an extreme metal band” In this study, we will develop the idea that Extreme Metal, in search of generic renewal due to stagnantion in its musical language since the end of the … Read more
A new book is up for pre-orders. “Heavy Metal in Argentina: In Black We are Seen” is a collaboration between the Grupo de investigación Interdisciplinario Heavy Metal Argentino and Heavy Metal Studies – Latin America. More info and pre-order here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1789382998/
The new Oxford Handbook on Music and Medievalism (eds. Stephen C. Meyer and Kirsten Yri) has a few chapters on rock and metal medievalisms: “Ramble On”: Medievalism as Nostalgic Practice in Led Zeppelin’s use of J. R. R. Tolkien [Caitlin Carlos]A Gothic Romance: Neomedieval Echoes of Fin’amor in Gothic and Doom Metal [Ross Hagen]Viking Metal [Simon Trafford] … Read more