This is a collection of weekly blog posts, each focusing on a different topic in metal studies. For instance, some of the topics include literature, drone metal mysticism, sexual violence, nationalism, and musicology.
Each post is 350-500 words length. The goal is to introduce the audience to metal music studies by sharing current research. Furthermore, the posts are meant to be entry-level, to introduce the audience to the research and to increase interest in metal music studies. Each post also provides music examples.
Glocal metal Didier Goossens Not long after the first metal music studies, attention arose for its ways of production, distribution and consumption across the globe, with significant attention for non-Anglo American/European contexts. This became theorized as the global metal...
Multilingual Metal Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi Heavy metal is often sung in English. This is a global language, the use of which can increase sales and reach wider audiences. Yet, many bands choose to write lyrics and sing in other languages. We explored this choice in an edited volume...
BLACK METAL IN TURKEY Douglas Mattsson “Black metal? We don’t have that in Turkey.” - The middle aged Turkish academic sitting across from me in a restaurant in Istanbul is not the first to have expressed surprise, even disbelief, when I told him about my topic of research. Although literature...
METAL AND SYNTHESIZERS Fulya Çelikel As a metalhead and a metal musician, it has always amazed me that metal research that touches on organology (the musicological term for the study of musical instruments) is mostly on the electric guitar in some way. There is very little in terms of timbres...
Ethno-journalism in metal research My research has come about because I could not answer a simple question when I was in graduate school: What did I know about metal in Africa? Though I was never educated to become a journalist, I have utilized a more journalistic approach in order to properly...
Black Metal Ontology: Performing the Witch Dr Jasmine Hazel Shadrack Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and as terrible as an army with banners? (qtd. in Grey, 2013, p. 14) Through my performance as Denigrata Herself in the black metal...
SNARE DRUM AT MY WOMB: THE ROLE OF ROCK AND HEAVY METAL MOTHERING Joan Jocson and Julie Turley “After giving birth, I told the doctor I needed to leave the hospital for five hours. Our band was opening for Johnny Thunders. I think I was on an adrenaline rush.” Cynthia, 67, B-Girls, Renegades,...
METAL AND WHITENESS Julian Schaap ‘Music brings people together,’ as the common saying goes. In reality however, it often seems to do so by sticking to the different groups we find in society. For example, when one ventures into a metal music concert, chances are that the audience members are...
THOUGHTS ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF METAL RULES THE GLOBE Jeremy Wallach According to major streaming companies’ market research, heavy metal is the most popular genre in the world. Not only that, when the US market is subtracted from the total global market, metal’s popularity goes up. It...
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...
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,...
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...