This book defines the key ideas, scholarly debates, and research activities that have contributed to the formation of the international and interdisciplinary field of Metal Studies. Drawing on insights from a wide range of disciplines including popular music, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and ethics, this volume offers new and innovative research on metal musicology, global/local scenes studies, fandom, gender and metal identity, metal media, and commerce. Offering a wide-ranging focus on bands, scenes, periods, and sounds, contributors explore topics such as the riff-based song writing of classic heavy metal bands and their modern equivalents, and the musical-aesthetics of Grindcore, Doom metal, Death metal, and Progressive metal. They interrogate production technologies, sound engineering, album artwork and band promotion, logos and merchandising, t-shirt and jewellery design, and fan communities that define the global metal music economy and subcultural scene. The volume explores how the new academic discipline of metal studies was formed, also looking forward to the future of metal music and its relationship to metal scholarship and fandom. With an international range of contributors, this volume will appeal to scholars of popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as those interested in metal communities around the world.

This multi-disciplinary book explores the textual analysis of heavy metal lyrics written in languages other than English including Japanese, Yiddish, Latin, Russian, Hungarian, Austrian German, and Norwegian. Topics covered include national and minority identity, politics, wordplay, parody, local/global, intertextuality, and adaptation.

Dive into the vibrant world of music and cultural celebrations with Music and Festivals Guide: Celebrating Culture Through Events. This comprehensive guide takes you on a global tour of the most iconic and diverse festivals, offering insights into their cultural significance, planning tips, and the unique experiences they offer. From the legendary stages of Glastonbury and Coachella to the intimate gatherings of niche music festivals, discover how to immerse yourself in the rhythms and traditions that define these extraordinary events. Whether you’re a seasoned festival-goer or a curious newcomer, this book provides everything you need to know to celebrate culture through the universal language of music. Embark on your festival journey and create unforgettable memories with this essential guide.

Drawing on repeat interviews with metal youth, the book examines why they were first attracted to metal during high school; how they used metal music and identities as coping strategies; and ways that their metal affiliations took on further significance for helping them make important decisions about what to do with their lives post-school.

«It starts with… A boy born on March 20, 1976, a skinny little boy with his contagious laugh, a boy whose childhood was stolen. Then the boy turned into a man with a great passion for music, a man who made his dream come true, becoming one of the most famous singers of all times, a man who was a wonderful friend, husband, father, a man who, behind that joyful and lighthearted facade, hid demons so wicked and devious you couldn’t imagine. Chester was all of this. In this amazing tribute, Rosanna Costantino was able to transmute the emotions and the feelings of every fan in the world into written words, opening her heart. At the same time, she also described in detail the life of this great man, from the day he was born to his tragic death, what his bandmates, his friends, and Linkin Park fans have experienced, and how they were able to hold on and stay strong together. Chester and Linkin Park are a source of inspiration for all the soldiers, their music saved so many lives, they told us not to give up through their lyrics, they made us feel invincible, they are our heroes and now, with Rosanna’s book, we can have a little piece of Chester to always keep with us.» Paola Trogu

Festivals is a must-have guide to festival culture showcasing the world’s best and most significant events.

From the author of the celebrated classic Louder Than Hell comes an oral history of the badass Heavy Metal lifestyle—the debauchery, demolition, and headbanging dedication—featuring metalhead musicians from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot to Disturbed, Megadeth, Throwdown and more. In his song “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Rock and roll is my religion and my law.” This is the mantra of the metal legends who populate Raising Hell—artists from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God to Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Disturbed, Megadeth, and many more! It’s also the guiding principle for underground voices like Misery Index, Gorgoroth, Municipal Waste, and Throwdown. Through the decades, the metal scene has been populated by colorful individuals who have thwarted convention and lived by their own rules. For many, vice has been virtue, and the opportunity to record albums and tour has been an invitation to push boundaries and blow the lid off a Pandora’s box of riotous experiences: thievery, vandalism, hedonism, the occult, stage mishaps, mosh pit atrocities, and general insanity. To the figures in this book, metal is a means of banding together to stick a big middle finger to a society that had already decided they didn’t belong. Whether they were oddballs who didn’t fit in or angry kids from troubled backgrounds, metal gave them a sense of identity. Drawing from 150-plus first-hand interviews with vocalists, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and drummers, music journalist Jon Wiederhorn offers this collection of wild shenanigans from metal’s heaviest and most iconic acts—the parties, the tours, the mosh pits, the rage, the joy, the sex, the drugs . . . the heavy metal life! Horns up!

More than just a history of Danko Jones, this book is an exploration of the rigid politics that govern both underground and mainstream music and how a band can succeed without pandering to either. Danko Jones may be a straightforward rock band, but their story is anything but. They're a band that has roots in many different music communities--the North American indie rock scene, the Scandinavian garage rock scene, and the European metal scene--but belong to none of them. They've toured with both Blonde Redhead and Nickelback and can attract intense fandom in one part of the world while being rejected in their home country. "Too Much Trouble" follows a 15-year saga that goes from college radio DJ booths to corporate boardrooms and from dingy after-hours bars to the biggest festival stages in Europe. It's a must-have for fans of Danko Jones or anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look at how both the mainstream and underground music industries work.

'Electric Wizard is heavy, man - we don't sing about love and flowers.' Jus Oborn In 1993, in the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England, the heaviest band in the world was born. Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, Electric Wizard began as an untameable power trio. They inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesising the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics. In 1997 they released their revolutionary second album, Come My Fanatics... Then, after triumphant and calamitous tours of the USA and following the release of arguably the heaviest rock album ever recorded, 2000's Dopethrone, Electric Wizard all but imploded, destroyed by the very reality they were fighting against. However, when guitarist Liz Buckingham joined Oborn on guitar for We Live, they drew a magic circle around themselves in a new line-up that went on to explore deeper occult horrors on modern doom classic Witchcult Today onwards. Come My Fanatics is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the subculture the band has absorbed and, in turn, created. From seventies exploitation cinema, through the writers of Weird Tales magazine and a panoply of the marginal and downright sinister, to the band's own live ceremonial happenings - this is Electric Wizard's world. We're just dying in it.