People move their bodies to metal music and interact with it – they dance. Audience members and performers on stage do so in various ways, some of which have become iconic practices of metal, such as headbanging, and others which seem rather uncommon and are not as closely associated with metal at first sight, such as belly dancing. This chapter aims to provide an introductory overview of dance practices in metal, their social organisation and avenues for future research. Therefore, the social organisation of mosh pits is investigated, discussing them as contested communities since they offer communal experiences while simultaneously perpetuating existent obstacles to participation, especially along the lines of gender identities. The subsequent section turns to gaps in hitherto research in order to emphasise the need and possibilities for further research. These include an expanded scope beyond headbanging and moshing in extreme metal, dance practices in virtual spaces and the global south, histories of metal dance and the relation between music and movement in metal.

This chapter discusses sub-Saharan Africa’s history with rock and metal, where Africa’s scenes are found today, and how those two genres have rooted themselves into the world’s ‘final frontier’ – whether it was during a difficult period of authoritarianism or through the organic passion of fans who found a genre that best represented their interest. As Africa’s various rock and metal scenes have unfolded during different periods in different countries under different circumstances, and continue to meet various challenges such as continued political strife, economic disparities and poorly developed infrastructures, this chapter also highlights what African metal bands sound like, the languages used in metal performances in Africa, and what if any local sounds and instrumentation acts are infusing (or, are they paying homage to their Western heroes?). Though the genres’ introduction into the African continent has met various difficulties, and continues to do so, African heavy metal stories tell of music that is empowering performers and excited fans alike.

This chapter explores the evolution of the djent subgenre from the perspective of the musical, technological and environmental factors that have shaped its identity. The chapter considers the early circumstances of djent’s emergence during the early mid−2000s, with particular reference to the online culture which contributed to its wider transmission and proliferation. Key musical influences are also discussed, including djent’s roots in progressive metal and the work of bands such as Meshuggah and SikTh, as well as the subgenre’s interaction with electronic music aesthetics and popular music. A principal focus of the chapter is on the role of emerging digital technologies, particularly Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) and digital amplifier and drum kit modelling software, in the formation of djent’s musical and sonic characteristics. Finally, the chapter considers djent’s position as a subgenre within modern metal music and evaluates, with reference to the critical reception literature, the debates that persist concerning its legitimacy within metal.

The sonic evolution of heavy metal is the story of the seminal musicians who engineered the metal sound and its numerous interpretations. This chapter illustrates that evolvement, highlighting key bands and performers whilst exemplifying their innovative techniques and concepts. It was a process initiated by Black Sabbath in the early 1970s and subsequently expanded, firstly by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands of the later 1970s, and then, more radically, through the emergence of thrash, death metal, black metal and grindcore during the 1980s. Subsequent innovators, from the 1990s onwards, adopted fusion as a way of redefining metal. By incorporating musical elements derived from pop, hip-hop and classical and folk music, they were able to fashion a plethora of imaginative crossovers, including nu metal, folk metal, symphonic metal, industrial metal and dance metal. The chapter concludes by noting the most recent developments in metal where elaborate assimilations of contrasting musical idioms showcase established metal devices in new and unusual contexts.

The gender of metal and the relationships between the music, misogyny and women have long raised eyebrows amongst popular commentators and scholars. Yet many metal fans claim that the genre is at heart an inclusive, even equal one, ready to welcome all fans regardless of gender, race and sexuality. This chapter gives an overview of thinking about the gendered meanings of metal, its origins in the music of Black blues women, the constraints on women’s music-making, the 1980s moral panic around metal and sexual violence, the gendering and queering of genre, women’s empowerment in metal and metal as a vehicle for feminist fury. I argue that placing women’s metal stories at the centre of our focus reveals different aspects of metal and its culture, and opportunities for understanding metal’s relationship with gender. Claims to inclusivity are exaggerated because metal exists in a sexist world and is not immune to societal discourses. The myth of equality is problematic because it impedes progression towards better inclusion. And yet metal provides opportunities for joy, power and for challenging misogyny for women, opportunities which are beginning to be grasped.

Metal music has been undergoing a remarkable sonic development. Pioneering releases of the early 1970s by Black Sabbath already contained all essential ingredients of metal’s sonic signature. The growing need for heavier sounds was afforded by a rapidly advancing recording technology, alongside the exploration of production techniques and aesthetics. This chapter traces significant developments in metal music production from the 1970s to the 1990s by looking at key artists, albums and audio professionals to outline how heaviness in recorded form developed in the genre. Many of the analysed engineering practices were adopted, improved and have become standard in contemporary metal production. In this process, production was brought to the fore, making it an increasingly fundamental element of the music, even an art form in itself. This development led to what has become metal’s standard hyper-real aesthetic, which will most likely be pushed further in the ongoing and genre-defining quest for greater heaviness.

Mesopotamian metal’, which includes bands like Absu, Agga, Arallu, Bohema, Decimation, Melechesh, Svartsyn or Tiamat, is a sub-discourse and substyle of metal music that deals with the history of ancient Mesopotamia mainly thematically. Crucial here is the reference to ancient times in this region of the Middle East. The first section of this chapter gives an introduction to the concept of Mesopotamian metal. The most relevant bands are introduced, with Melechesh serving as the paradigmatic example. The next part focuses on the role of history, analysing how the construction of history is undertaken in Mesopotamian metal. It is shown that this discourse promotes a certain brand of historical politics to help solve problems in the present, most of all in the conflict-ridden region of the Middle East. The third part deals with the regional and global contextual linkages of Mesopotamian metal. Summarising this argumentation, the conclusion argues that possibly we can from the past through metal music.

This chapter examines one of the endeavours Latin American music has predominantly engaged in, namely decoloniality, and uses this as a bedrock to examine what we consider to be a pertinent question: What has Latin American metal ever done for the international metal scene? We believe that the answer to this question lies at the juncture of and brings forth a call for ethics in metal music. We propose that decolonial metal music in Latin America incarnates three principles linked to what we term an ethics of affront: (1) acknowledging the humanity of those oppressed by coloniality, (2) acknowledging the reality of the sociopolitical context and (3) fostering activist action as a task for metal music.

This chapter presents an overview of timbre in metal production from a psychoacoustic and computational musicology perspective, particularly focusing on the use of acoustic feature extraction. Both performance and recording technology have undoubtedly influenced tone in metal productions, but how can the underlying acoustic feature sets shaped by this technology inform production and analysis? This chapter includes an applied feature set extraction of stems from My Dying Bride, and concludes with a speculative view of how such features could be used in the training of machine learning classifiers.

This chapter explores the direct experiences of renowned record producers, working with metal music, to construct an in-depth understanding of the genesis, and development, of recorded metal music. Technological democracy has changed the experience of making metal records, affording creative flexibility and control that would historically have been out of reach, technologically and financially. Multitrack technologies and fragmented production processes are also examined. Framed by the experiences of producers that have shaped the recording careers of artists such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, this chapter links the direct experiences of record-making to musical, sociocultural and technological development.

Australian metal music is notably diverse. Although the country’s metal output is proportionate to its population size, many trend-challenging and genre-defining bands have emerged from this community. These bands – indeed all Australian metal bands – have forged their careers in constant negotiation with their distance from international scenic hubs and from one another. This negotiation, in its varied forms, has imprinted on the musical and paramusical texts of many Australian metal artists, many of whom have responded with defiant and convention-challenging practice. This chapter, within a cursory overview of Australian metal music history, explores the work of three such bands: Buffalo, a proto-heavy metal band from the late 1960s; Sadistik Exekution, a death metal band formed in the mid−1980s; and Ne Obliviscaris, a progressive extreme metal band that has been mainstay of Australian metal since the early 2000s. These three bands are demonstrative of the variability and inventiveness of Australian metal. They also exemplify the way answers to these common distance-related pressures, negotiated through obstinate artistic vision and culturally shaped ideals, can result in inimitable music and art.

Since its first moments of relatively wide visibility in the 1990s, black metal music has been one of the most controversial and artistically fecund subgenres of metal. In particular, a rash of serious crimes perpetrated by Norwegian black metallers boosted its visibility, and the salacious details of this period were well-covered by journalists, cultural critics and academics. Following this period, however, black metal musicians around the world took a wide range of approaches to the genre. However, one persistent aspect of black metal’s musical practice is the foregrounding of geographic location and local cultures within both the music and visual artwork. This chapter explores on black metal in the United States’s Mountain West, where the musical and ideological tropes of Norwegian black metal are recontextualised into forms that honour this new location while still retaining key points of Norwegian black metal’s worldview. The focus is particularly on the Colorado band Wayfarer’s interrogations of settler colonialism and the cowboy mythos of Hollywood westerns, but the chapter also touches on broader currents of environmentalism and indigenous activism in North American black metal.