Metal studies is a „booming“ research field that has gained tremendous momentum in recent years. In just over two decades, this young academic field has produced an impressive number of in(ter)disciplinary conferences, work shops, book series, and dissertations. The speed-metal-like velocity at which this academic awakening is unfolding testifies to the intrinsic energies that fuel it. After all, many researchers are also fans, musicians, or other stakeholders in the metal world. As such, they are not simply jumping on a bandwagon launched by others for career reasons. No – they are driving their own train, one they are connected to both in terms of personal experience and academic inquiry.

In this field, heavy metal is studied both as a cultural practice and as a musical genre. However, many of the most urgent conceptual questions remain unanswered – particularly those that lie outside the research interests of the founding disciplines of metal studies. This first volume in the „Meta/Metal“ book series addresses some of these issues. It brings together contributions from leading scholars and young experts, each of which responds to one of the conceptual desiderata that have arisen in metal studies thus far. All contributions are committed to advancing basic research through empirical accuracy and theoretical innovation.

This first volume in the „Meta/Metal“ book series is published open access.

Bibliographical reference: Peter Pichler/Anna-Katharina Höpflinger/Jörg Scheller/Laina Dawes/Camille F. Béra (Eds.), Meta/Metal: Open Questions in Metal Studies, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2025.

Download: Meta/Metal: Open Questions in Metal Studies

Other articles by Peter Pichler in this blog:

Kulturgeschichte und Zukunft der Europäischen Union: je mehr Europa desto besser?!

Die gegenwärtige „Krise“ der Europäischen Union: der Sturz in die Satire und der Ruf nach Kohärenz