Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge

Description

Extreme metal--one step beyond heavy metal--can appear bizarre or terrifying to the uninitiated. Extreme metal musicians have developed an often impenetrable sound that teeters on the edge of screaming, incomprehensible noise. Extreme metal circulates on the edge of mainstream culture within the confines of an obscure 'scene', in which members explore dangerous themes such as death, war and the occult, sometimes embracing violence, neo-fascism and Satanism. In the first book-length study of extreme metal, Keith Kahn-Harris draws on first-hand research to explore the global extreme metal scene. He shows how the scene is a space in which members creatively explore destructive themes, but also a space in which members experience the everyday pleasures of community and friendship.Including interviews with band members and fans, from countries ranging from the UK and US to Israel and Sweden, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge demonstrates the power and subtlety of an often surprising and misunderstood musical form.

Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris is an independent scholar, an associate lecturer at the Open University, an associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College and a founder of the Centre for New Jewish Thought. His website is www.kahn-harris.org.

'This fasinating book ... provides real insights into the margins of our culture.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'Sharp, engaging, and staggeringly comprehensive. 'Extreme Metal' is a must-read for metal fans and anyone interested in the study of popular music and subcultural politics in a globalizing age.' Sam Dunn, Co-Director, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey 'Although its a thorough work of sociological research, looking at how scenes work differently in different countries, as well as what unites them, delving into the close-knit interactions and often isolationist perspecitives that accommodate each other so uniquely and much more, anyone involved in the metal scene can regonise their own relationship with extreme metal in the book, as well as understand the bigger picture.' Neuro/Vision Extra: Extreme Metal 'Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge offers a comprehensive and long overdue documentation of the extreme metal scene and its bizarre and terrifying facets. ... Anyone desiring to read further on post-subcultural thinking and the loaded issue of scene participation within late modernity, or, indeed, anybody with a passing curiosity about the 'fear-laden' culture that is extreme metal, will find much of interest within this book.' Popular Music, Vol. 27/2, 2008