Medievalism and Metal Music Studies

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Ruth Barratt-Peacock|Ross Hagen
Emerald
Emerald

This book can be opened with

Glassboxx eBooks and audiobooks can be opened on phones, tablets, iOS and Android devices

Hardback
9781787563964
06 September 2019
$111.99
eBook (PDF)
9781787563957
06 September 2019
$111.99
eBook (ePub)
9781787563971
06 September 2019
$111.99

Note on our eBooks and Audiobooks: you can read our eBooks (ePUB or PDF) and listen to audiobooks on the free Emerald Books app on iOS, Android, and desktop. Or read and listen on Emerald's online reader (ePUB eBooks and audiobooks only). To purchase a digital book you will need to create an account if you don’t already have one. After purchasing you will receive instructions on how to get started.

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
  • About
Metal music has long nurtured an obsession with visions of the Middle Ages, with countless album covers and lyric sheets populated by Vikings, knights, wizards, and castles. Medievalism and Metal Music Studies: Throwing down the Gauntlet addresses this fascination with all things medieval, exploring how metal musicians and fans find inspiration both in authentically medieval materials and neomedievalist depictions of the period in literature, cinema, and other media. Within metal music, the medieval takes on multiple, and even contradictory meanings, becoming at once a cipher of difference and grotesque alterity while simultaneously being imagined as a simpler, more authentic time, as opposed to the complexities and stresses of modernity. In this fashion, the medieval period becomes both a source for artistic creativity and a vector for countercultural social and political critique.  

The contributors in this book hail from a wide range of fields including medieval history, music performance, musicology, media studies, and literature, and computer linguistics, bringing a variety of critical perspectives to bear on the topic. Engaging in analyses of cover art, liner notes, lyrics, and musical style, the contributors investigate issues of research methodologies, crucial concerns over identity and nationalism, and the recontextualisation of historical materials, all aimed at critically examining how and why medievalism has permeated heavy metal music and culture. Hearken to our tales!

Foreword; Scott G. Bruce Introduction; Ruth Barratt-Peacock and Ross Hagen  Section I: Metal's Medieval Frames Chapter 1. The Trans-Medial Fight for Glory; Johannes Hellrich, Christoph Rzymski, and Vitus Vestergaard  Chapter 2. Medieval Media Transformations and Metal Album Covers; Vitus Vestergaard  Chapter 3. Getting Medieval: Signifiers of the Middle-Ages in Black Metal Aesthetic; Eric Smialek  Chapter 4. Computational Detection of Medieval References in Metal; Johannes Hellrich, and Christoph Rzymski  Section II: Nationalism and Identity in Metal Medievalism  Chapter 5. The Politics and Poetics of Metal's Medieval Pasts; Shamma Boyarin, Annika Christensen, Amaranta Saguar García, and Dean Swinford  Chapter 6. The New Metal Medievalism: Alexander the Great, Islamic historiography and Nile's "Iskander Dhul Kharnon"; Shamma Boyarin  Chapter 7. The Return of El Cid: The Topicality of Rodrigo Díaz in Spanish Heavy Metal; Amaranta Saguar García  Chapter 8. Making Heritage Metal: Faroese Kvæði and Viking Metal; Annika Christensen  Chapter 9. Black Metal's Medieval King: The Apotheosis of Euronymous through Album Dedications; Dean Swinford   Section III: Historical Source Materials in Metal Musics  Chapter 10. Finding the Past in the Present and the Present in the Past; Ruth Barratt-Peacock, Ross Hagen, and Brenda S. Gardenour Walter  Chapter 11. Obsequiae: Reconciling 'Authentic' Medieval Musical Styles with Metal; Ross Hagen  Chapter 12. The Villon that Never Was; Ruth Barratt-Peacock  Chapter 13. Satanic Bowels: Medieval Inversion and the Black Metal Grotesque; Brenda S. Gardenour Walter

    Scholars of music and of the Middle Ages explore the fascination of metal music with the Middle Ages and show how metal songs and genres play upon the imagination of the medieval in the modern imagination. In sections on metal's medieval frames, nationalism and identity in metal medievalism, and historical source materials in metal musics they discuss such topics as getting medieval: signifiers of the Middle-Ages in black metal aesthetics, the politics and poetics of metal's medieval pasts, black metal's medieval king: the apotheosis of Euronymous through album dedications, and satanic bowels: medieval inversion and the black metal grotesque.

    - Annotation ©2019
    Ruth Barratt-Peacock, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
    Ross Hagen, Utah Valley University, USA