"The sophisticated yet accessible essays here exemplify the diversity and depth of metal studies, a new discipline which began to explode around 2008. Together, the various authors show metal's richness and diversity, exposing aspects previously neglected in more stereotypical accounts, and deconstructing its tropes. Gerd Bayer's piece on metal documentaries and Andy Brown on balladic songs bring forward metal's emotional sentimentality, whereas Niall Scott points out the political focus of a variety of well-known bands. This collection shows that metal studies is more than up to the task of grasping metal's increasing complexity. As Brad Klypchak's contribution cogently argues, metal continually morphs not only in each of its dimensions, but in the conceptions of what has been."-Deena Weinstein, DePaul University, USA "This fascinating and insightful collection of papers regards the diversity of heavy metal music, not only as a prominent popular cultural phenomenon but also as a subject of academic study. They provide the reader with critically engaged views into the past, current, and future of metal music studies. The unique spirit, as well as the scholarly width and depth, that characterized the Bowling Green Conference becomes very tangible through the texts.

Altogether, the book is a pivotal piece of work for academics interested in the study of metal and popular culture. I would warmly recommend it also for any friend of metal music who wants to dig deeper into the concepts and constructions designating specific social, cultural, philosophical, or commercial features of the metal genre(s)."-Toni-Matti Karjalainen, Aalto University, Finland "This book makes an important intervention into the entangled fields of metal, and cultural, studies. The collection is a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of critically engaged metal studies. HMSPC offers lively discussions of metal as hegemonic resistance, community building and a site of - often productive - tensions in terms of gender, sexuality and race. This is a rich collection tackling the complexities of the metal genre as a site of political struggle and articulation. More than a simple celebration, this is a provocation to metal studies practitioners to push their work into more theoretical spaces and a call for a reinvigorated cultural studies field to take notice!"- Rosemary Overell, University of Otago, New Zealand.