Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture

Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture - Natalie J. Purcell, 2003, McFarland & Company Inc., London

Whilst my chosen topic has been the subculture of the Norwegian black metal scene, I personally found it difficult to locate a great deal of source material that detailed insights into the black metal subculture, and when I did find something, it was somewhat brief. I felt that there needed to be some other indicator of the same demographics that surrounded this culture, and of their attitudes, their philosophy and ethics, and their behaviours. I found then, in this book, a highly detailed and in-depth look at the subcultural phenomenon of death metal, and discovered a similarity between death metal's fans, and the fans of metal music in general. I therefore came to the conclusion that this book would rather serve best as a guide to a general overlook of the heavy metal culture rather than one specific subculture such as black metal. It contains a number of interesting statistics, especially regarding demographics, and points out some of the key ideals and themes concurrent in heavy metal. It seems that studies regarding a more in depth look at the black metal scene as an actual subculture have yet to be undertaken in great depth.