About…

In 2022-23, I was writing a book about small traditional boats, the communities built on them, & the North Atlantic Ocean. While rowing & paddling regions from Faroe & Sápmi to Greenland & Newfoundland, I met an extraordinary number of metal musicians. Many were using their metal for activist purposes (like protesting open pit mines), or were from indigenous nations & saw metal as a form of cultural reclamation. By the time I returned, I had a list of hundreds of bands using metal in these ways. The idea for a project exploring the many uses of heavy music in today’s societies was born. Why Metal Matters will begin as a series of articles - short pieces in the music press & longer pieces in scholarly journals - before becoming a book built on photography as well as interviews with bands & fans.

I’m a writer, photographer, & Associate Professor in History at the University of Birmingham. I’ve written four books, for publishers including Harper Collins & Oneworld, which have won prizes such as the Highland Book Prize & been shortlisted for others like The Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. But my background is music - from studying a music degree, playing metal, jazz, & classical music, & recording as a session musician on several albums.

As a teenager I lived just outside Yorkshire when Peaceville Records were at their height, so grew up on doom: early Paradise Lost, Anathema, & My Dying Bride. Then I discovered the more progressive reaches of death & black metal. Today lots of my favourite music is from bands in the tradition of Necrophagist & Gorguts or in the nature-influenced traditions of US & indigenous black metal. I think we live in a golden age of heavy music, & the best albums of 2024 - like those from Orgone, Ulcerate, Vitriol, & Civerous - were the equal of everything from previous decades. Why Metal Matters is a celebration of music that continues to grow in power & diversity.