This is the beginning of a long term project exploring the social purposes to which musicians and fans put metal music. It involves recognising metal as just as much of a political force as punk, with fans invested in building new and better worlds through involvement in the scene. It asks what grim and heavy sounds can do that other artforms can’t and explores why we need them more than ever in the times we’re living through.

From a cultural historian, musician, & photographer, the project celebrates the power of heavy music to enrich our world. It involves two books and a series of articles following up on the author’s prize-winning books on history & the natural world.

From activism in indigenous black metal and eco death metal to camaraderie in the pit and doom that carries the burden of tragedy, you’ll find in this site articles, galleries, & blogposts featuring some of the many ways metal has been made to matter.

You can read the first article from the project, “I Felt the Landscape Screaming Through the Music” here. Writing this has been part of the research for the first, short, book. This will be called something along the lines of EcoMetal: Environmentalism & the Transformative Power of the World’s Most Maligned Music.

The work on metal and environmentalism will then form one section in the book Why Metal Matters, amid coverage of the full range of metal’s social, political, & psychological uses.

While doing these projects, I’m interested in all kinds of metal writing and photography. That includes major international festivals & grassroots gigs by fresh new bands. Please do get in touch if there’s anything you’d like me to write or photograph.