Reviews

Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality: Interdisciplinary Approaches by Niall Scott, Florian Heesch

menshevixen's review

3.0

Plus an extra half-star for the general concept--there aren't too many books of this stripe out there. An interesting collection overall, but wildly varied in quality, with more than a few authors relying on outdated critical modes and theory, or rehashing well-worn topics (gender and sexuality beyond the binary don't appear as often as one might expect; race is elided in many chapters). Stand-out chapters include Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone's "Metal, masculinity, and the queer subject," Niall Scott's "The monstrous male and myths of masculinity in heavy metal," and Marcus Erbe's "'This isn't over 'til I say it's over!': Narratives of male frustration in deathcore and beyond." I'd read entire books devoted to Rosemary Overell and Hugo Ribeiro's topics of masculinity and metal genrefication in Osaka and Aracaju. A mostly-stimulating, sometimes-frustrating read for armchair metal theorists.