Making sense of metal in the United Kingdom and the future of metal music studies

Heavy metal in the United Kingdom (UK), as in many countries around the world, is thriving and has become a respectable form of popular culture and its fans and musicians are seen everywhere. When Paul DiAnno, Iron Maiden’s original singer, passed away in October 2024, the news reached the mainstream media, and the BBC, which would one have ignored heavy metal altogether previously, provided a respectful obituary (Savage 2024). One month before, Iron Maiden had announced a huge tour around the world where most of the events have sold-out and the rest are on limited tickets (Iron Maiden 2024). The same position of respectability has been gained by academics in the once-mocked subject field of metal music studies. This journal is proof enough of that vitality and relevance, as is the incredible range of inter-disciplinary conferences devoted to metal music, not least the official one of ISMMS, which has grown enormously. In this paper, I try to map metal in the UK today through a case study of Wytch Hazel and Arð, two bands located in the north of England. This sample is, of course, not in any way representative of metal in the north of England or the UK. But the two bands together make an interesting case study that explores the relationship between artists, fans and the media; and an interesting case study in what might be happening in metal away from the mainstream of the entertainment industry. I will argue that metal in the UK is still a space for resistance to the commodification of the mainstream and the construction of imaginary, imagined communities (Spracklen 1996). I will use my own recently published Sociological Laws of Metal (Spracklen 2024) as a critical lens to frame the discussion. I will then argue that the future of metal music studies depends on whether metal itself continues to thrive as a place of polyvalent identities, as well as whether academics can negotiate their own epistemological and ontological uncertainties in the marketplace of higher education.