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Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music around the World. Edited by Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, and Paul D. Greene. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011. Pp. 381, photographs, afterward, acknowledgements, notes, bibliography, index. $26.95 paper, $94.95 cloth.)
Metal. It is a word that, in music-centric discourse, conjures a range of images, histories, and tales. Aesthetics, both sonic and visual, enter the debates or discussions around metal musics (the plural here is intentional, as evidenced in the book), as do narratives about key moments in history, lineages, and (often) spectacular or even unbelievable actions on the parts of fans or musicians (alas, many of these are legends, but compelling and sticky ones). Place also figures into the talk-positive or negative-about metal, often in the form of cityspecific scenes that are home to particular sonic flavors or styles, birthplaces of genres, or sites of celebratory support and activity. But what is the geographical spread of these places, the scenes in which fans and players, opponents and supporters, visionaries and copy-cats alike engage in the cultural practices of metal? In large part, it is this question that forms the framework for Metal Rules the Globe as the contributors set out to create a geographically diverse sampler of scenes and styles that, while never claiming to be exhaustive, gives the reader a macro-level perspective on the spread of metal musics that is simultaneously rich in micro-level details, locating in space and time the particularities of practice constituting specific metal communities.