Making sense of metal in the United Kingdom and the future of metal music studies: A case study of Wytch Hazel and Arð

Heavy metal in the United Kingdom, 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. The same position of respectability has been gained by academics and the once-mocked subject field of metal music studies. In this article, I try to map metal in the United Kingdom today through a case study of Wytch Hazel and Arð, two bands located in the north of England. I will argue that metal in the United Kingdom is still a space for resistance to the commodification of the mainstream and the construction of imaginary, imagined communities. 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.