Lingüa Brütallica - Episode 16: Researching Extreme Metal with Laina Dawes

Lingua Brutallica

In this episode, we interview Canadian heavy metal journalist, music and culture critic, and PhD candidate, Laina Dawes. Laina has written extensively about the social, cultural and political aspects of the extreme metal community, most notably in her book ‘“What are you doing here?” A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal’, first published in 2012. In this interview, Laina draws on her research and personal experience to discuss the complex and often paradoxical nature of the metal scene as space of freedom and liberation on the one hand, but also a source of exclusion and marginalisation of on the other. Noting that "your freedom is not regulated on my oppression", Laina discusses questions like, despite the prevalence of gatekeeping, racism and misogyny in the scene, how has metal become so important to so many people of diverse backgrounds? How can a genre known for songs of murder, horror and slaughter be a source of positivity and unity? And how can a scene with a history of exclusion become a source of liberation?

To read more of Laina's work, go to https://writingisfighting.tumblr.com/ and keep up with all her current research and media output on Twitter https://twitter.com/Lainad?s=20