Coming 2026

Heavy metal and the political left have a complex relationship. Metal is well-known for its “radical toleration” (Berger 1999) of all manner of reactionary practices and beliefs, from casual misogyny to far-right organizing. Yet metal also features a strong current of prescient social criticism, identifiably leftist subgenres, and a widespread DIY ethos, albeit not to the same degree as punk, which is broadly aligned to the anarchist left. 

In the past decade, many metal artists have become more stridently politicized, whilst metal music has become more culturally legitimate and socially accepted in the Global North. In many ways, metal is losing its reactionary edginess as it is further recuperated, even as a disturbing kernel of violence remains. How does it shake its status as typical yet ultraviolent in a world that has become as bludgeoningly repetitive as the music has frequently predicted?

With all this in mind Revol Press offers a provocation - What’s Left of Metal?