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Aalto University School of Business is hosting an international metal music research conference on 8–12 June. The conference, titled Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures, is built around over 50 research presentations that all examine heavy metal and heavy rock music. The presenters cover multitude of science fields and nearly 30 countries.

The presentations will provide a diverse view on research in the field. These include metal music industry and related business, and will address political and social aspects of metal music, cultural characteristics and issues related to gender, ethnicity and religion. Another focus will be on fan communities, visual culture, and the history of metal music. The programme will include the philosophy of music, structural analysis and research on lyrics and the sound world.

The presentations cover multitude of science fields and nearly 30 countries.

The event showcases appearances by many veterans of metal music, such as many-time Grammy nominee Scott Ian (USA), a founding member of the platinum record-winning band Anthrax, and guitarist Alex Skolnick (USA) from the band Testament. Music journalist and writer Martin Popoff (CAN) and heavy metal research legend Deena Weinstein (USA) will also speak at the conference. A workshop arranged in cooperation with Music Finland, will bring together Finnish and German metal players and documentary films will be shown at the conference.

A number of metal music concerts will be held in Helsinki in the evenings during the event week. Tuesday 9 June Four up-and-coming Finnish groups will take over the Bar Bäkkäri stage: Blind Channel, Bloodred Hourglass, Ranger and Shiraz Lane. Wednesday 10 June Battle Beast and Lost Society, both of which have already attracted international attention, will perform at Tavastia's Pre-Tuska Party.

Academy Research Fellow Toni-Matti Karjalainen from the School of Business is the creator and main organiser of the event. Aalto University's event partners include the University of Turku, University of Helsinki, Sibelius Academy, the Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive, and many music industry actors.

This event is the first official conference of the International Society for Metal Music Studies. In conjunction with the conference, the research papers will be compiled into a proceedings book that will be published in print and electronic format.

Media representatives are welcome to attend the conference. Further information, registration and interview requests:

Further information:

Academy Research Fellow Toni-Matti Karjalainen
toni-matti.karjalainen@aalto.fi
+358 50 357 4047

(modernheavymetal.net)