Chapter 13: Conclusions

This book has shown a deep and malign relationship between heavy metal and hegemonic masculinity. Heavy metal normalised the Gender Order of the late twentieth century, and metal bans became representations of a heroic, warrior masculinity that became hugely popular among fans. While much of this was just heterosexual male fantasies of groupies, and of conquest and rape written for young men who had never had a girlfriend, it normalised the idea that women were inferior to men and the Other to be conquered (Butler, 2006; Connell, 1987). This narrative of heroic masculinity emerged at a time when gender roles were being challenged and overturned in the West in the 1970s and 1980s, when traditional male working-class jobs were disappearing with the new global order of neo-liberalism. Bands like Iron Maiden and Manowar found a huge audience of young men who wanted to close their eyes and believe that they were the warriors, travelling across the desert with the axe and sword of Conan the Barbarian, or charging across the Crimean steppes with the Light Brigade. They also inspired the next wave of bands and their fans. So Bathory emerged with a darker take of heroic warrior metal with their Viking metal. This was as make-believe as the world of Conan, but it was draped with myth based on real history: a nostalgia for a Viking culture and society that had existed before the people in northern Europe were converted to Christianity.