Foreword: Good Music ‖ Bad History

The period of western European history known as the Middle Ages (c. 400–1400 ce) has exerted a formative influence on the imagery of heavy metal lyrics and the tone of heavy metal music since the genre began in the late 1960s (Cope, 2010). Pounding drum beats, thundering bass-lines and crushing guitar chords demand subject matter that evokes power and darkness. Popular notions of medieval Europe oblige. Whether drawing influence from the mysteries of a pre-Christian world of Nordic paganism, the triumphant exploits of Christian warriors in an age of embattled faith, or simply the grim and unsparing realities of human life in a society before the advent of advanced medicine and modern technologies, modern metal bands turn again and again to the European Middle Ages as a reservoir for the words and images that give life to their music.