A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to join the Rogues in the House podcast to talk about the intersection of heavy metal and sword-and-sorcery, Flame and Crimson, and Growing Up Metal.
It was a great conversation and as usual I had a blast.
That podcast is now out. Check it out on YouTube.
I've written about the symbiotic relationship of sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal before. Many, many metal bands have been influenced by sword-and-sorcery fiction, and we now have heavy metal band members writing S&S fiction. Howie Bentley of Cauldron Born and Jason Tarpey of Eternal Champion a couple chief examples.
Anecdotally, readers of S&S listen to heavy metal in higher proportion than country or rap music. There are reasons for this. The sound of S&S is heavy, and of battle. James Taylor cannot be the soundtrack of “Black Colossus.”
Metal bands have appropriated sword-and-sorcery imagery wholesale. Dangle Kings of Metal in front of a Robert E. Howard reader and you’ll get a grunt of recognition, if not appreciation, even though they might have never heard of Manowar. Some will go on to sample the music, discover that “Heart of Steel” is really fucking awesome song, and become a metalhead.
(I dangled a copy of Kings of Metal on camera during the show, BTW).
This is not to say if you like one you'll like the other... but you have to be...willfully ignorant? Obtuse? not to see any relationship. When Manilla Road performs "Queen of the Black Coast," or Eternal Champion "YSLSL," subtlety and coded allusions have vacated the premises. They have become the same art.
I also appreciated the chance to talk about Growing Up Metal for the first time in a public forum. I have been blown away by its reception; I've been contacted by several folks I haven't seen since high school 35 years ago who read it, loved it, and wanted to talk to me about it. It's had impact.
I don't know you, oh reader, but I suspect you'll like the book even if you don't love heavy metal.
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