Death metal

With its loud guitar riffs and even louder fashion, heavy metal has always been ripe for ridicule. In its mid-1980s heyday, it was epitomised by the fictional rock group Spinal Tap prancing on stage next to an 18-inch polystyrene model of Stonehenge while clad in ball-crushingly tight trousers and floor-length capes.

In some parts of the world, however, metal is no laughing matter. In the Middle East, for instance, the potential punishment for wearing all black while wielding an electric guitar is death. These days, against a backdrop of authoritarian suppression in countries such as Iran and China, heavy metal’s trademark theatrics and widdly guitar solos have become less an opportunity for gentle mockery than a rallying cry for artistic freedom.

If all this sounds about as bombastic as the lyrics to Manowar’s ‘Die for Metal’ (chorus: ‘They can’t stop us, let ’em try, for heavy metal we will die!’), it is worth noting that historians now credit rock’n’roll as being instrumental — pun intended — in bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union.