This book defines the key ideas, scholarly debates, and research activities of Metal Studies. Drawing on insights from disciplines including popular music, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy, it offers new research on metal musicology, global/local scenes studies, fandom, gender and identity, metal media, and commerce. Considering the global metal music economy and subcultural scenes, the book explores the formation of metal studies, and looks to the future of metal music and its relationship to metal scholarship and fandom. It will appeal to scholars of popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, and those interested in metal communities around the world.