Watching a heavy metal show as an outsider is like walking into a psychotic circus that’s as bizarre as it is fun. Confronting by nature, metal is defined by its hulking, “louder than hell” guitar driven sound, occult or satanic imagery as worn by bands and their fans with a cult like devotion to the scene and its craft. Bands run the gamut from cool-headed, wispy-haired heavy rockers to leather clad black metal fanatics, brandishing fake axes, their faces greased up in white “corpsepaint.” Some frontmen (and women) growl, some sneer and some sing to ear-shattering, herniated heights.
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