Heavy metal, according to its own mythical history, comes from white, lower middle-class, industrial British and American cities and somehow reflects the sad, angry and trapped state of mind of its youth. If metal comes from such local conditions of existence, then why has it caught on in countries far away, both geographically and culturally? The anthology Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World explores this question (and many more) through 15 articles divided into six parts. Some authors are native to the country they write about, while others have studied heavy metal cultures abroad in the context of research projects. The countries discussed cover four of the five continents, namely Easter Island, Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, India, Israel, Slovenia, Malta, Norway, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

Part 1 lays the foundations for things to come. The editors do excellent work in their introduction, positioning heavy metal within the politics of globalisation, modernity and (de)industrialisation. Moreover, they take great care in defining what this hydra-headed beast called heavy metal has become and what it means to its fans, this ‘affective overdrive’ that represents as much the power of the music as the strength and intensity of metalheads' feelings for ‘their’ music. Following the introduction, Deena Weinstein's article explains the international diffusion of metal via different media, all using the technologies of modernity (despite the fact that metal is known to question the alienating impact of modernity). Her main conclusion is that metalheads all over the world ‘share a common class position in their societies and are bound to the same transcultural metal community’ (p. 55) – an idea labelled the ‘Weinstein Hypothesis’ by Wallach, Berger and Greene. This idea of extreme metal being a music of the global proletariat is central to many of the articles which follow.

Part 2 concerns how gender in metal is intertwined with the consequences of modernity. Cynthia P. Wong's and Jeremy Wallach's articles analyse the ways in which heavy metal can generate alternative (gendered) identities. Masculine bondings in the band Tang Dynasty (Wong) and in the Malay region metal scene (Wallach) rely on a redefinition of manhood that is closely linked to an alternative point of view concerning society, culture and history. This conclusion is consistent with the idea that metalheads turn their backs on ‘what is expected’ of them in a ‘normal society’. Part 3 expands this idea, but this time takes a national focus. Consisting of two articles, Paul D. Greene's about the Nepali metalhead experiences and Idelber Avelar's about the changing relationship between the group Sepultura and Brazil(ness), this part makes obvious how we cannot predict how the intersections and interactions of global and local happen; we have to study them and question apparent consensus in order to know what is going on locally.

The fourth part is perhaps the most disturbing one, as it touches on the topic of extremist ideologies. As a matter of fact, the presence of extreme heavy metal was announced internationally to a wider audience when Norwegian black metal musicians committed anti-Christian crimes during the early 1990s. Sharon Hochhauser's article about hatecore metal (or National Socialist Black Metal) changing marketing strategies, Ross Hagen's essay about the musical characteristics of the aforementioned Norwegian black metal, and Keith Kahn-Harris' article about the play between transgressive subcultural capital and mundane subcultural capital in extreme metal all show the voluntary distancing particular kinds of heavy metal exert from anything political. Part 5 concerns the music industry. Steve Waksman shows how Kiss and Led Zeppelin, two precursors of heavy metal, viewed touring in ‘exotic’ countries: whereas Kiss viewed large crowds in foreign countries as a sign of success and high status, Led Zeppelin ‘seemed to regard their pursuits as some odd combination of financial endeavor, luxury expense, and fieldwork’ (p. 244). Kei Kowano and Shuhei Hosokawa expose the heavy metal industry in 1990s Japan, focusing on the very important role of the metal magazine Burrn!, which more or less defined what counted as metal in Japan.

The sixth and last part consists of case studies of small scenes: Malta, Slovenia and Easter Island (Rapanui). The three articles comprising this section, by Albert Bell, Rajko Muršič and Dan Bendrups, respectively, look at the history, influences and local importance of these scenes. According to the authors, the heavy metal emerging from these scenes is a mélange of the music of international acts (like Metallica, Iron Maiden) and local music. And even though they are small, they all provide a great vitality to the local music industries, because of the music's popularity or its difference.

This anthology is very instructive and any reader will find these various accounts very enlightening. However, this ton of information is also the symptom of the book's biggest flaw, meaning its undertheorisation. Many essays – but not all – go in different directions without demonstrating a conceptual or theoretical framework that would bind and direct questions and answers. Instead, we have illustrations of how it is done in other countries, with links that would tie these behaviours or uses to bigger issues in popular music studies (or any other field). Also, willingly showing a ‘transgressive subcultural capital’, I think that the oft-repeated tale of heavy metal's marginal position, on which most of the articles are based, begins to wear out. After all, if heavy metal is such a globalised music and culture, this means it is not as peripheral as metalheads wish it is. Dan Bendrups, writing about heavy metal influences on Rapanui, is clear: ‘the Rapanui engagement with metal is a result of the genre's presence within mainstream, Anglo-American, commercial modes of musical transmission and dissemination’ (p. 314).