The history of metal - all of it, every little bit

I blogged a while back here and here about the book 'All Known Metal Bands'. Now thanks to Brian Hickam (who doesn't have a blog so I can't link to him), I've found out about another, even more ambitious metal art project - the boringly titled The History of Metal:

The History of Metal (T.H.O.M.) is a large scale visual art project detailing the origins, growth, and breadth of heavy metal music. I will attempt to identify every heavy metal band that ever existed, identify different subgenres within metal and their relationships to one another, and create a collection of artworks that represents metal’s place in history, the world, and in popular culture.

I've been a fan of heavy metal music since I was a teenager, but until now I haven't taken the time to delve into the history and genealogy of this unique music genre. I took on this project largely to educate myself and others about heavy metal, as well as to bring attention to what I consider to be one of the most complex and enduring facets of musical culture.

When I originally came up with the idea for T.H.O.M., it was to be a single drawing - a giant timeline that contained every heavy metal band from the 1970's to present day, organized by subgenre. It has since evolved and expanded to include several "peripheral" pieces that investigate heavy metal's cultural presence. The project as a whole currently consists of four pieces - three drawings and a interactive Flash presentation:

• The Timeline Study: A snapshot, if you will, of how the timeline drawing is being constructed. This drawing is the first of many tests to determine the ideal configuration of bands on a timeline.
• The Metal Map: The Metal Map is a hand drawn and painted representation of the concentration of metal bands in countries throughout the world. Each country has been assigned a color based on how many heavy metal bands have originated there throughout history, with amounts ranging from 0 - 9,396. The map reveals correlations between the popularity of heavy metal and political, racial, and economic climates throughout the world.
• Subgenre Interactive: An interactive Flash presentation that allows users to explore the different subgenres within heavy metal, and listen to samples from bands that represent those subgenres.
• Metal Subgenre Popularity Index: A large drawing showing the growth and popularity of each of the 14 main heavy metal subgenres from 1970 to 2008.

It's well worth checking out. I love the idea of trying to identify and nail down the entirity of a genre in a piece of visual art. On the one hand it's as futile as trying to nail jelly to a wall. On the other, it's a suitably mythic monument to a scene that is obsessed with making its own mythology. It'll be interesting to see how the project develops.
 

Comments

[Alex Yule]

What ever happened to this? The site seems to be totally down...

I made a metal map a few years ago that has since fallen into neglect (was supposed to be turned into an interactive web-map integrated with the massive database over at metal-archives, but no-one ever answered my emails!!)

I'm gonna see about retooling it and putting it up on the web sometime soon, I'll let you know when I do! Keep up the awesome work...!

[Alex Yule]

p.s. I meant to ask, where did you get your data for the maps and visualizations? Would you be willing to share? I have an old database I built by hand back when I was making my map, but it isn't nearly as detailed as I'd like, and of course is out of date by now...
Cheers

[Alex Yule]

And for my last postscript... by "you" I mean "Brian Hickham". Since you clearly indicate that it's not, in fact, your own project :)
Cheers
-AY