British, US-American, Scandinavian and Teutonic Metal: A Producers' Talk About Nationality and Culture in Metal Music's Sound and Performance

Description

The academic field of metal music studies has seen an interest in various metal scenes and nationally defined styles all over the world. Whilst research interests have often focused on social, cultural and political aspects, the music itself has rarely been explored to an equal degree.
In metal music practice and common discourse, geographically connoted labels have been used for a long time. Guitar amplifiers have been categorised into British (Marshall, Orange), American (Fender, Mesa Boogie) or German (Engl) devices, and likewise there has been the idea of respective characteristic production sounds.
This workshop discusses the impact of geographical context and culture on music from a production perspective. Designed as an open format consisting of presentations of professional productions and open discussions, we will explore the role of production practices as well as characteristic performance attributes to estimate the existence of geographically/culturally defined metal sounds. Our discussions will be based on real productions from the early 1990s to today which metal producer Charlie Bauerfeind (Helloween, Gamma Ray, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, Rage, Angra, Viper, HammerFall, Saxon, Motörhead, Rob Halford, Venom) will present along with inside knowledge of the business, thus providing rare insights into what normally remains hidden behind closed studio doors. Is there such a thing as a ‘Viking’ or ‘Teutonic’ sound? Has this changed with globalisation? Together we will try to find answers to these questions.

Period	4 May 2018
Event title	Hard Wired: So Far, So Good…So What? : Approaching the Metal Realities
Event type	Conference
Conference number	6
Location	Siegen, Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia
Degree of Recognition	International