Heavy Metal

Why do some Heavy Metal bands examine the First World War?

In this episode we talk to Julia Ribeiro Thomaz (PhD student at Paris Nanterre/EHESS) about the portrayal of the First World War in Heavy Metal music. As a result we learn about who is fascinated with tank warfare, different uses for the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and the extent to which the First World War offers bands an opportunity to discuss their own mortality and experiences of life and death.

References

Music:

Iron Maiden: Paschendale (Single)

Iron Maiden: Death or Glory (Single)

Metallica: One (Single)

Motorhead: 1916 (Single)

Sabaton: The Great War (Album)

Sabaton: Cliffs of Gallipoli (Single)

Sabaton (feat. Apocalyptica): Angels Calling (Single)

Reading:

National Myth and the First World War in Modern Popular Music by Peter Grant

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Professor of Modern British History at Leeds University. My research interests lie at the intersection of the histories of gender, particularly masculinity, medicine and warfare.

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A historian focusing on the First World War and popular representations of warfare. I received my PhD from the University of Sussex in 2013. My thesis examined relations between British and French soldiers during the First World War.

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A Postgraduate Researcher at Leeds University. My current research explores all the men who appeared before the North Riding Military Appeal Tribunal, 1916-18.