(In February of 2019 we published an article (here) about the “Proliferation of Metal Across National Boundaries” by guest writer Tør, a self-professed metalhead, data nerd, and ex-academic. The article, and accompanying interactive maps, were based on his work on a Ph.D. doctoral dissertation. Now Tør has updated the work in that previous article, along with a new map, under the second of the “Isolation Diaries” he has written for us — which includes some music at the end.)

I recently revisited some data I had collected on metal bands from The Metal Archives website and decided to make an interactive map illustrating the location of all metal bands archived on there.

Los Angeles, Mexico City, Santiago, Paris, Moscow, Athens, and Stockholm emerge as the most vibrant hubs for metal bands although there are plenty of equally important “metal cities” across the globe. A couple of notes about this map: (1) it is not normalized for population so only raw numbers are depicted, (2) the data is current as of 2015 so it doesn’t reflect the latest catalog of bands listed on the MA. I will probably make an updated map at some point in the future. I should also thank the fine folks over at MA for all the work that goes into maintaining that site. Continue reading »