Ross Hagen is Assistant Professor of Music Studies at Utah Valley University Orem, USA. His research interests include black metal, music fan cultures, avant-garde music, and musical medievalism. He is also a bassist and composer in several black metal bands.

Hagen is uniquely placed to navigate [black metal's] paradoxes, as well as the sub-genre’s wider social significance. His exploration here of black metal’s appeal as a form of contemporary Nordic folk music, and his theoretical deliberations on the scene’s “romantic” and "modernist” aspects, are both forthright and stimulating ... [A] thought-provoking analysis.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: “Kathaarian Life Code”1. “In the Shadow of the Horns”2. “Where Cold Winds Blow”3. “Paragon Belial”4. “The Pagan Winter”NotesBibliography

Ross Hagen is Assistant Professor of Music Studies at Utah Valley University Orem, USA. His research interests include black metal, music fan cultures, avant-garde music, and musical medievalism. He is also a bassist and composer in several black metal bands.

Hagen is uniquely placed to navigate [black metal's] paradoxes, as well as the sub-genre’s wider social significance. His exploration here of black metal’s appeal as a form of contemporary Nordic folk music, and his theoretical deliberations on the scene’s “romantic” and "modernist” aspects, are both forthright and stimulating ... [A] thought-provoking analysis.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: “Kathaarian Life Code”1. “In the Shadow of the Horns”2. “Where Cold Winds Blow”3. “Paragon Belial”4. “The Pagan Winter”NotesBibliography

Ross Hagen is Assistant Professor of Music Studies at Utah Valley University Orem, USA. His research interests include black metal, music fan cultures, avant-garde music, and musical medievalism. He is also a bassist and composer in several black metal bands.

Hagen is uniquely placed to navigate [black metal's] paradoxes, as well as the sub-genre’s wider social significance. His exploration here of black metal’s appeal as a form of contemporary Nordic folk music, and his theoretical deliberations on the scene’s “romantic” and "modernist” aspects, are both forthright and stimulating ... [A] thought-provoking analysis.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: “Kathaarian Life Code”1. “In the Shadow of the Horns”2. “Where Cold Winds Blow”3. “Paragon Belial”4. “The Pagan Winter”NotesBibliography