Beer, blokes and brutality: whiteness and banal nationalism in Australian extreme metal scenes

This paper maps how Australia's extreme metal scenes present visual and verbal symbols that draw upon the canon of white Australian identity, while reflecting a desire for independence, authenticity and power through the 'brutality' of scenic space. I argue that Australian extreme metal's glorification of 'everyday blokes' has the dual effect of exalting Australian men as legends while simultaneously crafting a transhistorical essence of normative masculinity that shapes nationalist narratives. This consecration of sameness and the subsequent exscription of difference establishes stringent boundaries of who may claim to belong, both within the culture of the scene and the nation itself.