Tight jeans, black t-shirts, denim jackets littered with patches from your favourite bands, and hair. Lots of it. The formative years of every good man, or woman, worth their salt should have – for at least a part of it – been spent surviving pits, drinking Newkie Brown and identifying body parts on the cover of Carcass’ Reek of Putrefaction.
And then there’s those, for whom metal becomes a way of life – those who worship at the alter of Glen Benton. German photographer Jörg Brüggemann has travelled across the globe, documenting these ardent devotees of thrash, death, drone and doom; the results comprising a fascinating book, Metalheads: The Global Brotherhood, soon to be released by Gestalten – and a forthcoming exhibition at the German publishers excellent Berlin bookstore cum gallery, Gestalten Space.
Offering a truly unique insight into an everlasting global phenomenon, Brüggemann’s photographs show the depths of passion that this often maligned counterculture display, in locations as far and wide as Argentina, Indonesia and Egypt. Nostalgic, absorbing and occasionally touching; his images offer a unique outlook on the metalheads’ unusual camaraderie.
Metalheads: Photography by Jörg Brüggemann runs March 16th – April 21st at Gestalten Space, Sophie-Gips-Höfe, Sophienstraße 21, 10178 Berlin. Berlin-based black metal band Sun Worship perform live on the opening night.
