Metal Studies is a "booming" research field that has gained tremendous momentum in recent years. In this field, Heavy Metal is studied both as a cultural practice and as a musical genre. However, many of the most urgent conceptual questions have remained unanswered - especially those that lie outside the research interests of the founding disciplines of Metal Studies. This first volume of the book series "Meta/Metal" tries to answer some of these questions. The book brings together contributions by leading scholars and young experts, each of which responds to one of the conceptual desiderata that have so far arisen in Metal Studies. All contributions share a commitment to combining basic research with empirical accuracy in this research field.