CfC: Metal in Central and Eastern Europe (planned with Kohlhammer Meta/Metal) Deadline: 31.07.2026.

Call for Chapters
Metal in Central and Eastern Europe (planned with Kohlhammer Meta/Metal)

We seek 5k–6k-word chapters on glocalization, transfers, infrastructures, crises, religion/politics, NSBM/antimilitarism, war & diaspora, zines/archives, festivals/economies, and methods/meta-questions across socialist, post-socialist, and contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

Abstracts (500 words) + bio (200 words) due 31 July 2026.

Editors: Ondřej Daniel, Peter Pichler, Jörg Scheller, Miroslav Vrzal. Chicago style. Peer-reviewed series; OA possible subject to funding.

Metal is a significant global subculture that has taken distinctive shapes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Since the 1970s, it has evolved across both sides of the former Iron Curtain— developing specific local practices while engaged in dense transnational circulation. During state socialism, metal often became controversial as a perceived Western cultural import; in some cases, fans and musicians faced surveillance or sanction. After 1989/90, the liberalization of media and markets catalyzed new infrastructures and exchanges, yet local specificities persisted—including controversial currents such as National Socialist black metal in parts of Eastern Europe. Today, CEE scenes are fully embedded in global circuits (from festivals and labels to streaming and touring), while continuing to provoke public debate around religion, politics, gender, and nationalism; contemporary conflicts—from the wars in ex-Yugoslavia to the ongoing war in Ukraine—have profoundly marked scenes, fandoms, and diasporas.

We invite chapter proposals that theorize CEE metal as glocalization: i.e., multidirectional transfers between “West”, “East”, “North” and “South”; localization, translation and adaptation within specific socialist, post-socialist, and contemporary contexts; and country- and scene-level differences across time.

This book is planned to appear in Meta/Metal (W. Kohlhammer), a peer-reviewed series that encourages innovative methods and welcomes English submissions. (Open-access publication may be possible but is subject to funding; the series has published OA volumes.)

For further information, read the full PDF version.