Take 10: Heavy metal fans

Nile Plumb

You Suffer, the 12th song on Napalm Death's album Scum, clocks in at just four seconds and sounds like a man being disembowelled by a cymbal. For some, it's the perfect distillation of heavy metal, a single, clean shot of anger, speed and volume that reminds us why the genre endures. Photograph: Barry Lewis

Alexx Peace and Dom Harvey

Metal comes in many varieties, from hair to death, thrash to nu, black to Christian, but all are riding high right now. Anvil! The Story Of Anvil is a cinema-release documentary about the Canadian band that has had rave reviews. The video game Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock has hit $1bn in sales, the first single game to do so. Photograph: Barry Lewis

Andy Holliday

Meanwhile, old hands such as AC/DC have recently come back with top-selling albums (5m copies of Black Ice were sold in two weeks, taking it to number one in 29 countries), and Kiss, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Def Leppard are all following suit. Metal is having a recession-defying moment. Photograph: Barry Lewis

Ben Fell

Birmingham metalheads trace the genre back to the city's factories, where members of Black Sabbath worked, and the Mermaid Pub, which hosted gigs by local acts such as Bolt Thrower. In the late 80s, the scene changed. "A lot of metalheads didn't like the politics that came in," says Johnny Doom, 39, a DJ and former member of Doom. "Napalm Death were talking about anarchism, but some metalheads wanted to stick to the gore and monsters. Suddenly metal wasn't just escapist." Photograph: Barry Lewis

In small towns, escapism is necessary. Now 16, Ethan Rogers grew up in Shropshire and came to metal via classical music - his dad introduced him to Finnish symphonic power-metal band Nightwish. Around the same time, he began wearing eyeliner: "In the corridor at school, everyone moves out of the way. The other day people were calling me names. I stick the headphones on, full volume, and they disappear." Photograph: Barry Lewis

Louie Wood, eight, points out the drawings on his shirt, which include a bat, a skull and an upside-down cross. He's a drummer, but won't have room for a rotating kit with double kick drums until the extension is built, says his dad, Graham. "I'd rather my children listened to metal than junk like the Jonas Brothers. Hannah Montana is more disturbing than Iron Maiden." Photograph: Barry Lewis

Sam Barron

For Niall Scott, author of God Hates Us All: Kant, Radical Evil And The Monstrous Human In Heavy Metal, the genre is rife with contradictions. "Bands seek out the last taboos, so there's a fascination with the iconography of fascism. But there are also bands like System Of A Down who are violently opposed to it." It's very male, Scott says, very white, but there's a big scene in Latin America, too. Metal has strong female figures such as Doro Pesch, ex-singer of Warlock, but open many album inserts and there is misogynist imagery on display. "The Cradle Of Filth artwork is degrading to women," he says, "but the music is fantastic. How do you live with that?" Photograph: Barry Lewis

Chris Keenan, 29, has a collection of band T-shirts covered in tour dates, the letters dripping with blood. They haven't been worn for a while, perhaps back when he was playing his own metal. "I can't remember all my band names, I've had so many. We were inspired by growing up in Coventry. You needed metal in a place like that. We wanted to be faster and heavier. That speed and power led some people to rave music eventually. I play the mandolin now." Photograph: Barry Lewis