A Multi-setting, Contrastive Exploration of both the Eurometal Nightmare Tour and the Nekronomikon Dream Forest in Dean Swinford's Death Metal Epic I: The Inverted Katabasis

By using content analysis, this article seeks to explore the different, clashing settings in the novel Death Metal Epic I: The Inverted Katabasis by American novelist and metal music researcher Dean Swinford. In this novel, set in the early 1990s, David Fosberg – both the narrator and the main protagonist – narrates both his challenges and other experiences while in a European tour with his band Valhalla/Katabasis. The settings in this novel are: Miami, Florida, Trondheim, Norway, Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Ghent, Belgium. Such settings are symbolized in the Ouroboros, symbolizing David’s challenges with his band. Also, there is an extra imaginary setting of the Nekronomikon forest, which reflects David’s dream in becoming a successful metal musician. These popular and imagined urban settings are fundamental for musico-cultural adaptations and exchanges within the metal community, which are not excluded from cultural clashes.