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For too long Birmingham and the West Midlands have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of “heavy metal”. With 2008 being the 40th anniversary of when the phrase “Heavy Metal” was coined it seems like a crucial time to start celebrating!

“Heavy Metal was born in the West Midlands and has developed a global following matched only in Hip-Hop. Its time to stop sneering and celebrate this proud cultural heritage…”
Daniel Trilling – New Statesman 30th July 2007

This project follows on from our 'Metal' symposium held as part of Supersonic Festival in 2007 at New Art Gallery Walsall. Capsule carried out further research that found that there was very little info or objects held by museums based in the West Midlands on the subject of 'Heavy Metal' as a result we have developed this project: HOME OF METAL.

Home of Metal aims to build an online digital archive that actively engages its audience in the creation and shape of the project. The project will start with a series of open days at the galleries inviting people to bring along memorabilia, photographs and great stories which will be digitised to help us create an online digital archive of memories, images and pictures to tell the story of this unique moment of Midlands’ musical heritage. The bands we are focusing on are Judas Priest, Napalm Death, Godflesh, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

This exciting new project is led by Capsule in collaboration with Black Country Arts Partnership, the New Art Gallery Walsall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

You can read about the symposium from the article which was in the New Stateman entitled 'Rocking The World'

It is hoped that through the development of the archive we will in the long term create a permanent collection for the region to celebrate the legacy of the genre and those involved in developing it. This is just the beginning!