Defiant Sounds: Heavy Metal Music in the Global South: Nelson Varas-Díaz, Jeremy Wallach, Esther Clinton, and Daniel Nevárez Araújo, eds., Lanham, MD, Lexington, 2023, 418 pp., $125.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1793651853.

"Defiant Sounds: Heavy Metal Music in the Global South" is a collection of essays edited by Nelson Varas-Díaz, Jeremy Wallach, Esther Clinton, and Daniel Nevárez Araújo that explores heavy metal music in non-Western contexts. The book challenges the assumption that heavy metal culture is dominated by cisgender, white, Western men and highlights the contributions of marginalized groups such as women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and indigenous communities. The collection examines heavy metal's potential for social change, resistance, and transgression, and emphasizes the need for a shift in academic knowledge production. While the book could benefit from additional contextualization, it effectively amplifies diverse voices and offers valuable insights into the global heavy metal scene. [Extracted from the article]