For over 50 years, the abrasive and confrontational genre of heavy metal has persisted as a series of global crises have emerged and deepened. I claim that the culture has a deeply existentialist tendency, which has driven a scathing criticism of postmodernity and its inaction regarding economic, ecological and social crises. The culture offers a solution to these crises by means of re-centring mortality and finitude, contra to hegemonic biases toward unlimited economic growth and ever-extended human life. By reckoning with our own limitations, metal culture advocates a cautious approach and (ironically) more harmonious social and ecological relationships.

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