“WHAT SHOCKED ME THE FIRST TIME I went and what still shocks me now is just the scope of the metal scene in Africa, and how deep it is,” says author Edward Banchs. As a lifelong metalhead whose first album was Poison’s Open Up And Say…Ahh!, Banchs thought he knew everything there was to know about metal. After visiting Africa, “I quickly realised I didn’t.”
Banchs first went to Africa in 2007 to visit a friend in Zimbabwe. Stopping off in a local pub, it wasn’t long before the music changed from the usual vanilla pop to songs by the likes of Swedish punks Refused and metal titans Machine Head. Seeing his surprise at the soundtrack, the bartender explained how “there’s quite a few of us here who like this
