It’s not unusual, when watching a touring band who involve guitars in their act, for said band to mention how thrilled they are to be in Birmingham. I remember Kelly Deal of The Breeders saying “you guys must just walk around all day going ‘fuck!’” and bemoaning that she couldn’t buy a Black Sabbath t-shirt on a Sunday. Birmingham is known around the world as the birthplace of heavy metal yet we don’t celebrate it in the same way Nashville celebrates their heritage. Capsule have noticed this and have decided to do something about it.

From the Home of Metal page:

“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, 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.