Angela Costello, “Dress, Identity, & Material Aspects of Byzantium in Metal Performance”

Presented as the 2024 Leeds International Medieval Congress, as part of the panel “Forged in Greek Fire: Byzantium’s Heavy Metal Afterlife,” organized by Jeremy Swist and moderated by Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie.

Abstract:
When one hears the term “metal” regarding the musical genre, imagery of loud rifts, driving melodies, and harsh lyrics can fill the mind. Within the genre, thematic focuses on periods of time or cultures of a distant past can foster a different time of visual experience. This paper seeks to engage with a variety of facets of metal music and culture in surrounded imagery pertaining to the Byzantine Empire, predominantly that of material culture, dress, and appearance. Case studies will be examined to seek examples from deliverables and merchandise (album covers or t-shirts) to visual performance aids (costume and banners), and lyrics designed to stoke the imagination.

Biography:
Angela Costello is a doctoral candidate in the department of History at the University of South Florida. Her areas of focus include dress and appearance in Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Her dissertation is exploring the continuance of Roman identity and power through dress after the fall of the Western Roman Empire through the 7th Century, and she is currently in between two archaeological excavations: The Domus Romana in Rabat, Malta, and the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, where she is engaging directly with material culture of this period.