Right away you can tell Metal Cats, a photo collection of musicians and their pets, is awesome: just a bunch of hardcore dudes and their fuzzy-wuzzy kitty-cats. But aren't these animals, even domesticated as they are, first and foremost carnivorous predators? Nocturnal and vicious, as violent at heart as hardcore metal? Meme after Internet meme foretells how the world, awash in blood and humiliation, will one day bow before the superior feline race. Come on, that's metal!
Both metal and cats have existed under clouds of stigma, fraught associations with demonic forces and hellish bloodlust. With an introduction by Bariann Tuite of Broken Limbs Recordings, Alexandra Crockett's Metal Cats project hopes to buck those comparisons and demonstrate how "the alternative lifestyle of cats is not unlike the alternative lifestyle of heavy metal fans and musicians." By pairing dozens of metal artists with their pets, she reveals the sensitivity and humanity in each, without sacrificing any hard edge or good humor. Even better, a portion of the sales will support West Coast no-kill shelters.
Love, acceptance and cuddling may not sound all that hardcore, but it makes for one hell of a collection of photos. Here are musicians from bands such as Municipal Waste, Cattle Decapitation, Napalm Death and Skeletonwitch--tattooed, sweaty, screaming--holding aloft their adorable, furry friends. There's an immediate bond visible in Metal Cats, and it goes deep. Leave it to cats to perfect that delicate balance between misunderstood crust and love muffin. In that way, they're the true artists. --Dave Wheeler, publishing assistant, Shelf Awareness