The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Geology professor releases new book about… heavy metal

Man with electric guitar. Photo.
Mats E. Eriksson

Professor Mats E. Eriksson of Lund University in Sweden is now publishing his second book in the somewhat unusual subject combination of geological fossils and heavy metal music.

Researching microscopic fossils and attempting to reconstruct several hundred million-year-old ecosystems is Mats E. Eriksson’s day job as a professor of geology at Lund University in Sweden. In his spare time, however, he is a heavy metal fan and has looked into several different ways of combining these two completely different interests.

As a researcher, he has named a number of newly discovered fossils after famous metal artists, written song lyrics about fossils and been involved in a touring exhibition specifically linking fossils with heavy metal.

Now Eriksson is publishing his first popular science book in English. The book’s title is Another Primordial Day – the Paleo Metal Diaries. It aims to combine science, art and popular culture through explorations of palaeontology, heavy metal and reconstructions of extinct animal species. Mats E. Eriksson wants to communicate, in an entertaining way, the strong links he is convinced actually exist between science and various art forms.

“After all, both fields are characterised by a consuming passion for the subliminal complexity of our existence, and both artistic expression and natural science are animated by an inherent drive to break boundaries”, says Mats E. Eriksson.

Among other things, the book contains accounts of a touring exhibition in which fossils are named after rock stars and unconventional ways of creating music with paleontological references.

Furthermore, Eriksson discusses the music industry’s unexpectedly strong connection to extinct animal species, and how God and Satan are linked to palaeontology. The reader can also find answers to why a fossil-free world is extremely undesirable, and why the biological superhero Carl von Linné was actually what is known as a metal head.

“The reader will get completely superfluous information on fossil hard rock worms, weatherproof dinosaurs and stage diving at natural history museums”, says Mats E. Eriksson.

In the book, he has also collected anecdotes about, and unique photographs of, artists such as Lemmy Kilmister, King Diamond, Accept, Wolf and Seance.