Dr Olivia R. Lucas is currently Assistant Professor of Music Theory at LSU and got her Ph.D at Harvard University for the dissertation: Loudness, Rhythm and Environment: Analytical Issues in Extreme Metal Music. In this episode we discuss her research on bands such as Meshuggah (music and light show), Sunn O))), Botanist and Panopticon, as well as the influence of the internet on the recent evolutions of metal music, local versus global trends, the emergence of the field of extreme metal studies, ecocriticism, the changing place of women in the metal scene, her auto-ethnographic approach to music as an embodied experience, and more.