The new book Headbangers is a collection of Danish photographer Jacob Ehrbahn’s intimate portraits of the beauty and chaos of heavy metal rockers in the throes of musical ecstasy taken at European metal festivals such as Denmark’s Copenhell, Germany’s Wacken Open Air, and Sweden’s Metaltown. Heavy metal fans go totally berserk when listening to their music. Some shake their heads violently from side to side and back and forth, while others go all in and flail their entire bodies in time to the blast beats. In this collection Ehrbahn’s camera stops time and captures the surprising and life-affirming moments when the headbangers abandon all semblance of vanity and surrender to the rhythm. Ehrbahn transports us to an intimate world disconnected from time and space—a universe where it’s possible to transcend the frenzy and enter an altered state that brings calm, joy, and relief.
