This study frames extreme metal scenes as communities of practice (Wenger, 1999). A CoP is defined by three dimensions: domain (a shared interestm for us, extreme metal), community (mutual engagement and relationships), and practice (a shared repertoire of activities, rituals, knowledge and values). Learning is situated and informal: newcomers move from legitimate peripheral participation toward fuller membership as they take up the community’s practices (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Crucially, participation continuously reproduces identity rather than merely shaping it during initial socialisation (Wenger, 1999). The article extends CoP theory by showing that mature membership involves not only accumulated competence but also a moral responsibility to induct newcomers, and that learning is reciprocal, that is older fans mentor while continuing to learn as the practice changes (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1999).
Fandom studies positions fans as active audiences who creatively appropriate cultural texts to construct meaning and community (Jenkins, 2013). The study draws on scholarship that brings a life course and ageing lens to fandom: fan identities and practices have more age-related structure than the field previously recognised, and long-term fandom provides continuity and biographical markers across the life course (Harrington & Bielby, 2017; Harrington et al., 2011). It also engages the concept of ordinary fandom, the quieter, less conspicuous ways older fans sustain commitments, but also the we-sense, a cross-generational felt belonging that coexists with subcultural distinction (Jerslev & Petersen, 2018; Fathallah, 2024). Bennett’s (2006) work on older punks informs the analysis of older fans as scene connoisseurs and informal educators. The article contributes by extending fandom studies beyond mainstream music and youth-oriented periodisation, foregrounding the temporal accumulation of fan identity and the subcultural capital that older fans possess (Thornton, 1996; Bennett, 2006; Fathallah, 2024).