Inspired by the mock-epic tone and the broad plot outlines of Ludovico Ariosto's massive Orlando furioso, and by the spirit of Heavy Metal music (from classic bands to NYC underground), is composed entirely in hendecasyllabic ottava rima. It annihilates false boundaries between high and low art, old and new, lofty and vulgar, as well as those between genders, genres, and genera (races).

Rohan (I.T. guy by day, Death Metal frontman by night) learns that his beloved music scene is under attack by racists and Nazis supported by the highest rings of political power. He rallies his friends (Bradamantica the Badass, bassist Roque Rodríguez, Angelic the Artist, Hardcore Mamma Camilla, Anatole Dharkness the Pâtisseur, et al.) to make a stand in Brooklyn and save Metal-and perhaps even America itself.

With an unforgettable cast of familiar-yet-fantastical characters (Brunello the Hacker, skateboarders Tony Medoro and Troy Euryalos, Eryck the Dread and his gimp Wormfood, queer activist Nestor Oldpunk, Schmendrick the Developer, mad politico Rudy Monte, the bewitching Alcina and her niece Armida, and many others), The Metaliad delivers a savvy, comical-yet-deadass-serious adventure tale to anyone who has ever sensed a mythic undertow in the complex world that is New York.