They're pussy cats really! Tattooed heavy metal rockers risk their tough reputation to out themselves as kitty lovers with pets named 'Princess' and 'Fluffy'

Just because you named your band Skeletonwitch doesn't mean you don't want to cuddle with your kitty.



That's the point of Oakland photographer Alexandra Crockett's new book, Metal Cats, which includes more than 700 shots of metal heads posing with their favorite cat.

'When I decided to do it, I texted about 30 of my metalhead male friends, most of whom I knew already had cats,' she told New York Mag. 'I just said, 'Hey if I did this kind of, like, silly weird idea, what would you think about that? And they were all like, 'Oh my God, I really want to!''

The project took her four years as she traveled the coast shooting both fans and musicians in bands like Black Goat, Thrones, Isis, Cattle Decapitation, Napalm Death, and Municipal Waste.

'I’ve been in the metal scene since I was 14 years old, so I’ve been hanging out with people that are in this scene this entire time. And it’s always kind of been a theme where these guys that are into pretty dark music are also really into cute cats,' she said.

Metal Cats collects more than 700 images of tough guys with fluffy kitties by photographer Alexandra Crockett

Crockett has been taking pictures of metalheads with cats since September 2010

Crockett is herself a fixture on the West Coast metal scene

Crockett said the book will hope show the diversity of people in the metal scene

In Crockett's experience, she suspects cats don't even like music