My family has been asking me to fill in my Amazon wish list and I’d like to add a book about heavy metal. Not a memoir, but more of an overview of the genre.
I found this one but apparently it concentrates heavily on one band and that’s not what I’m after.
If I loved the documentary “Heavy: The Story of Metal” what would you suggest?
Thanks all!
That’s actually the first book I thought of when I saw the thread title. It does spend a lot of time talking about Metallica, but that’s because what it’s really interested in is heavy metal as an American subculture during the 80s and 90s, and Metallica’s story fits very nicely with most of what was happening during that time period. It’s by no means a complete history–there are more mentions of Kate Bush than Helloween!–but it’s probably the best book out there that isn’t just a list of albums.
If you’re interested in a scholarly academic approach to heavy metal, you probably want this.
Does it have to be a book? Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey is terrific.
If you’re looking for something on a specific genre within heavy metal, I can recommend a couple of books on death metal, thrash, or black metal. Maybe a couple of other genres.
There aren’t that many books about metal as a whole, tho, that are worth the time, IMO. It’s too broad a genre at this point to make for a very good book. Movies can cover a lot of ground and give you visual and aural input, even as they explain aspects of the genre and history.
The one you linked to is okay, but not great. I own it. Ian Christie is definitely a headbanger, no doubt, but the reviews already up on amazon are pretty accurate, IMO.
Not what the OP is looking for, but a fun read.
Along the same lines, I would also recommend Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict to get a UK metal-head’s perspective…
Or more specifically Heavy Metals.