Louder Than Hell
The Definitive Oral History of Metal
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4.3 • 42 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The definitive oral history of heavy metal, Louder Than Hell by renowned music journalists Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman includes hundreds of interviews with the giants of the movement, conducted over the past 25 years.
Unlike many forms of popular music, metalheads tend to embrace their favorite bands and follow them over decades. Metal is not only a pastime for the true aficionados; it’s a lifestyle and obsession that permeates every aspect of their being. Louder Than Hell is an examination of that cultural phenomenon and the much-maligned genre of music that has stood the test of time.
Louder than Hell features more than 250 interviews with some of the biggest bands in metal, including Black Sabbath, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Spinal Tap, Pantera, White Zombie, Slipknot, and Twisted Sister; insights from industry insiders, family members, friends, scenesters, groupies, and journalists; and 48 pages of full-color photographs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Compiled from over 250 interviews conducted by the long-time music journalists Wiederhorn and Turman over the past 25 years, this work conveys the history of heavy metal through the words of the men and women who created it, played it, re-invented it, and continue to carry the torch for this much-loved and much-maligned subgenre of rock 'n' roll. Bookended by an introduction by Anthrax's Scott Ian and an afterword by Judas Priest's Rob Halford, metal's lifespan is broken up into chapters that tell the story of metal in chronological order, basically starting with Black Sabbath's formation in the late '60s to the death of Slipknot's Paul Gray in 2010. For those looking for all the classic touchstone moments of heavy metal, they are here, including Ronnie James Dio perfecting the metal "devil horns," Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat, the debauchery of the L.A. glam scene, Kiss's Gene Simmons "over 4,600 liaisons," and Alice Cooper killing a chicken on stage. But the authors dig deeper into the other hard rock related stories, like black metal death that included Norwegian Count Grishnackh murdering fellow countryman and musician Euronymous, and the Swedish frontman of the band Dissection Jon N dtveidt "helping to kill" a gay man in 1997. While proponents of classic bands such as Iron Maiden or AC/DC may take issue with the inclusion of rap-rock band Limp Bizkit, alternative act Marilyn Manson, or industrial group Nine Inch Nails in a book about metal, the authors inclusiveness give this examination a weight that is just as heavy as the music. (Color photos not seen by PW.)
Customer Reviews
Solid Overview of Heavy Metal
I enjoyed this book. It provided a good overall narration of the history of this genre that I love. It wasn't perfect however, and could have been better. I thought the authors spent way too much time on Metalcore, and Crossover. I understand they're part of the story, but I believe they're not as important as other genres and, are part of the problem with mainstream metal today. They've become too formulaic and the music is boring. But I digress. Not enough time was spent on early and pre metal and not enough important bands from those eras were mentioned. Also completely missing from this book, is grunge. Regardless of what people think about the music and the bands it is part of the story of heavy music, period. Almost all of those bands, especially the popular ones, had heavy elements of metal. The only thing mentioned about grunge was that it killed metal in the 90s. Late 80s/early 90s commercial pop metal is what killed metal in the 90s. Grunge (label given by critics) helped bring metal back to its roots. At the same time it helped heavy music evolve into the next century. Good and bad (mostly bad with all the cheap knockoff post grunge bands). Grunge's influence is still felt throughout today's popular, heavy music. All in all it's a good book for an overview and newcomers to the genre will learn a few things.
Not worth the time, unfortunately
About a third of the book was a fairly well considered history of the musical evolution of heavy metal (particularly the parts about Metallica, NIN, Tool and Rage Against the Machine), the majority of the book could have been replaced with a paragraph that read:
“______ of ______ felt disappointed on any night of the tour that he didn’t have sex with at least two girls.” And then followed it with a list of heavy metal musician names and band names to fill in the blanks.
The constant, monotonous repetition of uninspired sexual encounters and pointless violence backstage is simply boring. Boring!! Boring!! Boring!!
Great book
Really good book to read if your interested in heavy metal and all it's different subgenres. Really goes into detail