Some books are easy to call. If you're not into heavy metal music, you won't be into PRECIOUS METAL: DECIBEL PRESENTS THE STORIES BEHIND 25 EXTREME METAL MASTERPIECES. Edited by Albert Mudrian, who also fronts DECIBEL magazine, which I'm unaware existed, the book does exactly what it sets out to do, telling chapter-long "making of" tales of more than two dozen albums.
While I respect Mudrian's insistence at having contributors interview every member of the band, and the Q&A format keeps the engine chugging, I've never heard of these supposed hall-of-fame masterpieces, much less the groups. I know of Black Sabbath, Slayer and Monster Magnet, but who is Carcass? Eyehategod? Kyuss? Darkthrone?
With no knowledge of these acts, I have no emotional inkling to find out what went in to such-and-such CD. It reads a little insidery, with names bandied out that I don't know, but that's fine. Again: As a non-metalhead, I'm not who this book is trying to reach.
This is one for those guys who sat in the back of my bus in junior high school. Those guys who stepped on every morning with their sleeveless Iron Maiden T-shirts and glassy-eyed, vacant stares. This is for them, provided they read, provided they're still alive. —Rod Lott
Buy it at Amazon.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you mean Kyuss who split up and then become Fu Manchu and Queens of the Stone Age
Yes, we’re still alive and, yes, we read. And, yes, we love this book. Thanks for writing about it, Normal Guy Who Sat in the Front of the Bus.
I think you meant to say “Nerd.”
“Nerd” & “Metalhead” not at all mutually exclusive, my friend. This book is fantastic and Decibel deserves wider readership, thanks for giving it space.
Why did you review this if you’re so unqualified to do so?
I’m qualified to review anything. But if I hadn’t disclosed I’m not the target for it, that may not be the case.
Qualified to write a completely unhelpful review that tells us essentially nil about the book itself. And I’m amazed that you’ve somehow ymanaged to continue to be unaware of the existence of Decibel magazine, even after writing about it (“I’m unaware existed”).
That was bitchy. I’ll be honest: I’m annoyed by the unearned snobbery of your final line. “Provided they read”? Jesus Christ.
Deaththrone? I think you mean Darkthrone. Apparently you are having a hard time writing about what you just read, eh?
Sorry, I’m a metal nerd so I have to note these mistakes.
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve learned my lesson: My handwritten notes are now too illegible for even me to read.
Could that last paragraph be any more condescending or ignorant?
Trust me, it could.
Rod’s riled the metalheads! I’m surprised one of them hasn’t challenged him to meet up at the bike racks after school for a fight! If one does, Rod must be warned that those freaks have been known to make dangerous weapons in shop class.
I’m gonna bite the head off a bat and pretend it’s Rod’s kitty cat.
The first review I’ve read on Bookgasm, and definitely the last. Why did you bother, Rod?
Because I love.