Books: Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album. no comments

Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album.

Title: Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album.
Authors: Jake Brown
Publisher: John Blake Publishing - 2011.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 235 Pages, RM 89.90, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1. Iron Maiden is one of the most successful metal band of all time. The influence that these old geezers managed to spread was beyond boundaries. I bought this book because its a book about Iron Maiden, I would be crazy to pass this on.

2. My first experience with Iron Maiden was when I was still schooling. I was still learning the ropes about what metal was all about. A fellow metalhead classmate dubbed me a compilation tape consisting of bands that I should pay attention to. I got my first dose of Carcass from that old tape, and of course Iron Maiden. What better ways to be introduced to Maiden, if not with Run To The Hills?

3. Known for being extremely melodic, cheesy catchy twin guitar leads, the infamous galloping rhythm sections, 5 octave craze by their frontman/airplane pilot and sing along choruses to top it all, Iron Maiden sure knew how to make our heads bang to the max. 

4. As the title of the book clarified, this book was about war stories behind each and every Maiden album, from the first self titled debut back in 1980 to the latest album, The Final Frontier which was released back in 2010. 

5. The 235 page thick book was divided into 16 chapters, one for every album, with the sixteenth chapter was dedicated to Eddie, the long time mascot of Maiden. Overall, the book dug the idea, the core and the in depth elaboration about each and every album and songs released by the band. You know, who wrote what and why. All that mumbo jumbos that only their hardcore fans would be able to appreciate.

6. Be very cautious though that this book is not an autobiography of the band but it would suit well as an additional read to any Maiden autobiography that you got in your collection. 

Books: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 2 comments

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Title: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Authors: Joel McIver.
Publisher: Omnibus Press. - 2011
Additional Information: Paperback, 402 Pages, RM 8.00, Big Bad Wolf Bookfest.

1. This is the book detailing the history, the highs and lows of the worldly recognized grand daddy of heavy metal, the grand daddy of them all, Black Sabbath. Whether you are fan or you are not a fan of the band, if you consider yourself a metal fan, you must know this name, Black Sabbath. If you dont, then you should jump off a bridge and die a metal sinner.

2. Well, metal sinner or not, I have to admit that I am not really a big fan of the band. I understood and acknowledge their massive contribution to metal, they pioneered the damn music, how much more big of a contribution you need? But again, the same as my relation with KISS, being a newer generation of metal fans, with sets of ideas on how my metal should sound like, the sludgy and doomy type of proto-metal of the early Sabbath were really not my cup of tea.

3. Having said that, I am still in the midst of slowly introducing myself to the sound of Black Sabbath and what a better way to assist my journey then with a copy of this biography, authored by my favorite metal biographer and archivist of all time, Mr. Joel McIver. To be honest, I picked up this book specifically because it was written by McIver. If it was by another author, I would just leave it there, untouched, uninterested.

4. At the first instance I knew it was written by McIver, I picked it up straight away. Well, I was at a bookfest at 2.00 AM in the morning and the book was only for a measly RM8.00, it was a bloody no brainer. Well, despite its being dirt cheap and all, I still stress that the main factor I bought this book was McIver. 

5. Whats all this fuss about McIver? Well, first of all I have already bought 3 of his other books namely the Metallica autobio (which I just found out that I have yet to write about), the Slayer autobio and the Cliff Burton autobio, so I basically knew what am I getting myself into. One other thing, I once received an email from the guy thanking me about the reviews, so I got no other choice but to give high praise about the guy. He personally emailed me, godammit!

6. This book is 402 page thick, which were divided into 3 parts. These parts, each one for a different era of the band was further divided into 31 chapters in the typical McIver fashion, according to the years and phase of the band. The details were extremely grim and your head will explode due to over excess of information, which is why I like and appreciate McIver's work so much. If I were to write a book about the history of Cromok (Malaysian Thrash Metal legend, whether you like it or not, yes you, I am looking at you, Mr.You know who you are), it shall be in this exact style.

7. The book touched on the early formative years of the band with the infamous Ozzy Osbourne, the inevitable split between the two, the Dio years as well as other singers trying hard to fill the unfillable (if there is such a word) shoes of Ozzy and Dio, rotating number of drummers and bass players, the entering and outing of Bill Ward, the release of "other" Black Sabbath albums, up to the year 2011.

8. It turns out that this review was really about McIver then Black Sabbath, is it not? Well, if you are a fan of the band, the you must pick this one up since it is a very good read with a lot of information about the greatest metal band of all time, Black fuckin Sabbath. 

Books: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps. no comments

Undisputed - How to Become the World Champion In 1372 Easy Steps.

Title: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps.
Authors: Chris Jericho & Peter Thomas Fornatale.
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing - 2011.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 429 Pages, RM 104.50, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Kuala Lumpur.

1. Chris Jericho? Was he not a WWE superstar wrestler? What the hell is he doing in The Bullet Belt? Is this blog turning into a wrestling blog now? Will we be reading about muscled men in spandex grappling each other with fancy moves now? What the fuck is this shit?

2. Yes, it is Chris Jericho and yes, I am reviewing his book. Yes, he is a WWE superstar wrestler and no this blog is not turning into a a wrestling blog. regarding the spandex thingy, well, aint all rock stars wore spandex back in 80s? Shut the fuck up and sit down.

3. I have decided to review Chris Jericho's Undisputed because, the book itself was basically a half wrestling memoir and half rock band biography. Thats why he is in here. And, Chris Jericho also happens to be one of my favorite wrestler off all time.

4. I am a big time wrestling fan. Not to fond of the current wrestling shows though. When I say wrestling, I meant the golden age of wrestling which was back in the mid 90s, when you still got WWF and WCW as two different entities battling for TV ratings night in night out. Remember the monday night wars? Okay, I suppose only the more hardcore fans would know about the war back in the 90s because to everybody else in Malaysia, it was just wrestling programs which was aired every thursday night at 11.00 pm.

5. The biggest kahuna of wrestling back then was Vince McMahon with his WWF (now WWE). With the entry of another kahuna in the form billionaire media mogul, Ted Turner and his revived WCW, McMahon back then faced a competition. Both companies aired their wrestling program at the same time on the same day. It was a gruesome battle which saw WWF won at the end, but not without an over 80 weeks of being ass whooped by WCW. Hell, I can write all night long about wrestling, but I think I should focus on reviewing the book for the moment.      

6. Undisputed was the follow up to his first critically acclaimed memoir, A Lion's Tale. I loved his first book so much that Ive read and re-read it more than 20 times, man. It's a fun read. When I was informed that Jericho will be releasing a follow up, I was super excited. I got the book a couple of days after the book was officially released. 

7. It was not really of that caliber of his first book, it was still a fun read. It was 429 page thick and was further divided into 47 chapters. These 47 chapters would further be divided into chapters for his wrestling tales and chapters for his musical ventures. For those not in the know, Jericho is the front man of Fozzy, a solid modern metal band that he formed with Rich Ward of that Stuck Mojo fame.

8. Stuck Mojo was one of my favorite band of all time. I was introduced to the band via their debut album, Snappin Necks which was released back in 1995. I believe, apart from Anthrax, Stuck Mojo really was the pioneer of Rap metal. The music was extremely heavy as fuck, the beats were catchy as hell and the raps were all over the place. Rich Ward, the guitarist of SM teaming with Jericho? Mind. Just. Blown.

9. Fozzy started out as a tribute band by the name of Fozzy Osbourne. The band got a record deal with Megaforce and released a couple of mediocre albums filled with covers. It was only when the band ditched the cover songs and their "gimmick" (Fozzy was a band from the States that got stuck in Japan while other bands ripped their songs and became successful for it, thus the covers that Fozzy were doing were actually their original songs previously stolen by other successful bands), that the band became more successful. 

10. I love Chris Jericho because he is one damn funny fella and this character translated well in his writing. The timing for the punch lines were spot on. A punch line time in a book? Crazy isn't it? I recommend this book. It might not be a top to bottom music, but you will have loads of fun reading it.  

Books: My Appetite For Destruction - Sex & Drugs & Guns N Roses. no comments

My Appetite For Destruction - Sex & Drugs & Guns N Roses.

Title: My Appetite For Destruction - Sex & Drugs & Guns N Roses.
Authors: Steven Adler with Lawrence J. Spagnola.
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishing - 2010.
Additional Information: Paperback, 286 Pages, RM 65.90, MPH Bookstore, Kuala Lumpur.

1. If you are a hard rock or a hardcore 80s rock music lover, then you must know Guns N Roses. One of the biggest hard rock band in the history of hard rock. If you are a fan of them Guns, then you must know who Steven Adler is.

2. I am not a big GNR fan. I hardly knew any of their songs. Okay, maybe the opening riff for Sweet Child of Mine. Well, come on. Everybody knows that riff, even if they were just a couple of fans of Justin Bieber. One of the most known riff ever to be composed by the likes of man. On the note that I am not a big GNR fan, the name Steven Adler was a bit alien to me.

3. I bought this book solely on the premise that its a book about rock musician. Being the biggest band on the planet with a short list of incredible albums under their belt and the laughable antiques of its undeniably charismatic diva of a singer in the form of Axl Rose, it was just a must have. I love biographies anyway.  

4. Steven Adler was the original drummer for GNR back in their early formation, back in 1985. He played on GNRs first album. Appetite For Destruction back in 1987 and the follow up, GNR Lies in 1988 and was fired from the band in 1990 while the band was in the midst of recording their epic double album, Use Your Illusion and was replaced by Matt Sorum.

5. This book is 286 page thick and was divided into 23 chapters. The first five chapters dealt with Adler's early years living in Cleveland, his initial meeting with Slash (guitar) and his introduction to drums. The next few chapters were about the early years of GNR and the process of writing their debut. The rest were about life on the road, drug addiction, sex, controversies, more sex and drugs and the usual whole ten yard.

6. One thing for sure. This book was an easy read. It was from a first person perspective and within those 23 chapters, each chapters were divided into various different headings. So you would not get bored waiting to end a chapter.   

Books: Kiss, Behind The Mask: The Official authorized Biography. no comments

KISS - Behind The Mask.

Title: KISS, Behind The Mask - The Official Authorized Biography.
Authors: David Leaf & Ken Sharp.
Publisher: Warner Books.
Additional Information: Paperback, 431 Pages, RM 5.00, Big Bad Wolf Bookfest.

1. First of all, I need to make myself clear that I am not a big KISS fan. I do not really like their brand of rock & roll. Understandably so since I belong to a less older school of metal fans. I was introduced to metal when the term metal had already been invented, shaped and characterized. So being a younger generation of metal fans, KISS is not really something that I would want to associate with my kind of metal. But of course, that's just me.

2. Back in the 70s, when the term metal itself was still obscure and heavy music was still called hard rock or heavy rock, KISS was THE band for a lot of uncles and aunts out there. The band managed to stay strong through out the waves of modern and more refined and defined idea of metal, just by being KISS.

3. Even though I was and still am not a fan, I bought this book for the sake of having the needs to read and learn about the development and evolution of this music, metal. Even if there are a lot of young metalheads like me out there who would be a bit hesitant to call KISS, metal (even the band themselves preferred the term hard rock) I can reassure you that KISS was and still is metal.

4. I got this book for RM5 at a book festival a couple of months ago. I hope Gene Simmons would not freak out over this. That Gene, always the entrepreneur. This book got 431 pages which were divided into 3 parts.  These 3 parts were further divided into 17 chapters.

5. The first part would be like your typical autobiography. A third person perspective, detailing the beginnings of the band. The second part consists of interview excerpts from the members of the band themselves and everyone else. The third part consists of a total breakdown of each and every album, each and every song ever recorded by the band, by the band themselves. It would be interesting if you are familiar with the current and back catalog of their songs.

6. You must buy this if you are a hardcore KISS fan. It is a must have. Having said that, I have to admit that I totally digs Beth. Hell yeah!     

Books: Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal. 3 comments

Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal by Dave Mustaine and Joe Layden.

Title: Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal
Authors: Dave Mustaine & Joe Layden.
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishing.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 346 Pages, RM 96.90, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1- I was super excited when I first heard that Mustaine will be writing and releasing his memoir and when it was released, I waited patiently for the book to hit the local shelves. When it did, I went to my favorite bookstore to purchase a copy of the book just to find out that it was sold out. Fuck! I guess Malaysians love their Megadeth. I got my copy only a few weeks later. It was never too late to enjoy a good dose of Dave Mustaine's arrogance in my book.

2- Let us move on to the contents of the book. It was written from a first person point of view thus you will have Mustaine narrating everything from top to bottom. The contents were divided into 17 chapters with the first two dealt with his background, his family and his early interest in music and guitar. 3 chapters were dedicated to his life when he was in Metallica and eventually ended up until he was booted out from the band. The rest of the book was about his revenge seeking in the form of Megadeth, rotating band members and his drug addiction.

3- Reading the book (and a couple more books on the history of hard rock and heavy metal) and from being an avid fan for so long, I just could not help but summarize that with out Mustaine, thrash metal would not be as it is today. Everybody recognize that the genre was pioneered by Metallica and of course there were more than a dozen guitar virtuosos that came after him in the likes of Scott Ian of Anthrax and Kerry King of Slayer, but it was Mustaine's furious guitar playing in No Life Till Leather that molded the basic template for thrash riffs in the 80's.

4- This is definitely a must.

Books: Heavy Metal In Baghdad - The Story of Acrassicauda. no comments

Heavy Metal In Baghdad - The Story of Acrassicauda by Andy Capper and Gabi Sifre.

Title: Heavy Metal in Baghdad - The Story of Acrassicauda.
Authors: Andy Capper & Gabi Sifre.
Publisher: MTV Books/Pocket Books.
Additional Information: Paperback, 290 Pages, RM 60.17, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1- I have watched the awesome video, Heavy Metal in Baghdad and now this is the book version of the same video. For those who have watched the video I believe you are familiar with story of Acrassicauda, a striving heavy metal band from the war torn city of Baghdad.

2- While the movie received a lot of positive attention and I personally think that the movie was awesome, unfortunately there is nothing awesome about this book really besides the fact that this is just another channel to milk for some more extra cash from the acrassicauda phenomenon. The book followed The Dirt formula, instead of an author telling the story of the band from a third person point of view, they let the band members themselves do the talking and story telling, a style made famous by that awesome Motley Crue autobiography, The Dirt.

3- I dont know but some of the word structures used were quite week grammatically. I am not a grammar nazi and not even grammatically proficient myself but come on, I paid a hefty lot of money to buy and read the book, I expect at least a good structure of sentences. So uninspiring for a very inspiring story. They even got one third of the book filled with the movie transcript. What the fuck? Why the fuck would I wan to read the fucking transcript? Was this a move to thicken the book?

4- Well, unfortunately I am not going to recommend this if you have already watched the movie. It's a waste of good money. By the way, if you are curious, Acrassicauda is now in the States and they have recorded an awesome EP, Only the Dead See The End of War with the mighty Alex Skolnick of Testament behind the producers chair. Get the EP not the book. Will they release a book about the process of recording that EP? I guess only time and greed will tell. Haha.

Books: The Bloody Reign of Slayer. no comments

The Bloody Reign of Slayer by Joel McIver

Title: The Bloody Reign of Slayer.
Author: Joel McIver.
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Additional Info: Hardcover, 286 Pages, RM157.65, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1- My third Joel McIver book after Justice For All - The Truth About Metallica (the most complete Metallica biography ever) and To Live is To Die - The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton (the only authentic biography of Cliff Burton. Yes, ever). I have already reviewed the later HERE and will later review the former. Stay tune for that. I would also like thank Mr.McIver for emailing me the other day. An absolute honor man.

2- You can now buy the paperback edition which is way cheaper than the hardcover version that I had. I bought the hardcover version because I just could not wait for the paperback edition. There goes my one hundred and fifty bucks out of my pocket for Slayer but  fuck, it's all worth it. Every Slayer fans should get a copy of this book.

3- I am quite familiar with McIver's style of writing by the time I got this book due to my repeat read of Justice For All. Although an avid metal fan McIver provided a balanced story telling from a metal fan point of view and from those who are outside looking in.

4- In this book, you will be able to read about Slayer's early formation to its finest details. The book also got one whole chapter dedicated to the detailing of the fearsome four's early lives way , pre 1983, before the formation of Slayer. It has a chapter each for every phase of the band's progress. I mean you will have a chapter for each of their albums, from their Metal Massacre days to the Show No Mercy phase and the latest being their 2006 album, Christ Illusion. I believe there will be a revised edition to include World Painted Blood.

5- This is by far the most complete Slayer autobiography I have ever read, well not that they got a lot of that anyways. Get this.

Books - Steven Adler and Acrassicauda: no comments

According to Blabbermouth, Steven Adler had just begun promoting his tell-all autobiography called “My Appetite For Destruction: Sex and Drugs and Guns N Roses”. If you do not know who Steven Adler is then you are an idiot. Adler commended his popularity and super stardom status for his 5 years stint as the drummer for the world renowned heavy metal band the mighty Guns N Roses. When everything's not working for you, your projects were not that well received by the popular culture, always remember that you can at any time write a book about your previous band for a few chunks of cash, even though you’re just the drummer. Hell, drummers have stories to tell too.


Have you seen Heavy Metal in Baghdad in 2007? Never heard of it? Well, Heavy Metal in Baghdad was the name of a 2007 documentary film about this one heavy metal band who called themselves Acrassicauda from Baghdad the glorified capital city of Iraq. Basically, it was about these four Iraqi headbangers trying to endure playing heavy metal music and surviving the bombs and bullets from the second gulf war in Baghdad. It was a very fine and pleasurable documentary which I would recommend to everyone. I shall write a late review of that film some other time. I have just found out that they also had a book accompanying the film which was just recently released. The book was basically the complete autobiography of the band and their myriad of experience relocating from Baghdad to Turki to the good old Uncle Sam.

Hopefully these books will be available here in Malaysia.

Book Review - To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton: 2 comments

To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, Joel McIver, Jawbone Press, 2009.

With out any shadow of a doubt, Cliff Burton can be considered the most influential heavy metal figure out of the 80s Thrash Metal scene. Yes, Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) (with the former two, each being a major influence to the playing of the mighty Burton himself), just to name a few, were all great bass players but the legend, momentum and impact that each and everyone of these legendary bassists have had on the underground metal scene, in my honest personal opinion, is incomparable to those of Cliff Burton’s.

With Metallica being the most successful heavy metal band of all time, the legend of Cliff Burton is not just some second page yesterday news.

This book was written by the mighty Joel McIver (the author who brought you the 2004 “And Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica” and 2008 “The Bloody Reign of Slayer”) with Metallica’s Kirk Hammet penning the foreward. Now that I am quite familiar with McIver’s methods in constructing the contents of his books, I have managed to finish this 272 page book at one go. One heavy metal biscuit for me, cheers.

This book can be considered as the most complete autobiography of Cliff Burton (none had ever been written anyway, except for the chapters written about him in every book written about his band). Covering in detail the journey of Cliff Burton, from his days playing in EZ Street with Jim Martin to his days in Trauma to his days in Metallica detailed down to his last days in September of 1986.

It felt like it was an off shot read to Justice And For All, McIver’s book on Metallica, since in And Justice For All, McIver had already dedicated a spread of 16 pages on the mighty bassist alone. If you have already read And Justice For All, reading through the pages of this book will give you a stint of déjà vu, if you get my drift.

What ever it is, this one is a must for all you Metallicats out there. RIP Cliff Burton.

Book Review - Sound of the Beast : The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal no comments

Sound of the Beast – The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, Ian Christe, Harper Entertainment, 2004.

If you are an avid heavy metal fan, you are new to the music and you didn’t know shit about the history of this blasphemous music, then this is the gospel for you. I got this book somewhere in August 2009 and managed to finish the book a few days later. Captivating would be a perfect word to sum the wonderful deliverance of this book. It’s a fun read.

It was not really the academic type so to speak. Compared to Lords of Chaos, this book is far more light weight, in terms of how the book was authored, content wise though, this book offers more information than anyone could handle thus living up to its title, the complete headbanging history of heavy metal.

The one I got was the revised edition with a newly added chapter discussing the perception and tribulation of heavy metal music in the muslim world. And guess what? Malaysia spearheaded the chapter and even Harian Fucking Metro got a worthy mention.

The content of this book follows the root of heavy metal in the 1970s, the NWOBHM, the thrash metal evolution in the 80s, the rise of death metal and the blasphemy of the Norwegian Black Metal in the 90s each with a chapter of its own.

A few pages in between were dedicated to explain the more major types of heavy metal in the likes of Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Industrial Metal, Grindcore just to name a few, complete with a list of influential bands and albums for each subgenre for easy reference.

This book also closely followed the evolution of Metallica, just so you know.

Book Review: The Heroin Diaries - A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rockstar: 2 comments

The Heroin Diaries - A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rockstar, Nikki Sixx with Ian Gihins, Pocket Books, 2008.

I am currently waiting to write something about one of the most hardworking and dedicated metal band from Malaysia which goes by the name of Hayagriva and I am currently doing some proper research about the band and until I completed this mini investigation, I shall write about something else so that The Bullet Belt would not end up being a lost work like most of my other one hit wonder blogs.

This is not actually a book, but more of a collection of entries from Nikki Sixx’s 1987 diary with additional commentaries by various people who were mentioned in his entries. This is like an additional text book for the hard hitting New York Times bestseller The Dirt, the complete autobiography of his world famous hard rock band, Motley Crue, straight from the horse’s mouth. I will be reviewing The Dirt later. Now, let us focus on The Heroin Diaries – A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rockstar by Nikki Sixx with Ian Gihins.

Nikki Sixx was and still is the bassist and principle songwriter of Motley Crue, one of the most influential and prominent hard rock bands in the history of American rock and roll, if the world would be an overstatement. Their insubordinate and wild attitude both in life and music, on and off the stage, was the elementary constituent that shaped the whole music industry in the 1980’s. Cock Rock, Glam Metal, Hair Metal, Rock Kangkang, Rock Paras, call it what ever you want but it all undeniably started and revolved around bands like Crue when Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were too busy knocking each other off the stage.

Through this diary we can dive deep into Nikki Sixx’s life of rock n roll, booze, drugs and sex. Most of the entries contained either about Sixx doing drugs, trying to be sober, preparing to go on stage and a bit about his fellow band members here and there. Each entries comes with additional commentaries from his band members, former managers, ex-girlfriends and Sixx himself, trying to put in little bits of details about what really happened on various events mentioned in each of the entries. That very much helped the readers to understand what in the name of hell is he talking about.

The lay out of this book is all over the place so you really need to focus on what you read. Ghoulish arts and drawings here and there and most of the contents were either black, white or red in color. It was a bit of a turn off for me because more than once that these horrendous lay outs distracted my eyes from reading the texts. Like I said, this book is just a supplemental read for The Dirt. For those who wanted to know more about Motley Crue, I would suggest that reading The Dirt would be more than enough. For collectors, this is a must.

I bought this book for RM57.50 from Kinokuniya, KLCC on 13th February 2009.

Book Review: Bang Your Head - The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal: no comments

Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal, David Konow, Three Rivers Press, 2002.

I always have been fascinated with both music and history and a book about the history of a particular music is just like killing two birds with one stone. I have read a few books about the history of heavy metal and Bang Your Head is the least elevating one. Of course it was a fun read, but all Rock n Roll books are fun to read. The only thing that made me bought this book is the fact that I have yet to find a book about the rise and fall of the 80’s Cock Rock (Malaysian equivalent to Rock Kapak) scene, and this book, although not as comprehensive and thorough as I hoped it should, contained some murky information about the craze, the 80’s world wide fad, which helped launch MTV to a gainful and profitable broadcast.

Towering hairs and cans of hair sprays, fishnets and spandexes, groupies and backstage passes and the unforgettable Power Ballads and yes, the bands. Bands in the likes of Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Quiet Riot and Poison took the world by storm. It made its way to the Malaysian shores and before you know it, Search, Wings, Lefthanded and May, just to name a few, became Sunset strip’s little ambassadors.

The book is 496 page thick and the front cover depicts the dullest book cover I have ever seen. Being a person who normally judges a book by its cover (literally), it would have been better if the publisher opted to coat the front cover black and print the title somewhere in the middle white, I would have bought the book right there and then. The cover was sort of a cut and pastes assemble, with zerox quality coloration that I believe for the purpose of going after the old school fanzine feel.

The story telling was light; it gave a good bird’s eye view of the cock rock scene back in the early 80’s; the book was a fun read nonetheless but it could have been better though. Besides the lack of depth, the book was also in short of photos. You do not write a book about Rock N Roll, describe the glorious vista of the legendary Sunset Strip, illustrate hundreds of crazy ass bands and have just a couple of photos in it!

I bought this one Frinday last week. Got it from Kinokuniya, KLCC and it costs me RM60.

Editors Note: Original article was taken from Metaforakami, my personal blog.

Book Review: Lords of Chaos - The Bloody Rise of The Satanic Metal Underground: no comments

Lords of Chaos – The Bloody Rise of The Satanic Metal Underground, Micheal Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind, Feral House, 1998

I bought this book a few months ago and managed to finish it a few days after buying it. It was an intense but a good read altogether although the approach, the style of writing is quite academic, necessary, from my point of view, for a book which chronicled the world’s most notorious music since the formation of the hexachord system by Guido of Arezzo, which spurred the unearthing of the satanic chords (diabolus in musica) way back in the 18th century, to be taken seriously. The music they call Black Metal. It requires a tune so that people will take the book seriously.

I have been listening to this kind of tune since primary school and the one accountable for introducing me to this music was not any of my friends or older relatives, but a local Malaysian tabloid. Untarnished still in my hazy remembrance, I was quite captivated by this diabolical music through an article in that particular tabloid that did a 2-page special report on the subject, complete with cool pictures and band logos. They even listed all these so called satanic rock bands for my trouble-free reference. And that was in 1995 if my memory serves me correctly. I was very inquisitive and very much the curious cat. It was like a giant whirlpool sucking me in and there were no ways for me to escape these enthralling madness of sorrow, supremacy and extreme aggressiveness. I got to try this, I said to myself. It took me no more than 5 second to convert myself from a nerd into a metal and hard rock listening nerd. Still a nerd but a different kind of nerd. It took me no more than the next week later for me to buy my first record. Talk about ultra influential. I have been a devoted fan and an avid listener ever since. I live happily ever after and my life has never been the same again.

Enough about my metal fairy tale and lets check this book out. Since the orientation of this book is quite academic, the read was quite deep, hectic and more often than not, quite tiring since the authors have widened their extent of investigation beyond the musician and its miniature circle. This includes outsiders who were directly involved with the satanic scene. Thus giving the reader more elaborative facts from different perspectives and distinguished angles. Although there are several general issues covered and discussed by the authors, I can see that the reason for the publication of this book was more towards exploiting the notoriety of the Norwegian Black Metal scene, the birthplace of what was known to be as the second wave of Black Metal (Mayhem, Burzum, Dark Throne, Immortal, Emperor, Enslaved are all Norwegian bands). A chunk of pages was dedicated to its early inception, the power struggle, suicide, the murders and the church burnings, which all in fact happened in Norway. In case you do not know, Black Metal was once Norway’s main export. Black metal bands being nominated in the Norwegian Grammy is quite normal there. I would like to see that kind of openness here.

Two of the most important individuals, highly influential to the early inception of Satanic Black Metal in Norway, Oysten Aarseth aka Euronymous and Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh, were heavily dealt with in one of its chapters. Besides touching on the history or the early development of the Black Metal sound, the book also features interviews with who’s who from the scene (the infamous members of the Inner Circle. the Black Metal Mafia as the Norwegian press called it) and quite elaborative on the music’s influence through out the world.

It is a good read, highly recommended to those who really want to dig deep into the music judging the music by its cover, since Malaysia had (still having) her fair share of controversy (known worldwide, even Ian Christe mentioned the conservativeness of Malaysia in his book, Sound of the Beast. Maybe we do live on trees) with regard to this highly intolerable form of entertainment (yes, entertainment. Intolerable but still entertainment). At the peak of the second wave of the so-called Black Metal controversy, instigated, by the way, by the very same tabloid responsible for introducing me to this wonderful music 18 years earlier, I found a book about Black Metal written by one Ann Wan Seng, a local muslim author, published somewhere in 2007, simply titled Kesesatan Black Metal (the deviousness of Black Metal) which was totally crappy and nauseating. That guy just copy pasted some crap about Satanism from wikipedia, got some pictures from the net (anything with goats, five down-pointed stars and inverted crosses) and name the book Kesesatan Black Metal to get some extra money for coffee. Pathetic.

Anyway, I got this one from Kinokunia, KLCC, with 394 pages and it costs me RM75.80. My copy was the second edition and was published in 2003.

Editors Note: Original article was taken from Metaforakami, my personal blog.

Book Review: Anvil - The Story of Anvil: no comments

Anvil!: The Story of Anvil, Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner with Robert Uhlig, Bantam Press, 2009.

I do not know why I had not lifted this one of the bookshelf earlier. Since that day, I made it a mission to get my hands on this book as soon as possible and 2 days ago, I finally got it. Anvil! The Story of Anvil is one hell of a read. I spent one whole day finishing this one. Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band and many considered them the first few bands whose music paved the way for the entire genre of Speed and Thrash Metal, among those in agreement are the likes of Scott Ian of Anthrax and Lars Ulrich of Metallica.

Basically this book illustrates the journey of two friends, Lips and Robbo, childhood friends who made a vow when they were fourteen years old to rock together, for ever and they meant it. It was an emotional journey. They toured with all the greatest bands ever lived. You name it, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Scorpions and all of these bands sold millions and millions of records around the world except Anvil.

It depicts a story of staying true to yourself, staying true to your dreams, not losing hope and to do things not for the sake of doing it but for the love it. When they first stormed the scene back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, everybody thought that Anvil was the band that will turn the world upside down with their brand of fast and odd timing heavy metal. Though most of the lyrics are kind of sleazy, but musically they were revolutionaries, ahead of their time. They should have made it big.

Anvil remained obscure. Nobody knows about them. But they were true to their dream to become rock stars and to become successful. They kept releasing albums and do small tours. They lived for music. It takes a heart of a lion to have that kind of dedication, my friend. This also a story about friendship, a story of two heavy metal brothers staying true to each other despite their ups and downs of life. Fighting personal demons in the shape of drugs and what not. It is an emotional read. Whether they finally achieve that dream or not, that you must find out on your own if you choose to read this book.

This book came in support of the movie, a documentary made about them which goes by the same name. I have yet to watch the movie, but judging by the power of this book and the trailer I just watched recently, I know it is a must that I go and see the movie. Even by watching the trailer almost made me cry. I am a fan.

I got my copy from Kinokuniya KLCC. Bought it when I was on my way for a meeting. This book is 313 pages thick and it cost me RM123.90. Worth ever penny spent.

Editors Note: Original article was taken from Metaforakami, my personal blog.