Encylopedia of Heavy Metal (2003)
300pg, 29cm x 29cm, English
Author
Daniel Bukszpan
ISBN 978-0-7607-4218-1
I found this huge book on the shelf. Thinking I can get income tax rebate for book purchase, I bought the book although knowing most probably the book will be shitty in content. The book was in shrink-wrap so I can't flip through before purchasing.
Encyclopedia for heavy metal music? That is a very big words. Can you really make an Encyclopedia for heavy metal? I don’t think so. If you can do it, it will be more than just 300 pages. The author acknowledges this. He has his own criteria on selecting the bands such as Him as heavy metal. You can also see Katatonia, Napalm Death, Opeth, The Sweet and even Immortal from Norway in the list.
According to the book there 200 bands and 600 color photos. Info about the band including line-up, short bio and discography but not all has photos. There are some some indicators or icons are given to the band members and the lyrics. Example a 'syringe' indicates 'notorious drugs use' and inverted pentagram represent satanic. For band members, will have 4 maximum icons and lyrics will have 7 maximum. So I think if a band can score 4 + 7, then it must the truest heavy metal band. The highest is Black Sabbath (9) and then Type O Negative (7)
Beside this there are also sections on info on genre of Heavy Metal, infamous band rivalry (example Mustaine vs Metallica), Heavy Metal fashion, Heavy Metal magazine (no Terrorizer?), Record label, Radio show, Drugs & intraband conflict (example Richie Blackmore). And not to forget the Top 10 best selling metal artist, Top 10 most essential album, Top 10 best album of all time and many more 'Top 10' according to the author.
To help you out, there are bibliography, index and appendix. This is a must for all books
The problem with this book is the size. I don't like it because it's not in the normal shape. I am having problem in putting it on the shelf at home.
The author founded the label call “Smoking in Bed” and has some tips from the late Ronnie James Dio (which also made the foreword) on vinyl playing.\
Overall, not really important to have this in your bookshelf. You can skip this. But honestly, I only like looking at the pictures. There are plenty.
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