Reading No Way...

   I know, I know reading sucks right.  Especially for heavy metal fans who like me just want to listen and soak it all up that way.  If I ever do read something it 98% of the time has something to do with music in some way.  Revolver magazine is really the only thing that I consistently read cause come on that mag is every metal fans essential reading material.  Although Revolver is great there are some great books out there that are really interesting as well.  I've been picking them up here and there cause either they one, have great pictures, two are short and to the point, three have great pictures oh wait, four are very informative and educational, and five just are cool to have on the shelf with the rest of my music books.  So I wanted to put a post together of some great reading material for any heavy metal fan out there.  Some of the books are like encyclopedias of metal which in my opinion will be incomplete for sure but usually those kind of books have great pictures, and generally do cover a vast amount of the metal out there so its ok to be missing a few.  Some are very interesting to read about a certain genre, or time period in metal, and some are bios.  None the less these are great reads and will help you guys get a more full mind of what it is to be a true metal fan.  So read up but only this stuff.  Nothing else I command you to fallow my words.  Everything else is useless.  Ha

   Ok so there you have it.  I've read or looked at all of these books.  Most of them I own still, or have at one point owned but sold for one reason or another.  Probably to get more Cd's, but these books are all very interesting to read.  To Soak up all the metal info out there still would take ages and ages to do, but these books will give you a great place to start reading up on it.  You can be the biggest heavy metal fan, but if you really don't pick up a book about it you really won't get the true full history of whatever you are listening to.  Wikipedia is another great tool.  It has a page on pretty much every essential metal band and gives a pretty good source for info on them.  From history, starts and finishes of albums, time lines of events with the bands, discographies, and band member bios.  Like I said earlier some are more for the pictures like the Metallica book.  That one is pretty much all pictures, but man there are some pretty cool pictures from quite possibly the biggest heavy metal band of all time.  Some are more informative as to be like a history of whatever it may pertain to like The Complete History of Heavy Metal.  That book is really great.  I still have that book and won't get rid of that one.  It cronicalizes the biggest events and things in heavy metal starting with Black Sabbath's birth to the sonic world of music.  Black Sabbath are the starters of heavy metal hands down, and anyone who argues that point hasn't read a heavy metal book.  They pretty much all start with Sabbath.  Some are bios like the Motley Crue, the Marilyn Manson, the Slayer, the Lemmy, and the Dave Mustaine bio.  I'm not a big fan of Motley Crue by any means, but that book is pretty interesting to read, cause they have accomplished, and done a lot of crazy things in their career.  To bad they play wussy hair metal.  That's metal for my sister, if I had a one.  Give me Slayer, Metallica, or Maiden any day.  Lords of Chaos is another great genre defining book.  That book scares me as to how brutal and sick death metal, and black metal are.  It starts form the start of those genres and shows you the big events in the realm of the heaviest kind of metal out there by far.  From the Devil worship, and spike armor wearing guys.  To the painted faces, and blood.  Sometimes all of those wrapped into one band.  Even though I don't really agree with the extreme antics of this genre they have created a lot of heavy metal musics essential tunes and have turned it into what death, and black metal are today.  Also the heavy metal cook book.  Wow now that book is just freakin cool.  Pick is up and eat like a real metal fan, and eat only whats in this book, otherwise it will make you less of a metal fan to eat anything else.  Ha no not really but still a great book.  So guys pick up a book and start reading.  Again only this though no substitutions.  I command you to now.  Ha.  So until next time stay hard, stay heavy.