Customer Reviews

Metallica: The Frayed Ends of Metal

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Where to begin? This book is so poorly researched that it's embarrassing. There's basically a factual error every other page that I can spot without having to look it up, that it makes me question just how much else the author got wrong.

One excellent (and totally inexplicable) example of his sloppiness is in his descriptions of the No Life to Leather versions of Jump in the Fire and The Four Horsemen (which wasn't called that on the demo in the first place) using the lyrics from the Kill'em All album! Even when the book was written, it wasn't hard to track down copies of the songs from NLTL and if you're going to write a book about something the band has released, at least make an effort to listen to the material available - especially something as pivotal as this was for the band.

This error is further compounded in a later chapter when he mentions Dave Mustaine forming Megadeth and releasing a version of The Mechanix on their first album Killing is My Business, a song he claims Metallica only played briefly. Funny, The Mechanix was the early version of The Four Horsemen on NLTL. Metallica has played this song many times. Judging from the author's description of The Mechanix in the book (describing it as having a classical piano and bass intro), he confused it with Last Rites/Loved to Death. How anyone could get this confused and have it published absolutely baffles me. The writer is a moron. And there's a lot more where this came from.

The quotes are probably the only reliable items in the whole book, but it seems that they mostly come from a couple of articles published previously in magazines (a lot from the Guitar Player Apr 89 issue in the first half of the book). It's probably not the author's fault that he couldn't interview the band directly, but in tandem with the poor fact checking, this comes across as pretty weak.

If you want to read up on Metallica's early years, KJ Doughton's Metallica Unbound is superior in every way to this piece of crap. Nicer book, better pictures and at least he knew the band personally.

The only positive note I can leave with is that at least Crocker didn't fall for the bogus tale that Metallica got their name by combining their two favourite things - metal and vodka. I can't believe that anyone seriously believed that one, even though it was printed in a few magazines in the early '90s.

The writer made no attempt to hide the fact that he never ever talked with Metallica people. The book is entirely based on quotes from the band's member on rock magazines, fanzines and MTV interviews. He did a good job linking this interviews, nothing more than that. He also made a ridiculous short introduction to rock scenario at the time of Metallica's beginning. The overall result is a weird kind biography, even knowing that is unauthorized. He has a good writing style, no doubt about that. But all the facts are well known (of ourse, theyu were taken from magazines! )

THE WHOLE UNADULT-RATED STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BAND.IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE BIRTHPLACES, DATES, OR EVEN PREVIOUS BANDS, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. IT EXPLAINS IN DETAIL THE OFTEN MISLEADING STORY BEHIND CLIFF BURTON'S DEATH. THIS BOOK COVERS EVERYTHING FROM KILL'EM ALL TO THE BLACK ALBUM AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. IT TAKES ABOUT THREE OR FOUR HOURS TO REALLY FINISH THE BOOK IN-DEPTH. IF YOU HAVE EVER WANTED TO KNOW HOW THE SNAKEPIT WAS CONSTRUCTED, READ THIS BOOK. HAS COOL FOTOS OE EVERYONE...EVENTHE LATE GREAT CLIFF, AND THE ONCE AWESOME DAVE MUSTAINE. THIS BOOK RULZ!

All Metallica does is play their music for you and everybody keeps trying to STEAL it from Napster. How is Larz ever going to afford to buy the Mona Liza and a Platinum Shark Bar if you keep stealing from him! The song "Unforgiven" was written for a reason... Nobody will ever forgive them for selling out. "LEAVE METALLICA ALoOoOoONEE! LEAVE EM' ALONE! Chris Crocker knows what he's talking about when it comes to Metallica and Brittney Spears. LEAVE THEM ALONE!

I'm a huge Metallica fan, so I bought this book hoping to read a great unauthorized biography. But all you'll get are parts of interviews conceded by the band to MTV or magazines around the world! THe iniative to write the book was honest, but the result totally disappointing.

All you've got in this book is second-hand information, taken from magazines. The writer has a good writing style, it is a good reading, his job was good-intentioned, but the result was very generic, no great insights into Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Newsted. Only for fans beginning to know Metallica and who wants to know the very basic stuff.

Nothing new here. The writer linked a lot of inteviwes into a coehrent time framework, nothing more than that. THe members of the badn were not interviewed.

I don't wish to spout rhetoric about me being a huge fan of the band or something equally similar but I bought this on the proviso it would be an entertaining read despite knowing just about everything published on the band already.

I was three pages in before I bailed. Poorly written and Crocker's use of switching word spellings to coincide with Metallica songs was nauseating to say the least. The layout is especially hideous (who thought two black vertical borders was a good idea?). The following day I returned it.

If you want a good book about Metallica look no further than Joel McIver's 'Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica'. Funnily enough one of the metontour videos showed a confused Lars signing a copy for a fan.

I would have given it a 1/2 star if amazon.com would let me.

If you remove all of the insipid cliches from this book you would be left with about 2 pages of text. Yes, this book "crashed into" cliche stupidity.

I first read METALLICA UNBOUND, but that book did not give out enough information...But THIS book does.

It goes into legnth about the death of Cliff Burton, hiring Jason to play bass, and life on the road. It also discusses life in the studio in great depths. If your a DIE-HARD Metallica fan and own the UNBOUND book, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.. Not as nicely put together as UNBOUND, but the facts and knowledge that went into writing this book is top-notch ! HIGHLY recommended !