Customer Reviews

Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Having read quite a few music histories and biographies, the one thing that really stands out about Ian Christe's book is the writing; in a word, superb! Many of the reviews of this book that I've read miss this and gripe, simply because their favorite bands did not get enough coverage. Sure I could complain that Black Flag or the Obsessed or Corrosion of Conformity doesn't get enough coverage, but that wouldn't change the fact that Metallica is simply the most important band in metal. Doesn't mean they are the best, but they, more than any other band, are responsible for metal being as popular as it is today. Christe nails it on the head that heavy metal really started with Sabbath (I like Zeppelin, the Who and Hendrix too, but they were rock bands and spawned an entirely different generation of music). EVERY metal band around owes a debt to Sabbath (for the heaviness, the look, and the orchestration). In addition, he does an excellent job of covering the whole metal scene and a brilliant job in breaking down the genre by sub-genre. The fact that bands such as the Accused, Die Kreuzen and Exodus are mentioned is awesome and the depth and breadth of metal knowledge that Christe has accumulated over the years is impressive. If you are interested in the hard rock-punk evolution, read Rock and the Pop Narcotic (Joe Carducci). For metal, this is the book. Hats off to you Ian! Great book!

Having heard that there was an author out there attempting to summarize the past 33 years of metal in a single volume, I was shocked and awed at the superb quality of the outcome. Christe begins with Black Sabbath I and quickly moves forward with his battle plan -- almost nothing escapes his field of vision along the way. The pop culture moments -- like Van Halen's arrival on the scene, MTV's discovery of metal, Crue's Shout at the Devil, and Metallica's big crossover in the 90s -- float like beacons above a morass of fascinating detail on bands like Celtic Frost, Napalm Death, Sepultura, and the creepy crawlers of Norway. Nobody has done better at depicting the difference between Stryper and Deicide, two bands at the opposite poles of planet metal. If your idea of heavy metal is Guns N Roses, you will enjoy this book immensely -- if you swear by Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth, Sound of the Beast will outright be your Bible, read and re-read until its pages are tattered and torn.

Sound Of The Beast is an impressive book. Wisely aligning itself, title-wise, with the quintessential heavy metal album of all time, Iron Maiden's Number Of The Beast, Ian Christe's take on thirty-odd years of metal high art accomplishes a lot.
Sound Of The Beast successfully covers the basics and many of the sub-genres of metal. It incorporates literate, yet fluid, writing with a plethora of facts, trivia and lists to make for a compelling read for metal fans old and new. Simultaneously, Christe tackles - albeit superficially given space considerations - the musical movement from several tangents. In this manner, he introduces both a diversion to the purely chronological take on the music and injects something of a discourse into the book. As with most claims, the author's assertion of a 'completeness' to his book is false, but that is par for the course, one supposes. After all, and realistically, no one body of work will ever completely cover 30-plus years of musical and cultural history.
Having said that, the book does stumble more than it needs to. The inordinate amount of space granted Metallica only serves to demonstrate the author's devotion to this band. Otherwise if ever there was a band which had betrayed the ideals of the book's subject-matter, that band would be the aforementioned California metallers-gone-corporate minion. Sound Of... also has its share of mistakes (Metallica fact on page 88, calling AC/DC NWOBHM, etc.), irrelevant features (discussion on non-metal music like punk, mallcore, etc.) and obligatory self-referencing conflict-of-interest (mentioning past and current employers of the author without disclosure).
Be that as it may, Christe has done as good, if not better, a job as any of his peers. The book is well-written and balances the need for information with the necessity to keep the pace congruous with the readers' need for dispatch.
All in all then, Sound Of The Beast is impressive - that is, once one gets past the biography's ludicrous notion that "Ian Christe is the recognized voice of heavy metal."

I read Ian Christe's book after seeing him last week on VH1's "Heavy: A History of Metal". I immediately went to my local library to check out the book, since I am a big fan of rock histories. I found Christe's tome a very easy read. I would definitely recommended to anyone interested in the history of heavy metal, but I would first point out the following flaws.

1). The early history of heavy metal is barely covered. Death Metal and Norwegian Black Metal receive more text than the beginnings of metal in the hard rock of the 60's and 70's. I would have like to have seen this first section extended a bit more, to see the progession from Sabbath to NWOBHM. Surely, metal did not form in a void. Even though there is no denying that Sabbath was the originator of the genre, and that NWOBHM helped progress it along, there are many other important bands from the hard rock scene that were left out.

2) As others have pointed it out already, this book does tend to read as a Metallica biography at times. Granted, Metallica is one of the most important metal bands of the last 20 years, wether one likes them or not. Certainly, one would expect them to be mentioned more than once. However, at times it does seem like the metal world revolves around them, according to Mr. Christe.

3) I think the author gives waaaaay too much credit to Death Metal. I am a fan of metal, but I personally find the death metal subgenre to be the most unimaginative, formulaic, cartoonish, and overbloated type of music (not just metal... but of music in general). Mr. Christe presents talentless noise-merchants like Deicide and Cannibal Corpse as musical protigies and innovators. At one point, I believe he compares them to 60's free-jazz musicians. Give me a break! In my eyes, death metal is as laughable as the hollywood glam metal that polluted the airwaves in the late 80's.

4). Ian Christe does not give enough credit or coverage to alternative metal bands like Jane's Addiction, the Cult, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Also, the truth is that many of the bands in the grunge movement were more metal than metal bands at the time... in terms of original influences, at least. Listen to Nirvana's first album "Bleach" and tell me if that does not have more elements of Sabbath than both Warrant and Deicide. Aside from the gloom and dimestore satanism of death metal, the actual sabbath musical influence is almost undecipherable. That is why, in my opinion, death metal is just as image-conscious as hair metal.

Although I disagree with some of Ian Christe's points of view, I still found the book enjoyable. It is not the best book ever written about heavy metal, but it is worth picking up.

I was quickly hooked on this wide-ranging history of the origins of metal music. Expect late nights, factoids you never would have guessed, and background on worthy bands you never knew existed. All that's missing is a sampler CD! When you have read it, you will be much more aware of metal's place in the music business AND you will have a list of new and old bands to seek out. More and more headbangin' music!! What's not to like!

There is not a bad thing I can say about this book. I found it insightful and most historic. It took me back to many of the bands that I grew up listening to and renewed my appreciation of heavy music as I watched it form.

Being in my mid thirites I grew along with this stuff and also played a lot of it in my band. So it was interesting reliving some of the legendry and also some of the fictions we always heard. It is broken up over the years and focuses on the music of that time and how it all broke off from metal in one way or another. The part that was most alarming was the section of Scandinavian Death Metal. Whoa was that harsh stuff.

I recommend this book to fans of the genre in particular, and pretty much fans of rock music, since so many of the acts listed arrived at their stylings based on the classics of the 60's and 70's. A great read straight through from page one to page 400.

All I knew about heavy metal beforehand was that I wanted to know more. Sound of the Beast filled in the blanks, and surprised me a lot. It's a little overwhelming, but what did I expect? Overall, I was left feeling a lot more respect for metal -- this is really the book that metalheads deserve. They were the rejected, and they built their own universe. Powerful stuff, and plenty funny and scary at times. It's an instant classic, and the lists are very useful, too.

I was really excited to finally read a definitive book on heavy metal by a reputable writer invested in the genre, but I was left wanting for two large reasons:

1. The book has many inaccuracies.

Here's a list of stuff I knew was wrong, just based on what I know with my years of being a metal fan: 1.) On page 69, Christe refers to WWII clips used by Iron Maiden during the "Piece of Mind" tour. Iron Maiden didn't use WWII clips until the "Powerslave" tour. 2.) On page 212, Christe says Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1992, and that he wrote two books after he left. The fact is, Dickinson left in 1993, and he wrote both of of his books before leaving the band. 3.) On page 263, Christe says that Sepultura's "Arise" came out in 1989 when the band was in their teens. The fact is that "Arise" came out in 1991, when the band was in their early 20s. In fact, only one member was a teen in 1989, and that was drummer Igor. 4.) On page 267, Christe says Brujeria's "Matando Gueros" means "Killing White Filth," when it means "Killing Blondies" (blondies in this case is a pejorative term for undesirable white people). 5.) On page 354, Christe says that Metallica earned its sixth Grammy for Cliff Burton's "Call of Chtulu," when in fact, the song was written by Burton, Ulrich, Hetfield, and Mustaine.

All of these inacurracies lead me to believe that Christe wrote from an incomplete and inaccurate memory, instead of relying more so on his research. If he has this many small errors that were easy to point out without any research on my part, there are probably many more in the book, and there is a good chance that his analysis of the heavy metal genre is suspect. Which, it is...

2. This book is unfairly US-centric.

Christe's analysis of heavy metal history focuses on a US perspective. This doesn't mean he only covers US bands. It's just that he focuses on bands and histories of importance to the US metal scene. Metallica and Black Sabbath are deservingly given heavy, favorable coverage for their contributions to heavy metal as a genre, as are Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and only three of these bands are from the US. Likewise, the Scandinavian black metal movement is given substantial coverage, too, but like the coverage of the four previously mentioned bands, all of these represent music that has a substantial audience in the United States.

One such metal sub-genre of importance that Christe neglects is the European (mostly German) new power metal movement of the mid-1990s. I think Christe neglects this because power metal isn't as popular in the US as traditional metal acts or black/death. In fact, he only gives power metal one page of a passing mention in the afterword, instead of any significant coverage that it deserves. Power metal is as important to the European metal scene as nu metal and hard core are to the current US metal scene, and Christe gave nu metal a decent amount of coverage without giving power metal its due.

Another area Christe neglected is the importance of metal in the world, which he pathetically and hastily tried to add to his afterword. He did go over metal in the Muslim world a bit in the end, but this was only given coverage because of the current US obsession over what is going on in Muslim nations. If Christe was to do the metal world any justice, he'd cover how the Japanese and South American markets are strong metal hot-beds and attract a greater per capita audience to concerts, in addition to how these areas and Europe kept metal alive while it floundered in the US in the mid-90s.


These two complaints (inaccuracies and US-centric bias) leave Christe's book largely incomplete, and they force the reader to be even more scrutinizing. I am also dismayed to find no reference section to show where he got his information, which lends him less credibility than the numerous accolades given to him by publications that are hardly authoritative in the metal world, such as Maxim and the New York Sun.

Despite these complaints, I do find the book a good read, with some excellent general information and plenty of wonderful, anecdotal quotes by big names in metal (Dave Mustaine, Ozzy, Metallica, etc.). Just be sure to read it with an open mind and take nothing Christe says for granted. Don't rely on inaccurate, blatant US-centricism as your sole basis of understanding of heavy metal history, even if Christe's book, sadly, is probably the best available book on this subject.

SIDE NOTE: Christe deejays a first-rate show on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 27 (Hard Attack), called "Bloody Roots." Though I challenge his views on heavy metal history, I don't dare challenge his excellent taste in music.

I applaud Sound of the Beast long and loud. This is a literate, humorous, and thorough look at the true filthy heart of heavy metal. I never thought I would see the day when bands would get their due like Kreator, Megadeth, Bathory, Venom, AC/DC, Voivod, Emperor, Judas Priest, Brutal Truth, Saint Vitus, EXODUS, Mayhem, Raven, the almighty Motorhead...and yes Black Sabbath and Metallica (If you forgot about these bands, you've really lost touch). From 1970 to today, the book does an amazing job of summarizing the careers of these greats, also tracking the rise and fall of glam metal, nu metal, and other doomed trends. To my eyes, these sections were laughable, and it was great to laugh at the excess Hollywood hair bands who were so painful in their day. You have to wonder what kind of country would buy over 8 million Ratt albums! At the end of the day, Black Sabbath triumphs, and it was a great ending to a great odyssey of a book.

I can list 50 bands I wish I saw more about, including Omen, Sortilege, GZR, and so on. Where was the chapter on Eyehategod? But I'm more than satisfied and impressed that the writer left few stones unturned. Some of the quotes by Dee Snider, Rob Halford, and Chuck D are genius. I bought three copies so far, and the only one I kept for myself was stolen. That should tell you something. This book rules, death to false metal books.

I was close to clueless on the history of heavy metal before I read this book. Im as big of a metal head as anyone can be who plays guitar in a metal bad. Music is my life.

However, I didnt know the history of it well at all. I didnt know where it all started, how it started, who started it, or the problems it caused throughout history. All the chapters were in depth to their subject, and well writen. If you need a history leasson like I did, this book is for you.

However, I found that the band Metallica was talked about just a tad too much. They did make a huge difference, but I felt like I was reading the history of Metallica more than the history of heavy metal.