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

Criste's subject is heavy metal from its origins at the end of the 1960s to the end of the 20th century, with an epilogue reviewing the state of the field as of 2003. He's fascinated with the whole thing and finds something to enjoy all the way from the most hard-core fringe labor of love and obsession to the biggest spectacles. He wants to understand and to share his appreciation. It worked, at least for me: I don't care for a lot he does, but I get the attraction in many cases where I didn't at the outset.There are serious organizational challenges in writing about times where a lot of things are going on at once. Criste handles them well. Each chapter covers a few years and people working in a shared style and set of priorities, with half a dozen or so bullet points at the outset to date key albums and events. He never has to back up more than a few years to pick up the next thread, and it was always clear to me how different folks were reacting to each other. Sidebars define various sub-genres and provide short discographies.Criste puts a lot of effort on the growth of heavy metal as communities nurtured outside conventional music publishing. First there were exchanges of mail and tapes, then fanzines, later BBSes and Internet mailing lists, newsgroups, forums, and file sharing. As he remarks at one point, this made it possible for bands who never played in person for more than 20 people to sell 100,000 copies of their albums through the labels paying attention to tape trading.I was pleasantly surprised by the global sweep of this book. Criste discusses the social place of heavy metal in dozens of countries, especially where it's an outlet for young people's negativity in places where public negativity toward the official line isn't allowed. The interviews in these chapters are particularly illuminating.In the 2003 epilogue, Criste shows himself aware of the ties between some heavy metal and right-wing extremism. He explicitly warns of the potential for outright fascist use of the music and community. Good spotting.I'm very happy to recommend this book with utmost enthusiasm.

I don't recommend books unless I am sure of a reader's preferences. This was a specific wish list gift so very well recieved. If one is into Metal music and interested is music history I think this might be just the thing.

Awesome history! Will be useful to the metal fan or student interested in popular music or modern American history. This book is clearly a labor of love by a fan, but Christe goes beyond naming names and songs (though he does that quite well), but puts the metal genre into its context and explains its social significance. Very useful are the representative lists throughout the book of various genres, the "Best 25 Heavy Metal Albums" of All Times" and other best/worst of lists. The book begins with the seminal metal band, Black Sabbath, and then moves chronologically to the present day, lingering (perhaps too long, but I'm not a fan) over the rise and rise and rise of Metallica, fully explaining not only heavy metal's evolution but that of its sister genres of punk, rock and rap, among others. Told with a witty pen that will not alienate anyone.He ends with an epilogie that positions metal music as "a search for truth in a storm of foll." How true.

I read this book back to back with David Konow's _Bang Your Head_. While Konow focuses more in-depth on the grandaddies of metal and the MTV bands, _Sound of the Beast_ has more of a shotgun approach, attempting to comprehensively cover each sub-genre. So you get the chapter devoted to speed and thrash, the chapter on (old-style) power metal, the chapter on death metal, the chapter on the PMRC, etc. He seems to cover the salient points, though you will quite often want more depth on a particular subject - it's the enternal tradeoff of depth vs. breadth of coverage. Luckily, you have a win-win situation - read this book, then Konow's, and get both.The writing in this book is certainly more literary than Konow's book, so the reading is smooth. At times, though, the flowery prose can get a bit overpowering, reaching its nadir in the description of Cliff Burton's death - Christie's portrayal of Burton as a Christ figure seemed heavily strained, as does referencing the lyrics 'black ice/it's a killer' in an obscure five year old song with and claiming it 'weirdly prophesied' the accident.In fact the big strength of this book is sometimes a weakness - Christie obviously loves the subject. He's very passionate about it and makes a strong effort to make sure you know everything about it as well. But the superlatives get a bit old after a while. Luckily, he's usually off on another bit of history too soon for it to become overwhelming.The one big gaping hole in this book is the lack of European and Scandinavian power and symphonic metal. Perhaps Rhapsody and Nightwish are too 'new' and Blind Guardian and Symphony X are too obscure, but how can you just completely ignore granddaddy Helloween and all its relatives in a book about all of heavy metal?Looking back, my review may seem a bit negative, but I'm just pointing out what seemed to me the weak bits in a generally very entertaining book. Go in expecting what I've mentioned here and you'll have a blast. Find out how to tell thrash from speed metal. Learn which band kept the flaccid LA scene alive for a few years past its prime. The lists scattered throughout of seminal CDs for each style can be quite educational in and of themselves. I found it difficult to set the book down.If you like heavy metal I'd suggest reading this book first, then _Bang Your Head_ for more depth into some of the bands covered in _Sound of the Beast_. You should learn quite a few things you didn't already know.

I absolutely loved the book. It is a great introduction to the trends, forces, and personalities that helped shape the development of heavy metal. The only criticism that I can levy is that it doesn't go into as much depth on certain topics as I would have liked, but as an encompassing history I can see why the author chose not to. This is a must-have for anyone that wants to understand the complex development of heavy metal from it's inception to the early 2000's

Ok, this is a great book to know about the history of Heavy Metal.If you love the metal music like me like all the other metal heads out there, you should go for it and its a great collection for your book shelf.

The most beatiful book of metal

Very well written and researched! Satan must have helped out a little in the background. He has some very interesting and worthy metal opinions that he has clearly thought about. It is obvious the author is both a fine writer and a fan.

I bought this as a surprise for my husband for his Christmas present. He was so excited when he opened it and he has said that it has rekindled his love for the type of music that he grew up on

Bon livre