Rock Detector: A-Z of 80s Rock - Garry Sharpe-Young and Dave Reynolds (2003)
Rock Detector is one of the most interesting web sites for music fans in general and metal fans in particular. They have also published an excellent series of A-Z books in various metal genres, including Power Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal and Doom, Gothic and Stoner Metal.
All the books are really informative, but my favorite is A-Z of 80s Rock. It is an exhaustive and comprehensive study of metal in the 80s, and that era is actually categorized as 1982-1993. It lists thousands of bands, both famous and obscure, and has a biography and discography for each band. It runs the gamut from Lee Aaron to Z-Toyz and everyone in between.
If you are a fan of 80s metal, you must own this book. And if you're not, Rock Detector has a book for the metal genre you're into. They all follow the same format, and are all packed with information about your favorite bands and a plethora of new bands waiting for you to discover.
The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs Of All Time - Martin Popoff (2002)
This is a book that will start many a conversation and many an argument among heavy metal fans. Metal guru Martin Popoff has gathered the results of a worldwide poll about people's favorite metal songs, including quotes from the musicians and others about nearly every song.
When asked what surprised him about the results of the poll, Popoff said, " Probably the extent that there is quite a bit of thrash in there that did well: Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Overkill. There is a fair bit of New Wave of British Heavy Metal in there as well. In terms of surprises, one thing perhaps is that there weren't as many big 70s artists in there that I thought would be. I think the demographic of the people voting is probably in the mid '20s or younger, so you get a lot of people really big on '80s metal of every type. Another big surprise is that I was happy that people didn't vote for things that were flavor of the month. Most of the stuff in here is indeed of all-time."
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
