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Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal (2013)

by Jon Wiederhorn(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

006195828X (ISBN13: 9780061958281)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

It Books

review 1: I was lucky enough to score a copy of "Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal" for Christmas from a relative who works for a local media outlet (which shall remain nameless). They still had a few promotional copies of the book left so she nabbed one for me. It was a great gift and much appreciated as I was quite aware of it's release back in early 2013, absolutely wanting to read it, but having so far been hesitant to shell out to meet the $32.50 price tag.The main section of "Louder Than Hell" comes in at 686 pages and includes a few extra index-sections in the back added in for additional reference and three sections of color photos are included as well. An extremely detailed look at many of the different sub-genres of "Heavy Metal" beginning with the "bi... morerth" of the beast in the early 1970's, the book continues on through the early 80's New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the 80's American Hair Metal scene, the birth of Thrash and Death Metal and beyond.Several bands from each era and each scene are represented in each successive section of the book and their stories weave the tale of the "overall" history of metal in all its glory, loud volume and more often than not, extremely bad behavior and legendary excess in the sex and drugs department. The book continues on with the early 90's Metal scenes, when more "traditional" heavy metal bands found themselves losing ground to an emerging Grunge music scene. Despite this, "Metal" continued to adapt and even thrive, and the book chronicles that continuation into the 90's and 2000's of various metal scenes around the world such as the "crossover" and hardcore bands of the late 80-'s and early 90's, the extremely dedicated and violent early 90's Norwegian Death scene and, continuing right up to the modern Screamo and Metal-Core bands. And to an old, life-long head banger like me, some of these "tags" are just absurd anyway. Is it loud? Is it heavy? Does it irritate the right people and send them running from the room? It's probably metal. Of course not every band that was ever considered Hard Rock and/or Heavy Metal is mentioned or included here, it is just an impossibility, even in a book of this size. But what you do get here is a great summation of each chapter of the Metal story from the past nearly five decades the style of music has existed in its various forms, from the people who lived it and played it and are still here to tell the tale, and even a few stories from some metal players who have, sadly, gone on to "the other side."Devoted fans and followers of the music and lifestyle will no doubt be familiar with some of the material covered in the book but anyone who is living outside and/or oblivious to the scope of the Metal lifestyle could do no better than this book as an introduction to what they've missed out on.This is mostly a very enjoyable book, one that can be read in long sessions or in short bursts. The "oral history" format works well for those short-attention-span readers or people who just can't sit down for hours on end and just read. Either way, the book is pretty much like having a few hundred famous and not-so famous metal musicians telling you stories from their travels and adventures and how, despite decades of critics saying it is a "lesser" style of entertainment and music, Heavy Metal is still very much alive and well in 2014 and will not be going away any time soon, much to the disappointment of those who wish more than anything that it would do just that.
review 2: I love oral histories related to rock music and Louder Than Hell covers ground on a subject for almost 700 pages that I know very little about: heavy metal. I actually know a little bit on '70s metal, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and some about the awful "hair" metal phase but quiz me about thrash, death metal, black metal, grindcore, metalcore, speed metal or all the variations and I come up empty. Now I can talk about how wimpy the black metal scene in Norway is currently compared to the glory days in 1991! Louder Than Hell tries to cover every metal base and succeeds while also failing. Even when it errs though, you can not say it isn't entertaining as this is one of the most debauched, unhinged rock music books I've ever read as the stories about drugs, sex, violence are endless. There's so much of that stuff that by page 700 I'm exhausted reading about getting it on w/ groupies and almost OD'ing. I never that groupie debauchery would get ho-hum but by the end I thought, really, only five or six groupies at a time? That's boring. My biggest issue w/ the book is the fact it covers too few bands and focuses on a few key groups of each chapter. Too often it is just the same people over and over...a little variety would have been nice. Plus, at 700 pages it is a bit too long as I was worn out by the end. I did learn that there are some really horrible band names--especially in the death and black metal world. I guess they can blame it on Satan since many claim some kind of affiliation w/ the beast. When I was finished with this epic, I really want to read something light and with maybe a little humor in it! less

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