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From Publishers Weekly
Few books on heavy metal music can compare to Christe's thoughtful and passionate history of the music of the beast. There is little argument that heavy metal began in earnest with Black Sabbath (though the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is considered by some to be the first heavy metal song), and Christe holds to convention and begins his metal timeline in early 1970. Following in the jamming, bluesy tradition of the Yard Birds and Cream, Sabbath (then called Earth) wrote "Black Sabbath"-a song that changed not only the band's name, but the face of rock and roll. Black Sabbath set the pace, but bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple "fleshed out the edges and gave it sex appeal." The next wave, the new wave of British heavy metal, saw the emergence of Motorhead, Saxon and Iron Maiden among many others. The movement then spread through America and found most bands cropping up out of L.A. (although many migrated from the Midwest). Van Halen, Ratt and Motley Crue grew out of the then underground club scene. Christe doesn't get bogged down in anecdotes about bands and their groupies, but instead documents the music and its different genres. Each chapter contains helpful "genre boxes" giving a brief description of the style (e.g., Power Metal, Death Metal and Nu Metal). If Christe is to be faulted, it is on the grounds of hero worship: he's a metal fan, scribe (a music writer living in Brooklyn) and practitioner (in a digital metal band called Black Noerd), and readers might wish for more critical analysis about the culture of fans. But this is a minor point in a book otherwise worthy of having its dog-eared and beer-stained pages passed among friends and placed in motel-room bedside drawers. 94 b&w photos, and 16-page color insert not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-MTV's Headbanger's Ball, which debuted in 1987, was canceled in 1995-metal was officially "over." But it has returned to the schedule, and metal is making a comeback. In Christe's exhaustive history, readers watch metal rise, fall, change, and splinter into a massive number of genres (death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and more). As in David Konow's Bang Your Head (Three Rivers, 2002), the story begins with Black Sabbath (as if there would be any other choice); but while Konow kept to the well known, Christe gives just as much attention to the fringes. Also unlike Konow, he eschews gossip for almost scholarly explanations of the musicians' creative process and their works. Through it all, he shows the impact of competing forces (like punk, grunge, and rap). Chapters are arranged chronologically but also by genre, and each one is packed with black-and-white photographs and "genre boxes" that list the definitive recordings, ending with the author's choice for the 25 best metal albums of all time. The book is well indexed. New metal fans will run to the music store not only because of the knowledge gained from this volume, but also because of the enthusiastic (though sometimes a little overwrought) way the author shares it.
Jamie Watson, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Christie is damn sure that without the original Black Sabbath, heavy metal either wouldn't have endured or would sound a lot different, and the first part of this book is a paean to Ozzy, Geezer, and the lads. Eventually, he reins in the adoration to deliver an insightful history of this music that critics and parents love to hate. If he has a simplistic view of heavy metal's genesis, he compensates for it with his wide-ranging, subgenre-by-subgenre discussion. The rhythmic ghouls and Odin worshipers in the Scandinavian black metal movement (see also Moynihan and Soderlind's Lords of Chaos, 1998) are well covered, and so is Metallica (natch). Conservative media watchdog and nihilistic teen faves Celtic Frost, Dokken, Motley Crue, and Megadeth are all evaluated and placed. There is even a 25-best albums list, so's to provoke heated discussion (no Led Zep seems counterintuitive). For the possible hole in your collection that AC/DC, Slayer, and Bathory ought to fill, this is a dandy plug. And if there is no such hole, add it anyway. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

The Title of this Book Qualifies as False Advertising
The biggest problem with this book is that is not about Heavy Metal, it's just an Ok-ish Metallica biography. I don't really mind the fan-boyish writing, since that's the way I'd probably write about any of my favorite bands. What really bothers me is that whatever happenned before Kill 'em All is only examined depending on the impact and influence it would eventually have in Metallica, and whatever happenned afterwards is discussed depending on how it affected the bands career.
I'm not a writer or a journalist, but i've been a rabid Heavy Metal follower and collector for more than 25 years now, and it never ceases to amaze me how much the author left out and how unimportant artists like Slayer, Helloween, Venom, Death, Napalm Death, Bathory, Kreator and Celtic Frost seem to be, at least according to this book.
Ok Ian, I get it, you wanted to write a Metallica biography but your editor told you the book would appeal to a larger audience if it covered heavy metal in general. At least you could've been honest enough to title it something akin to "The History of Heavy Metal as Experienced by Metallica". I would've bought it anyway, and wouldn't be as pissed-off, since I actually expected a book about the history of my favourite genre.

PMRC
This is a PMRC book condemning popular metal bands since 1969/1970. However, one of the only satanist bands was King Diamond, and he's a born again Christian. These are Christian bands who got their reputations tarnished. It's like Bob Larson. Be warned.

A book about Metallica with a different name
I wouldn't really call this book the 'complete history' of metal cause there is a lot missing, but that is to be expected. This is sorta a Cliffnotes or Intro to Metal book. While I agree with many things Ian Christe has said in this book, I feel that he was glanced over a lot of subject matter that I find important in the development and history of metal, such as the development and spread of such thing as folk metal. But this is his book so he can write about the points he wants to make. I did enjoy the book, but I recommend finding some companion books to flesh out things.
Here is the one thing that I find really important to mention about this book, if you are not a fan of Metallica than this is not a book for you. I grew up with Metallica's work and I loved the music they did in the eighties, but the coming of the Black Album was the end of my following of them, I moved on to different fields. A lot of the history of metal, especially since 80's is relayed to us in terms relating to Metallica and many other bands that I found were important were sort of just mentioned, like 'hey Slayer released Seasons In Abyss, it sold well. But at the same time Metallica did X...' After awhile I was tired of reading about Metallica and what they were doing. I also felt that Ian Christe thought much better of some genres than others, (but don't we all?) but I do wish he would have gone into more detail about the development of certain things. In the end I think he and I just grew up in too different a period to agree about what is now important in metal.