Whats up dudes and dudettes, here i am with another mytake finally! I normally don't have much interest in book reviews as im not that much of a reader. But id say this one deserves some recognition.
Ah yes, Hellraisers. Whats the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear that sentence? Do you think of Pinhead from the movie "Hellraiser"? Or prehaps a certain musician comes to mind. It could be Lemmy Kilmister, or maybe Ozzy. Or you envision Varg Vikernes burning a church. Or a young James Hetfield roaring like a lion cub in his thrash years.Well whatever musician it is, this book's got it all my friend.
The first thing you notice is the killer awesome art on the book. I mean really, look at this shit!
The authors of the book are Axl Rosenberg and Christopher Krovatin. These guys got together, smoked a fuck ton of weed and did their work.
As a side note, Rosenberg works for the website Metalsucks.com, which even though the name doesn't match, its all about metal. I usually don't hang around the site very much, because I've never always seen it as a super accurate source to be honest, which im not going to get deep into. I mainly stick with Metal Injection. More power to you if you like MetalSucks, don't get me wrong. At first I expected there to be some bias mixed in Hellraisers, which the only thing i could find was in one part talking about Per Ohlin's suicide, claiming that he may have done suicide to act "true" to early black metal. Thats only a speculation, not a full claim, i know. But honestly there are people out there that know that the event happened for much sadder reasons.
Anyway, enough with my preaching. The foreword was written by Matt Heafy, the vocalist for Trivium. When you first turn the page, there is a spot that gives thanks to the machine that took Toni Iommi's fingertips off to cause the beginning of heavy metal. This book is written somewhat like a course book in the school of metal. And includes something for everybody, this is a list of all subgenres it dives into:
Proto-metal
NWOBHM
glam metal
Thrash
Death metal
Grindcore
Black metal
Doom
Nu metal
Metalcore
Deathcore and Djent
Then there includes "crash courses" in Hardcore, alternative metal, goth metal, viking/pagan/folk/pirate metal, groove metal and sludge, industrial, power metal, and prog. Along with "cultural studies" including metal criminals, metal mascots, sexuality in metal, and more. Along with 2 pages dedicated to Cliff Burton. Hellraisers was written back in 2017, so there's obviously been a few things going on in the music world since then, but not by a whole bunch. Each page from the moment you start reading is full of photos and album covers of the bands being spoken of.
Your bound to see something as cool as Angus Young dicking around, to the weirdness of Quorthon Seth in leathery underwear. Or the most abnormal thing ever... Slayer band members smiling (lol just kidding).
One thing i can say is that this book is not for somebody that thinks that only one subgenere is "true" metal and that the rest is poserific bullcrap. Trust me, I've dealt with a few of those people. Its okay to not like certain subgenres but its also okay to appreciate the musicianship and learn from them. This is also a good book for anybody that is new to metal.
All in all, id say this is damn cool. My mom got it for me awhile back and i couldnt stop reading it. Plus, its an awesome display with the artwork on the front. So if any of you guys or gals head to a bookstore to find this book, remember, the moment you open the book, Hell Awaits.
Stay Metal!! \m/
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