Embark on a thrilling journey through the superlative recorded canon of one of the world's most legendary heavy-metal bands.
Music journalist Martin Popoff provides an intimate and scholarly look into the life and times of Iron Maiden. From their humble beginnings in the dingy clubs of East London to headlining arenas and festivals worldwide, the band's story is one of resilience, creativity, and unrelenting dedication to remaining prolific and vital in the present day. Dive deep into their music, stage performances, and the iconic figure of Eddie, their undead mascot. Readers will discover the stories behind all their albums--such as Killers, The Number of the Beast, and Powerslave, through to their most recent, Senjutsu (and all solo releases). Anchored by the author's 1995-2024 interviews with all band members, this book is framed most pertinently as an analysis of each Iron Maiden album, one per chapter, every song discussed musically and at the literary end, along with the album covers and the finer points of the recording process. All told, Hallowed by Their Name is the most voluminous and career-spanning reference-level book on Iron Maiden ever written and is a must-read for any music enthusiast, a tribute to the indomitable spirit of Iron Maiden, and a celebration of the band's enduring six-decade legacy in the realm of heavy metal.

Choosing Death is widely recognized as the definitive history of extreme music subgenres. For this revised and expanded edition, author Albert Mudrian (editor-in-chief of Decibel magazine) reveals there is life after death metal; the book now flaunts a whopping 100 additional pages in three new chapters; 50 additional interviews; a grisly 16-page color insert; and a new cover painting by legendary death metal artist Dan Seagrave (known for his classic Entombed and Morbid Angel album covers). This head-rushing history also features forewords by famed BBC DJ John Peel and Repulsion cofounder Scott Carlson.

The rollicking autobiography of the iconic guitarist who took thrash metal behemoths Megadeth from the edge of collapse to their highest peak before departing to Japan for the joy of J-Pop.

The story of how he got where he is is fascinating. The Megadeth years have been well documented, but there's so much more to Marty Friedman's story and it's well worth reading about in Dreaming Japanese. --Decibel Magazine

Marty Friedman's upbringing was as atypical as his career. Growing up in a Jewish household in Maryland, the son of an NSA executive, he lacked motivation until he accidentally discovered the guitar and immediately found his calling. Enjoying a hazy adolescence overflowing with partying, music, and teen antics, he achieved local stardom in Deuce, then burst onto the national scene by pioneering a radically new style of playing, bringing attention to the guitar aficionado label, Shrapnel Records. Acclaim didn't breed success or money, but undeterred, Friedman moved to California, and after attempts to join Madonna, KISS, and Ozzy Osbourne, finally scored a gig in Megadeth at a time when the band members were just recovering from the verge of self-destruction, and Marty was in and out of homelessness.

Friedman is the most revered guitarist to play in any Megadeth lineup. During his ten years, his exotic, innovating style helped define the sound of their biggest albums, and while it elevated him to guitar hero status with all the accompanying perks, it came at a significant cost. As the only clean and sober member, Friedman vividly recalls the triumphs and trials of each album cycle and more, bringing to light previously undisclosed personal feelings surrounding the circumstances that forced the band into hiding in the midst of the Countdown to Extinction Tour and the brutal effort it took to get the band back up and running. His profound and complicated relationship with frontman Dave Mustaine was symbolic of the band's insane dynamic, and Marty poignantly and generously shares his experiences within the band's inner sanctum during the highs, lows, and daily routines.

But Dreaming Japanese is far more than a memoir about Friedman's multi-Platinum years in Megadeth. The riveting narrative captures his relentless perseverance as he struggles to start again from nothing. Spontaneously leaving his home in the US and feeling lost in the middle of Tokyo, with few connections or concrete plans, the story traces his journey to acclimate and assimilate into the inner core of an alien society, language and culture, almost like a double agent spy. In fascinating detail and clarity, Marty shares how he gradually made inroads into the Japanese entertainment industry, becoming a household name and fixture on mainstream television and earning respect as a highly influential solo artist. Dreaming Japanese follows the wildly entertaining, inspiring, and above all, unprecedented path of a rock and roll guitar player who took the biggest risk, leaving worldwide success to start over from scratch in a country, culture and society far from his own, ultimately becoming an official ambassador of Japan.

Now streaming on Paramount+ as an exclusive docuseries!

The New York Times Bestseller

The Explosive National Bestseller

A backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history--you'll feel like you were right there with us! --Bret Michaels of Poison

Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it.

Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated--and maybe even helped to define--a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It, Mötley Crüe's Girls, Girls, Girls, and Guns N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, PAC-MAN, and E.T.

From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.

Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over two hundred author interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged, chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era--one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin' but a good time...and found it.

Prolific guitarist and Exodus songwriter Gary Holt presents an entertaining, personal memoir detailing his destruction-laden life and the origins of the Thrash Metal scene from the Bay Area to its world dominance.

Since exploding out of the Bay Area heavy metal scene in the 1980s, thrash metal has made its way to every corner of the globe, conquering worldwide charts year after year. As the guitarist and primary songwriter of Exodus, and an originator of the subgenre and one of its fiercest proponents, Gary Holt watched as his peers--Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax--soared to superstardom. As his fellow artists amassed millions of fans and record sales, Exodus's albums received critical recognition and inspired generations of listeners but struggled to reach the same heights of success, as the band was plagued by years of bad management, bad luck, and bad decision-making.

In A FABULOUS DISASTER, Holt shares a deeply personal account of what it was like to live fast, play fast, and crash hard as thrash metal dominated the globe. Readers witness his highest of highs and lowest of lows as Holt and his bandmates juggle major label contracts, MTV-sponsored tours and festivals, growing addictions to alcohol and meth, and the departures of original members. In the throes of addiction, Holt's own fall from grace is swift: one year he's playing on the MTV Headbanger's Ball Tour with Anthrax and Helloween, and the next he's struggling to find minimum wage jobs as he battles drugs, divorce, and the impending collapse of his music career. Ultimately, after the tragic death of one of his closest friends and former bandmates--Holt realizes the only one who can save him is himself.

An unadulterated odyssey through decades of insanity, punctuated by Holt's unique insight and knack for storytelling, A FABULOUS DISASTER is a thrill ride from start to finish. His story proves that redemption--even from the pits of rock 'n' roll excess--is always possible.

Let's face it, without the larger-than-life character and imagination of the art that complements it, metal just wouldn't have had the same impact. From the colorful, outlandish, yet sophisticated use of visuals for album artwork and posters, to the immediately recognizable logos of such bands as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Metallica, Slayer, and a host of others across many subgenres, there's a close-knit relationship between the riffs that thunder from the guitar and the images that have come to represent the songs, anthems, and sheer nature of the beast. Does any other form of music immediately conjure up such evocative and distinctive images as the mere mention of the term heavy metal does? The answer is simple: no! From its inception in the 1960s through to today's giants, the art has been closely connected to the music. Every classic album brings to mind a readily identifiable album cover. Each great band has an immediately identifiable logo. All of the landmark gigs have a poster that quintessentially depicts the time, place, and passion of the event. It's all developed so far along the road that, today, the art that has been used to illustrate the music now stands on its own. There are exhibitions of the finest examples created by the truly outstanding artists. These works are collectible in their own right. What might have begun as a way of packaging metal has taken on a life of its own--moreover, it's even possible to trace the way the genre itself has evolved, and changed, by looking at its art. This book explores the ways in which the art has helped define each of the crucial subgenres that make up the multifaceted and colorful centipede that is metal.

Coming this fall, the first-ever official authorized biography of Cannibal Corpse. Written by Joel McIver, author of Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica and biographies on Black Sabbath, Slayer, Slipknot, and Queens Of The Stone Age, Bible Of Butchery - Cannibal Corpse: The Official Biography contains over 150 pages loaded with photos from the band's collection, stories from each band member, and insights into what makes the world's most successful death metal band tick.

Sweden is a remote country in the freezing northern Europe, with less than nine million inhabitants and a reputation for Volvos, hockey players, cheap furniture, vodka, and blonde women. Since the late 1980s, however, Sweden has produced over a thousand extreme heavy metal bands, creating one of the most respected regional music scenes in the world. This is the improbable history of how a marginalized teen movement crawled from Sweden's small towns and suburbs, and found a lasting place on the world stage. Daniel Ekeroth captures the epic tale with enlightening detail, beginning with Sweden's violent loss of innocence in the 1980s, through the metal's virtual chokehold on the country during the 1990s into the lasting legacy and influence in the turbulent 2000s of the Sunlight guitar tone, the Gothenburg Sound, and the countless offshoots of Sweden's most lethal cultural export.
This ultimate blow-by-blow account of Sweden s legendary death metal underground is based on exclusive interviews with members of Nihilist/ Entombed, In Flames, At the Gates, Dismember, Grave, Hypocrisy, Opeth, Unleashed, Marduk, Morbid, Mob 47, Deranged, Edge of Sanity, Merciless, Therion, Liers in Wait, Carnage, Carcass, Tiamat/Treblinka, Afflicted, Repugnant, and the Haunted.

The authoritative portrait of the bestselling metal classic, with unseen photographs from the recording sessions and tours

Following its release in August 1991, Metallica's landmark self-titled album--better known by fans as the Black Album--debuted at number one in ten countries and spent four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. It has since become one of the bestselling albums of all time, selling more than 35 million copies worldwide, spawning numerous singles and earning various industry accolades, including a Grammy, MTV and American Music Awards. The tour that accompanied it was equally gargantuan, with the band clocking in nearly 300 shows in three years.

Official photographer Ross Halfin was in the recording studio with the band and documented the tour that followed. Between 1991 and 1993, he shot thousands of film rolls of the hectic performing schedule and many unique portrait sessions, backstage documentary-style photography, rehearsals, interviews and band meetings. This official Metallica book features many previously unpublished images, with introductions by Ross Halfin, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo. Printed with a metallic silver jacket with block-foil lettering, it is an epic celebration of one of rock's greatest creations.

Ross Halfin is one of the world's leading photographers and has been photographing Metallica since 1984 and has traveled with the band to every continent and almost every country in the world, covering every aspect of the band's career: in the studio, backstage, on the road and at home. He has photographed almost every major artist and continues to work and travel as first choice photographer for the biggest bands in the world.

Required reading for any metalhead, this updated compendium of in-depth, entertaining, and profusely illustrated conversations spanning all of Iron Maiden's studio albums includes 2021's Senjutsu.

In this new edition of Iron Maiden: Album by Album, prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to Iron Maiden's discography through a series of in-depth, frank, and fascinating conversations about all of the legendary heavy metal band's studio albums. Inside, Popoff gathers together metal journalists, authors, and musicians, who offer insights, opinions, and anecdotes about every release.

Richly illustrated with thoughtfully curated performance and offstage photography, as well as rare memorabilia, the conversations comprise a unique historical overview of the band, covering:

• Early albums with original lead singer Paul Di'Anno
• The songwriting of founder and bassist Steve Harris
• The impeccable talents of drummer Nicko McBrain and guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers
• Mega tours undertaken in support of the LPs
• Fights within the band
• And much more--even their iconic mascot Eddie is sure to make an appearance or two!

Popoff also includes loads of sidebars that provide complete track listings, details on album personnel, and information on where and when the albums were recorded.

Reignite your passion for the masters of metal with this captivating album-by-album exploration. Up the Irons!

The definitive history of the first 30 years of heavy metal, containing over 100 interviews with members of Black Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Slipknot, Kiss, Megadeth, Public Enemy, Napalm Death, and more.

More than 30 years after Black Sabbath released the first complete heavy metal album, its founder, Ozzy Osbourne, is the star of The Osbournes, TV's favourite new reality show. Contrary to popular belief, headbangers and the music they love are more alive than ever. Yet there has never been a comprehensive book on the history of heavy metal - until now. Featuring interviews with members of the biggest bands in the genre, Sound of the Beast gives an overview of the past 30-plus years of heavy metal, delving into the personalities of those who created it. Everything is here, from the bootlegging beginnings of fans like Lars Ulrich (future founder of Metallica) to the sold-out stadiums and personal excesses of the biggest groups. From heavy metal's roots in the work of breakthrough groups such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin to MTV hair metal, courtroom controversies, black metal murderers and Ozzfest, Sound of the Beast offers the final word on this elusive, extreme, and far-reaching form of music.

With this beautifully produced book, relive the extraordinary history of the of the hottest band in the land through 50 milestone events.

Formed in New York City in 1973, Kiss became one of the most popular and best-selling bands in rock history with their inventive stage presence and heavy, hook-filled catalog, both ideally suited for packing hockey arenas and football stadiums. This richly illustrated book from prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to the band on the occasion of their 50th anniversary by curating and examining the 50 most significant milestones. This exquisite volume features:

• Sturdy hardcover format
• Stunning concert and candid offstage photography, much of it never before published
• Images of memorabilia, including gig posters, 7-inch picture sleeves, ticket stubs, and more
• Gatefold Kiss timeline

Popoff covers everything down through the decades:

• The band's formation on the New York club scene
• Their fortuitous signing to the Casablanca label
• Infamous TV appearances, including Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park
• The formation of the famous Kiss Army fan club
• Mega tours undertaken in support of the LPs
• Interband conflicts and personnel changes
• The band's 1980s unmasking
• Innovative marketing such as comic books and the Kiss Convention
• And, of course, each of the landmark studio LPs

The result is an epic tribute to one of the most influential and admired bands in rock history--in a milestone year.

From Black Sabbath to Big Black, a ride through the evolution, diversity, and influence of genre-defying heavy music.

It began with the Beatles' Helter Skelter. It was distilled to its dark essence by Black Sabbath. And it has flourished into a vibrant modern underground, epitomized by Newcastle's Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. This is the evolution of heavy music. The voyage is as varied as it is illuminating: from the lysergic blunt trauma of Blue Cheer to the locked grooves of Funkadelic, the aural frightmares of Faust to the tectonic crush of Sleep, alighting on post-punk, industrial, grunge, stoner rock, and numerous other genres along the way. Ranging from household names to obscure cult heroes and heroines, Electric Wizards demonstrates how each successive phase of heavy music was forged by what came before, outlining a rich and eclectic lineage that extends far beyond the usual boundaries of heavy rock or heavy metal. It extols those who did things differently, who introduced something fresh and exciting into this elemental tradition, whether by design, accident, or sheer chance. In doing so, Electric Wizards weaves an entirely new tapestry of heavy music.

Required reading for any metalhead, this collection of entertaining illustrated conversations spans all of Judas Priest's studio albums, right up through 2024's Invincible Shield.

In Judas Priest: Album by Album, prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to Judas Priest's discography through a series of in-depth and fascinating conversations about all 19 of the legendary British heavy metal band's studio albums. Inside, Popoff gathers together musicians and metal journalists who offer insights, opinions, and anecdotes about each release.

The interviewees include names like Slash (Guns N' Roses), Marty Friedman (Megadeth), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Todd La Torre (QueensrYche), Bobby Ellsworth (Overkill), and more. Popoff also includes sidebars that provide complete track listings, details on album personnel, and information on where and when the albums were recorded.

Richly illustrated with thoughtfully curated performance and offstage photography, as well as rare memorabilia, the conversations comprise a unique historical overview of the band, covering:

• Legendary guitarists K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton
• The work of iconic lead singer Rob Halford
• The roles of various producers in the band's discography
• Mega tours undertaken in support of the LPs
• And much more--even controversies surrounding the band are covered.

Reexamine the rich catalog of these metal masters with this entertaining and insightful album-by-album exploration.

The Metal God, himself, Rob Halford--lead vocalist of Judas Priest and author of the critically acclaimed and reader-beloved autobiography, Confess--delivers yet again, now with the bible of hard rock and heavy metal, all in his enlightening, hilarious, and one-of-a-kind voice.

Rob Halford has long been known for his legendary voice. As the front man of Judas Priest, his vocals have been tremendous, and tremendously influential. In 2020, he brought his voice to the page with a glorious autobiography. Fans and readers loved Halford's frank and open narrative, as well as his terrific insight and sense of humor. In an ideal follow-up, Halford runs his lively eye over all facets of the hard rock history and the heavy metal world. Biblical is an encyclopedia and manifesto in which Halford shares his opinions, memories, and anecdotes regarding every element of the rock and roll work and lifestyle from tours to tattoos, riffs to riders, and drugs to devil horns. In Halford's relaxed and honest tone, the book mixes serious and in-depth pieces with whimsical reflections on lessons learned during his fifty years of a life in music. Biblical is a handed-down-from-on-high holy tome that transports fans behind the scenes and back into their record collections, to the almighty ways of rock.

Black metal is a paradox. A noisy underground metal genre brimming with violence and virulence, it has captured the world's imagination for its harsh yet flamboyant style and infamous history involving arson, blasphemy, and murder. Today black metal is nothing less than a cultural battleground between those who claim it for nationalist and racist ends, and those who say: Nazi black metal fvck off!

Black Metal Rainbows is a radical collection of writers, artists, activists, and visionaries, including Drew Daniel, Kim Kelly, Laina Dawes, Espi Kvlt, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Svein Egil Hatlevik, Eugene S. Robinson, Margaret Killjoy, and many more. Across essays and theory-fictions, artworks and comics, we say out loud: Long live black metal's trve rainbow!

This unique volume envisions black metal as always already open, inclusive, and unlimited: a musical genre whose vital spirit of total antagonism rebels against the forces of political conservatism. Beyond its clichés of grimness, nihilism, reaction, and signature black/white corpse-paint sneer, black metal today is a vibrant and revolutionary paradigm. This book reveals its ludic, carnival worlds animated by spirits of joy and celebration, community and care, queerness and camp, LGBTQI+ identities and antifascist, antiracist, and left-wing politics, not to mention endless aesthetic experimentation and fabulousness. From the crypt to the cloud, Black Metal Rainbows unearths black metal's sparkling core and illuminates its prismatic spectrum: deep within the black, far beyond grimness, and over a darkly glittering rainbow!

In 1991, Metallica released their fifth studio album that would become known and beloved around the world as The Black Album. Since its release, it has sold 30 million copies, and become a towering monument in the pantheon of rock's greatest records. Readers will get unprecedented insight into the story behind an iconic album from one of the world's most iconic bands through interviews with James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted, and Black Album producer Bob Rock.

Masciotra takes readers into the recording studio, giving them Metallica's account of how their most successful and famous record was born and learned to walk into every radio station and stadium stage around the world. Masciotra not only talks to the band about the making of the album, but also the stories that inspired the songs. Readers will not only learn about The Black Album, but they will also gain greater knowledge and familiarity with the men who created it.

With direct access to the band, Masciotra offers a fascinating and inspiring account of the creation of one of music's best and best-selling albums.

Featuring the iconic and never-before-published photography of Mark Weiss, The Decade That Rocked covers the biggest names from the '80s hard rock scene--including Jon Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, and more.

I have read pretty much every rock 'n' roll biography there is worth reading, and you never know what to expect when you pick up a new book. Well, let me tell you Mark Weiss has raised the bar for rock 'n' roll books with The Decade That Rocked. Mark has always been at the top of his field, and the level of detail and quality put into this book is the ultimate testament to his rock n' roll photographic legacy. - Sebastian Bach

Mark is the real deal. He may not play the guitar, but that camera is his guitar. He's a rockstar. - Gene Simmons

Mark's energy, his creativity, his drive, his positive attitude and his enthusiasm that make him one of the legends of rock photography. It's why his work--both old and new--is still so in demand today. Mark Weiss inspires greatness in all he turns his camera lens on. But don't take my word for it. Just look at the pictures in this book. - Dee Snider

His pictures say as much as the music - Rob Halford

He was one of the guys. He wasn't one of the 18 photographers you'd work with that day. - Alice Cooper

He had that instinct, to recognize our energy and use his technical talent to capture it. - Joe Perry

The Decade That Rocked breaches a level of intimacy that so many music photographers are lacking today. Each and every photo exemplifies the trust and the synergy between photographer and subject. You can feel the essence of the music in the live shots, just as vibrantly as you can feel the spirit and the essence of the musicians behind the scenes. - Screamer Magazine

Mark Weissguy Weiss set an unmatched standard for rock photography. Starting out as a teenager by sneaking into concerts with a neighbor's 35mm camera, he embarked on a legendary career that took him around the globe and onto some of the most memorable album and magazine covers in rock history- featuring the likes of Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, and Mötley Crüe to Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, and KISS, and so many more. With 700+ photos, brand new interviews, and stories from Mark himself, Decade that Rocked is a monument to the photography, friendships, and legacy of an artist that helped define one of rock's most iconic eras.

This career-spanning collection features:

A unique lens on the golden age of rock: Never-before or rarely seen photos of legends like Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, and Mötley Crüe to Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, and KISS, as well as countless others whose sound and image defined the era. Exclusive interviews: Ozzy Osbourne, Dee Snider, Nikki Sixx, Joe Perry, Rob Halford, and many more recall their memories of this era-defining decade. Untold Stories: Relive Mark's unbelievable journey through rock history, from getting arrested for selling photos outside of Kiss concert to touring with legends like Van Halen, to photographing Bon Jovi's infamous Slippery When Wet shoot, shooting backstage at Live Aid with Black Sabbath, and so many more. Definitive Lens: Creem magazine readers ranked Mark Weiss as rock's top photographer of the 80s. His work has appeared on some of the most iconic album and magazine covers of all time.

Captured from the unique vantage point of a photographer who lived and breathed the '80s in all its grit and glory, The Decade That Rocked brings to life the no-holds-barred sounds and sights that changed the world of hard rock and metal forever.

The story of Metal Blade Records is the story of Brian Slagel-a metal-obsessed Southern California kid who launched a fanzine and landed a record store job before cobbling together what he assumed would be a one-off compilation of fledgling bands from the L.A. scene. Released in 1982, the Metal Massacre LP included the debut recordings of local groups such as Steeler, Malice, Ratt, and Metallica. In the wake of the album's unexpected success Slagel virtually stumbled into creating a proper record label, issuing the first releases by Bitch, Armored Saint, and Slayer the following year.

For The Sake Of Heaviness is an inside look at how Brian built Metal Blade from a one-man operation in his mom's non-air-conditioned garage to the preeminent international home of heavy music that it is today. He shares his insights into signing and working with Amon Amarth, Anvil, As I Lay Dying, Behemoth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Cirith Ungol, Corrosion of Conformity, D.R.I., Fates Warning, Flotsam and Jetsam, Gwar, King Diamond, King's X, Lizzy Borden, Manowar, Mercyful Fate, Overkill, Raven, Sacred Reich, Six Feet Under, Trouble, Unearth, Voivod, Whitechapel, and others.

Always hard at work on a diverse range of projects, Brian reveals the early advice he gave that helped guide Mötley Crüe's career; how he helped Metallica replace their bassist-twice; his detailed work on Thin Lizzy and Alice Cooper reissues; his behind-the-scenes role in the careers of Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Goo Goo Dolls, and Lamb of God; and his unlikely ventures with kindred metal heads-from hockey star Ken Baumgartner, to celebrity chef Chris Santos, to The Howard Stern Show's Richard Christy, to comedians Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson and Jim Breuer.

Throughout For The Sake Of Heaviness, Brian steps aside to present first-person insights and extended guest interviews featuring friends, colleagues, Metal Blade staffers, and a long list of artists.

Bang your head Metal Health'll drive you mad
-- Quiet Riot

Like an episode of VH1's Behind the Music on steroids, Bang Your Head is an epic history of every band and every performer that has proudly worn the Heavy Metal badge. Whether headbanging is your guilty pleasure or you firmly believe that this much-maligned genre has never received the respect it deserves, Bang Your Head is a must-read that pays homage to a music that's impossible to ignore, especially when being blasted through a sixteen-inch woofer.

Charting the genesis of early metal with bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden; the rise of metal to the top of the Billboard charts and heavy MTV rotation featuring the likes of Def Leppard and Metallica; hitting its critical peak with bands like Guns N' Roses; disgrace during the hair metal '80s; and a demise fueled by the explosion of the Seattle grunge scene and the alternative revolution, Bang Your Head is as funny as it is informative and proves once and for all that there is more to metal than sin, sex, and spandex.

To write this exhaustive history, David Konow spent three years interviewing the bands, wives, girlfriends, ex-wives, groupies, managers, record company execs, and anyone who was or is a part of the metal scene, including many of the band guys often better known for their escapades and bad behavior than for their musicianship. Nothing is left unsaid in this jaw-dropping, funny, and entertaining chronicle of power ballads, outrageous outfits, big hair, bigger egos, and testosterone-drenched debauchery.