Despite what you may think, these Rough Guides are incredibly in-depth, and targeted more to the know-it-all-music nerds than the casual fan. This 410 page investigation into Heavy Metal starts off proper with a foreword by Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, and then breaks into histories of more than 300 bands and artists, all arranged alphabetically. You get all the key bands: old and new, lost bands, death bands, foreign bands, and even borderline metalists. The editors pick a couple albums for each band, and write blurbs about their significance. All the above writing is well-informed and interesting, but the casual metalist will enjoy the subsections dispersed throughout the book. These cover subjects like Top Guitar Solos, Bizarre Cover Versions, Christian Metal, Death Metal, Concept Metal, Drum Solos, Doom Metal, Grunge, Guitar Heroes, Metal Movies, Ballads, Prog Rock, Orchestral Metal, Stoner Rock, and many more interesting subjects. Top toilet material, something to read before you go to bed so you stop thinking about the inevitability of death.

reviewed by mgmnt