The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal

[John A Swartz]

O.K., I've been meaning to give fellow-BOC-Ler Martin Popoff a plug
here for his new book, "The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal", which
is an expanded and updated version of his earlier work, "Riff Kills Man".

Before I say anything else, I'll say this:  BUY THIS BOOK!!

I personally am not one who thinks that reviews of music are really
very meaningful, since it is such a subjective thing as to what is
"good" and what isn't (or what "sucks" and what doesn't).  And, there
are various places where I would disagree with the author's review
(his less-than-enthusiastic review of one of my favorite albums of
last year, Rush's *Test For Echo*, is a case in point that I discussed
some months back on this forum), but to me, the numerical score he
gives each album is really not the point of reading this book.

The real kicker for me is Martin's "call 'em as I see 'em" approach to
reviewing just about everything that could be considered heavy metal or
hard rock, with some witty and insightful commentary.  Martin and I are
about the same age, and its interesting to see his thought processes
at work in his reviews - and whether you agree with his overall assessment
of your favorite album, I liked the way he went about it -- he puts a lot
of things in perspective, historically, how the album may or may not have
faired sales-wise, what may have been going on with the band at the time,
and shows an aprreciation for most of the various sub-genres of hard
rock -- this guy can have good things to say from everybody from Deep
Purple to Alice in Chains to Metallica to the Infectious Grooves.  Some
of his admitted biases do show - some bands he almost considers incapable
of a truly "bad" record (BOC, one of his favorites, gets this semi-
pedestal treatment, but as a BOC fan myself, how could I complain?),
while other bands have albums that span the entire rating range (0 to 10),
where one album may get a perfect "10" rating, and another may get a "0"
rating --> this is an interesting perspective because you get to see
where some bands may have creatively "lost it" after becoming successful,
and others that put out pure trash for years before finally releasing a
true gem.  Some cool commentary throughout (loved his quote, "Didn't the
70s just rule?" in a review of one of KISS' albums - you have to read
it in context with the review, but it comes off more clever than I can
do it justice here).

BOC-L members may especially find it interesting that all of BOC's albums,
along with Buck's *Flat Out*, Deadringer's *Electrocution of the Heart*
(a Joe Bouchard project after he left BOC), and all 3 CDs by the Brain
Surgeons are reviewed here (Martin makes it known to the readers that
while a good album, *Flat Out* is probably the lightest album that he
reviews in his book).  Martin also reviews Hawkwind's catalog (or at
least a good chunk of it -- not being a Hawkwind fan I can't definitively
say its all of 'em).  Hawkwind is not one of Martin's "untouchables",
and the reviews range from really good to really bad on the various
albums.

As a bonus for your $20-something, you get a 19 track CD sampler of a
number of (probably unheard of by you) different metal bands which to
Martin represent possibly the up-and-comers in this genre.  As much as
you can be "eclectic" within the confines of metal, this CD does a
nice job at presenting a variety of heavy sounds - don't know if any
of these bands really represent the future, but if they do, then the
future could be good.  Definitely worth a listen.

I've enjoyed pouring through this book - I don't know how many CDs I'll
buy (or not buy) based on this book, but for me, that's not the point.
This book represents some great thoughts as to why someone likes or
dislikes various albums by heavy artists -- I've said in the past that
what I like about BOC-L is that a lot of us talk about not just that
we like this album or that album, but WHY we like it - and hey, if I
agreed with everything the book says (or with everything we say on
BOC-L), then there'd be no point in reading (and little point in posting
here) - this book is informative, thought provoking, and at times fun,
and provides some insight into various events in heavy metal's history.

Did I mention you should buy this book?  ;-)


John

PS:  The book is available at Barnes & Noble, and possibly some other
stores, or direct from Martin (I'm sure he'll chime in soon and
repost the ordering info if you need it).