Hellraisers

I really wanted to love this book but, in the end, I just liked it. Any time you attempt to plug bands into the myriad of sub-genres that have been established under the prolific “metal” umbrella, very few will agree 100% on where this or that band fits in. Honestly, the number of metal sub-genres has grown to such in idiotic number that almost any attempt at classification is, at best, a valiant effort. This book is no exception. The authors, for the most part, do a fine job of explaining the major sub-genres, a bit of their history, and some of the key players in each. I can't really argue too much with some nit-picking disagreement over where a particular band fits in, I can't excuse a few flagrant mis-steps, like including Motorhead and Judas Priest in the leading bands of the NWOBHM, when each band existed for a number of years prior to that movement. Judas Priest may have jumped on the NWOBHM bandwagon, but they were hardly pioneers. Lemmy, when asked if Motorhead was part of the NWOBHM said no, because they were around long before and never really tried to fit in to that category. Regardless, other than these, as I said, nit-picking disagreements, I found the authors' use of humor to be quite refreshing, especially considering the somber tone most books on the subject tend to adopt.