Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I got this book while browsing through a book store. I would definetly reccomend this book to most people. It covers Metal from the times of black sabbath, the NWOBHM, the Black Metal bands, Death Metal, Nu-Metal, and so many more. I really like the list giving the best Death Metal CD's, Glam Metal, Nu-Metal, etc lists. The author focused on some of the terrible music from the 80's a bit much, and not enough about bands like Cradle of Filth. He also dedicated like a whole chapter exclusively to Metallica.Very well written though
Rating: 
Summary: Sound of the Beast is the Best
Review: i just got this book last night and its kicks mega [butt] i mean it is a detailed history of metal from england in the 70s when bands like sabbath and zepplin started all the way to [bad] nu-metal bands of today like slipknot(who by the way [stink]) i have read a few other book on the history of metal but this on takes the cake...
Rating:
Summary: The Shotgun Approach
Review: I read this book back to back with David Konow's _Bang Your Head_. While Konow focuses more in-depth on the grandaddies of metal and the MTV bands, _Sound of the Beast_ has more of a shotgun approach, attempting to comprehensively cover each sub-genre. So you get the chapter devoted to speed and thrash, the chapter on (old-style) power metal, the chapter on death metal, the chapter on the PMRC, etc. He seems to cover the salient points, though you will quite often want more depth on a particular subject - it's the enternal tradeoff of depth vs. breadth of coverage. Luckily, you have a win-win situation - read this book, then Konow's, and get both.The writing in this book is certainly more literary than Konow's book, so the reading is smooth. At times, though, the flowery prose can get a bit overpowering, reaching its nadir in the description of Cliff Burton's death - Christie's portrayal of Burton as a Christ figure seemed heavily strained, as does referencing the lyrics 'black ice/it's a killer' in an obscure five year old song with and claiming it 'weirdly prophesied' the accident. In fact the big strength of this book is sometimes a weakness - Christie obviously loves the subject. He's very passionate about it and makes a strong effort to make sure you know everything about it as well. But the superlatives get a bit old after a while. Luckily, he's usually off on another bit of history too soon for it to become overwhelming. The one big gaping hole in this book is the lack of European and Scandinavian power and symphonic metal. Perhaps Rhapsody and Nightwish are too 'new' and Blind Guardian and Symphony X are too obscure, but how can you just completely ignore granddaddy Helloween and all its relatives in a book about all of heavy metal? Looking back, my review may seem a bit negative, but I'm just pointing out what seemed to me the weak bits in a generally very entertaining book. Go in expecting what I've mentioned here and you'll have a blast. Find out how to tell thrash from speed metal. Learn which band kept the flaccid LA scene alive for a few years past its prime. The lists scattered throughout of seminal CDs for each style can be quite educational in and of themselves. I found it difficult to set the book down. If you like heavy metal I'd suggest reading this book first, then _Bang Your Head_ for more depth into some of the bands covered in _Sound of the Beast_. You should learn quite a few things you didn't already know.
Rating:
Summary: I was close to Clueless
Review: I was close to clueless on the history of heavy metal before I read this book. Im as big of a metal head as anyone can be who plays guitar in a metal bad. Music is my life. However, I didnt know the history of it well at all. I didnt know where it all started, how it started, who started it, or the problems it caused throughout history. All the chapters were in depth to their subject, and well writen. If you need a history leasson like I did, this book is for you. However, I found that the band Metallica was talked about just a tad too much. They did make a huge difference, but I felt like I was reading the history of Metallica more than the history of heavy metal.
Rating:
Summary: Ozzy! Metallica! Even Freddie Mercury!?! Loved it.
Review: I was quickly hooked on this wide-ranging history of the origins of metal music. Expect late nights, factoids you never would have guessed, and background on worthy bands you never knew existed. All that's missing is a sampler CD! When you have read it, you will be much more aware of metal's place in the music business AND you will have a list of new and old bands to seek out. More and more headbangin' music!! What's not to like!
Rating: 
Summary: Rife with inaccuracies, incomplete
Review: I was really excited to finally read a definitive book on heavy metal by a reputable writer invested in the genre, but I was left wanting for two large reasons:
1. The book has many inaccuracies.
Here's a list of stuff I knew was wrong, just based on what I know with my years of being a metal fan: 1.) On page 69, Christe refers to WWII clips used by Iron Maiden during the "Piece of Mind" tour. Iron Maiden didn't use WWII clips until the "Powerslave" tour. 2.) On page 212, Christe says Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1992, and that he wrote two books after he left. The fact is, Dickinson left in 1993, and he wrote both of of his books before leaving the band. 3.) On page 263, Christe says that Sepultura's "Arise" came out in 1989 when the band was in their teens. The fact is that "Arise" came out in 1991, when the band was in their early 20s. In fact, only one member was a teen in 1989, and that was drummer Igor. 4.) On page 267, Christe says Brujeria's "Matando Gueros" means "Killing White Filth," when it means "Killing Blondies" (blondies in this case is a pejorative term for undesirable white people). 5.) On page 354, Christe says that Metallica earned its sixth Grammy for Cliff Burton's "Call of Chtulu," when in fact, the song was written by Burton, Ulrich, Hetfield, and Mustaine.
All of these inacurracies lead me to believe that Christe wrote from an incomplete and inaccurate memory, instead of relying more so on his research. If he has this many small errors that were easy to point out without any research on my part, there are probably many more in the book, and there is a good chance that his analysis of the heavy metal genre is suspect. Which, it is...
2. This book is unfairly US-centric.
Christe's analysis of heavy metal history focuses on a US perspective. This doesn't mean he only covers US bands. It's just that he focuses on bands and histories of importance to the US metal scene. Metallica and Black Sabbath are deservingly given heavy, favorable coverage for their contributions to heavy metal as a genre, as are Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and only three of these bands are from the US. Likewise, the Scandinavian black metal movement is given substantial coverage, too, but like the coverage of the four previously mentioned bands, all of these represent music that has a substantial audience in the United States.
One such metal sub-genre of importance that Christe neglects is the European (mostly German) new power metal movement of the mid-1990s. I think Christe neglects this because power metal isn't as popular in the US as traditional metal acts or black/death. In fact, he only gives power metal one page of a passing mention in the afterword, instead of any significant coverage that it deserves. Power metal is as important to the European metal scene as nu metal and hard core are to the current US metal scene, and Christe gave nu metal a decent amount of coverage without giving power metal its due.
Another area Christe neglected is the importance of metal in the world, which he pathetically and hastily tried to add to his afterword. He did go over metal in the Muslim world a bit in the end, but this was only given coverage because of the current US obsession over what is going on in Muslim nations. If Christe was to do the metal world any justice, he'd cover how the Japanese and South American markets are strong metal hot-beds and attract a greater per capita audience to concerts, in addition to how these areas and Europe kept metal alive while it floundered in the US in the mid-90s.
These two complaints (inaccuracies and US-centric bias) leave Christe's book largely incomplete, and they force the reader to be even more scrutinizing. I am also dismayed to find no reference section to show where he got his information, which lends him less credibility than the numerous accolades given to him by publications that are hardly authoritative in the metal world, such as Maxim and the New York Sun.
Despite these complaints, I do find the book a good read, with some excellent general information and plenty of wonderful, anecdotal quotes by big names in metal (Dave Mustaine, Ozzy, Metallica, etc.). Just be sure to read it with an open mind and take nothing Christe says for granted. Don't rely on inaccurate, blatant US-centricism as your sole basis of understanding of heavy metal history, even if Christe's book, sadly, is probably the best available book on this subject.
SIDE NOTE: Christe deejays a first-rate show on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 27 (Hard Attack), called "Bloody Roots." Though I challenge his views on heavy metal history, I don't dare challenge his excellent taste in music.
Rating:
Summary: Good and bad book
Review: If you are looking for a comprehensive history of heavy metal from a non-objective standpoint, this might not be the book for you. The author is first and foremost a huge fan of the genre, and this is made obvious in his writing. Sure, Black Sabbath and Metallica are the obvious fathers of Metal, but he paints them with a "can-do-no-major-wrong" brush. Almost every band in the book is portrayed as super-driven and visionary, almost like he is writing about gods instead of people. That said, it is still a good book. If you love Metal, you will get a kick out of it. If you haven't been into metal and pick this book up on a whim, it may be a little tough to take. The praise he heaps upon band after band gets slightly tiresome, and the scorn he heaps on bands that "turned" (i.e. Def Leppard and their ilk) sounds like bitterness due to the success they later obtained. I think the author does the best with what he has and what he believes, but I would have preferred a less biased approach. And for the record, I am a fan of metal!
Rating:
Summary: Best Metal Book on the Market
Review: Please note that the following comments pertain mostly to the metal scene in the U.S. I just finished reading this from cover to cover. Overall, it is a great read and accurate for the most part. I noticed a few factual errors that slipped through during the editing process. Examples off the top of my head are referring to Slayer's drummer as Tom Lombardo, dating Dokken's Tooth and Nail to 1987, and some other minor stuff that is probably due more to hasty writing than lack of knowledge. I experienced the 80s scene first hand as a rabid teenage metal fan. Christe proves himself to be a knowledable insider. Unlike other 'music writers' who consider Jethro Tull and Heart to be heavy metal, Christe defines his terms very well. His focus on Metallica is interesting and exhaustive but probably excessive. He rightfully slams the extreme silliness of hair metal excess but I would contend that lighter pop metal was more instrumental to broad acceptance of true metal than true metal bands were. He touches on the gateway theory at places in the book but does not develop the thesis. In my opinion Def Leppard's Pyromania was the boot that kicked in the door to the mainstream for heavy metal bands of all types. Without the millions of fans that Def Leppard brought to heavy metal in 1983, there would not have been anybody to make the progression to the true metal of Iron Maiden, then Slayer, then Possessed, etc. Without being 'prepped' by pop metal first, very few people would have gone out and spent their money on an Iron Maiden tape if they were in Journey or Duran Duran. So the tape traders were undeniably responsible for getting the momentum going for Metallica but Metallica (nor Priest, Megadeth, and on down the line) never would have become as huge if not for the development of the mass metal audience by gateway bands such as Leppard, Quiet Riot and Ratt. A few thousand tape traders cannot account for millions of records sold, unless Enron was doing the audit. Think of it. Those three bands made their best material between 1983 and 1985 and all but those in serious denial will acknowledge that those bands were once good. When their horrid sellout follow-ups were released after '85 is when Metallica and thrash exploded from the underground. So the cynical cash grab by late-80s hair metal gave rise to solid heavy metal. Yes, pop metal imploded under the weight of its own hair by 1990. But without Pyromania in 1983, Master of Puppets would not have seen the light of day. I know. It pains me to give credit to rock-star self-parodies, but history needs to be faced as it is. One flaw in the writing style is stacking superlatives on top of one another throughout the book. If you say Black Sabbath showed divine inspiration that does not leave much room for more intense praise later in the book without sounding like you were exaggerating earlier in the book. So Black Sabbath is pure excellence, Judas Priest is super-pure excellence, Metallica is ultra-super-pure excellence, Slayer is super-duper-ultra-super-pure excellence, Slipnot is double-super-duper-ultra-super-pure excellence and everything played on MTV [is bad]...it kind of starts to sound silly. Well, I have gone off on a negative tangent. Despite the drawbacks this is a very good book. If you think some topic needs to be expanded upon, well, you have a computer - open up Word and get cracking.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive tome for an impressive music
Review: Sound Of The Beast is an impressive book. Wisely aligning itself, title-wise, with the quintessential heavy metal album of all time, Iron Maiden's Number Of The Beast, Ian Christe's take on thirty-odd years of metal high art accomplishes a lot.
Sound Of The Beast successfully covers the basics and many of the sub-genres of metal. It incorporates literate, yet fluid, writing with a plethora of facts, trivia and lists to make for a compelling read for metal fans old and new. Simultaneously, Christe tackles - albeit superficially given space considerations - the musical movement from several tangents. In this manner, he introduces both a diversion to the purely chronological take on the music and injects something of a discourse into the book. As with most claims, the author's assertion of a 'completeness' to his book is false, but that is par for the course, one supposes. After all, and realistically, no one body of work will ever completely cover 30-plus years of musical and cultural history.
Having said that, the book does stumble more than it needs to. The inordinate amount of space granted Metallica only serves to demonstrate the author's devotion to this band. Otherwise if ever there was a band which had betrayed the ideals of the book's subject-matter, that band would be the aforementioned California metallers-gone-corporate minion. Sound Of... also has its share of mistakes (Metallica fact on page 88, calling AC/DC NWOBHM, etc.), irrelevant features (discussion on non-metal music like punk, mallcore, etc.) and obligatory self-referencing conflict-of-interest (mentioning past and current employers of the author without disclosure).
Be that as it may, Christe has done as good, if not better, a job as any of his peers. The book is well-written and balances the need for information with the necessity to keep the pace congruous with the readers' need for dispatch.
All in all then, Sound Of The Beast is impressive - that is, once one gets past the biography's ludicrous notion that "Ian Christe is the recognized voice of heavy metal."
Rating:
Summary: Metal Memories Like Thunderclaps
Review: There is not a bad thing I can say about this book. I found it insightful and most historic. It took me back to many of the bands that I grew up listening to and renewed my appreciation of heavy music as I watched it form. Being in my mid thirites I grew along with this stuff and also played a lot of it in my band. So it was interesting reliving some of the legendry and also some of the fictions we always heard. It is broken up over the years and focuses on the music of that time and how it all broke off from metal in one way or another. The part that was most alarming was the section of Scandinavian Death Metal. Whoa was that harsh stuff. I recommend this book to fans of the genre in particular, and pretty much fans of rock music, since so many of the acts listed arrived at their stylings based on the classics of the 60's and 70's. A great read straight through from page one to page 400.
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