I just finished reading Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal by Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman. First published back in 2013, it splits the story of metal into a series of quite large chapters which each deal with a specific genre, era or scene from metal’s history. And the authors have assembled an impressive roster of interviewees to tell the story of metal’s main bands, genres, events and personalities.

I’m always trying to read more books than I do. I thought Louder Than Hell… might be a good bit of light reading and my inexhaustible interest in metal would mean I’d just blast through it. I wasn’t wrong. Each chapter was just like reading a really thorough and entertaining magazine article. You can’t expect a single chapter to offer much new information on a genre you love and have already read about extensively but it’s fun to read a bunch of new recollections and quotes about them. Given my musical tastes I was less interested in some of the chapters so those were more of a slog to read but, on the other hand, were the ones I learned the most from.

One of my issues with the book is that I’m not actually a big fan of the oral history format. I want a bit more insight and analysis when I read books about a music genre. Musicians themselves aren’t always the best people to offer that. I’d have liked more input from metal journalists and critics. And I’d have liked more material about the actual music itself. It’s not really a history of metal, it’s more like a collection of mini biographies of metal musicians and their lifestyles. I’d have liked more material on key albums, songs, concerts etc… and way less about what these guys all got up to with drugs and groupies. I understand that stuff is entertaining and gives the book a bit of a salacious quality that isn’t entirely dependent on your love of the music. But, to me, the history of metal is the history of the music. Robb Flynn peeing in diapers and Evan Seinfeld’s “dickfold” (don’t ask) have nothing to do with the history of metal. Or the history of anything.

Louder Than Hell… deserves its definitive tag because the authors have crammed so much into the book, but there are much better and more authoritative books on a lot of the individual genres discussed here. But if you’re wanting a big fun book of metal stories and anecdotes to chew through, you can’t go wrong with it and I can’t see how any fan of metal wouldn’t enjoy at least some of it.