Andrew O’Neillīeing a devout and confirmed metalhead himself O’Neill’s enthusiasm for all of this, particularly the more extreme elements, is infectious and while many of the details and stories may be familiar to metal fans he manages to find a few interesting extras to add on while bringing a fresh perspective to it all. Like Smallman’s book it is O’Neill’s personal history of heavy metal and is at least as much about being entertaining as it is about exploring its subject, but thankfully it manages to do both very deftly.įrom the birth of metal (and it’s forebears) in the midlands and Black Country of England it traces an arc that brings in everything from Sabbath and Priest to NWOBHM, Thrash, Death, Glam, Black, Groove, Nu and more exhaustively going through how the various styles and sounds that get grouped as metal came to be, while also highlighting several that simply ‘just aren’t metal’. A few months ago I read Jim Smallman’s book I’m Sorry I Love You: A History Of Professional Wrestling, in it he mentioned its existence owed almost everything to another book by another stand up comedian looking at the history of another subculture/entertainment medium, Andrew O’Neill’s A History Of Heavy Metal.Īs a fan of O’Neill both for his comedy and the music of his band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, and as something of a ‘metalhead’ it surprises even me that it’s taken me this long to get to this book but I have to say that I’m very glad I have.
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