Read a good book every now and then: The Bloody Reign Of Slayer
Besides his activities as singer of the Dutch doom legend Officium Triste and writing for several magazines, Pim Blankenstein is also someone who loves to read a good book about bands and artists. Heavy bands and artists of course, for who in his right mind desires to read crap about pop bands, right? Therefore Pim takes control of this corner of Lords Of Metal and will enlighten us with his thoughts about everything interesting in the world of rock literature on a monthly basis. This month he reports about ‘The Bloody Reign Of Slayer’ by Joel McIver.
After the reviews of the encyclopaedic books ‘Extreme Metal II’ and ‘The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists’ by English journalist/author Joel McIver this month I review a book this man has written on a single act, Slayer!
Joel already has written quite a few books about acts, like Metallica and Black Sabbath, but ‘The Bloody Reign Of Slayer’ is the first by his hand that I have read. Joel even tried to persuade Slayer in having him write an official biography but that didn’t happen and I think that’s quite okay. Now he’s brutally honest and isn’t afraid to give his opinion. The way the book is put together is quite different too. First a chapter focuses on a certain period leading to the recording of an album and the following chapter is about that particular album that gets analysed very thoroughly. This results in a bit of overlap but that’s not really annoying. In the chapters where Joel dissects the albums he gives his opinion on the production and compositions of certain songs. This can lead to a point where you, as the reader, totally approve or you wish him hell, which is a positive aspect about the book as far as I’m concerned. The other chapters show that Joel has a lot of knowledge about Slayer and he has interviewed a lot of people (sideways) involved with the band.
In general I think this is a proper book because all segments concerning Slayer appear in the writing and it gives a good idea how the greatest thrash band in the world evolved. Simply a must read!
After the reviews of the encyclopaedic books ‘Extreme Metal II’ and ‘The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists’ by English journalist/author Joel McIver this month I review a book this man has written on a single act, Slayer!
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