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This Means War : the Sunset Years of the NWOBHM
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal has received intense attention in recent years as a whole new generation of metal-makers have generated bands that have embraced the directly pre-thrash roots of modern heavy metal.
In This Means War: The Sunset Years of the NWOBHM, Martin Popoff and dozens of his UK rock buddies document the frenzied fruition years of the movement, namely 1981 and 1982, and then the many facets that caused the genre to implode by the end of 1984, with cracks in the armour beginning to appear the previous year. Why did metal disappear in Great Britain with the first hungover light on January 1, 1985? And where exactly did it go? The answers are enclosed, in the words of those who were there... and then nowhere fast!
Utilizing his celebrated oral history method—rich with detailed chronological entries to frame the story—Popoff blasts through all of the big events from 1981 to 1984, in this action-packed book that serves as concluding volume to Wheels of Steel: The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM—same easy reading format, same attention to documenting the subject at hand with visuals from the glorious era.
And by the way, this one’s way more packed with historical images, with more substantive text as well. It’s a beefy follow-up and conclusion to the well-received volume one, and the two together serve as a grand and exhaustive study of this momentous metal movement.
So come join Martin, along with dozens of the rockers themselves, as they together tell the tale of this ersatz genre’s maturity and demise, a demise that is ultimately laced with the pride that a platform had been created on which metal was to thrive for all of the rest of the loud ‘n’ proud ‘80s.
In This Means War: The Sunset Years of the NWOBHM, Martin Popoff and dozens of his UK rock buddies document the frenzied fruition years of the movement, namely 1981 and 1982, and then the many facets that caused the genre to implode by the end of 1984, with cracks in the armour beginning to appear the previous year. Why did metal disappear in Great Britain with the first hungover light on January 1, 1985? And where exactly did it go? The answers are enclosed, in the words of those who were there... and then nowhere fast!
Utilizing his celebrated oral history method—rich with detailed chronological entries to frame the story—Popoff blasts through all of the big events from 1981 to 1984, in this action-packed book that serves as concluding volume to Wheels of Steel: The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM—same easy reading format, same attention to documenting the subject at hand with visuals from the glorious era.
And by the way, this one’s way more packed with historical images, with more substantive text as well. It’s a beefy follow-up and conclusion to the well-received volume one, and the two together serve as a grand and exhaustive study of this momentous metal movement.
So come join Martin, along with dozens of the rockers themselves, as they together tell the tale of this ersatz genre’s maturity and demise, a demise that is ultimately laced with the pride that a platform had been created on which metal was to thrive for all of the rest of the loud ‘n’ proud ‘80s.
- GenresMusic
268 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2015
About the author
Martin Popoff
182 books254 followersAt approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor-In-Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 20, 2016
Great follow-up to
Wheels of Steel: The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM
. I think I enjoyed it even more than the original. While the first book was full of optimism, this book dealt a lot more with missed opportunities and regrets. It's funny because the punk movement is always portrayed as a moment that was necessary to save music, that it had to come along because music was stagnating, but that it wasn't ultimately sustainable, that the energy would dissipate and go into other forms of music.
The metal bands don't view their scene the same way. There is a lot of regrets and what ifs. If only management/record company had supported us ; if only we had toured more with this album ; if only we had toured at all ; if only Metallica had covered our song ; if only we had more time to write the album ; if only the production had been better ; if only the record company hadn't gone bankrupt. The majority of the bands seem to feel that they were very close to making it big, if only things had gone a little differently. Even Saxon had regrets this way, and they were one of the biggest bands to come out of this scene.
The two big exceptions are of course, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, who became huge. But Def Leppard spends a lot of time distancing themselves from the whole scene. And although Iron Maiden pays great tribute to the scene and its bands, lead singer Bruce Dickinson in a quote near the end of the book seems to suggest that he feels that it was less luck than it was that the bands that made it were something special. I'm a big Dickinson fan, but that's the kind of quote that makes the speaker seem like kind of a jerk. That said, Iron Maiden's continuing success to this day makes it hard to refute his theory.
Overall, the two books form a great arc to cover the scene. The first, full of optimism, with lots of quotes about how great songs are great songs, that the NWOBHM was a triumph of musicianship over punks' energy, and that this was rock for the new generation, filling in the holes left by the old guard. The second is the decline of British heavy metal, to be supplanted by the music coming out of southern California, and a tale of regrets and what might have been.
The metal bands don't view their scene the same way. There is a lot of regrets and what ifs. If only management/record company had supported us ; if only we had toured more with this album ; if only we had toured at all ; if only Metallica had covered our song ; if only we had more time to write the album ; if only the production had been better ; if only the record company hadn't gone bankrupt. The majority of the bands seem to feel that they were very close to making it big, if only things had gone a little differently. Even Saxon had regrets this way, and they were one of the biggest bands to come out of this scene.
The two big exceptions are of course, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, who became huge. But Def Leppard spends a lot of time distancing themselves from the whole scene. And although Iron Maiden pays great tribute to the scene and its bands, lead singer Bruce Dickinson in a quote near the end of the book seems to suggest that he feels that it was less luck than it was that the bands that made it were something special. I'm a big Dickinson fan, but that's the kind of quote that makes the speaker seem like kind of a jerk. That said, Iron Maiden's continuing success to this day makes it hard to refute his theory.
Overall, the two books form a great arc to cover the scene. The first, full of optimism, with lots of quotes about how great songs are great songs, that the NWOBHM was a triumph of musicianship over punks' energy, and that this was rock for the new generation, filling in the holes left by the old guard. The second is the decline of British heavy metal, to be supplanted by the music coming out of southern California, and a tale of regrets and what might have been.
February 18, 2019
An amazing resource for bands and records from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal era.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews