Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem

by Axl Rosenberg, Christopher Krovatin, Matt Heafy (Foreword)

Take a journey through the history of metal music from its earliest roots with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath to its popular modern incarnations like experimental black metal, stoner doom, and djent. From AC/DC and Anthrax to Meshuggah and Mastodon, this is a superfan's-eye-view exploration of metal’s most innovative and hardcore sounds that can be heard around the world.

Co-authored by Axl Rosenberg and Chris Krovatin of the hugely popular blog metalsucks.net, this is a visually dynamic history, complete with exclusive band interviews, over 200 photos, genre-by-genre playlists, and plenty more to keep you throwing horns all night long.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Scarlet Cameo]

I've been a rock/heavy metal fan since I had like 12 years, but I don't consider myself as an expert, but I have a little knowledge of the theme and, based on that, I think that this book is a good read, especially if you're fan of the authors.

Yes, I don't thinks that is a must read, but when you're starting to know the genre and wish to learn about, this one is great for introduce yourself. The style is great for that purpouse, is like a old friend talking to you about everything he lived and why love this music, and that's something great that I can appreciate.

I read this book super slowly, and that difficult me to create the review a little more long, so...here it ends.




A digital copy of this book was provided by NetGalley

[Michael Jandrok]

To be clear on things right up front: I am 55 years old. I grew up in one of the choice generations for lovers of rock ‘n’ roll music. By the time I was 9 years old I had become an “active listener” (thank you here to Alice Cooper and his fine single “No More Mr. Nice Guy”) and was discovering all sorts of new sounds and scenes. Rock music in 1973 was still in its late teens, very much in the throes of the “classic bands era,” and there just really couldn’t have been a better time to grow up a music fan. I liked just about everything, but I was drawn to what was known back then as “heavy” rock. Bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Deep Purple made the music that stirred my soul, and I still keep up with new bands and trends in heavy music to this day. I’ll be the guy with the headphones over in the corner of the nursing home rocking my Venom t-shirt and my jeans jacket with all the band patches.

That’s the short and sweet version, anyway. I could go on and on, and if a few of my friends had their way I could probably write my OWN damn book on growing up metal. But there is a lot of that sort of stuff out there already, and I really don’t know if I could add much to the conversation.

Take this book that I am reviewing, for example. “Hellraisers,” by Axl Rosenberg and Christopher Krovatin, sets itself up as a sort of textbook primer for the nascent metal fan. This is what you need when you sign up for “Metal 101” down at the old junior college, that appears to be the gig here. “Axl Rosenberg” is actually a pseudonym for one Matthew Goldenberg, one of the co-founders of the popular metal weblog “MetalSucks.” Chris Krovatin has also written for “MetalSucks,” and both authors bring their signature snark and offbeat sense of humor to the proceedings here.

There are ten main chapters of the book, each one giving some insight onto a specific era in the metal journey through the decades. More or less chronological in order, these chapters start with “proto-metal” and end with “deathcore and djent.” The reader also gets eight “crash courses” in various metal subgenres, a few of which are more interesting than the main chapters themselves. Last but not least, there are six short “cultural studies” that promise to separate the “posers” from the “true believers.” It’s kind of like a quick side-trip into the cultural anthropology of the metal scene as a whole.

The biggest strength of this coffee-table book is the photographic history of the bands highlighted. There are a ton of good photos to be found here, many of which I have never seen in print before. Heavy metal has ALWAYS been a musical genre that seems to have a built-in visual DNA, and some subgenres, like glam, would never have broken out WITHOUT the aid of a recognizable look and style. Heavy metal mutated into a true cultural force during the MTV years, after all, and the photography in this book just reinforces that fact. I also liked the sense of humor that the authors brought to the text itself. Metal sometimes has a tendency to take itself a bit too seriously, and it’s nice to see someone taking the piss out of a few of the more egregious fusspots in the business.

That’s all to the good. I’m a bit more neutral where the level of detail is concerned. I get the idea, it’s supposed to be an introductory text, after all, but it feels oddly incomplete in some areas. KISS, for example, gets only three references in the whole book. That’s kind of criminal considering that KISS was the biggest band on the planet there for a few years back in the 70s, and can still be considered a huge influence for bands even today. That said, the authors do manage to cover most of the really important groups and solo artists that are important to heavy music down through the decades.

But in the interests of due diligence I need to highlight where the authors fell flat with regards to artists and metal history in general. For example, Queen is barely even mentioned in the text, yet there is no doubt whatsoever that they were of HUGE significance to both metal and glam artists. And speaking of glam, there is little in the way of background history of the subgenre. No reference to the New York Dolls, no nods to Bowie or The Sweet, and only one swift sentence to cover Mott the Hoople.

I was also kind of shocked that the proto-metal chapter that opens the book gives no credit to bands like The Who and The Kinks, who were themselves not metal but most certainly paved the way for the distortion monsters that were to follow in their wake. Iron Butterfly was also egregiously skipped over, though their influence on acid rock and heavy music can’t be understated. But the biggest omission here is that of Boston, a band who virtually redefined heavy rock back in 1976. There is also no Bachman-Turner Overdrive, no ZZ Top, no Sir Lord Baltimore, no Ted Nugent, no Frank Marino, no Bad Company, no Cheap Trick, no Uriah Heep, and only one passing reference to Aerosmith. Seriously? Look, I know that younger metal fans don’t consider a lot of those bands to be a part of the scene, but back in the day those guys were ABSOLUTELY lumped in with the heavy metal crowd. In the 1970s “heavy metal” itself was a loosely defined term, easily adaptable and used to describe bands as diverse in sound and style as Journey and Kansas and Aldo Nova.

And no Scorpions!!! What??? NO SCORPIONS!!! What the hell? I’m docking this book an entire star based on that omission alone.

My real advice here is to not waste too much time with this book. The photography is excellent, but it’s not enough to make up for the textual shortcomings. There are a TON of much better “introductory” books on the market for the true seeker, and you can easily seek them out at your favorite bookstore or library. I would also recommend the EXCELLENT and highly legitimate video series “Metal Evolution,” which covers a lot of the same developmental ground as this book does, but in much greater historical and anthropological detail.

I’m not sorry that I took a chance on “Hellraisers,” and I’ll most likely keep my copy in my personal library on the strength of the photo elements alone, but it’s definitely not a strong recommend as far as I am concerned. It’s certainly NOT the “complete visual history of heavy metal mayhem” that it claims to be, but it’s a quick and easy read and I suppose there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours. Never mind the bollocks……….

[Beth]

I wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. There were some funny one-liners (referring to weed as "Satan's broccoli" for example) and the pictures of sometimes old, usually ugly, often SUPER SERIOUS bands were generally hilarious. But this book didn't really break any new ground, and especially towards the last 1/3 of the book, the attempts at comedy started becoming just jaded and judgmental.

But my biggest problem with Hellraisers is this: Who is this book for? Its overview format, complete with "homework" playlists, seems to be aimed at someone who is not familiar with many (or all) of these genres or even the history of metal. Yet a lot of the chapters veer off into fan-boy-esque detail about obscure bands and scenes, which would make a non-scenester's eyes glaze over. The choices of which genres deserve "crash course" snippets verses lengthy sections seem bizarre as well - a 19-page chapter on doom/stoner metal, but only a three-page "crash course" on so-called "goth metal," comprised of some of the most well-known names in metal (Danzig, Type O Negative, Ghost)? What?

Finally, for a book that (rightly) bashes the morons of metal who've proven themselves to be racists and bigots, there's surprisingly still jokes at the expense of women (cause clearly we couldn't possibly like metal for the music, it must be the "hot" dudes). Get a clue.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Ben]

Never thought I'd read a more contentious coffee table tome than Madonna's Sex, but here we are. Hellraisers is hilarious, enlightening, comprehensive and best of all, sure to provoke a lot of arguments and discussions. A must-own for any metalhead, with more than enough stories and pictures for metal devotees and dilettantes alike.

[Chris Dauten]

I really wanted to love this book but, in the end, I just liked it. Any time you attempt to plug bands into the myriad of sub-genres that have been established under the prolific "metal" umbrella, very few will agree 100% on where this or that band fits in. Honestly, the number of metal sub-genres has grown to such in idiotic number that almost any attempt at classification is, at best, a valiant effort. This book is no exception. The authors, for the most part, do a fine job of explaining the major sub-genres, a bit of their history, and some of the key players in each. I can't really argue too much with some nit-picking disagreement over where a particular band fits in, I can't excuse a few flagrant mis-steps, like including Motorhead and Judas Priest in the leading bands of the NWOBHM, when each band existed for a number of years prior to that movement. Judas Priest may have jumped on the NWOBHM bandwagon, but they were hardly pioneers. Lemmy, when asked if Motorhead was part of the NWOBHM said no, because they were around long before and never really tried to fit in to that category. Regardless, other than these, as I said, nit-picking disagreements, I found the authors' use of humor to be quite refreshing, especially considering the somber tone most books on the subject tend to adopt.

[Dave]

This is the ultimate resource for everything you ever wanted to know about heavy metal and it's endless offspring of glam metal, prototype metal, thrash metal, goth metal, industrial metal, and so forth. It's a beautifully put-together book filled with lots of great full color photos and lots of tongue-in-cheek humor. The authors are huge fans of this music but see the humor in its outlandish expressions excesses and stereotypical dress. It traces the history of metal from its roots in Hendrix and Zeppelin to the early metal bands of Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, etc, to all of its more modern offspring. Never realized there were so many different branches and hadn't heard of most of the bands listed, but found it enjoyable and interesting for someone who is a hard or classic rock fan rather than a pure metal fan.

[MKF]

DNF

[Bunny]

METAL IS FOR EVERYONE. It is a fan's record collection and tattoo choices that make him or her a poseur, not where they're from, what they look like, the god they worship, or the people they bang (or don't worship, or don't bang). Nazi punks fuck off.

Full and complete credit to the authors of this book for finding the humor in heavy metal music. That is something severely lacking in any discussion of what I consider a beloved musical genre.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this. I've been a fan of heavy metal in one form or the other since I was a little girl in the 80's. My parents were 21 when I was born, so I listened to what they listened to growing up, plus the addition of my sister, who was four years older than me. Led Zeppelin was a constant, along with Prince and Creedence Clearwater and yes, New Kids on the Block. My music taste was handed to me and I ate it up.

I remember my sister, mother and I standing in the living room, watching the video for Welcome to the Jungle, and staring at each other like whaaaa. My first concert I remember going to was Poison, the Look What the Cat Dragged In tour, when I was around 6 years old (I fell asleep). I was too young for Iron Maiden, but Metallica was a constant.

When I was old enough to make my own choices music wise, it was still eclectic, Pantera mixed up with Garth Brooks and TLC. But there has always been something about pounding drums, heavy bass, and screaming lyrics that soothed some savage part of my soul.

Reading this book was basically taking several long, head banging walks down memory lane. Paying homage to the blues background and working their way from Jimi Hendrix to Linkin Park, this book covers bands you've never heard of, bands you've forgotten about, one hit wonders, gods of metal, devils of metal, embarrassments of metal.

Each chapter is set up for you in a truly hilarious way, and no metal fan can be comfortable taking themselves too seriously. If you're a Megadeth fan and you're looking down on lovers of the big hair band metal fans, prepare yourselves, because you're going to get roasted, too. At the end of the chapter, there's a Starter Kit for baby metal fans, covering everything from required hair length to how many patches you'll need on your jean or leather jacket.

Seriously, you will laugh so hard working your way through this.

Not going to lie, I read this with my eyes peeled for one specific band. Sure, they disbanded 20 years ago when the bass guitarist died in a horrible unnecessary car accident. But they are major to ME, so they'd better be included. Sadly, there is only one, near throw-away reference to this band of my teenaged life, Acid Bath. But they reference Crowbar and Goatwhore, two bands former member Sammy was involved with. So. I don't have to yell.

This review is more about me than the book, you may notice. This is evidence that I really got into it, and it made me happy and nostalgic for my metal days. Such as they were.

In all seriousness, this is such a great book for anyone who has loved metal in their life. Funny, evocative, chock full of pictures, information and laughs. Thoroughly worth the read.

[John Plowright]

The conceit propelling Axl Rosenberg and Christopher Krovatin's 'Hellraisers' is that they are tenured professors providing a semester-long course in the history and culture of heavy metal; the fact that they are tenured allowing them to “say pretty much whatever” they want. This formula works surprisingly well, although a few references, such as to “AP Math Class” (and semesters, for that matter) show that the authors are firmly focused on the US market.

Each lavishly illustrated chapter provides information on a particular genre or subgenre of heavy metal from proto-metal to deathcore and djent and includes an audio homework assignment comprising key tracks to which one should listen. The chapters are interspersed with free-standing mini-essays on topics such as heavy metal bass playing, festivals or yet more sub-genres.

Inevitably those ‘studying’ this book will challenge their teachers on certain points. If Black Sabbath are “the first heavy metal band” then why are they listed as one of the big four “proto-metal” bands? Why is Arthur Brown mentioned as a pioneer of shock rock but not Screaming Lord Sutch? Why is The Beatles’ Come Together part of the homework for proto-rock but not Helter Skelter, especially given that there’s a section on the Manson Family’s murders?

In the big scheme of things, however, these are all minor quibbles. Both the heavy metal novice and the dedicated metalhead should find this book informative and entertaining because the authors communicate their knowledge and enthusiasm with a great deal of humour. The latter is apparent from the very start of the book, as it’s dedicated “to the Birmingham sheet-metal machine that ripped off two of Tommy Iommi’s fingers”.

Heavy metal may be, as the authors claim, “antisocial and misanthropic by nature” but this book is one that anyone with any interest in heavy metal should warmly embrace.

[Teresa]

Hellraisers by Axl Rosenberg, Christopher Krovatin In my teens and twenties and even today I loved Heavy Metal. Some of the bands depicted in this book are my favorites and I still listen to today, some of the bands I have to admit I had never heard of. Thank you to this book and YouTube I have heard of them now.  This is an amazing book. It has tons of pictures, background, song titles, and more. I learned some things about some of my favorite bands even, and some of it was some pretty crazy stuff.  The pictures in this book are awesome. Some of the pictures are on stage, some are from Photo shoots. I remember now why I was in love with some of these guys through the HOT photos in this book. 
 
If you like any Heavy Metal at all or are just a huge fan of music in general grab a copy of this book. This book was like traveling down memory lane as well since I loved these bands from the 80's to date.
 
I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

[Wayne McCoy]

'Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem' by Axl Rosenberg and Chris Krovatin is an irreverent journey through the different genres and evolution of heavy metal.

From the early days of proto-metal through the new wave of British heavy metal and glam metal and on in to deathcore and djent, this is a fun look at each sub-genre. I learned who listens, where the bands are generally from and who the main bands are. There are lists of songs to listen to, and pretty hilarious lists of what you should look like and wear if are into these genres. There are also shorter articles on smaller genres and things like the criminals of metal and things like drum triggers.

I haven't listened to heavy metal since the glam metal days, so I learned a lot about how things grew and changed in the music. There are lots of pictures, and tons of humor. I had a really fun time reading this!

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[Manmade M0nster]

\m/

I loved it! The book is very funny and honest about the genre of music we love the most! I think it handles all the sub genres of metal perfectly. I have seen others complain that the book left out ( FILL IN THE BLANK ) band. But I think they did a great job discussing the heavy hitters of each sub genre and including a list at the end of each sub genre discussion of bands/songs to check out. There is no way they could possibly squeeze every popular band of a sub genre into this book. But they did a great job with the progression of metal. I would recommend it to any metal head!

[Jo Depreitere]

Nice overview of the history of metal, sprinkled liberally with tongue in cheek humour.

[Dave]

Review originally published at Book of Bogan

The Heavy Metal genre of music is quite a broad church, and trying to capture even the current state of the industry, let alone the origins of it is an ambitious task the authors have set themselves. You may well argue that they have taken some missteps along the way, and not everyone is going to agree with their categorisation of various bands under the umbrella term "heavy metal", but I think they have done a sterling job at hitting the right notes along the way. This book is obviously written by people who are passionate about the topic, and their knowledge and appreciation of the music and bands really shines through.

As a fan of the genre, or probably more accurately, certain sub-genres of heavy metal, I found that the authors did an excellent job of hitting the key points of each phase in the development of the music. The book starts off as a history lesson of the birth of rock and roll, and wends its way through the history of hard rock, and how it developed into heavy metal. The latter half of the book is given over to the various sub-genres of metal, although inevitably I am sure it misses some of the more obscure. Some of the more entertaining parts were the descriptions of the starter kits required, which often described in painfully-accurate detail the fans of the period or sub-genre. For those readers looking for an introduction into a particular era or there are helpful lists of artists and songs suggested at the end of each chapter.

This is a book that you can easily drop in and out of, pick and choose what interests you or want to learn more about. Frank Zappa is often quoted as saying that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and in some ways this book is trying to fill a number of spaces. It is part history, part encyclopedia, and part love letter to a genre of music which is often derided, and its fans mistreated or misunderstood.

Hellraisers is an attempt at writing a reasonably comprehensive history of Heavy Metal, and in that aim, I believe it has succeeded. As a fan of metal, I found myself nodding along to a lot of the descriptions, as this book is clearly written by authors who "get it" which I find is rare.

This is a very entertaining read, although not for everyone, and the latter third might well carry a warning of disturbing material, but that comes with the territory.

I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Dustin]

Well---I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I say that mainly because I’ve read so many metal history and biography books over the past several years that I wasn’t expecting to get a whole lot out of a general knowledge metal book geared primarily towards newcomers or those without a lot of previous knowledge of heavy metal and its many subgenres. Also, as a reader of “Rosenberg’s” website for many years I’ve felt let down by the quality of content on that site for the past year or two—not because I disagree with his obvious politics as do most of his critics but because while I almost always agree with them I sometimes disagree with the execution or display of those politics. All of that preamble aside to say that this is a solid, on-point overview of metal today detailing entertainingly how it got here. While I didn’t really learn much new I did constantly enjoy what I was reading and learn to potentially appreciate a few subgenres more than before (here’s looking at you metalcore). While the authors do often state questionable opinions as solid facts (a common habit for any book of this type) and occasionally posit a band as something many would contest (e.g. Judas Priest as NWOBHM) nothing is so glaring that it’s eye-rolling (though another hand with the Black Metal chapter might have worked wonders). This is witty without being pretentious, light without being throwaway, and jam packed with lists, photos, and plenty of snark that should welcome anyone to the metal table that wants to be there. It’s “anti-kvlt/trve” which I’m sure was wholly intentional. I’d hand this to anyone looking for an introduction to the complex, compelling, and head-banging world of metal. If they dug it I’d direct them next to “Louder than Hell” and “Choosing Death”.

[Theediscerning]

A highly pictorial book portrays the entire history of heavy metal music in all its genres and forms, with sometimes scathing metaphors for how it sounds, which ramps up the entertainment value. It doesn't get as far as scientifically defining all the stupid sub-sub-genres and categories of metal, but what it does do is prove that 99% of people in the metal industry are either ugly, or stupid-as-fuck-looking. Seriously, you can never persuade me that any of Slipknot have ever got laid – and the same applies to Manowar. So while a lot of the music itself is ugly, and/or stupid-as-fuck, it's completely valid that a nuanced, academic and intelligent book be written about it. Here's giving it the goat…

[Mindy Lou Who]

It took me a while to read this simply because there's only so much I can read about music (and metal in particular) without taking a break to listen to it. With a great format and hilarious one-liners throughout, this is a really good history of metal. From its beginnings to all of the sub-genres it has spawned, this is a fairly comprehensive look at it from a metalhead's perspective. If you like metal or any of its genres, read this book. You'll enjoy the humor and it's actually very interesting.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Adam Dawson]

4 / 5 for "Hellraisers..." by Axl Rosenberg

An authoritative and enjoyable history of my favourite music genre - heavy metal! Well researched and wonderfully presented with tonnes of interesting facts and anecdotes, as the book works its way from the beginnings of Heavy Metal, right up to the present. Loses 1 mark, simply because I felt it focussed a little too much on obscure bands from the early days that no one has ever heard of, but maybe that's just me.

4 / 5

[Michael Dunn]

Pretty entertaining account of the history of heavy metal and the multitude of genres it’s birthed over the decades. Might be a tad too beginner’s guide for seasoned fans that know about basically every band featured, but it’s written by someone who’s both knowledgeable and passionate about Metal in all its forms.

[Joel Saa'C]

Esperaba más del libro. Es cierto, hay puntos importantes e interesantes que desconocía. Pero, hay “géneros” y grupos detestables que están incluidos. Algunos buenos los tildan de malos y otros no los incluyen.

[Alex]

Feels at times like nothing but bad jokes at the expense of bands and their fanbases, makes way too many pointless digs at nü-metal, and often dedicates more time to the controversy surrounding well-known bands than to lesser known ones, making sure to morally pontificate as much as possible.

[Benjamin Kahn]

A good overview of the different genres of metal, told with a lot of humour and joy. I might quibble with some of their big 4 band choices, but I think overall it was well done, and brought me up to date on more recent genres that I'm unfamiliar with.

[Victoria Peipert]

Well organized and constructed in depth study of metal. I enjoyed the images, history, and stories. -2 stars for overly colloquial tone that even got a little hokey and banter-y at times.

[Timojhen]

Fantastic primer. Solid recommendations, plenty of (entertaining) sarcasm, great pictures. As a fan of most of the genres discussed, no reservations of their recommendations. Good read!

[Alejo]

It's a really good book for Heavy Metal "freshmen" and even has good pointers for those of us who have dabbled for a while in Metal History. Its high spirits are contagious making it a fun read, and its outspoken delivery makes a good "meta"-reading for a metal book. Fans of the Metalsucks webpage will enjoy it.

On the downside, its jokes get stale after a while and due to its outspoken tone it wears its politics way too much on its sleeve making it preachy (even if you agree with it) and reveals politic misunderstanding if not ignorance (politics aren't as black and white). Also, the rants agains the people the authors hate gives it a whiny tone just like those they criticize for it.

I would recommend better A History of Heavy Metal

[Jessica White]

I am not a fan of heavy metal in any way (but why do I have heavy metal flags and band tshirts??)
Oh yeah, because my husband is a metalhead.
So I read Hellraisers for a few reasons:

I love music, any kind of music.
I love my husband
He wouldn't read the book so I had to summarize it to him

But it was actually really good. I was surprised at all of the different subgenres within the heavy metal genre. Some of them I don't 100% agree with because lets be real glam rock is NOT metal but it is definitely one of my favorites. Honestly, I learned a lot from this book. It kind of goes into the history of heavy metal and talks about bands who inspired other bands and how all the subgenres are connected to the main genre.

Now I will say, the last 100 pages or so were not really necessary.
Now I'm not an expert or anything, but grouping Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and Linkin Park into the "nu-metal" genre seemed a bit off to me, but according to my husband that's exactly what the three of them are. So who knows.

Either way, I really enjoyed this book even though heavy metal is not quite my taste.
If you enjoy this music, you'd definitely enjoy this book!

Huge thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy of Hellraisers!

This review and more like it can be found on A Reader's Diary!

[Kerry Pickens]

What a great book! This would be a perfect gift for a teenage boy. The illustrations are great, and I love the homework assignments of listening to music. I knew more about heavy metal music than I thought.