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Blood, Fire, Death: The Swedish Metal Story
In the early 1990s, Swedish death metal revolutionized the international music scene. Suddenly, the mild-mannered Scandinavian country found itself at the forefront of a new movement with worldwide impact thanks to bands such as Entombed, Dismember, and At the Gates. The birth of black metal drove the culture to even greater extremes, featuring a rawer, darker sound and non-ironic death-worship. Soon churches in both Norway and Sweden were aflame, and be- fore long Satanism emerged as more than just an image. But how did it all start? Why did Sweden become a hotbed for such aggressive, nihilistic music? And who are the people and bands that brought it all about?
Blood, Fire, Death: A Swedish Metal Story recounts the evolution of the genre from the massive amplifier walls of 1970s rock, through the church-burning Satanic 1990s, to the diverse and paradoxical manifestations of the scene today. This book focuses on the phenomena that have propelled the scene forward in an evolution that has not only been musical, but aesthetic and ideological as well. This is a story about grotesque logos and icons that invoke death and darkness, but also a story of dedication, friendship, community, and a profound love for music.
Blood, Fire, Death: A Swedish Metal Story recounts the evolution of the genre from the massive amplifier walls of 1970s rock, through the church-burning Satanic 1990s, to the diverse and paradoxical manifestations of the scene today. This book focuses on the phenomena that have propelled the scene forward in an evolution that has not only been musical, but aesthetic and ideological as well. This is a story about grotesque logos and icons that invoke death and darkness, but also a story of dedication, friendship, community, and a profound love for music.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2018
36 people are currently reading
389 people want to read
About the author
Ika Johannesson
9 books7 followersIka (Fredrika) Anna Kristina Johannesson is a journalist, publicist, and author.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 15, 2021
I loved Bathory so much my friends nicknamed me Blood, Fire and Death, one of the two I’ve carried with me for the last 15 years or so.. And when I saw the book with the same title with Nifelheim on the cover, I just had to have it. My love for Swedish Metal may not pass the love for Norwegian Metal but boy, Sweds are bloody damn good at what they’re doing.
Swedish Metal is not an area I’ve explored in depth, not the music but the backgrounds of the bands. To be honest, Sweden’s ratio of 70% death metal, 25% black metal & 5% of all the other metal didn’t really interest me. Only Bathory, Dissection and Watain were the bands I actually dug in. I was aware of the bitter hatred between Norwegian Black Metal scene and the Swedish Death Metal Scene but I never actually went into the rest. This book gave me a total different experience on Swedish Scene. The book is so informative, it took me a good 15 days to finish reading it. I never realized the Swedish Metal scene back in the day was pretty much brutal and dark; quite close to the Norwegian scene. I think what lacked was the church burnings; the rest was all there.
Blood, Fire, Death was written in a very different style. After getting used to Dayal Patterson’s and Mick Wall’s writing, it took me a day or two to get used to Ika Johanneson’s style. But I really really liked it. She has covered everything from A-Z about the Swedish metal starting from bands I have never even heard of. The book has that powerful and grasping writing style that really makes you feel the emotions of the moment. The struggles, the cheating, the rip offs, the murders, the suicides, the disputes, the blood and the tears that went into making some goddamn Good music with a capital G is absolutely fascinating. It covers everything from the lives of the musicians, the beginning, and sometimes the end. It also covers an area many have failed to cover. The rip off of artists by the record labels. How their own music was stolen and used to fatten those who lives in glass rooms while the musicians struggled to scrape the bottom isn’t a new thing. But the way these bands were cheated was really disgusting.
The book almost felt like a motion picture. 95% was written in present tense. The breaks and jump backs to the past was quite captivating. It has such a flow to it, the reader really lives at the moment. I’ve watched Watain live and got drenched in quite a good amount of pig blood, got a strand of my hair burnt and I could say I re-lived that moment all over again in between the pages of this book (that was so fucking awesome).
As usual, the hardest parts to read when it comes to metal is the depressing side of it. Blood, Fire, Death gave a clear cut description of many of them. The final interview given by Jon Nödtveid ten days before he shot himself, Dead’s walk towards the complete insanity and solitude until he blew his brains off, Niklas’s continuous struggle between mental health and amphetamine were a bit hard to digest, made me feel sad. It’s a miracle how these people made such good music that lasts forever. After all, as Erik sings, “They never sleep. They never rest”.
Book #26 of 2021..
Around the year in 52 books: “A book with six or more words in the title”
Swedish Metal is not an area I’ve explored in depth, not the music but the backgrounds of the bands. To be honest, Sweden’s ratio of 70% death metal, 25% black metal & 5% of all the other metal didn’t really interest me. Only Bathory, Dissection and Watain were the bands I actually dug in. I was aware of the bitter hatred between Norwegian Black Metal scene and the Swedish Death Metal Scene but I never actually went into the rest. This book gave me a total different experience on Swedish Scene. The book is so informative, it took me a good 15 days to finish reading it. I never realized the Swedish Metal scene back in the day was pretty much brutal and dark; quite close to the Norwegian scene. I think what lacked was the church burnings; the rest was all there.
Blood, Fire, Death was written in a very different style. After getting used to Dayal Patterson’s and Mick Wall’s writing, it took me a day or two to get used to Ika Johanneson’s style. But I really really liked it. She has covered everything from A-Z about the Swedish metal starting from bands I have never even heard of. The book has that powerful and grasping writing style that really makes you feel the emotions of the moment. The struggles, the cheating, the rip offs, the murders, the suicides, the disputes, the blood and the tears that went into making some goddamn Good music with a capital G is absolutely fascinating. It covers everything from the lives of the musicians, the beginning, and sometimes the end. It also covers an area many have failed to cover. The rip off of artists by the record labels. How their own music was stolen and used to fatten those who lives in glass rooms while the musicians struggled to scrape the bottom isn’t a new thing. But the way these bands were cheated was really disgusting.
The book almost felt like a motion picture. 95% was written in present tense. The breaks and jump backs to the past was quite captivating. It has such a flow to it, the reader really lives at the moment. I’ve watched Watain live and got drenched in quite a good amount of pig blood, got a strand of my hair burnt and I could say I re-lived that moment all over again in between the pages of this book (that was so fucking awesome).
As usual, the hardest parts to read when it comes to metal is the depressing side of it. Blood, Fire, Death gave a clear cut description of many of them. The final interview given by Jon Nödtveid ten days before he shot himself, Dead’s walk towards the complete insanity and solitude until he blew his brains off, Niklas’s continuous struggle between mental health and amphetamine were a bit hard to digest, made me feel sad. It’s a miracle how these people made such good music that lasts forever. After all, as Erik sings, “They never sleep. They never rest”.
Book #26 of 2021..
Around the year in 52 books: “A book with six or more words in the title”
December 2, 2018
It’s beginning to get cold and dark outside, so what better time of year for a reissue of Blood, Fire, Death: A Swedish Metal Story by Ika Johannesson and Jon Jefferson Klingberg? Originally released in 2011 as Blod, Eld, Död: En Svensk Metalhistoria by Alfabeta Bokförlag / Pocketförlaget, the Feral House edition, released early last month by Feral House, marks the English-language debut of this tome.
It’s perfect that Feral House released this, actually, as Blood, Fire, Death rounds out a trilogy of books from the publisher on extreme music. First would be the seminal 1998 book, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, and second is 2013’s massive tome, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, by Dayal Patterson.
When I say “rounds out,” I mean it, too. There’s a lot of speculation and spurious facts in Lords of Chaos, with a lot of the information and stories within seeming to be a bit more legend than fact, and it pretty much spins out about halfway through. On the other side of the coin is Black Metal, which is insanely informative, but there’s just so much there to get through. It’s an excellent read, but definitely for the advanced fan.
This means that Blood, Fire, Death works excellently as both an introduction to extreme Scandinavian metal, as well as setting straight some stories which have been circulating for decades now. As Johannesson says in the book’s introduction, “This is not the definitive history of Swedish metal. Instead, we’ve focused on bands, individuals, and phenomena which to various extents have propelled the scene forward.”
It’s basically a primer for the genre, introducing the reader to the main players and founders of black metal, the roots from which it grew, and the newer branches which still flower. The book’s been updated since its original publication, with new interviews and updates about the people interviewed previously, and Blood, Fire, Death ends up being a fascinating, involving read.
A few issues regarding changes from past tense to present tense and back again get a little confusing, but translation is as much art as it is a science, so it’s forgivable in the grander context. The same thing goes for a chapter on right-wing nationalism and Nazi ideology in the genre, which is rather short and perfunctory, despite having become a major point of contention over the last few years. Case in point: Talib Kweli canceled a concert near me because the club he was going to perform at had also booked Taake.
Because nobody’s really willing to speak on the record about it, it leads to a lot of folks kind of justifying it as just being another shocking things these musicians do or did, rather than any of the musicians involved in use of swastikas or Sieg Heil-ing saying specifically as to why they did what they did. Its absence would’ve been notable, obviously, but the inclusion as it is doesn’t definitively answer any questions.
That said, Johannesson and Klingberg do manage to get quite a few people to speak on the record for Blood, Fire Death, and the interviews with otherwise recalcitrant subjects -- especially the friends and family members of such legendary characters as Pelle “Dead” Ohlin and Bathory’s Quorthon -- give the reader far clearer and more full pictures of these people, turning them from two-dimensional characters into humanized individuals.
It’s perfect that Feral House released this, actually, as Blood, Fire, Death rounds out a trilogy of books from the publisher on extreme music. First would be the seminal 1998 book, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, and second is 2013’s massive tome, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, by Dayal Patterson.
When I say “rounds out,” I mean it, too. There’s a lot of speculation and spurious facts in Lords of Chaos, with a lot of the information and stories within seeming to be a bit more legend than fact, and it pretty much spins out about halfway through. On the other side of the coin is Black Metal, which is insanely informative, but there’s just so much there to get through. It’s an excellent read, but definitely for the advanced fan.
This means that Blood, Fire, Death works excellently as both an introduction to extreme Scandinavian metal, as well as setting straight some stories which have been circulating for decades now. As Johannesson says in the book’s introduction, “This is not the definitive history of Swedish metal. Instead, we’ve focused on bands, individuals, and phenomena which to various extents have propelled the scene forward.”
It’s basically a primer for the genre, introducing the reader to the main players and founders of black metal, the roots from which it grew, and the newer branches which still flower. The book’s been updated since its original publication, with new interviews and updates about the people interviewed previously, and Blood, Fire, Death ends up being a fascinating, involving read.
A few issues regarding changes from past tense to present tense and back again get a little confusing, but translation is as much art as it is a science, so it’s forgivable in the grander context. The same thing goes for a chapter on right-wing nationalism and Nazi ideology in the genre, which is rather short and perfunctory, despite having become a major point of contention over the last few years. Case in point: Talib Kweli canceled a concert near me because the club he was going to perform at had also booked Taake.
Because nobody’s really willing to speak on the record about it, it leads to a lot of folks kind of justifying it as just being another shocking things these musicians do or did, rather than any of the musicians involved in use of swastikas or Sieg Heil-ing saying specifically as to why they did what they did. Its absence would’ve been notable, obviously, but the inclusion as it is doesn’t definitively answer any questions.
That said, Johannesson and Klingberg do manage to get quite a few people to speak on the record for Blood, Fire Death, and the interviews with otherwise recalcitrant subjects -- especially the friends and family members of such legendary characters as Pelle “Dead” Ohlin and Bathory’s Quorthon -- give the reader far clearer and more full pictures of these people, turning them from two-dimensional characters into humanized individuals.
Read
June 28, 2020The first two-thirds of the book consist of some good solid information about the Swedish death metal and black metal underground; also, some good background on Swedish hard rock and metal, and a little bit about Sweden. The latter third is nonsense, political correctness, and using up bits of interviews to cover the time after the glory days, namely the late nineties and beyond, despite no one caring about that. In general, this book does a great job but suffers from a few things: it covers only a few interview subjects, so slants in that direction; it does not achieve any broader context in death metal and black metal as artistic movements; it does not get much or coherently into the motivation behind all this, since most musicians are inarticulate; it is poorly edited. On the whole, an informative read but only in the context of other works on related topics.
February 25, 2024
One of my absolute favorite reads in recent memory. I think it's going to inspire me to make learning about the music I enjoy a priority for the remainder of the year, which is a good thing!
I'm also unashamed to admit that I learned a lot. While I was reading the book, I kept a 'Keep Notes' list running with names of bands and albums I wanted to check out. It led to me (finally) listening to some great foundational and current black metal bands - Bathory and Watain are two examples that come to mind.
My copy had a couple weird, seemingly random printing errors where an 8-or-10-page section of the book was just repeated, which I found a bit odd? But otherwise, this is an awesome book. I'd strongly recommend it to any of my buddies who are interested to learn more about the history of Scandinavian metal.
I'm also unashamed to admit that I learned a lot. While I was reading the book, I kept a 'Keep Notes' list running with names of bands and albums I wanted to check out. It led to me (finally) listening to some great foundational and current black metal bands - Bathory and Watain are two examples that come to mind.
My copy had a couple weird, seemingly random printing errors where an 8-or-10-page section of the book was just repeated, which I found a bit odd? But otherwise, this is an awesome book. I'd strongly recommend it to any of my buddies who are interested to learn more about the history of Scandinavian metal.
February 22, 2020
I was surprised to find that this book actually contained new information about the swedish metal scene in general and it instead of just being a boring list of biographies of the most essential bands, the authors also included parts where metal was examined from various points of views - for instance, topics like "black metal and its links with right-wing politics" and "women in black metal" were covered. Personal highlight for me was the part regarding Dissection, which included the last known interview of Jon Nödtveidt.
May 3, 2020
Muy entretenido e interesante, y no se centra solo en el metal extremo, lo cual es de agradecer.
May 3, 2025
I, never in the 350 pages, felt like i was reading an information book. Couldn’t put this thing down, had fun, learned some more. What else do you want to know?
March 16, 2024
I thought this was a much better book than Lords of Chaos which chronicled the Norwegian black metal scene. This was more straightforward in telling the stories of the bands involved and didn’t sensationalize things.
May 18, 2025
First published in Swedish in 2011, this revised and greatly expanded English edition is from 2018. Structurally, the book takes a thematic, rather than a chronological approach in telling the story of Sweden's heaviest metal scenes across fifteen chapters. While that was probably a good idea, its execution is a little messy at times and I found myself flipping backwards and forwards to find out what was going on when.
But that's a minor complaint about an essential book for anyone wanting to understand or learn more about some (see the final paragraph of this review) Swedish death and black metal. That said, there are things I still don't really get. For one thing, the final chapter focuses on Watain and, while an excellent closing chapter, I still finished the book baffled at how a band with such an outlandish, utterly straight-faced stage show rammed full of rotting blood and animal carcasses and with such an uncompromising attitude could have achieved their (relative) mainstream success and acceptance. Personally, I've never paid much attention to them. But I will now. Though I think I'd skip any live shows. They don't seem very vegan to me.
Early chapters on Nifelheim, Bathory and Pelle Ohlin (Mayhem's much-written about former frontman, 'Dead') are all excellent. That Bathory's Quorthon and Dead have both, well, died means the bulk of these chapters are based on others' recollections, including Quorthon's dad and Dead's brother. These are both compelling and sensitively handled, acting as fine but even-handed tributes to them both.
The death metal chapter does as good a job as it's possible to do in under twenty pages. It feels a bit rushed but this is a book with a LOT to say. The following chapter, on the fanzines and magazines like OKEJ is excellent. And then we come to black metal. The Swedish scene has always been less celebrated/reviled than the Norwegian one (for obvious, slightly less stabby/arson-y reasons) so this is a great summary and does a good job of telling the story to include the intertwined Norwegian scene, without getting overwhelmed by it.
Centered on the band Dark Funeral's willfully, heroically stubborn legal fight with their former record label, 'Chapter VIII: Metal and Money' is a useful, wide-ranging reminder that for all its entrenched success, even in Sweden, making real money from metal just isn't that easy. The longest chapter of the book focuses on the band, Dissection and the late Jon Nodtveidt's life, crimes, release from prison and brief 'glorious' return. It's an interesting story but it's also the only chapter that feels too long.
Chapters ten and twelve cover the role of women in metal and the role of Nazism and fascism in black/death metal. Both are interesting but feel a little short and unfocused. Though it's very funny reading quotes from black/death metal figures denying they're Nazis or fascists and then saying something really racist that... Nazis and fascists believe in the very next sentence. So much self-awareness.
Sandwiched between the two is an account of the Entombed/Entombed AD legal fiasco and the falling out that led to it. Entombed were the first heavy Swedish band I ever heard and I have a soft spot for them and their amazing first three albums. Reading this chapter, and seeing them so diminished, petty and fractured was surprisingly saddening; a feeling made much worse by LG Petrov's untimely death, aged just 49 in 2021.
Chapter XIII: A Lesson in Suicide tackles self-harm and suicide through the lens of the band Shining and the deeply unpleasant and mentally ill (it's possible to be both at the same time) Niklas Kvarforth. Packaging CDs with razor blades and slicing up fans onstage is certainly extreme but it also suggests the Swedish mental health system has failed a lot of greasy-looking people in black clothes and corpse paint. As with the chapter on Jon Nodtveidt, this one feels like it devotes too many words to an attention-seeking outlier and arsehole.
A much-needed dose of levity comes with Chapter XIV: Heavy Metal, a look at the roots and revival of Swedish metal as something that's fun. Ridiculous, yes, but fun. The Muskelrock festival seems to be wildly cheesy but it also seems like a cracking good time.
Cramming a history of Swedish metal from the mid-1980s to the late 2010s into 330 or so pages is, quite honestly, an impossible task. The authors of this book almost managed it. As long as you pretend the Gothenburg scene wasn't really that important and the nobody's heard of Opeth. The end result is a flawed, cherry-picked account but a hugely compelling and highly readable one. And, as much as I disliked Kvarforth, the photo section includes a stunning shot where he returns to the band as 'Ghoul' after half-heartedly, sort of faking his own death and it's utterly horrifying. Which is, after all, the entire point.
But that's a minor complaint about an essential book for anyone wanting to understand or learn more about some (see the final paragraph of this review) Swedish death and black metal. That said, there are things I still don't really get. For one thing, the final chapter focuses on Watain and, while an excellent closing chapter, I still finished the book baffled at how a band with such an outlandish, utterly straight-faced stage show rammed full of rotting blood and animal carcasses and with such an uncompromising attitude could have achieved their (relative) mainstream success and acceptance. Personally, I've never paid much attention to them. But I will now. Though I think I'd skip any live shows. They don't seem very vegan to me.
Early chapters on Nifelheim, Bathory and Pelle Ohlin (Mayhem's much-written about former frontman, 'Dead') are all excellent. That Bathory's Quorthon and Dead have both, well, died means the bulk of these chapters are based on others' recollections, including Quorthon's dad and Dead's brother. These are both compelling and sensitively handled, acting as fine but even-handed tributes to them both.
The death metal chapter does as good a job as it's possible to do in under twenty pages. It feels a bit rushed but this is a book with a LOT to say. The following chapter, on the fanzines and magazines like OKEJ is excellent. And then we come to black metal. The Swedish scene has always been less celebrated/reviled than the Norwegian one (for obvious, slightly less stabby/arson-y reasons) so this is a great summary and does a good job of telling the story to include the intertwined Norwegian scene, without getting overwhelmed by it.
Centered on the band Dark Funeral's willfully, heroically stubborn legal fight with their former record label, 'Chapter VIII: Metal and Money' is a useful, wide-ranging reminder that for all its entrenched success, even in Sweden, making real money from metal just isn't that easy. The longest chapter of the book focuses on the band, Dissection and the late Jon Nodtveidt's life, crimes, release from prison and brief 'glorious' return. It's an interesting story but it's also the only chapter that feels too long.
Chapters ten and twelve cover the role of women in metal and the role of Nazism and fascism in black/death metal. Both are interesting but feel a little short and unfocused. Though it's very funny reading quotes from black/death metal figures denying they're Nazis or fascists and then saying something really racist that... Nazis and fascists believe in the very next sentence. So much self-awareness.
Sandwiched between the two is an account of the Entombed/Entombed AD legal fiasco and the falling out that led to it. Entombed were the first heavy Swedish band I ever heard and I have a soft spot for them and their amazing first three albums. Reading this chapter, and seeing them so diminished, petty and fractured was surprisingly saddening; a feeling made much worse by LG Petrov's untimely death, aged just 49 in 2021.
Chapter XIII: A Lesson in Suicide tackles self-harm and suicide through the lens of the band Shining and the deeply unpleasant and mentally ill (it's possible to be both at the same time) Niklas Kvarforth. Packaging CDs with razor blades and slicing up fans onstage is certainly extreme but it also suggests the Swedish mental health system has failed a lot of greasy-looking people in black clothes and corpse paint. As with the chapter on Jon Nodtveidt, this one feels like it devotes too many words to an attention-seeking outlier and arsehole.
A much-needed dose of levity comes with Chapter XIV: Heavy Metal, a look at the roots and revival of Swedish metal as something that's fun. Ridiculous, yes, but fun. The Muskelrock festival seems to be wildly cheesy but it also seems like a cracking good time.
Cramming a history of Swedish metal from the mid-1980s to the late 2010s into 330 or so pages is, quite honestly, an impossible task. The authors of this book almost managed it. As long as you pretend the Gothenburg scene wasn't really that important and the nobody's heard of Opeth. The end result is a flawed, cherry-picked account but a hugely compelling and highly readable one. And, as much as I disliked Kvarforth, the photo section includes a stunning shot where he returns to the band as 'Ghoul' after half-heartedly, sort of faking his own death and it's utterly horrifying. Which is, after all, the entire point.
June 27, 2024
I have kind of mixed feelings about Blood Fire Death: The Swedish Metal Story.
On one hand, I enjoyed the interviews and the profile-type parts of the book. Of particular note, the Watain chapter and the Lesson in Suicide chapter. Those two were really interesting.
On the other hand, the authors seem to jump around a bit, not really telling a linear history. There’s also a lot of references to the more-than-well-documented Norwegian black metal scene of the early ‘90s. Conversely, there’s very little mention of Tampa / Florida death metal, which, by my understanding would have had just as much an effect on Swedish extreme metal as neighboring Norway.
And it’s hard to argue that Blood Fire Death is only about metal in general because the book is mostly about black and death metal.
One other thing that really bugged me - and it might have been an issue with translation - the way the writing jumped from present to past tense regardless of when the events occurred.
I’m giving Blood Fire Death four stars. I really like the subject matter, I just think the book could have been put together better / differently. As I said, the profile-type sections were really interesting.
There is another book called Swedish Death Metal, by Daniel Ekeroth, that I found approaches the history in a more focused manner. I think that book was published before Blood Death Fire, and, in my opinion, should also be read first. Then fill in the holes with Blood Death Fire.
On one hand, I enjoyed the interviews and the profile-type parts of the book. Of particular note, the Watain chapter and the Lesson in Suicide chapter. Those two were really interesting.
On the other hand, the authors seem to jump around a bit, not really telling a linear history. There’s also a lot of references to the more-than-well-documented Norwegian black metal scene of the early ‘90s. Conversely, there’s very little mention of Tampa / Florida death metal, which, by my understanding would have had just as much an effect on Swedish extreme metal as neighboring Norway.
And it’s hard to argue that Blood Fire Death is only about metal in general because the book is mostly about black and death metal.
One other thing that really bugged me - and it might have been an issue with translation - the way the writing jumped from present to past tense regardless of when the events occurred.
I’m giving Blood Fire Death four stars. I really like the subject matter, I just think the book could have been put together better / differently. As I said, the profile-type sections were really interesting.
There is another book called Swedish Death Metal, by Daniel Ekeroth, that I found approaches the history in a more focused manner. I think that book was published before Blood Death Fire, and, in my opinion, should also be read first. Then fill in the holes with Blood Death Fire.
March 31, 2019
An excellent book covering all fields regarding Heavy Metal and its offshoots in a country so prolific in this music such as Sweden. You can read all the book in a normal fashion or go through the different chapters in any order you want, because each one covers a different aspect of Swedish Metal, from its origins and failed attempts at a noteworthy Thrash Metal scene, going through the zenith of Sweden's two renowed styles of Death Metal, the effects of the Norwegian Black Metal scene on the svensk metalheads, up to Depressive Suicidal Black Metal and also the cringeworthy Hammerfall pioneering the resurgence of Power Metal. I'm s glad there's finally an english version of this book.
April 22, 2025
was a pretty cool book! it’s what you expect and a bit more from your typical book about extreme metal, i did like how the author talks more so about the actual scene and a large amount of influential bands, and not just the typical “brooo varg actually killed euronymous… isn’t that dark?”. overall i enjoyed it!
November 29, 2020
great overview about the extreme metal scene in this scandinavian country.
From Abruptum to Watain many bands are shown.
Extraordinary is the fact that Per Yngve Ohlin known as Dead has an own chapter including his complete suicide-note.
From Abruptum to Watain many bands are shown.
Extraordinary is the fact that Per Yngve Ohlin known as Dead has an own chapter including his complete suicide-note.
July 5, 2019
Detailed and fantastic book about a subculture that is almost very interesting
August 10, 2019
Fantastic behind-the-scenes information. Must read for any metal head.
February 8, 2021
An immaculately detailed book concentrating more on the characters, lifestyle, beliefs and the business more so than the music which made it a fascinating read.
August 24, 2025
I wish Goodreads gave half stars.
May 8, 2024
I don't think you'll ever get a fully comprehensive picture of metal (or any subgenre within) in one book. Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth and Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries are thorough and massively essential volumes, but even they don't cover everything. So, I see Blood Fire Death as another installment of genre history for those interested rather than a definitive encyclopedia full of iron-clad objectivity. This is a subjective (albeit credible and grassroots) slice of metal culture, as one could expect from Feral House, focusing primarily on Shining, Dissection, Watain, Entombed and Bathory. I read many chapters multiple times, such as Jon Nödtveidt, Quorthon and Entombed, purely out of enjoyment and personal interest. Almost like revisiting full length albums, but fixating largely on your favorite tracks. I've been listening to a few of these bands almost my entire life, so it was good to get more insight on these guys. Yeah, there's always some degree of sensationalism when you're reading about people like Tony Särkkä and Varg Vikernes. That's what they were going for. Meanwhile, I found the biographical elements of this book to be the most rewarding. Quorthon, at the end of the day, was just a guy who wrote great metal records with the unwavering support of his father, The Boss. Alex Hellid just couldn't picture himself living a "normal" life, so he focused all his energy on Entombed. Stuff like that is interesting to me because these guys were larger than life to a suburban 12-year old getting into metal during the mid-90's. Blood Fire Death humanizes them back to something more relatable, which was refreshing in my opinion.
Also, some rabbit got me this for my birthday. I love you, pretty bvnny.
Also, some rabbit got me this for my birthday. I love you, pretty bvnny.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews