What do you think?
Rate this book
The Book of Heavy Metal
After more than 30 years of working professionally in the metal industry, Snowy has earned himself a solid reputation worldwide as an uncompromising true artist with impeccable integrity ( Others might say he’s a madman or a crazy genius but,.. ) there is little doubt that he’s one of the most hard-working, multi-talented
musicians in the world today.
In his brutally open-hearted and honest book he’s telling his extraordinary
lifestory with all the ups and downs on the rock n’ rollercoaster ride.
Expect the unexpected!
musicians in the world today.
In his brutally open-hearted and honest book he’s telling his extraordinary
lifestory with all the ups and downs on the rock n’ rollercoaster ride.
Expect the unexpected!
444 pages, Hardcover
First published July 25, 2020
4 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 1, 2020
Read all about it - in The Book Of Heavy Metal!
Quite possibly one of the busiest men in rock and heavy metal (and a personal hero of mine); who's played drums, guitar, bass and sang with the likes of King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Dream Evil, Notre Dame, Therion, Sabaton - Snowy Shaw finally spills the beans on the ups and downs of living the 'dream' of being a big rock star.
Wanna know what happened with his time in Dimmu Borgir and why he 'suddenly' quit?
Wanna know how difficult it can be to get a band line-up to all show up in the same place at the same time for rehearsal?
Wanna hear some strange stories from trekking the globe in tour busses and planes?
Well, you're in luck - because it's all here!
Whether or not you're a fan of his (and you really should be); Snowy Shaw takes you on a winding journey through time and across many, many musical projects using passable and sometimes questionable English to show us what life in the music 'biz' is like when you're in it for the long haul.
Quite possibly one of the busiest men in rock and heavy metal (and a personal hero of mine); who's played drums, guitar, bass and sang with the likes of King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Dream Evil, Notre Dame, Therion, Sabaton - Snowy Shaw finally spills the beans on the ups and downs of living the 'dream' of being a big rock star.
Wanna know what happened with his time in Dimmu Borgir and why he 'suddenly' quit?
Wanna know how difficult it can be to get a band line-up to all show up in the same place at the same time for rehearsal?
Wanna hear some strange stories from trekking the globe in tour busses and planes?
Well, you're in luck - because it's all here!
Whether or not you're a fan of his (and you really should be); Snowy Shaw takes you on a winding journey through time and across many, many musical projects using passable and sometimes questionable English to show us what life in the music 'biz' is like when you're in it for the long haul.
September 27, 2020
Ok, I just finished the last chapter of "The Book Of Heavy Metal" book by Snowy Shaw and since I'm having a weird case of insomnia right now I'd like to write a quick and dead honest review for you. Because hey I do know I have lots and lots of rock/metal fans here and some of you do appreciate and even collect the rock literature so... yep, it makes a perfect sense, right?
First of all, if you don't know who Mr. Shaw is (really?), it's a blond viking guy you can remember from his time in KING DIAMOND (drums), MERCYFUL FATE (drums too), DIMMU BORGIR ("Abrahadabra" era, bass), MEMENTO MORI (drums), THERION (vocals), SABATON (drums), DREAM EVIL (drums), KEE MARCELLO (ex-EUROPE, drums) + his own bands NOTRE DAME and ILLWILL (with Andy f**king La Rocque) + as a solo artist. Ask Wiki for more.
The book is pretty much the best and the most detailed autobiography I've read and I've read quite a bit of those. Well, at least it's in my personal top 3 anyway. Why? Here's a couple of reasons for you.
One: honesty, brutal honesty. I love that! I mean I just can't stand this crap when someone writes a book and he wants to tell the fans about some unfortunate event he found himself in thanks to some asshole and he literally can't call him an asshole. He tries to cover that up with some excuses like "I don't remember whose fault it was" or "That was his fault but what do I remember after all these years?" Snowy calls assholes assholes and explains his point. Always. No matter if it was about business or personal life. Dunno, someone would call it negativity but I'd call it honesty. Life is not all flowers and butterflies. Sometimes it's just too brutal and you might think "Be careful man, they probably can sue you for publishing that" 🙂
Two: all my questions about Snowy's involvement with KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE were addressed and answered in full. Bam! I've no more questions left 🙂
Three: if you were one of those who (like me) was curious why Snowy left DIMMU BORGIR so freaking quick after "Abrahadabra" has been recorded... well, the whole story is there in great detail, damn brutal as always. And dudes, it is brutal. I mean this is a story I could totally relate to, when you find a job of your dream, everything is awesome, the team is great and then in just a week or month you're ready to bite your leg off just to get away from all that. Oh well, read the book, this story is both amazing and so freaking typical.
Four: lots of photos! I'm afraid if you won't buy the book now and would wait for the digital version you won't see some of them. I mean I've bought some autobiographies as Kindle editions and it's always a great pain in the ass, I mean the photos are too damn small and the quality sucks too. Sometimes it can be a problem.
Five: it's very intense. I mean the book is written "Pulp Fiction" style, the events don't come in chronological order and that makes the story even more interesting. I swear I was reading one of the last chapters when Snowy takes a break with his wife Lily and leaves to New York to stay alone for a while and I was sort of sitting on the needles, like "Dude, just fucking tell me already you didn't separate because you were born for each other!" 🙂 Oh, such a Mexican TV series style haha 🙂
Six: basically, you'll get a portion of harsh truth about the state of the current metal music market in Europe. Very interesting I'd say.
Kind of seven, but it's a personal one. When Snowy joined SABATON for a year I literally couldn't wait to find out when exactly he left the band. I know it can sound weird but I just told you it was a personal thing. The point is SABATON have played at a very special festival on 22.08.2015. At the Night Wolves festival in Crimea, willingly or not supporting the Russian invasion to my homeland Ukraine. While the whole Europe banned any visits and any business relations with Crimea (as it was and still is an annexed territory) SABATON just went there and played this show so the Russian invaders can make another huge portion of propaganda from it. When asked about that, the guys just made dumb faces like "We don't care, it was just a gig". Well, yeah, just a gig in a Hitler's residency, absolutely no different from any other concert, I'm sure. Well... I was just damn fu***ng glad Snowy has left the band before that gig. I just exhaled in relief. It's always a huge pain when a musician you respect falls for something like that, like Max Cavalera who was yelling "Crimea is Russia" from the stage... Jez, sometimes you can be a great musician but a pure dumb and senseless **** personally.
Well, just to sum the things up - go and buy it! Here's the link:
https://www.snowyshaw.net/product/the...
Especially since Mr.Shaw signs it personally for every buyer and you'd have not just an awesome book but also a very personal collectible item. And I guess you'll re-read it (at least partially) from time to time too. That's it. Good night!
First of all, if you don't know who Mr. Shaw is (really?), it's a blond viking guy you can remember from his time in KING DIAMOND (drums), MERCYFUL FATE (drums too), DIMMU BORGIR ("Abrahadabra" era, bass), MEMENTO MORI (drums), THERION (vocals), SABATON (drums), DREAM EVIL (drums), KEE MARCELLO (ex-EUROPE, drums) + his own bands NOTRE DAME and ILLWILL (with Andy f**king La Rocque) + as a solo artist. Ask Wiki for more.
The book is pretty much the best and the most detailed autobiography I've read and I've read quite a bit of those. Well, at least it's in my personal top 3 anyway. Why? Here's a couple of reasons for you.
One: honesty, brutal honesty. I love that! I mean I just can't stand this crap when someone writes a book and he wants to tell the fans about some unfortunate event he found himself in thanks to some asshole and he literally can't call him an asshole. He tries to cover that up with some excuses like "I don't remember whose fault it was" or "That was his fault but what do I remember after all these years?" Snowy calls assholes assholes and explains his point. Always. No matter if it was about business or personal life. Dunno, someone would call it negativity but I'd call it honesty. Life is not all flowers and butterflies. Sometimes it's just too brutal and you might think "Be careful man, they probably can sue you for publishing that" 🙂
Two: all my questions about Snowy's involvement with KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE were addressed and answered in full. Bam! I've no more questions left 🙂
Three: if you were one of those who (like me) was curious why Snowy left DIMMU BORGIR so freaking quick after "Abrahadabra" has been recorded... well, the whole story is there in great detail, damn brutal as always. And dudes, it is brutal. I mean this is a story I could totally relate to, when you find a job of your dream, everything is awesome, the team is great and then in just a week or month you're ready to bite your leg off just to get away from all that. Oh well, read the book, this story is both amazing and so freaking typical.
Four: lots of photos! I'm afraid if you won't buy the book now and would wait for the digital version you won't see some of them. I mean I've bought some autobiographies as Kindle editions and it's always a great pain in the ass, I mean the photos are too damn small and the quality sucks too. Sometimes it can be a problem.
Five: it's very intense. I mean the book is written "Pulp Fiction" style, the events don't come in chronological order and that makes the story even more interesting. I swear I was reading one of the last chapters when Snowy takes a break with his wife Lily and leaves to New York to stay alone for a while and I was sort of sitting on the needles, like "Dude, just fucking tell me already you didn't separate because you were born for each other!" 🙂 Oh, such a Mexican TV series style haha 🙂
Six: basically, you'll get a portion of harsh truth about the state of the current metal music market in Europe. Very interesting I'd say.
Kind of seven, but it's a personal one. When Snowy joined SABATON for a year I literally couldn't wait to find out when exactly he left the band. I know it can sound weird but I just told you it was a personal thing. The point is SABATON have played at a very special festival on 22.08.2015. At the Night Wolves festival in Crimea, willingly or not supporting the Russian invasion to my homeland Ukraine. While the whole Europe banned any visits and any business relations with Crimea (as it was and still is an annexed territory) SABATON just went there and played this show so the Russian invaders can make another huge portion of propaganda from it. When asked about that, the guys just made dumb faces like "We don't care, it was just a gig". Well, yeah, just a gig in a Hitler's residency, absolutely no different from any other concert, I'm sure. Well... I was just damn fu***ng glad Snowy has left the band before that gig. I just exhaled in relief. It's always a huge pain when a musician you respect falls for something like that, like Max Cavalera who was yelling "Crimea is Russia" from the stage... Jez, sometimes you can be a great musician but a pure dumb and senseless **** personally.
Well, just to sum the things up - go and buy it! Here's the link:
https://www.snowyshaw.net/product/the...
Especially since Mr.Shaw signs it personally for every buyer and you'd have not just an awesome book but also a very personal collectible item. And I guess you'll re-read it (at least partially) from time to time too. That's it. Good night!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews