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wunkymatts's review
4.0
I'm changing my review from the first time I read this book, and knocking off a star. I think perhaps the first time I read it I was distraction by the horror of what I was reading and maybe my critical eye wasn't as engaged as it could be.
This book is very thorough and very well researched and the way it pulls different strands together and shows links between musical and political subcultures really is fantastic. That being said I can agree with some of the criticisms levelled against it. Some stuff that I really wanted to be challenged was taken at face value and some of the conclusions sounded a bit blithe and a perhaps, if I was being really unkind, like they were trying to impress their interview subjects.
The subject matter illicits a very strange response from me. These guys are so....cringe. They remind me of some metal guys I've known and they just try so, so hard and you get the feeling when they grow up a bit they'll be as embarrassed by what they say as you are. But then, at the same time, what they did was so horrific it can't be denied or excused, even of they did it for really juvenile reasons. People died.
They give metalheads a bad name.
This book is very thorough and very well researched and the way it pulls different strands together and shows links between musical and political subcultures really is fantastic. That being said I can agree with some of the criticisms levelled against it. Some stuff that I really wanted to be challenged was taken at face value and some of the conclusions sounded a bit blithe and a perhaps, if I was being really unkind, like they were trying to impress their interview subjects.
The subject matter illicits a very strange response from me. These guys are so....cringe. They remind me of some metal guys I've known and they just try so, so hard and you get the feeling when they grow up a bit they'll be as embarrassed by what they say as you are. But then, at the same time, what they did was so horrific it can't be denied or excused, even of they did it for really juvenile reasons. People died.
They give metalheads a bad name.
thebookvvitch's review
5.0
A fascinating insight into the deadly consequences of toxic masculinity and radicalisation within the black metal community of the early 90s and beyond
davygibbs's review
3.0
Details the blood & fire rise of black metal in Scandinavia. Should've been awful, really, but it's surprisingly well-written and consistently compelling (aside from a few irrelevant & tedious tangents). It's one of the very few "true crime" books I've read, so that's something.
jonnyfox's review
5.0
I found this fascinating. Growing up in the 90's I read about this as a child but the book gives a really in depth look at the movement, the politics around it as well as Norse mythology.
Although the politics and actions are vile, it's hard to look away. With the music scene now so squeeky clean and with everyone terrified of causing offence this is a throwback to a time not so long ago when anything went.
Although the politics and actions are vile, it's hard to look away. With the music scene now so squeeky clean and with everyone terrified of causing offence this is a throwback to a time not so long ago when anything went.