Malc MacMillan

The New Wave of Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), depending on your point of view:

“.. was a nationwide ground-breaking phenomenon from which sprang such heavy metal legends as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon and Diamond Head.”

— Kerrang! NWOBHM supplement (1989)

Or it was:

“... crude, poorly produced and played by musicians with rudimentary talents.”

— Joel McIver, Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica (2004)

Well, I agree with both of these statements: it was, in my opinion, a magical coming of age for heavy metal which will never be bettered. The term NWOBHM was conjured up at the time by journalists to conveniently package the rock and metal bands which had embraced the DIY punk ethic; speeding up what went before, toning down the blues influences and turning it up to 11. The genre reached its peak in the UK in the early 80s when the charts were packed full of Maiden, Priest, Motorhead, Saxon and loads of other excellent metal bands. It was also a period where the numerous subgenres of metal were slowly starting to define themselves.

This book is probably the most comprehensive record of the bands from that era (with 500 plus entries) and exposes the real size and scope of revolution that was taking place at the time. Of course not every band can be Def Leppard and the while a lot of the copycat and hopeful bands faded into obscurity it’s still massively interesting to read about their brief time in time spotlight and why it all went wrong for them.

The occasional illustration, rare photograph, copy of album and 7” single sleeves, sporadic inclusion of gig information from the time and comments from the band members themselves liven up what could have a fairly dry read.

I found some the entries were out of date but if you supplement most of the band entries with the data available at Rate Your Music then the colourful discographies can easily be updated and releases rated making it easy to separate the wheat out from the chaff.

When I was reading the book I couldn't believe there were so many bands which I'd forgotten about who were still actually releasing music and gigging after all of these years. To me, this highlights the fact that big labels will continue to shovel crap onto the general public who are happy to buy it, while 99.9% of the truly awesome bands who created superbly influential songs sadly fail to make a living from doing what they love.

So in summary, this is the ultimate primer of an all too short but hugely important chapter of musical history. A must read for anyone interested in the metal genre.… (más)