Slap Happy Fun Time

Sebastian Bach - 18 And Life On Skid Row 3/5                                                                         First off, I want to say how disappointed I am in the poster that came with the book. I was expecting the bloated, puffy, Sebastian Back circa 2017, but what I got was Sebastian Bach circa 1991. Isn't that false advertising? Why even include a poster on the back of a slip cover anyway? Secondly, did we even need this book? Skid Row's first two albums were perfect hard rock and metal,  and then they just disappeared because they started to suck. Of course we may have the answer we've all wanted for twenty years. Why did they fire this guy? Wasn't he after all the voice of Skid Row? I dunno, but when I saw the price of the hardcover vs the cost of the paperback I figured I should chec...

Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell With Black Sabbath 5/5                                                                             At best, I would consider myself a casual fan of Black Sabbath. There's no denying the fact that they invented not only heavy metal, but paved the way for every other band after them to pledge their allegiance to Satan. I didn't get into the band until Ronnie James Dio joined and believe me, I got a lot of grief for not enjoying the original lineup as much as everyone else did. The point here is that Iommi's biography is meant for a wide audience. Even a casual fan can pick this book up and enjoy it which is cool. The book is merely the story of the band, not exactly Iommi and that makes the book a bit more interesting than most bio's.    ...

     Metallica - Hardwired...To Self Destruct 3/5                                                                                        I woke up with some wicked ass heartburn and couldn't sleep so I headed over to Metallica.com and downloaded my digital copy of the new Metallica record. There was a lot of temptation to listen to this before release day but I avoided the videos that were released every two hours and the leaked version that came out on Sunday. Let's check it out. Right off you get punched in the dick by the title track which could easily fit on one of the band's first three albums. James is in fine vocal form and Lars who seems to have lost his skills as a drummer seems to be able to flail away with reckless abandon. This...

Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975) - Ken Sharp, Gene Simmons, And Paul Stanley 5/5 stars                                                As a fan of Kiss I thought I knew everything there was to know about the band. I read all of the bios that the original four members released so when I heard about Nothin' To Lose I wasn't all that excited because I was sure that there would be nothing new to add. We've already got all of the stories from four different sources. Why do we need another book? What's left to tell that Paul and Gene haven't already told us?      That's the draw for Nothin' to Lose. It takes you to be beginnings of the band and their struggle to succeed. When Kiss started they were innovative, yet no one actually saw it that way. Critics hated them, the press ignored them, and everyone thought that Kiss was a too gimmick...

     I Am Ozzy - Ozzy Osbourne & Chris Ayers 2/5             First I have to be honest and say that I'm not a die hard Ozzy fan. Didn't really like Black Sabbath until Dio joined and then I heard Born Again and I stuck around a little longer. Of Ozzy's solo work I have Blizzard Of Oz, Diary Of A Madman, and The Ultimate Sin on vinyl. The last two records are by far the best work that the Oz has ever created and are the only records of his that I listen to regularly, The book has never been too high on my list of books to be read. Finally I figured what the hell, I may as well check it out.       If you're a die hard Ozzy fan this book should be right up your alley. It contains a great deal of humor and a lot of stories about his drunken misadventures. I expected a lot more about Randy Rhoades, but there isn't a whole lot here which was disappointing and I'm not sure why he chose to not include more about Randy other...

    Black Metal: Evolution Of A Cult Dayal  Patterson 5/5                                                                                                It doesn't matter how I approach this review. As soon as you hear the term black metal you've already conjured this in your head. It's okay though because everyone does. Black metal has one hell of a reputation but where did it all come from? How did this blackened form of noise catch the ear of metal fans?      That's what makes this book so interesting. Dayal had written a book that is must read for metal fans and it shows just how impressive black metal is. Evolution is a book that explains how the blackest form of metal evolved and also gives us the ...

     Dee Snider - Shut Up And Give Me The Mic  - Dee Snider 5/5                                                                          Let's go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way. This will no doubt contain a lot of foul language because this is the memoir of the legendary Dee mother fucking Snider of the one and only Twisted fuckin' Sister. While Kiss may have been my first foray into heavy metal it was without a doubt the boys in Twisted that blew the doors wide open and showed me just how awesome heavy metal was and could be. I was probably eleven when I was at Kenny Kessler's house and he pulled out this tape of a band that I had never heard of. The label of the tape itself was in German (at the time I had no idea that there were such a thing as imports!), and ...