bent's review against another edition
3.0
A good overview of Sweden's death metal scene. I'm not much of a death metal fan although I support and am interested in all things metal, and the book kept me interested. There were a couple of parts where I thought Ekeroth could have included more information - one concert where the attendee talks all the concert-goers getting beaten up afterwards because there were about "200 kickers" outside the venue. I wondered what's a kicker? Was there a big backlash against death metal fans? But Ekeroth never expanded on this.
He's also a little chauvinistic. He talks about how thrash was basically dead and dated when death really took over, but then later when he talks about new death metal bands basically aping the old school ones, he describes them as seeming fresh and carrying on the torch. I can't imagine that thrash dates more than death metal does. He also talks about black metal taking over from death metal but becoming weak, much weaker than death metal ever could be. We know you like death metal, but a little objectivity would be nice.
When he talks about the retro death movement, I thought there was an opportunity to turn that into a broader discussion of how all old metal seems to find a retro movement - the stoner rock scene was basically bands revisiting the hard rock '70s, there are a lot of bands carrying on the power metal of the '80s, doom bands talk a lot about using the old recording equipment that classic bands used in the '70s, and the big four thrash bands still sell out arenas and larger venues - it seems a trend throughout metal that everything old is new again. But Ekeroth's scope is narrower than that, and so an opportunity is missed.
Along those lines, he talks about Swedish-style death metal compared to American death metal, but doesn't really make those differences explicit. I understand that most of the people reading this book will be death metal fans, but a few notes to those who aren't would be nice.
It's a great book for what it is. If you don't expect much else beyond an oral overview of the early years of the Swedish death metal scene, then you won't be disappointed.
He's also a little chauvinistic. He talks about how thrash was basically dead and dated when death really took over, but then later when he talks about new death metal bands basically aping the old school ones, he describes them as seeming fresh and carrying on the torch. I can't imagine that thrash dates more than death metal does. He also talks about black metal taking over from death metal but becoming weak, much weaker than death metal ever could be. We know you like death metal, but a little objectivity would be nice.
When he talks about the retro death movement, I thought there was an opportunity to turn that into a broader discussion of how all old metal seems to find a retro movement - the stoner rock scene was basically bands revisiting the hard rock '70s, there are a lot of bands carrying on the power metal of the '80s, doom bands talk a lot about using the old recording equipment that classic bands used in the '70s, and the big four thrash bands still sell out arenas and larger venues - it seems a trend throughout metal that everything old is new again. But Ekeroth's scope is narrower than that, and so an opportunity is missed.
Along those lines, he talks about Swedish-style death metal compared to American death metal, but doesn't really make those differences explicit. I understand that most of the people reading this book will be death metal fans, but a few notes to those who aren't would be nice.
It's a great book for what it is. If you don't expect much else beyond an oral overview of the early years of the Swedish death metal scene, then you won't be disappointed.
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