A History of Heavy Metal

By: Andrew O'Neill

Narrated by: Andrew O'Neill

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Based on the "absolutely hilarious" (Neil Gaiman) stand-up show.

The history of heavy metal brings us extraordinary stories of larger-than-life characters living to excess, from the household names of Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Iron Maiden and Metallica to the brutal notoriety of the underground Norwegian black metal scene and the New Wave of British heavy metal.

It is the story of a worldwide network of rabid fans escaping everyday mundanity through music, of cutthroat corporate arseholes ripping off those fans and the bands they worship to line their pockets. The expansive pantheon of heavy metal musicians includes junkies, Satanists and murderers, born-again Christians and teetotallers, stadium-touring billionaires and toilet-circuit journeymen.

Award-winning comedian and lifelong heavy metal obsessive Andrew O'Neill has performed his History of Heavy Metal comedy show to a huge range of audiences, from the teenage metalheads of Download festival to the broadsheet-reading theatregoers of the Edinburgh Fringe. Now, in his first book, he takes us on his own very personal and hilarious journey through the history of the music, the subculture and the characters who shaped this most misunderstood genre of music.

©2017 Andrew O'Neill (P)2017 Headline Audiobooks

Entertaining but very Biased

This book details the time line of Heavy metal very well. It’s very entertaining however the author is extremely biased. Most of the book is spent on the beginning of what he calls metal and it’s very very detailed on the stuff he likes (black metal, death metal, British punk rock) anything that was recorded after 1999 is just glanced and skipped over. He mentions pretty popular modern metal bands and either calls them sh!t or passes right over them. I liked the book it kept me entertained but I would’ve liked it to be a bit more comprehensive on a lot more bands than just the ones he liked.

UK Rubbish!

If you're a fan of 80's Hair or Glam Metal stay away from this poser of a book. This wanker slams every band that filled arenas with mind blowing guitar solos and stage presence. Next!

Completely hilarious

I’ve read the print copy of this book before, but listening to it the whole thing to experience it again was certainly time well spent. It caused me to go back and dig through my record collection and rediscover my favorite groups again. This is certainly a must read or must listen to for anyone who is a fan of heavier music

This is an amazing book

I ❤️ this book. It is amazing. I do wish that it would have talked more about prog, but that’s ok. The author is also funny. I would recommend this book to any metal fan.

Hilarious and eloquent.

The narrator and author O'Neill is knowledgeable and witty. Recommended for beginners and veterans of metal.

A MUST READ FOR METAL HEADS

I gave this book a 5-star review. It's funny, highly entertaining and well written. I'm 46-years old and a life long metal head. Andrew O'Neill does a phenomenal job looking back through the origins of heavy metal and beyond. He even introduced me to bands I had never heard of and I have added them to my play lists. Let me say this: he is biased towards Death Metal / Black Metal. He seems to skirt past the fact these bands paint their face, live with their parents / grandparents and sell a significantly smaller amount of music. If the vocals sounds like a painful colonoscopy, he seems to adore the band and lavish them with praise, even if a dozen people have purchased their album. Know that going in and all is well. I still love this book - I have the written and audible versions. - Harry Psaros

An excellent choice to learn more about metal

Very engaging and fun. The author is at his best when approaching the subgenres he loves most, but his history remains relatively broad and he does a good job of at the very least briefly touching upon any bands that were influential in the broader genre, whether he enjoyed them or not. I learned about a lot of bands I'd never heard of before, and now expect to have listening material the length of this book many times over. Some people may disagree with his opinions (they're generally pretty fair and rooted in skepticism over the commercialization of music), but unless you are extremely thin-skinned and opinionated about metal already, I very highly recommend you buy this audio book. Otherwise, I only highly recommend it.

I am having so much fun with this book!

An excellent account of the history of metal broken down into the major subgenres and well read with great humor by the author himself. A must read!

Informative, hilarious and so much fun

Loved this book! It does an incredible job of telling the history of heavy metal and the development of its sub genres. It’s also hilarious!

Don’t listen to bad reviews!!!

This is the history of heavy metal. Not music! But metal!! The author likes who he likes, sure. But when he spoke about glam, grunge, or any other genre it took time away from what I bought the book for….metal!!
So buy it. Spend you credit and enjoy.
He’s very funny. Makes the journey entertaining and you look up bands you haven’t heard of. Go listen!

Dull thrash fan has a rant

Lasted to chapter 10 gave up!
This isn't written/read by a metal fan it's told by a thrash metal devotee with no love for anything else. I was happy to be taken along for the ride but it was so negative, shared no joy and argued it's case like a petulant teenager. I might have identified with this when I was 15 but 30 yrs later ... no thanks but waste of time

Sceptical at first but won me over.

To be clear, you are not going to agree with at least 50% of this work, but it's a well thought out and well positioned option, backed up with a lot of interesting fact. It's also very, very amusing, with a fair few (public transport cautionary) laugh out loud moments. Andrew is right, we are an opinionated bunch, and given that, I have to concede that I have come out of this experience, not just entertained, but also a little wiser. I still think Black Metal is shit mind, BUT I have made an internal commitment to actually listen to more than the first 30 seconds of a few tracks so I can maybe rebalance that bias a little.

Heavy Metal's Genesis (no not them!)

....and blues begat the Beatles, and the Beatles begat Black Sabbath, and Black Sabbath begat Judas Priest, and Judas Priest were betrothed unto Punk and begat the NWOBHM, and NWOBHM begat Venom and Thrash and Venom begat Black Metal and....you get the idea.

Too much of this book is lists of bands I've never heard of, that the author is mainly keen to recommend. There are cheaper and quicker ways of getting a recommended listening list.

What of course an audio version of this book is absolutely screaming out for is some samples of the music he's talking about - there are none. Presumably for licensing reasons, but it's a big missed opportunity.

To be fair, there's a lot more humour than that, and the book is at its best making fun of the more ludicrous personalities of heavy metal.

The author has a strong preference for death metal and black metal, and generally the extreme end of the genre. It's quite funny (unintentionally) when he's trying to reconcile his painfully right-on liberal left, vegan sensibilities with the politics and subject matter of his favourite bands - be they nazis, sadists, murderers in their real life, or just general obsessives about torture and death in their music. I mean, I'm a thrash fan but it takes a bit of effort now I'm also a grown up to listen to Slayer's Reign in Blood without feeling a bit queasy. And I'm given to understand that compared to some death metal, Slayer are tastefully restrained in comparison.

The author also basically dismisses anything more mainstream than thrash after 1982 as 'shit' apart from maybe Guns n' Roses who might be just about listenable. Glam metal in particular he abhors and excoriates (Excoriator - good name for a band?) mainly because apparently they put pursuit of fame, wealth, women and drugs above making good music. Maybe they did, but there was also some pretty good heavy metal music that came out of that scene, and it seems hypocritical to criticise those bands for their motivation whilst at the same time giving a free pass to death and black metal bands whose motivation was in some cases actually genuinely evil.

Overall, an amusing listen in parts, but skewed towards death and black metal, and too many boring lists of bands.

It's HIS view of Heavy Metal, not necessarily mine

Would you try another book written by Andrew O'Neill or narrated by Andrew O'Neill?

Yes, possibly. I would have no preconceptions about that book, I'm sure.

What could Andrew O'Neill have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Well, nothing really, his view of metal and mine clearly differ, and the only reason I don't like the book is because it covers bands I'm not really interested in.

What does Andrew O'Neill bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Putting inflection on the words, I guess.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A History of Heavy Metal?

I'd have spent more time in the 1970s on the way the genre grew there. By chapter 2 he's into the 1980s and already talking about bands like Venom. I clearly think what he describes as rock bands are heavy metal and maybe that's the hook, but it's not really the subject matter I am interested in. Clearly if he wrote a book called "The history of hard rock" I'd be more keen.

Yes.

Andrew O'Neill is an excellent comic and evidently a great writer too. I loved the live show when I saw it a few years ago so I'm very happy that this massively expanded version exists.
I found it difficult to stop listening to it when I had to sleep or go for a shower or talk to people. I've finished it now but have a head full of smashing recommendations to keep me busy for ages and ages and I'll probably just put it on again tonight.
I don't expect I can swear here even though swearing is great and clever, so I shall finish by saying that I enjoyed the darn heck out of this book. Ten out of ten supportive death metal parents.

THE BIG 4!

If you could sum up A History of Heavy Metal in three words, what would they be?

YES! This book does tick those 4 boxes:

Funny? TICK!
Informative? TICK!
Modern? TICK!
Cool? TICK!

(I hope no one has confused my headline, with the other 'headline' of the Big 4 because that would be both unfortunate, sad and worrying).

This book is literally the best book on this subject, and indeed many other subjects.

What other book might you compare A History of Heavy Metal to, and why?

I might compare it to Society of the Spectacle as the cover of this book is black and red, and the book 'Society of the Spectacle' is published by Black and Red.

But I won't.

What about Andrew O'Neill’s performance did you like?

The 'asides'. Made it come alive.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A History of Heavy Metal - Why the Midlands is important.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant stuff!

Adolescent. Unfunny. Dull.

Andrew seems like a nice chap. Not familiar with him as a comedian prior to listening.
Big metal fan since 1980s, so prime target audience. Didn't find this funny, engaging or insightful.
Switched it off at the end of Death Metal. Like the ramblings of a teenager asked to write an op-ed piece for Kerrang.
Disappointing - could have been so good.

Death to all but metal

An entertaining romp through my nostalgia which has lead to me using one of those new fangled things to listen to some stuff I'd missed during my "grown up" years (now behind me)

Disappointing

Being a huge fan of metal, from my parents introducing me to sabbath and “that spooky robot man voice” from a young age to modern days Helmet, Pantera, Body count, Ministry etc etc….I was intrigued to see this 8 hour long offering about the history of heavy metal.
My first thought was can somebody really talk about the history of heavy metal for 8 hours (without padding or basically reading out other artist’s biographies???) the answer is no!!!
Metal starts at Sabbath, end of!!!! Yes there’s a reason why iommi and geezer chose to pick up a guitar…..The Beatles, mention it and move on and yes music existed before 1970 and the ‘Black Sabbath’ album but unfortunately sabbath is first mentioned over 1 and half hours into the story…then we have a full breakdown of WW2’s effects on Birmingham for 20 minutes!!! There’s too much rambling on about nothing to do with metal!!! 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there is ok buts it’s constant!!! He spends more time talking about bands who he feels aren’t metal than actual metal bands…..and this goes on and on and on.
If you’re not a metal fan but fancy listening to something entertaining about a musical genre then you might enjoy it. I turned it off after 2 and a half hours, I’d had enough!!!

A must for metal heads

O’Neill really know his stuff, and has the comedy chops to deliver the story of metal without sounding po-faced. I’ve listened a couple of times, and will return to it again.