The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

Ok I will hit the one good point I have about this book before I get into the rest of my review.  Every album that is named contains information about the album and the band. Also after the brief information or the author’s personal thoughts there are short interviews or quotes with a member of the band. Some of the interviews are cool, some are funny, and some are just there. Now here is where the review really begins.

First this book really insulted me. Yes there are some decent bands in here and of course the WAY to obvious ones that are on every single list for metal out there. This does not bother me. What does? Since when was Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Sex Pistols, and my personal favorite bad entry Jethro Tull considered metal? Now this list was supposedly created from polls. Who was this guy polling? Don’t you think if you were doing a book about METAL you would talk to people that know what metal is. Seriously. Now don’t get me wrong Jimi was talented but psychedelic rock, Nirvana was great but grunge, Sex Pistols was ground breaking but punk, and Jethro Tull well Jethro Tull is just laughable.

Did you think I was through, not by any means. Next subject I want to hit on is really the fact that several bands take up most of this book. I know there are some metal bands that have put out tons of great albums; but really just about every single Deep Purple album is here which takes away 7 spots right there, 8 Rush albums, 7 Van Halen, 6 Led Zepplin, well I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. I know not everyone will agree when you are doing something like top lists; but damn don’t treat us like we don’t know anything. The only thing I found this book good for is leveling out my desk. Don’t waste your time or money unless you want to be sorely disappointed.