As the years have churned by, interest in underground metal has grown as metal fans have become more experienced and come to want more complete assessments of the music of their youth, and as outsiders and new fans discover this field. To support this, a fleet of books have been launched to cover it.
A recent addition is Extreme Metal: 30 Years of Darkness (1981-2011), by Salva Rubio, a writer in Spain. Rubio holds a degree in art history and works as a screenwriter and writer in his native Spain. Right now, the book is only available in Spanish, but it’s possible that a translation to English and other languages will follow.
According to the website for Extreme Metal: 30 Years of Darkness (1981-2011), the book “includes essays about the ethical and aesthetic nature of Extreme Metal, a formal account of what distinguishes each style and how they are meant to be played, a chronological, style-by-style story of how each kind of Extreme Metal evolved.”
The book has a Facebook site in an effort to build some community behind the release.
Tags: book, extreme metal, salva rubio, underground metal
The book is great.
I hope you can read it soon in English.
Me too. Either that or I’m going to haul out my Spanish-English dictionary and book of verbs and translate it myself.
Judging by the excerpts I have read, it looks quite comprehensive and well informed. This is written by a metal fan, not the average journalist entering hostile territory. Most of the book is an encyclopedia of bands, which may not be so interesting to most veterans, but the essays about the origins and genres seem to be a good reading.
The focus may be too broad at least for my taste, in that it covers newer genres that are essentially more mainstream and non-extreme metal (gothic, -newer- industrial and so called folk metal), but it is great to see such impressive piece of work coming out of one’s country.
I bought and read that book more than one year ago. Fortunately, it was sold in my country but I don’t think many people got it. Yes, it is quite comprehensive and well informed, and fortunately the industrial, gothic, folk, and avant-garde sections are very short. The only complains I have are that it wastes too many lines and praise in overrated bands like Pantera, Cannibal Corpse, In Flames, etc., and that the author subtly filtrates in the enciclopedic sections many local spanish bands which are mediocre.