Precious Metal - by Albert Mudrian (Paperback)

About the Book

This collection chronicles the making of the 25 greatest extreme metal albumsof all time, as told via exclusive band-member interviews, drawn and expandedfrom "Decibel's" Hall of Fame.

Book Synopsis

Decibel magazine is regarded as the best extreme music magazine around.

Precious Metal gathers pieces from Decibel's most popular feature, the monthly "Hall of Fame" which documents the making of landmark metal albums via candid, hilarious, and fascinating interviews with every participating band member.

Decibel's editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian, has selected and expanded the best of these features, creating a definitive collection of stories behind the greatest extreme metal albums of all time.

Review Quotes

Booklist, 7/1/09
"Skimming the cream of 'extreme' metal--death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and such--is a grisly task, but the gang at Decibel Magazine is on top of it. Their picks are landmarks of their kind, and each is presented here with accompanying interviews of all band personnel involved...What's here is all dark, all bombastic, all great music."

Record Collector, August 2009
"The choice of inclusion of albums by Botch, Converge, Down and The Dillinger Escape Plan indicate the breadth of tastes which underpins the book."

Austin Chronicle, 7/17/09
"[Precious Metal's] impressive scope covers every facet of the genre...The roundtable, oral-history approach leads to interesting contradictions and revelations."

Blogcritics.org, 7/21/09
"The bookends are Black Sabbath's Heaven And Hell to Converge's Jane Doe. And there are some worthy stories in between...Precious Metal is a great book on its own terms."

New York Post's "Required Reading" column, 7/26/09

ForeWord Magazine, Sept/Oct
"Mudrian manages to collect some important interviews from a variety of artists in the United States and Europe...The true story behind creating these masterpieces is thoroughly documented...Fans of this musical genre will undoubtedly enjoy reading how their favorite metal albums were constructed."

AntiMusic.com
"There's plenty of good reading here doled out in chapters that are just the right length for visits to the porcelain throne."

Trademark of Quality blog, 9/13
"The chapters in Precious Metal provide a lot more insight and information into each album than was originally presented in the magazine...All of the interviews are interesting, and many are downright enlightening, and the Decibel staff do a uniformly good job at coaxing the story behind each album out of the musicians...The enthusiasm and knowledge shown by the writers is infectious...If you're a fan of any form of heavy metal, you'll like Precious Metal."

Campus Circle, 9/23
"Delivers the kind of quality analysis that can turn a clueless metalhead into music genius deity."

In Utah This Week, 8/31 and Salt Lake Tribune, 9/3
"Stands as the newest doctrine for headbanger worship...A fact-packed textbook fit to inform even the most well-read metalhead, and one skull-crushing way to spice up your library."

Illinois Entertainer, September
"Awesome."

DCMetalMusicExaminer.com, 9/5
"Most of the interviews have been expanded from their original print form, so that is a bit of a refresh for avid Decibel readers. If you are a metal nut, or just a music geek who loves to learn about the struggles in the recording process, then the book is an exceptional read."

GuitarNoize.com, 9/7
"There was enough to have me reading way later into the night than someone with a 7 month old daughter should!...I skipped a few albums that didn't interest me but that is the good thing about this book, you can read it in a non-linear fashion. It has some pretty informal interviews where the band members really open up and aren't afraid to talk about band conflicts during the production process which is what makes the book interesting."


San Francisco Book Review, October issue
"For heavy metal and/or death metal fans, Precious Metal is a must read...Metal enthusiasts, particularly those who are musicians, will find this book to be enlightening and entertaining...The influence that classic rock musicians had and how they perpetuated the heavy metal genre, along with music that came after it, is clearly seen when reading through the interviews. Thus, music lovers would certainly enjoy The Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces."

Tucson Weekly, 11/19/09
"For the semi-literate metalhead in your midst, we gently ask you to crank up the literary volume to '11' with the excellent Precious Metal...Mudrian uncovers the hidden stories behind some of the greatest death-metal, grind-core and doom releases of the last three decades...Once you read this fantastic series of interviews with the artists responsible for all of this top-notch noise pollution, you'll know why even the snobbiest rock critics have no choice but to throw up devil horns to these imaginative, if violent, works of sonic art."

About the Author

Albert Mudrain is the editor-in-chief of Decibel and the author of the cult classic Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.