In her nuanced, extremely perceptive book, Laina Dawes champions the liberating possibilities of metal while questioning the color-blindness of the metal world, celebrating the role of black women in creating rock music, examining the reaction of the black community to black punks and metalheads, and sorting out the gender issues that complicate sisterhood in a male-dominated sphere. Her thoughtful treatise on the power of music and identity challenges black women in the metal scene to joi...

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “mercilessly entertaining” (Vanity Fair) instant classic “about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships” (Lev Grossman, Time “One of the Best Books of the Decade”)—now featuring never-before-published deleted scenesTHE NEW YORK TIMES’S BEST THRILLER OF THE CENTURY • ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ...

For the first time, Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor speaks directly to his fans and shares his worldview about life as a sinner. And Taylor knows how to sin. As a small-town hero in the early '90s, he threw himself into a fierce-drinking, drug-abusing, hard-loving, live-for-the moment life. Soon Taylor's music exploded, and he found himself rich, wanted, and on the road. His new and ever-more extreme lifestyle had an unexpected effect, however; for the first time, he began to...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR • The revelatory account of the pre-fame Beatles—the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy about the band that revolutionized music“An epic unprecedented in rock ’n’ roll biography . . . And it’s a great read. There’s a surprise on every page.”—MojoDrawing on deep archival access and great firsthand material, premier Beatles historian Merk Lewisohn shoots adren...

There has never been a hard rock band like Metallica. The California quartet has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won nine Grammy Awards, and had five consecutive albums hit number one on the Billboard charts. But Metallica's story, epic in scope, is a tale about much more than sales figures and critical acclaim, and their journey from scuzzy Los Angeles garages to the world's most storied stadiums has been dramatic and painful, their gigantic successes often shot thro...

A Sudanese man recounts his harrowing journey from child enslavement to escape and freedom in this "touching [and] inspirational" memoir ( The Boston Globe).May 1986: Seven-year-old Francis Bok was selling his mother's eggs and peanuts near his village in southern Sudan when Arab raiders on horseback burst into the quiet marketplace, murdering men and gathering the women and young children into a group. Strapped to horses and donkeys, Francis and others wer...

Revered former Metal Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner analyzes the heady side of metal in this exhaustive narrative history of a relentlessly ambitious musical subculture. Beginning with the hugely influential mid-1970s efforts of Rush and King Crimson, Wagner unfurls a huge tapestry of sounds and styles, including Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater; extreme prog pioneers Voivod and Celtic Frost; Norways post-black metal avant garde acts Ulver and Arcturus; and the 1990s glob...

Black Flag were the pioneers of American Hardcore, and this is their blood-spattered story.Formed in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1978, for eight brutal years they made and played brilliant, ugly, no-holds-barred music on a self-appointed touring circuit of America’s clubs, squats, and community halls. They fought with everybody: the police, the record industry and even their own fans. They toured overseas on pennies a day and did it in beat-up trucks and vans.Spray Pa...

A headbanger's treasure with color photos, band histories, memorabilia and more: "Eddie Trunk knows more about most bands than they know about themselves." —Sammy HagarIn the much-anticipated sequel to the bestselling Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Trunk picks up where he left off by featuring thirty-five new bands, both legendary and forgotten, and sharing his passion for all things metal.Complete with his favorite playlists, ban...

AC/DC have reigned over rock 'n' roll for almost four decades. Their signature power chord rock was the sonic standard bearer of the genre they pioneered, summarised in Rolling Stone's declaration that they 'are one of the top hard rock bands in history'. The group has transcended their Australian roots to become a global phenomenon. Their albums consistently go platinum and they have earned their reputation as one of the best bands on the planet.The band's live arsenal includes 'It's a Lo...

The Moshpit: Hub of a live music culture that is high in sex and violence... and no stranger to death. For the hardcore fans of groups like Limp Bizkit, Hole, Korn and Slipknot, the music is only part of the experince. At gigs worldwide fans literally hurl themselves into a pit - the mosh pit. The result is a mass of seething bodies where fierce physical contact provides a brief, exhilarating escape from everyday life. The mosh pit means random sexual encounters as well as haphazard violen...

The fascination with tragedy and the subsequent theatre of voyeurism are part of human nature, especially when it involves our icons, celebrities and musicians. Knocking On Heaven's Door is the definitive book of rock 'n' roll, pop, R&B and blues deaths.Often, only the biggest selling artists are written about and sometimes it is the death of a personality that cements their iconic status. Knocking On Heaven's Door not only covers the rock legends who lived hard a...