Do you know a good book relating the story of the black metal genre as a whole, not only the norwegian scene...

On amazon, I found this one quite interesting : http://www.amazon.ca/Z-Black-Metal-Garr ... 32&sr=1-12

any idea?

I don't recommend you that rockdetector book at all. MA is better and free.

I was going to post this exact same thread today. I am doing a research paper for my history class on the origins of black metal in Europe, and its spread throughout the continent and the world, as well as the differences in regional scenes and ideologies. I just need a list of 5 books in which I could use for a bibliography.

A couple of years ago I picked up a book called Lords of Chaos. Don't get suckered by this book, it's terrible and pretty much says anyone who has ever listened to black metal is either a Nazi or believes every word that comes out of Vikernes' mouth, not to mention boring, I've read legal books that turned out more interesting.

Meh, I enjoyed Lords of Chaos. The interviews are fun to read and it has a lot of information in it.

oh please. The members of this board could compile a better book about black metal than any of these authors that have put out these horrible books. Any book I've read about black metal was either horribly inaccurate, or extremely shallow (as in, it didn't go very in depth at all, and only state the basic facts that everyone already knows).

I've read 'Lords of Chaos', as well....
The interesting thing about this book that it deals more with the background of all this black metal 'phenomenon' than the actual music itself.
Naturally, it gives the short outline of the genesis of black metal (accurate or not), but it deals with the sociological and anthropological aspects as well, which is very interesting, if you are into this stuff, and a brief overview of connection of german and swedish bm scene with norwegian bm scene and its influence on the development of early bm, the music, the philosophy, etc...(especially through interviews with people concerned)
an interesting read, highly recommended...

there's also a book 'True Norwegian Black Metal' (photography by Peter Beste) but it's mainly photographs (and great ones I might say), and very little text...

I sadly bought that book when I was fifteen years old all crazy about Black Metal and thought it was so cool. Even then I barely read shit hahaha! I already knew my Black Metal history and everything so I didn't need to read all that shit about what Black Metal was from some outsider's points of view. They had some decent interviews and stuff, but that's really it.

At least some of the pictures are pretty I guess. XD

I bought that book about two weeks ago. Though it's almost only photographs, it's highly recommended. Admitted, it's a pretty expensive book. But it's one massive book with very awesome full-page photographs. Also, some very old photographs in the back of the book and some very old interviews, which are really cool. A must for every BM fan . And not in particulary those who are into Norwegian Black Metal

That's definitely what I got out of Lords of Chaos. It covered a lot of the philosophy and history that went into the creation of black metal. It discussed a few black metal scenes. I already knew the what happened with the Norwegian black metal scene, but the interviews were still interesting to read. It was a lot more than what people give it credit for. There was more than just "Dead killed himself. Varg burned churches. Varg killed Euronymous." I thought the writers tried to dig deeper than that.

Heh, Lords of Chaos' wikipedia page lists it as "fiction"...

The A-Z of BM book you mention is not a story of BM at all, it has a 3 page intro and otherwise is just a list of selected bands and discographies, for the most part. You are much better off looking at M-A for that sort of information. On that note, I have my copy listed for sale on amazon.com, used, if anyone wants to buy one. =0P

Lords of Chaos is rather biased and sensationalistic, in my opinion. If you really know nothing about BM, you might consider getting it, but take it with a grain of salt. Reading zines would be a better option for learning more about BM, IMO.

True Norwegian BM is a coffeetable photo book. I bought a copy for $29 when it came out and then resold it for $130 a few months later. There is very little text, but some reproduced zine pages from Slayer magazine and tabloids in the back of it. It's a photo book, like I said, so there is not a whole lot to be learned there.

Honestly, the internet, and M-A, is a lot better if you want to learn about the history of BM than any book that's been written. All the documentaries I've seen have been pretty biased/sensationalistic as well. "Lucifer Rising," though not just about BM, is also a highly biased, tabloid-like book on the influence of satanism, etc in music, which you might consider looking at, but please don't take that book seriously, either.

Extreme Metal by Keith Kahn Harris is a book i really enjoyed, it's to a large part about Black Metal. From a sociological perspective of course, but it was interesting and amusing. Also check out this metal bibliography at his homepage: http://www.keithkahnharris.pwp.blueyond ... tudies.htm

Hehehe
Excelent

You sir have just completed my bibliography. I am forever indebted to you.

Thank you all for this useful info...

For my background, generally, I hate extreme metal but I discovered that I enjoy black metal 1 year ago and I want to know more about it... The norwegian scene has a lot of interesting histories but I want to know more about the roots and what came after the second wave... I've already found useful information on this site and by reading everything I can read on the internet but I want to go one step further...

I bought the Lord of chaos book and I will go forward buying Extreme Metal and True Norwegian BM ...

Thanks again for your help...

I totally forgot about the Keith Kahn Harris book. As stated, it's more on the sociology of extreme metal (and a lot of emphasis on BM) than the history of it. However, it is a good book and he is objective about things, unlike all the other books mentioned.

The TNBM book has a timeline of things and a few short essays, quotes and things, as well. The stuff in there, parts of Slayer mag, and other things you could probably find online if you can't find a decently-priced copy of that book. Not necessarily the same, but I mean scans of older zines and things, excerpts, and so on. Zines are still going to largely less biased and more informed than crap like Lords of Chaos. If you want to learn about BM stuff from the past, try reading older zine interviews.

I'm halfway through the Lord Of Chaos book and so far it's pretty much what I was searching for... It even begin by mentioning Aleister Crowley and the story of extreme metal and rock through ages...

The author emit some of his opinions which can annoy the reader sometimes (expetially if you support what those guy have done) but I found it very informative...

So far it only covered the Norwegian's black metal scene but I'm not disappointed at all...

Thanks for all your valuable information!

Two others I would recommend would be Lucifer Rising by Gavin Baddeley and The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal by Ian Christe.

Lucifer Rising isn't limited to music, but is written by one of the Church of Satan associates, and has a lot of interviews with musicians, people in cinema (directors, writers, etc), art and so on. Black metal isn't completely dismissed like it is in some other books, though it is kept quite short. Death metal is mentioned to some degree as well. There's four interviews of interest (for me): Cronos of Venom, Quorthon of Bathory, Glen Benton of Deicide, and Paul Ledney of Profantica. It's definitely more geared towards the CoS angle, but it doesn't completely skewer black metal for their anti-CoS sentiments, either.

The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal is recommended regardless of your interest (black, death, power, etc), as it has some pretty thick chapters on each genre and defining events (the PMRC trials and the witch hunts some of us in the 80s got to witness, for example). I'd say it's pretty in-depth with information, even if some might not be viewed as completely relevant anymore (it was originally published in 2000 - 2001).