The one book I would distinguish as my favorite book of all time isn't a novel, nor is it a picture book from my childhood. It's an encyclopedia, specifically the encyclopedia that covers my all time favorite topic: the oft-maligned bastard offspring of rock, heavy metal. Having this book has gone so far as to reassure my faith in the genre. It has let me know that there is at least one person out there, author Daniel Bukzpan, who cares so much about this music that he's written a physically huge 200 page book glorifying the artists that have kept it alive over the last four decades, and judging by the fact that it has been in print for ten years at this point, it lets me know that me and Mr. Bukzpan are absolutely not alone.
After drooling over it at Barnes & Noble for two weeks, I bought the first edition of the book when I was in middle school at a time when my obsession for metal was ascending rapidly. As soon as I got some money from grandma, it was the first thing I bought and it was more than I expected. Not only did it cover a pretty good amount of bands from each genre, but it was funny, I mean, really funny. Anyone thinking that this thing reads like a boring encyclopedia-albeit one that covers music that features ten-a-penny references to Satan-would be sorely mistaken. He approaches almost every band with a sense of humor; just read the entry on Judas Priest, Metallica, and the particularly amusing entry on everyone's (least) favorite rap-rock group Insane Clown Posse. Heavy metal, admittedly, has a lot to make fun of from the makeup to the sometimes homo-erotic style of dress, and Bukzpan is not oblivious to this. He pokes fun at a lot of bands here, but he never sounds irreverent, even when it comes to Limp Bizkit. Add some informative sidebars that cover everything from fashion, record labels and band rivalries and you have one hell of an engrossing and thoroughly satisfying read.
My only issue with the book was that Bukzpan's personal taste was way too apparent. He only covered five death metal bands (and their articles were only stubs) while he included every stoner-doom band he could find no matter how insignificant they were to the bigger picture of metal (Abdullah, Spirit Caravan, Warhorse.) also, many important new bands in metal like Mastodon and Lamb of God were not included. But shit, I realized that the book was written in 2002, a long time before I bought it in 2006. Also, since the book was written many big events in the metal world have occurred: St. Anger and Chinese Democracy were released, Dimebag and Dio passed away and, uh, Steven Tyler became an American Idol judge. It was then that I began wondering when, or if, a second edition will ever come out. It was practically a fucking dream of mine to be honest, I just wanted more clever insight on more of my favorite bands. The years passed away, and still, I got nothing. That is, until last month when the second edition was released into the world, a full ten years after the original pressing. I smiled, to say the least.
I started reading the new edition with one fear: "what if Bukzpan's edge has dulled? What if he's not that funny anymore?" and I worried about that long before I even knew that the second edition existed. And, unfortunately, my fears came true. Most of the new entries lack the same mojo of those found in the original book and just feel uninspired. One thing I was really looking forward to was reading the updated entries. "What does he have to say about Dio's Death? Or Led Zeppelin's reunion?" but many of the updates just feel tacked on without much thought given towards them. There's also many entries like the one for Lamb of God where it's apparent that he absolutely does not listen to the band at all. One thing that totally pissed me off was Opeth's stub of an entry. In the first edition, Opeth, a band that deserves at least a full page of coverage, was reduced to a paragraph. When I was flipping through the second edition, I was hoping to see a much expanded article about my second favorite band of all time, after all, Opeth's stature has grown tremendously in the metal world since 2002, but still, they were represented by a measly paragraph with another couple of terse sentences pasted on to it after the fact. This goes for a several other bands in the new edition like Entombed, Scorpions, and Def Leppard. Some bands like Morbid Angel and Emperor were not updated whatsoever.
There are 40 new bands that were included in this edition...and some that were taken out completely. Rap-rock bands Limp Bizkit, ICP, and Kid Rock were (thankfully) removed as well as the "band" Cycle Sluts From Hell. But the new additions cover a lot of ground, for example, death metal is represented more with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility and Amorphis among others. Cradle of Filth was also added, along with the most glaring exclusion from the first edition, the beyond awesome power metal band Blind Guardian who deservingly gets more than a full page. Speaking of power metal. Nightwish, Rhapsody (who now go by the very silly name of "Rhapsody of Fire") and Stratovarious are all included this time around as well as a lot of proto-metal bands that can't be categorized as bona fide metal like Mountain, Cream, and Humble Pie. Overall, I love the new bands in this edition, it's just writing that I have a problem with. His new attempts at being funny fall flat for the most part, and he uses a lot of terse, choppy sentences that would read a lot smoother if they were joined by commas and pronouns. Also, there's still some bands that should've been in here that are noticeably missing. The pioneering (and very popular) alternative metal band System of a Down, whose album Toxicity is an indispensable classic, is nowhere to be found here other than on an Ozzfest poster pictured with Ozzy Osbourne. The first "true" black metal band Bathory is still not here, as well as Burzum whose article has the potential to be rife with humor if it were to be included. New sidebars are included, though, that detail metal's place in various countries around the world (for example, there's a page on Norway, a page on Japan, and so on.) These sidebars are very informative, but they just aren't that enjoyable to read.
In short, I'm not going to get rid of my first edition Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal in favor for the new one. This thing is very mixed for me and is full of inconsistency as far as quality. The original entries shine just a bright as ever but the add-ons simply don't add on to the greatness of those entries whatsoever. If you loved the first edition as much as I did, I'd pick this up for sure, but don't get your expectations up.
8.3/10
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