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the heavy metal life!Īll rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.įirst Diversion Books edition January 2020 Whether they were oddballs who didn’t fit in or angry kids from troubled backgrounds, metal gave them a sense of identity.ĭrawing from 150-plus first-hand interviews with vocalists, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and drummers, music journalist Jon Wiederhorn offers this collection of wild shenanigans from metal’s heaviest and most iconic acts-the parties, the tours, the mosh pits, the rage, the joy, the sex, the drugs. To the figures in this book, metal is a means of banding together to stick a big middle finger to a society that had already decided they didn’t belong. For many, vice has been virtue, and the opportunity to record albums and tour has been an invitation to push boundaries and blow the lid off a Pandora’s box of riotous experiences: thievery, vandalism, hedonism, the occult, stage mishaps, mosh pit atrocities, and general insanity.

Through the decades, the metal scene has been populated by colorful individuals who have thwarted convention and lived by their own rules. In his song “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Rock and roll is my religion and my law.” This is the mantra of the metal legends who populate Raising Hell-artists from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God to Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Disturbed, Megadeth, and many more! It’s also the guiding principle for underground voices like Misery Index, Gorgoroth, Municipal Waste, and Throwdown. From the author of the celebrated classic Louder Than Hell comes an oral history of the badass Heavy Metal lifestyle-the debauchery, demolition, and headbanging dedication-featuring metalhead musicians from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot to Disturbed, Megadeth, Throwdown and more.

Raising Hell by Jon Wiederhorn