Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces
Albert Mudrian
Reviewed by Austin Powell, Fri., July 17, 2009
Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces
edited by Albert MudrianDa Capo Press, 384 pp., $18.95 (paper)
Inclusion in Decibel magazine's album-oriented Hall of Fame comes with a catch: Each band member responsible for the inductee's creation must be alive and willing to speak on the record. Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian culled the 25 best selections for this anthology, and all criticisms should be directed his way: The introductions for each entry do little to set the scene or convey the significance of the album, and the interviews lack consistency in length and depth. While some of the choices are questionable (Botch's We Are the Romans, Monster Magnet's Dopes to Infinity), Precious Metal's otherwise impressive scope covers every facet of the genre, from Black Sabbath's second coming (Heaven and Hell) and Napalm Death's grindcore opus Scum to Eyehategod's dopesick sludge-metal Take as Needed for Pain and Opeth's Orchid. The roundtable, oral-history approach leads to interesting contradictions and revelations. Most intriguing are Sleep's purple-hazed recollections of its pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the still-boiling bitterness of Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork over Welcome to Sky Valley (he left the band immediately after its recording), a stark contrast to author J. Bennett's man-crush on current Queen of the Stone Age Josh Homme. There are still essential voices missing, such as producer Rick Rubin on Slayer's Reign in Blood, but one thing's certain: There's nothing precious about these metal masterpieces.
