looking for some input

Glockose · Post by **Glockose** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:34 pm

I am posting this here since it has to do with collector vinyl.

A few good books have come out in the past (NWOBHM, Swedish metal) that covered the 80's private vinyl metal seen.

As some of you know I have been working (with the help of some other members) on a book for the past year. It covers 1978-1990 USA Metal 45's which I believe is a very undiscovered area for most of us.

I would like to know what you all Liked & Disliked about the books that are already out there?

Or what information would you like to see in a book.
It's getting down to the end on this project and I hope to have something out in the next 3 months.
Any input would be great. Thanks..

Shadow Kingdom · Post by **Shadow Kingdom** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:06 pm

What I dislike is Martin Popoff's 70's book where he downloads a bunch of obscure records and listens to the first couple songs and pretends he knows the albums with a half-assed review.

What I would like to see in the book you're working on is what 45's are still available to purchase wholesale or are readily available to buy retail. Where do they have this stuff now in 2009 besides ebay and gemm.

John, I sent you a private message. Please get back to me, thanks.

msp · Post by **msp** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:11 pm

What type of format will the book be? Will it be similar to the NWOBHM encyclopedia?

I guess aside from the usual info like band info, # copies, label & year of release etc. I would like to see pictures of the 45s. I don't know how feasible this is as I guess it could add another 500 pages but when I read the NWOBM book sometimes there were pages of text and if they talked about a particular record I would have liked to have seen a scan of the record.

Andreas · Post by **Andreas** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:16 pm

I'm always into, what the french call, 'La petite histoire'. I really like to read what those guys inspired to do a small pressing 7", what happened with them afterwards, afunny story about them ...

I guess this will be impossible for most of the bands featured in the book, but it would be nice to have some of that info.

Glockose · Post by **Glockose** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:23 pm

Thank you

There will be over 500 singles and pic's of 95% of them
Sleeves, Labels, Inserts.......

roihlem · Post by **roihlem** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:47 pm

My favourite book is a German book about Eastern European Metal. It tells you a little story about every release presented, so you get information about the rarity and the music itself, on some releases you even get info about the history of the band....
Glockose, great idea for the book! When have you planned it to be released?

tbieri · Post by **tbieri** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:43 pm

Great Idea ! Sadly there where no more books published in the last years ! I'm missing that !

Most important things to me are pictures of covers, year of release and a little review about the style and quality of the music .
The reviews can be completely subjective ! Like the "Heavy Metal in West-, Ost-, Süd-Europa books. There are not to much "technical" infos in there, but it's a funny read !
So a mixture of Encyclopedia and Reviews would be nice !

Keir · Post by **Keir** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:26 am

Can I preorder now?

Seriously, this is great news! I think that Malc's NWOBHM encyclopedia is pretty much the ideal format. Pictures are nice, but I prefer content. Price guides are pretty much useless. It should be something that will stand the test of time, not only be relevant when the book is released. I'm not so interested in reviews. Better would be a simple comparison or description of style and then focus on the facts of the band/release. Especially connections to other bands is very interesting to me.

Thanks!

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:38 am

If possible I would love to see an appendix in the back of the book of the bands you left out. Because I think there is alot of stuff that looks like it could be hard rock or metal and isn't and this way it will document that info. But I can understand why that would just be a lot more work.

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:00 pm

Things i like in Metal books:
-short history of the band (who, from where, when, etc)
-description of the music/comparisons to other bands that are recognizable (e.g., "doom tinged trad metal similar to early Trouble or War Cry")
-pics
-info on pressing(s)
-some idea of rarity/price (e.g., "shows up regularly"; "usually hits the three-figure mark"; "less than 10 copies known")
-discography info, including demos
-were a sleeve and/or inserts made?
-The layout of Malc's book is very nice IMO

Things I don't like in Metal books:
-absolute price guide; price varies too much to be useful
-long-winded, wordy reviews (e.g., Popoff's books)
-I'm not crazy about the layout in the Swedish Metal books b/c the band entries tell you almost nothing about the style of music, history of the group, or pressing/rarity info about the releases. Instead, a huge amount of space is taken up given serial numbers for every variant pressing. I can see where some folks would want this info, but it's not very useful to me. I find I almost never reference the volume I have; it's more like a giant checklist/database than a book (apologies to the author who posts here sometimes, that's just my honest opinion).

Hope that helps

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:11 pm

nightsblood wrote:-absolute price guide; price varies too much to be useful

I agree, this should be avoided like the plague.

Glockose · Post by **Glockose** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:39 pm

Well
I can tell you this.

I like Record(Vinyl info)

Band name
Songs
Label
Year
Matrix #
Sleeve Y/N
Insert Y/N
State/Country
Style (Brief 1 line describing the sound) NWOBHM, Hard Rock, AOR, Power Metal, Thrash, Melodic.........
PICTURES - The brain is stimulated more by Pics then words

I think the descriptions in the "Headbangers" book (To me one of the Best)are all anyone needs. They put you in the ballpark without giving you a personal opinion(which I hate since everyone has different taste)

Satan is Our Pal · Post by **Satan is Our Pal** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:57 pm

I have a major fetish for aesthetics and the most disapointing thing about the NWOBHM book is the lack of sleeves/labels/inserts, that and the overuse of the word 'proposition'.

US private metal is something I don't collect to be honest, but I would buy a copy based on your description without hesitation. The Folk art sleeves that Fils, Ungol and yourself keep posting are superb and to have them all bound in a book would be very pleasant indeed.

It would also be nice to have the bands input, local adds, press clippings etc, to put the release into some sort of historical context.

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:41 pm

glockose wrote:Well
I can tell you this.

I like Record(Vinyl info)

Band name
Songs
Label
Year
Matrix #
Sleeve Y/N
Insert Y/N
State/Country
Style (Brief 1 line describing the sound) NWOBHM, Hard Rock, AOR, Power Metal, Thrash, Melodic.........
PICTURES - The brain is stimulated more by Pics then words

I think the descriptions in the "Headbangers" book (To me one of the Best)are all anyone needs. They put you in the ballpark without giving you a personal opinion(which I hate since everyone has different taste)

Sounds like a great layout. Agreed that opinionated reviews/descriptions don't really help, although it's hard to avoid (one man's thrash metal is another man's speed metal).
Look forward to it's eventual release, should be a great reference

Shadow Kingdom · Post by **Shadow Kingdom** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:58 am

Satan is Our Pal wrote:
US private metal is something I don't collect to be honest,.

That's the most insane thing I've ever read here.