This is an excellent book for any Rock/Heavy Metal or guitar enthusiast. The book is loaded with great pictures of many music legends past and present and the history of their instrument of choice. Brian May,Eddie Van Harlan and Slash are just a few .

This would make a great gift for the music fan in your life .

I just reviewed Ultimate Heavy Metal Guitars by Pete Prown. #UltimateHeavyMetalGuitars #NetGalley

This history of heavy metal guitarists in twelve chapters is a fascinating and insightful delve into the progression of the genre. Each double page is filled with interesting facts and great photos of guitarists and band members. I think this would make a wonderful addition to any metal enthusiasts collection. Thank you to Net galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

As a heavy metal and hard rock enthusiast, this book was right up my alley. I read about each and every guitarist featured in Ultimate Heavy Metal Guitars. I grew up listing to what is now classic rock and as I've gotten older, my tastes have gotten harder. I can't wait to see Parkway Drive tomorrow (September 13, 2023). Reading about each guitarist took me to the front row of the concert in my imagination. The way the author wrote this book made the guitarists come to life. Those I've seen and those I've wished I could see.

While I've never seen Aerosmith live, and since this year is their farewell tour am not likely too, I have seen Brad Whitford. He came on stage and rocked the house during the Godsmack concert I attended on May 26, 2023. He was absolutely amazing - and Sully even rocked an Aerosmith song.

I saw Bad Company on tour about 20 years ago. They opened for David Lee Roth. Another fantastic concert I'm glad I was able to attend.

Megadeth rocked the stage on September 24, 2021, headlining a show that also included Trivium and Lamb of God. Dave Mustaine didn't put on an active show but his guitar playing was rhythmic. I was captivated by the live versions of the songs I'd only ever experienced on the radio.

I saw the magic that is Jerry Cantrell in 2022 with the amazing William Duvall on lead vocals at an Alice in Chains concert. I, unfortunately, never saw them with Layne Staley and know that would have been a hell of a show. Jerry's vocals blended seamlessly with William's, just as they did with Layne. Jerry's guitar solos were mesmerizing and I spent most of my time watching him sing and play. I typically watch all members of a band throughout a show but watching Jerry play a guitar is magical and I didn't want to miss anything.

Each section is clearly labeled and provides fascinating information, facts, and photos. The only sections of the book that didn't truly interest me were death metal and black metal. I'm not into either of those heavy metal genres and skipped the majority of those short sections.

As a bit of a history lover and rock lover, I found so much in this book to enjoy.
The pictures were amazing.
I love that it included some amazing female guitarists as they are often overlooked.
I would have enjoyed a bit more on current guitar phenoms like Nuno and Slash than what was there.
I would have also liked to know how some guitarists from bands who aren't as famous fare.
Or perhaps a link to a database on guitarists and where they rank.
I received a copy via NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

This is a great book for anyone who love Heavy Metal and guitar players. It not only talks about guitar gods we already know but other guitar players that I've never even heard of but should have. I also love that the book talks about who influence them to play but it also talks about what equipemnt they use and why. My favorite part of the book is the photos of all the guitar players, it just made the book better for me.

I want to thank Quarto Publishing Group – Motorbooks, Motorbooks and NetGalley for an advance copy of this fabulous book

This book was a nice collection of photos and articles featuring influential guitarists of the heavy metal genre from the past several decades. I loved the live shot photos and who they decided to feature in the book, although a few of my favorites were missing. I found it rather enjoyable.

I really enjoyed the premise and content of this book. The introduction and the chapter intros were great--they were informative and interesting from multiple perspectives. My problem with the book, I think, could be solved if it had a different title. I expected this to be a book with lots of up close photos of gear, especially the guitars themselves. I wanted to read more about specific guitars that changed the game, how they were built, when and why.
If the book were titled "Ultimate Heavy Metal GuitarISTS" I think that would fit better. A lot of the photos that are included don't show the guitars very well, or at all (they're held at an angle or the photos are, necessarily, black and white). They are, however, excellent selections of the artists at work, exuding energy and excitement in almost every photo.
The individual sections on each artist give a good history of their music and the bands they've performed with. Often these pages even give good insight into their style of both playing and recording music. I wish there were more photos of the gear, though, including the amps and stomp boxes/other accessories. I also think the captions of the photos that do exist should more consistently describe the guitar in the photo, and a bit about its history. I found those captions to be the most relevant and interesting, as it showed the guitar I had sometimes just read about. I did love that the author spoke with some of the artists personally, and that he frequently included interviews from other reliable sources if he had no first-hand quotes.
I would have really enjoyed an appendix that explained some of the more technical terms, or gave good examples of where to hear them played. As a non-metal listener but former music journalist, I am fascinated by the way we use language to describe music (wet, dry, crunchy, fuzzy). I think it would be great to share those definitions or at least places we could hear examples of them, especially within the metal genre. Gearheads may not need the reminder, but more casual fans or folks with no musical experience could certainly use the explanation.
I really like that the author included players who may not qualify as heavy metal themselves, but who heavily influenced or inspired the genre. Including a timeline up front would have been really cool, to show, even loosely, where different subgenres started to develop.
I would certainly read more from this author on music history, especially from sociological or geopolitical perspectives. This book feels like it only scratches the surface of his knowledge and connections.

Ultimate Heavy Metal Guitars is a giant coffee-table type book with two pages for each of the guitarists featured, one for the history of the guitarist and his equipment and one for a full-page photo. Brown divides his book into twelve chapters, The Dawn of Heavy, Forging Metal, Rock & a hard Place, Arena Rock, Euro Crunch, Prog Power, The Headbanging 80’s, Shred, Thrash Smash & Bash, End of the Century, and Metal After the Millenium.

The Dawn of Heavy, for instance, starts with Clapton and his explanation that he had nothing to do with heavy metal. The chapter then goes on to feature Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix (who “revolutionized the sound of the actual tone of the electric solidbody guitar”), and Pete Townshend (“Louder and ruder than its contemporaries, the band cut a swath for bands that would follow”).

The “Roots of Metal” or “Forging Metal” then takes the reader to Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Leslie West (who?- a band called Mountain famous for “Mississippi Queen”), Martin Barre (of Jethro Tull), Mick Box (of Uriah Heep).

Each chapter (and this review is not going to go over each chapter) gives the reader a handful of names and historical perspective. It is a fascinating walk through rock history, both for the names we are all intimately familiar with and some we have heard on radio, but just never thought about who was leading the band. This reader found many of the chapters in the first two-thirds endlessly fascinating, but the latter names in the last half not as fascinating only because of lack of familiarity. All in all, it is an excellent book, a must-have for anyone who wants to have their own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their coffee table.