Ultimate Heavy Metal Guitars

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.

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.

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