A History of Heavy Metal cover art

A History of Heavy Metal

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free + £10 Audible voucher

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

A History of Heavy Metal

By: Andrew O'Neill
Narrated by: Andrew O'Neill
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.35

Buy Now for £14.35

Based on the "absolutely hilarious" (Neil Gaiman) stand-up show.

The history of heavy metal brings us extraordinary stories of larger-than-life characters living to excess, from the household names of Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Iron Maiden and Metallica to the brutal notoriety of the underground Norwegian black metal scene and the New Wave of British heavy metal.

It is the story of a worldwide network of rabid fans escaping everyday mundanity through music, of cutthroat corporate arseholes ripping off those fans and the bands they worship to line their pockets. The expansive pantheon of heavy metal musicians includes junkies, Satanists and murderers, born-again Christians and teetotallers, stadium-touring billionaires and toilet-circuit journeymen.

Award-winning comedian and lifelong heavy metal obsessive Andrew O'Neill has performed his History of Heavy Metal comedy show to a huge range of audiences, from the teenage metalheads of Download festival to the broadsheet-reading theatregoers of the Edinburgh Fringe. Now, in his first book, he takes us on his own very personal and hilarious journey through the history of the music, the subculture and the characters who shaped this most misunderstood genre of music.

©2017 Andrew O'Neill (P)2017 Headline Audiobooks Music Performing Arts Comedy Celebrity Funny Witty Thought-Provoking
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant

If you could sum up A History of Heavy Metal in three words, what would they be?

YES! This book does tick those 4 boxes:

Funny? TICK!
Informative? TICK!
Modern? TICK!
Cool? TICK!

(I hope no one has confused my headline, with the other 'headline' of the Big 4 because that would be both unfortunate, sad and worrying).

This book is literally the best book on this subject, and indeed many other subjects.

What other book might you compare A History of Heavy Metal to, and why?

I might compare it to Society of the Spectacle as the cover of this book is black and red, and the book 'Society of the Spectacle' is published by Black and Red.

But I won't.

What about Andrew O'Neill’s performance did you like?

The 'asides'. Made it come alive.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A History of Heavy Metal - Why the Midlands is important.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant stuff!

THE BIG 4!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's highly informative. I've been a metalhead all my life, but listening to this book made me realise that I was missing out on so many bands and genres. Whenever he mentioned a band or genre that I was unfamiliar with, I paused the book, went onto Spotify, and gave them a listen. I've discovered so many awesome bands reading this book and my music listening has been very much enriched. It's also bloody funny, so I discovered an awesome comedian too. As some of the other commenters have noted, you'll find equal parts fact and opinion. I don't agree with all of his opinions -- he loves Thrash and Black Metal, and to be honest I don't -- but his deeply negative attitude towards Glam and Nu Metal is something I very much associate with. But if you like those genres, then just don't take his opinions personally -- they're JUST his opinions. You'll still learn about these genres' histories and the influences that formed them. For example, I got the sense that he finds Progressive Metal pretentious. I love Prog and I don't agree with him, but my feelings weren't hurt -- it's JUST his opinion. Because of my love of Prog, I was delighted to discover Post Metal, which he talks about towards the end of the book. Overall, I couldn't stop listening and I was genuinely sad when it ended. Excellent book!

Excellent!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book, hilariously read by the author. This is essential reading for all metalheads and though you may not agree with all his opinions or taste in bands, the facts and history are a solid narrative that all metallers should know about. Also, he keeps mentioning Panopticon, so check them out. Kentucky is a great album. Fuck Whitesnake.

Essential for metalheads

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Equally parts reverant, irrevant and fucking funny: Andrew delivers his trade mark humour from his stand up and stage performances.

So good, even Kim Kardashian would listen to it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Firstly read this book if you have any interest in the subject matter even if metal isn't your thing (it is mine).

It covers well a subject that is unlikely to ever receive a full scholarly review and is well researched. The energy it is delivered in is incredible and it is funny throughout too.

He confesses early on to a bias to his style of metal and embraces it throughout so a filter needs to be placed on what he is saying if you disagree with his preferences as well as spotting sarcasm ranging from blunt to subtle.

It starts more matter of fact and jumps from detail to vague reference in the pre 90's era roughly and goes into more detail when he hits the age he becomes "involved". This however is the best part of the book and the reason I use the two halves cliché.

The rest of the book becomes more of an opinion piece. While it still ticks most of the important boxes to be considered a history to date of publishing it focuses heavily on what he likes and ignores anything else really that doesn't fit into this or what he hates.

However what I found most frustrating was his political bias as well as the inevitable contradictions that his leaning to socialism from a fairly comfortable background entail. It slips from humour into serious commentary in this field many times but fails to differentiate between his opinion and fact stating the former as the later far too often. He has a problem with successful bands which basically comes down to you cant be great unless you fail to make a living from your music anything else is selling out and that if you don't consider yourself a misfit and this your safe harbour which outsiders should leave as sacred, these are sweeping generalisms I accept but at least I am pointing it out rather than portraying it as a truism. I don't want to go into detail and examples as this review is already wordy but I feel the need to make it so to roughly explain why its a good book that should be read but will make you mad occasionally.

In summary enjoy the book but ignore as much of the opinion, however it is clothed, and you will be satisfied.

A book of two halves

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews