Extreme metallist and writer Daniel Ekeroth has been well positioned (in Sweden) over the last 20 years to write this book: it’s troublesome, though, trying to work out exactly how much interest it will have to those who live elsewhere. After a brief (and debatable) history of the development of extreme metal through punk and Venom into speed (thrash), black and death metal, he highlights an interesting point in Sweden’s history: in his country, 1986 is often referred to as the year Sweden “lost its innocence” after PM Olof Palme was gunned down. The nation was rocked to its foundations, becoming a more adult, darker place. He also claims it a dark coincidence that, the very same winter, Slayer’s Reign In Blood and Metallica’s Master Of Puppets were released, before the latter’s Cliff Burton died in a Swedish road accident, leading to a massive boom in extreme metal.
Unfortunately there is no wideranging discussion of metal after this point. Such pivotal figures as Quorthorn, of the immensely influential Bathory, don’t get the space they deserve. So much of this scene is bordering on being of marginal interest that the chapters actually dealing with the scene itself take up less than one quarter of the 500 pages.
