486 pages. U.S. $19.95 CAN $24.95

As if his four previous books on metal (!) and one on spiritual brethren Southern Rock weren't enough to prove that he's either the least sane person in Canada or just the most passionate about our beloved genre, Martin Popoff is back. In this fairly lengthy book, Popoff examines the results of a massive poll he took in which he asked around 18,000 metalheads their fave 25 metal tunes of all time. The numbers were crunched, the data scrutinized, and here's the results: the #1 cut ain't Stairway To Heaven (which Popoff daringly refers to as "filler" here); I'm not spilling the beans on what it is, but it's a track near and dear to all our cold metal hearts. As always, Popoff pulls no punches, humorously disagreeing with some of the results, and discussing each song in detail in his trademarked hyperbolic and conversational tone. Also, pics of single sleeves and quotes from the bands at hand are included, as well as several interesting appendixes. And damned if this book isn't a great reminder that it really is all about the song at the end of the day; I was forced to pull out the ol' Metallica and Sabbath albums and revel in the glory of how good metal can get, which means the book serves a purpose in reminding and validating this shit that we spend so much of our day obsessing over, our nights dreaming about (hope that's not just me), our hours talking about. See www.martinpopoff.com for more.