This, the second in a three-book series by Canadian music journalist Martin Popoff (disclosure: Popoff contributes to this site and is a colleague of mine) examining the much-loved New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), is a very easy and enjoyable read for those wanting to understand the movement further. His first book in the series, Smokin' Valves: A Headbanger's Guide To 900 NWOBHM Records, was a book of reviews of NWOBHM releases; here he goes through a chronological timeline of important events leading up to the birth of the movement (Deep Purple get a surprisingly relevant nod) and follows through to 1980, when the NWOBHM was, arguably, at its peak. (His next book, This Means War: The Sunset Years Of The NWOBHM, will continue the chronological/oral history timeline until the genre's demise, and should prove to be an interesting read.) 

A ton of the main players, as well as the lesser-knowns, are interviewed in an oral history format, providing tons of insight to what the scene was like. I've said this about a lot of Popoff's recent books, and I'll say it again: the oral history format is both good and bad. Good as it provides a nice conversational tone and a fuller picture than a book might otherwise; bad because it gives the opportunity for long, rambling, verbatim quotes that look unprofessional and often have contextless or useless asides in them. But that's about the only thing not to like about Wheels Of Steel, which gives tons of interesting details about the origins of the scene, as well as what it was like on the inside of what was one of the most exciting subgenres of metal. Plus, gotta love the dedication to getting to the bottom of things, as is duly noted when Popoff comments that AC/DC's Let There Be Rock is one of the first five albums of all time to not have any mellow songs on it. Recommended for metal historian types looking to expand their metal knowledge or just for a casual fan wondering about the history of our beloved genre, as this is super important stuff that ties into many, if not all, subgenres of metal.