I love things like this to no end, this book being Canadian music journalist (and bravewords.com writer) Martin Popoff's attempt to come to terms with this biggest of questions we all grapple with: where our beloved noise came from in the first place. And I don't just mean Black Sabbath, as this book goes back further than that, indeed, starting back at 1250 B.C. at the Walls Of Jericho. No one's saying metal started with that tale, but throughout the book Popoff examines all the bits and pieces that got thrown down over the years to eventually culminate in the accidental birth then the real birth of heavy metal. Some extremely interesting stuff here (the early "rock shows" of 250 B.C. are a fascinating historical note I knew nothing about!), and the usual things I hate pop up (one more person dares to mention The Beatles or The Who to me in a conversation about proto-metal and I'm throwing their ridiculous tea all over their floral button-up shirt), but it's all in the good spirit of debate, and this book will foster tons of that.

Some things that I love but won't spoil: Popoff's theories on the first full metal album (ie, no non-metal songs, a concept I had realized but never fully considered until now) and first metal song (I have yet to actually listen to it, but I will, but I'm pretty sure I'll disagree: I'm debating this one over beers next time I'm face to face with Popoff). Lots of talk about intent versus accidentally coming across heaviness, and, again, this idea of spreading heaviness throughout a whole album compared to a token heavy tune or two on an otherwise non-heavy album, all of which is super interesting. I'll never warm up to Popoff's style of completely verbatim quotes (they often leave readers contextless and confused), but that hardly takes away from this most fun, educational, and downright interesting of books.