Reviewed! Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock & Heavy Metal
Eddie Trunk
Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal
Abrams
As if radio host, frequent concert-goer, resident
fountain of hard rock and heavy metal music knowledge and host of VH1 Classic’s
hit TV show That Metal Show isn’t
enough for Eddie Trunk, you can now add author to that list as he has released
a new book in Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, a book consisting of profiles/stories/pictures/info
on 35 different influential hard rock and heavy metal artists.
Boasting scads of rare photos from the lens of Ron
Akiyama and a foreword by the Metal God himself Rob Halford, Eddie Trunk's
Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal
is nothing short of a literal page turner and a must-read, essentially the book
equivalent of downing a few pints with Trunk himself as he regales you with
story after story that you need to hear, or read in this case, to believe. Now,
some of the 35 bands featured here are as you would assume – KISS, UFO, Twisted
Sister, Judas Priest and AC/DC, though there are some you might not expect as
well –Led Zeppelin, Tesla and Poison. Trunk even offers an additional section
titled “More Essentials” which spotlights a number of other bands who narrowly
missed the cut, such as Kix, Extreme, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot and Cinderella.
The “More Essentials” section also features a short blurb on Blue Murder, which
is surprising given Trunk’s love for the band and their two LP’s (1989’s self-titled and 1993’s Nothin’
But Trouble), as well as his constant urging for guitarist John Sykes to
get the band back together. Still, that’s pretty much nitpicking – but while
we’re at it, hey Eddie, a Fozzy shout out would have been nice.
The true selling
point of Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal isn’t the
band’s bios, discographies or Eddie’s own personalized playlists, and while the
photos are pretty killer in their own right, it’s the personal stories Eddie
shares that drive this book. Whether its Trunk sharing the story of seeing KISS
when he was 13 years old (his first concert) and how he was obsessed with them
at a young age (and still is), and how a passing ‘joke’ by Halford during a
radio interview that Trunk didn’t think anything of led to his 25th
anniversary in radio party which featured an intimate performance by none other
than Priest themselves, or Eddie speaking from the heart about the passing of friend
Ronnie James Dio, whom Eddie, who spoke at Dio’s funeral service, said “for as
great of a singer as Ronnie was, he was an even better person, and that’s
really saying something.” The “Did You Know?” and “Underground Classic”
sections are not to be missed either.
If you call
yourself a fan of hard rock and heavy metal, Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard
Rock and Heavy Metal is a good you absolutely need to own.
Grade: A
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