Revered former Metal Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner analyzes the heady side of metal in this exhaustive narrative history of a relentlessly ambitious musical subculture. Beginning with the hugely influential mid-1970s efforts of Rush and King Crimson, Wagner unfurls a huge tapestry of sounds and styles, including Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater; extreme prog pioneers Voivod and Celtic Frost; Norways post-black metal avant garde acts Ulver and Arcturus; and the 1990s glob...

A comparative international perspective challenges conventional narratives about unacknowledged intervention"Covert action" is generally understood as politically motivated and plausibly deniable interference by one state in the affairs of another state. It includes propaganda, political or economic subversion, paramilitary action, and assassinations. Covert action is the most consequential and controversial form of secret statecraft, and it has become a ubiquitous...

Eisenhower for Our Time provides an introduction to the Eisenhower presidency, extracting lessons for today's world. Steven Wagner proposes that the need to maintain balance defines Eisenhower's presidency.Wagner examines a series of defining moments that were among Eisenhower's greatest challenges, some of which resulted in his greatest accomplishments: the decision to run for president, his political philosophy of the "Middle Way," the c...

The definitive history of the first 30 years of heavy metal, containing over 100 interviews with members of Black Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Slipknot, Kiss, Megadeth, Public Enemy, Napalm Death, and more.More than 30 years after Black Sabbath released the first complete heavy metal album, its founder, Ozzy Osbourne, is the star of The Osbournes, TV's favourite new reality show. Contrary to popular belief, headbangers and the music they love are more alive tha...

An expansive biography of David Bowie, one of the twentieth century’s greatest music and cultural icons.From noted author and rock ’n’ roll journalist Marc Spitz comes a major David Bowie biography to rival any other. Following Bowie’s life from his start as David Jones, an R & B—loving kid from Bromley, England, to his rise to rock ’n’ roll aristocracy as David Bowie, Bowie recounts his career but also reveals how much his music has influenced other musicians and forever changed t...

Originally collected in Chuck Klosterman IV and now available both as a stand-alone essay and in the ebook collection Chuck Klosterman on Rock, this essay is about Led Zeppelin.

In September 1968, four English lads gathered together for the first time in a small, stuffy London rehearsal room in a basement filled with wall-to-wall amplifiers. It was their first big tryout as musicians, and each of them was nervous. Would they come together as a band? Or would they crash and burn, becoming nothing but a rock footnote? Then the room exploded, with wailing chords, howling vocals, and a locked-tight rhythm section—a sonic assault of heretofore unknown power. Here for t...

Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home & Away is a detailed history of the exhaustive road experience of Canadian rock icons Rush. Celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary, By-Tour features in-depth original interviews with Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart. Together, history’s loudest Order of Canada recipients conjure the sights and sounds of their strange journey: one that began in the microscopic, sometimes hostile clubs of Ontario and culminated in hockey barns, arenas...

Led Zeppelin - Uncensored On The Record is the definitive critical review of the music of Led Zeppelin on stage, on record and on filmContributors include Zeppelin insiders in the shape of publicist BP Fallon and bodyguard Michael Francis, along with newly released archive interviews with the band recorded during the 1977 tour.This eBook includes a complete history of Led Zeppelin in the words of the band and its critics, and features track-by-track analysis of every Zeppelin recording, br...

This is the uncensored independent guide to the music of Bon Jovi. Jeff Maitlands authoritative text traces the Bon Jovi story from their New Jersey roots through to the stadium rock phenomenon that we know today. This eBook also includes a complete track-by-track analysis of Bon Jovis back catalogue. This is the essential companion for every Bon Jovi fan on the planet.

The 25th anniversary edition of Chuck Klosterman’s debut, a hilarious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakota (population: 498), empirically proving that no matter where you are, kids wanna rock—now with a new introduction from the author.With a voice like Ace Frehley’s guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the...

Alan Cross is the preeminent chronicler of popular music.Here he provides a history of David Bowie's career from his start as Davy Jones through the end of the millennium.This look at Bowie -- "Shape-shifter, Actor, Artist, Gay Icon" -- is adapted from the audiobook of the same name.