Choosing Death. The incredible story of Death Metal & Grindcore
Choosing Death. The unbelievable history of Death Metal & Grindcore ( English original title: Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore ) is a book by the American author Albert Mudrian . It describes the historical development of Metal - subgenres Death Metal and Grindcore and released in September 2004, the publisher Feral House. The German translation comes from Mike Borrink and was published in June 2006 by IPVerlag Jeske / Mader from Berlin . In April 2015, Decibel Books published a completely revised and 100-page new edition.
content
The book begins with an introduction by radio DJ John Peel , followed by a foreword by Nick Terry, who was editor of the music magazine Terrorizer from 1996 to 2000 .
Choosing Death is largely structured chronologically, starting with the emergence of grindcore in the UK , the rest of Europe and the US. He describes the development of several bands during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Repulsion , Siege , Morbid Angel , Death , Obituary , Nihilist , Carnage , Deicide , and Carcass . The period in the mid-1990s forms a separate chapter, when some bands landed with large record labels such as Columbia and Warner , and the scene was saturated with albums by below-average bands. It concludes with an overview of bands from the turn of the millennium, including Arch Enemy , Nile , Akercocke and Slipknot .
For the book, Mudrian conducted numerous interviews with musicians of the genres covered, but also with people such as cover artist Dan Seagrave , music producer Scott Burns or the owner of Earache Records, Digby Pearson . All interviewed persons are listed in a separate chapter with a brief biography. In addition, the further careers of important personalities mentioned in the book inside and outside the metal scene are highlighted, as well as a discography of important music albums and EPs sorted by year. This list originally ran from 1987 to 2003, for the Polish edition of the book Mudrian extended it to 2007.
Presentation
The front cover shows the title of the book and the name of the author in white letters and a collage in red with photos of the bands Obituary, Carcass, Napalm Death and Morbid Angel. The background is solid black. The back consists of a table of contents and quotes from the music magazines Revolver and Terrorizer , as well as the musician Phil Anselmo , about the book. In addition, there is another collage with photographs of musicians from the bands Nile, Cannibal Corpse , Napalm Death, Death, Repulsion and Nihilist. The book itself is in black and white and illustrated with concert flyers , band photos and album covers .
Choosing Death: The Original Soundtrack
In 2004, the US record label Relapse Records released a compilation to accompany the book , which was put together by Albert Mudrian. The contributions by Nihilist and Suffocation had never been published before, the untitled song by Pig Destroyer was recorded exclusively for this release. The visual design of the album largely corresponds to that of the book.
- Track list
|
1. Napalm Death - Scum |
11. At the Gates - Need |
reception
Choosing Death was received mostly positively. Alexander Eitner from metalnews.de awarded the highest number of points (7/7) and called it “a unique and extremely important book”, as well as “the history book for the Death Metaller”. Dominik Tischleder from Nonpop described Choosing Death as "almost perfect in terms of content" and praised the translation into German, which he found "very good". Ian Glasper of the music magazine Terrorizer gave it a nine out of ten and recommended the book to all readers of the magazine as "by far the best-informed and most comprehensive piece about death metal and grind you will ever read".
In addition to the English original edition and the German translation, the book has also been translated into Finnish , French , Polish , Spanish and Italian .
literature
- Albert Mudrian : Choosing Death. The incredible story of Death Metal & Grindcore . Translated by Mike Borrink. IP-Verlag Jeske, Mader, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-931624-35-8 .
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Choosing Death at feralhouse.com (English)
- Choosing Death: The Original Soundtrack at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Ehrmann: CHOOSING DEATH - Albert Mudrian . Interview with Albert Mudrian (English). voicesfromthedarkside.de . Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ^ A b Ian Glasper: Review in: Terrorizer, November 2004. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013 ; accessed on February 20, 2016 (English).
- ↑ Alexander Eitner: Albert Mudrian - Choosing Death - The Improbable History Of Death Metal & Grindcore [book ]. metalnews.de . Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ↑ Dominik Tischleder: Albert Mudrian: CHOOSING DEATH . History of Death Metal a. Grindcore . Nonpop . Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ↑ Other Editions ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). choosingdeath.com , accessed February 20, 2016.
