Reviews for Metallica and Philosophy A Crash Course in Brain Surgery

The average rating for Metallica and Philosophy A Crash Course in Brain Surgery based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-30 00:00:00 Athena Nicholas The Book Metallica A Crash Course In Brain Surgery by William Irwin and Metallica, is a non-fiction book that tells the story of the great heavy metal band Metallica. Told by the musicians themselves with the input of William Irwin, the book goes in depth and behind the scenes of Metallica, from the time they formed in 1982 to today headlining festivals and journeying on massive world tours. The story begins with a young danish boy named Lars Ulrich. In the summer of 1981 Lars moves to California from Denmark due to his fathers Tennis career. Lars was destined for greatness in Tennis but soon deserted the game for Music. Lars soon began playing drums as a hobby then soon that his talent was in his mind “good enough to play in a great metal band.” He meets James Hetfield, a young quiet teen at the time, and together they went out and were set on world domination. At the time in Los Angeles California, it was a very split city. Lars explains,” Either you were on the Glam metal side, or you were on the Thrash metal side. It was very lonely being Metallica in 1982 being the only Thrash band around.” (Pg 11) Soon the band moves up to San Francisco in hopes of a greater Thrash scene and permanently stays there in 1983 and to this day. After the bands first release “Kill Em’ All”, the band began to tour tremendously and soon found themselves on a major label and in 1984 released “Ride The Lightning”. Bassist Cliff Burton describes his ride through super-stardom. “It was all so fast, one day were playing in Anaheim at a small club and the next were up in San Francisco headlining a festival. Then from there traveling to New York and Denmark to record.” (Pg 57) Metallica became so big so fast, they became metals number one band and still stands to this day. Lead singer and Rhythm guitarist James Hetfield quotes in an interview in 1993,” I remembered back in 1983 rehearsing in Lars’ garage making crap recordings and thinking this is going to make it big. I’ll be damned if it did’nt.” (Pg 169) I very much enjoyed reading this book because it’s Metallica. That should be enough. But the guys just told the truth on how things were good and bad. They did not try to hide anything and were very real and understandable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Metal genre or is a Metallica freak. They are the only band ever to step foot on all the continents in the world so they have to have fans all around the world without a doubt. If you like any metal band or rock band from the 1980’s and on or have been influenced by any rock/metal band, you’ll probably love Metallica and this book. Metallica started the movement of heavy music in 1982 and since has grown enormously and continues to grow everyday. They have become a larger than life band and continue to wave the flag of heavy metal.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-08-22 00:00:00 Jill Chalfant This book contains many essays by different authors which cover various philosophical topics. The degree in which it covers Metallica varies between essays. Some seem like previously written essays that have shoehorned in Metallica lyrics to back them up, whereas others seem more like biographies of the band's ideas. Philosophy is quite an interesting subject, but the book is at its best when the content is convincingly about Metallica, otherwise you may as well just read a dedicated philosophy book. Since this is Metallica themed, it makes sense to be familiar with their albums, and a general idea of their career before reading this. It's the first book I've read in the series, but I'd imagine they would all the similar, so if you have an interest in these books, then choose the theme you are most familiar with.