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Enter Night

A Biography of Metallica
by Mick Wall
Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica. St. Martin's. May 2011. c.480p. photogs. index. ISBN 9780312649890. $27.99. MUSIC
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To many fans, the band Metallica died on September 27, 1986, when bassist and iconoclast Cliff Burton was killed in a tour bus accident. Wisely, Wall (When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin) starts his biography at the band's darkest moment and illustrates how long and at what costs it took them to become the biggest metal band of all time. Free from the fanboy perspective that dulls previous Metallica books, this one paints a full-color portrait of the boys in black via insider and outsider interviews. Focusing on the mostly unexamined early years (another wise choice), Wall defies the 21st-century Metallica mythology to remind readers what the band was—a group of pimply, smelly misfits who couldn't play their instruments. He stares down rumors, and his portraits of peer jealousy show us the monsters these metal messiahs really were.
VERDICT While Wall bravely exposes the band's scars, he doesn't join the chorus of latter-day Metallica critics but reveals a vanguard act pushing boundaries few artists can. For the fans of the band, or simply of music, this balanced book is a dream.
Reviewed by Robert Morast, Fargo, ND , Mar 15, 2011
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