cemeterygatesbookThe idea behind this book which is expanded title wise to ‘Saints and survivors of the heavy metal scene’ could not be simpler. Take 20 infamous stars of said scene and divide them in half, one half being those who have shuffled off this mortal coil and the other being those who at the time of writing have defied the odds and miraculously still with us. Once these luminaries have been picked (and that must have been one of the hardest tasks) write a chapter about them. In that chapter write about 10-15 pages telling the reader a concise history of the individual along with some interesting and quirky facts and naturally the reason of either their demise, or how they have laughed in the face of death and are still around kicking up a noise, rather than not and kicking the bucket.

O’Shea has written quite a lot of books about the music world it would appear and these include ones about The Sex Pistols and Guns And Roses. Fair enough I thought having heard the name but looking into things and doing some further digging I discovered apart from these he also has penned and co-penned books about Harry Styles, One Direction, Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry! Well one thing that does shine through on Cemetery Gates is the way he writes concisely and he definitely has hit a formula for doing so that is informative and interesting. I pretty much picked through this having plenty of time to do so before release date in bite sized chunks, planning to read a character chapter a day but often finding myself compelled to move on and devour the next. Of course that does have a lot to do with personal taste as there are some artists that I am more interested in (and much more knowledgeable on) than others. Still there was no deviating involved and I read through this from cover to cover even though I find some of the people here repellent both musically and personally. Yes that is one thing you should be prepared to read about here before picking this up, ‘egos’ there are lots of them!

As far as the book sub title is concerned there are very few saints here! Most died (or somehow managed not to) due to their own excesses and their own addictions. The one REAL exception to this is the person behind the first chapter Ronnie James Dio who truly does come across as a real saint and one who the heartfelt praise by fans is truly deserved. I am not retelling tales here that is what this book is for and it does it well. Considering many of the people here have various books written about them too this could be a good stepping stone for readers to get an overview before moving on to more in depth biographies. I personally found chapters on some of those that died a fair while ago the most intriguing, memory does indeed fade with time and those featuring Bon Scott, John Bonham and Cliff Burton were especially poignant and acted as a welcome refresher course of the individuals and their characters. On the other hand I found some things a bit unnecessary and as mentioned obviously O’Shea is up on G n R but was there really any need to include both Axl Pose and Slash? I guess one of them might have threatened a law suit if he had left them out. I also found myself reading it and thinking ooh could we swap so and so from the ‘dead’ column with so and so from the ‘live’ column but that was no doubt a bit wrong of me!

The thing that I particularly liked is that this did at least accommodate quite a good cross representation of music including the sort of artists that I wanted to read about. Sure you could not really pen this without including the likes of Ozzy and Lemmy but it also does keep the black metal contingent appeased with both Varg Vikernes and Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin) and I thought this was a case of two characters who had to both be included as the fate of one was obviously due to the actions of the other. One of the hardest chapters for me to read was that of Pete Steele as his death is so fresh and his music so relevant to me and I am sure many others will feel the same way about the chapter on Dimebag Darrell. I found others on the newer breed such as Jimmy The Rev Sullivan interesting to read and saw how closely his life and death corresponded with others in the book even if I knew nothing about him personally before this and have always avoided his music. I did have a lot more knowledge of Paul Gray having been into Slipknot at first album release (yeah I admit it) even if I have moved on since then. However although he certainly should have been included I felt Corey Taylor’s chapter interesting though it was could have been left to someone else again; perhaps leaving it for the next edition.

There of course is the thing, naturally reading this one is going to think of those not included who should be and that is going to make you wonder if there is the legs for a follow up. I must admit my first thought was how can GG Allin and Seth Putnam not be in among the dead men and Al Jourgensen  those still with us. Then there is always that question that by the time a second part is written, how many from the first may have crossed over from alive to dead, I guess their chapters are already written though. One thing’s for sure there is unfortunately a chapter waiting with Jeff Hanneman’s name on it!

I would consider this a great book for anyone who is new to the music and for a younger reader it is absolutely essential helping them discover an intriguing new world and perhaps learning by the mistakes of its founding fathers. For the seasoned metal head there is plenty to interest too and the concise writing style does make for a (dare I say it) quite addictive read and it is a real page turner. Some may think they have heard it all before and indeed that is also true but there is no denying that this is a compelling trawl through some incredibly compulsive characters and it certainly does a great job in doing exactly what it set out to do.

(Pete Woods)

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