Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe

by Chuck Eddy

This irreverent and hilarious guide to all that's loud, vulgar, fast, violent, pissed-off, and adolescent in the music of the last 40 years--the first book to prefigure the emerging "alternative" culture of the 1990s--has now been updated with the hundred best metal albums of the decade. 105 illustrations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517575418
• ISBN13: 9780517575413
• Release Date: June 1991
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA)
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Hammer of the Godz...

This book is not about heavy metal music. He says as much in the introductionif you, "read between the lines, Theo. Read between the LINES!" I say it is about rock music. I say it is sometimes about guitars. It is about NOT taking the music you claim to love so seriously that it is no longer about sheer enjoyment, but it's capacity to serve as "intellectual" fodder for debate. By the extremely high number of one star reviews I see here, I see that he was right. Most fans of any subgenre are too STUPID to see outside their own fashionable biases to get to the heart of being moved... It's the best rock book I've ever read in my life. I've been collecting and listening to heavy metal since 1982. My favorite heavy metal band of all time, Iron Maiden, is not included in here. I don't care because that's not the point. I've read this thing cover to cover about twenty-five times. It changed my life. This book has been such a part of my life that I even wrote Chuck in 1993 and guess what? HE WROTE ME BACK and that very letter is still sitting between the pages of my original 1991 copy. How many of these other self-righteous bastards reviewing this here can say that? Hmmm??? It changed the way I look at music forever and it took almost five years to totally sink in. None of my friends and fellow musicians know where I'm coming from either, and I have Mr. Eddy to thank for part of that. It's also of note that I've probaby bought 200 records from this guide that immeasurabley changed my musical makeup and those 200 records probably influenced me to check out another 500 DIFFERENT bands not discussed in this tome. I would say that's of some merit as well. Now, if he would just write a similar book that poked fun at all post-Velvet Underground/Sonic Youth rock, I'd be feasting in the halls of Valhalla with the Godz of Wrath. The Wizard of Magma

When a record review makes you angry, you've got problems...

This book did make me angry more than once, but it also has provided me with hours of entertainment. Eddy hates traditional heavy metal, which is why he not only omits Priest & Maiden , but takes the time to insult them over and over. However, he is a good writer with a good record collection. If you want a real heavy metal guide, buy Popoff's book (whose cheap shots at punk annoyed me as much as Eddy's shots at metal); but if you're a record nerd who spends their weekends in thrift stores and flea markets (like me), you might enjoy this book. PS Iron Maiden is my all time favorite band, but anyone who name drops Void, Die Kreuzen, and Rudimentary Peni is OK in my book.

metallica

i think metallica's album with the same name is the best metal album..

Probably the best book written in the nineties about music

I picked up the original volume back in 1991 on a whim, and it turned out to be the best impulse buy of my life, I think! Chuck's basic message here is, "Make your own standards" -- in otherwards, ignore the obvious conclusions about music, what groups and styles are 'cool' and what is 'trash,' and actually go and *listen* to the music, and say what you feel. The reviews here attacking the volume miss Chuck's essential point -- this isn't a history of heavy metal as defined by record companies and leather studded jackets, it's a history of mind and feeling, and ultimately what one person can feel about music. Chuck doesn't claim this is the only ranking of heavy metal records in the universe, but simply his -- and he shows more breadth in his rants, ravings and raptures than just about any other record critic you've ever read, or any other self-appointed authority on culture for that matter. Buy, read, amaze yourself, question what the accepted truth about music is, then forge your own path -- you'll be all the better for it.

A virtual Hard Rocking Bible...but somewhat tongue-in-cheek

I've read the reviews and I've owned this book since the fall of 1991 (i.e. the first printing), so now it's time for my two cents' worth. Eddy is an incisive writer whose musical tastes run the metal gamut (in fact, many of the albums included, like those by Prince, Neil Young, Teena Marie, and Donnie Osmond are about as heavy metal as saying that Bill Clinton is a Republican), but his sense of humor and history is impeccable. Buy this book; it WILL send you to the cutout bins looking for rare stuff by Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang, and, er, Prince. A caveat for those who already have the first edition: the second edition is basically a reprint of the first with no changes, plus an extra chapter on the best HM albums of the 90s.