Book Reviews

Mick Wall (2010) – Book Review Author: Mick WallPublished: 2010Genre: Biography / Heavy Metal / Thrash Metal / Music HistoryRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸½ — 4.5/5 Some bands become successful. Some bands become enormous. And then there’s Metallica — four blokes…

D. Randall Blythe (2015) – Book Review Author: D. Randall BlythePublished: 2015Genre: Autobiography / Heavy Metal / MemoirRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 Some metal memoirs give you the tour bus. Some give you the booze. Some give you the backstage…

Henry Rollins (1994) – Book Review Author: Henry RollinsPublished: 1994Genre: Memoir / Hardcore Punk / Tour Diaries / Music HistoryRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 Forget private jets. Forget five-star hotels. Forget backstage champagne. Forget the glamorous fantasy of rock ’n’…

Ian Winwood (2018) – Book Review Author: Ian WinwoodPublished: 2018Genre: Music History / Punk Rock / Alternative RockRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸½ – 4.5/5 1994 was completely bloody ridiculous. Green Day released Dookie. The Offspring released Smash. Punk rock — supposedly…

Charles R. Cross (2001) – Book Review Author: Charles R. CrossPublished: 2001Genre: Biography / Grunge / Alternative Rock / NirvanaRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸½ – 4.5/5 Few figures in rock history have been mythologised as heavily as Kurt Cobain. The reluctant…

Michael Moynihan & Didrik Søderlind (1998) – Book Review Authors: Michael Moynihan & Didrik SøderlindPublished: 1998Genre: Music History / Black Metal / True Crime / Extreme MetalRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸½ – 3.5/5 Some music books tell you how an album…

Slash with Anthony Bozza (2007) – Book Review Author: Slash with Anthony BozzaPublished: 2007Genre: Autobiography / Hard Rock / Guns N’ Roses / Music MemoirRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸½ – 4.5/5 Top hat. Les Paul. Cigarette hanging from the mouth. Massive…

Paul Brannigan (2011) – Book Review Author: Paul BranniganPublished: 2011Genre: Rock Biography / Music History / Nirvana / Foo FightersRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸½ – 4.5/5 There are musicians who have been in one important band. There are musicians lucky enough…

Stephen Davis (1985) – Book Review Author: Stephen DavisPublished: 1985Genre: Rock Biography / Music History / Led ZeppelinRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸 – 4/5 There are rock biographies. There are books about excess. And then there’s Hammer of the Gods —…

Kim Gordon (2015) – Book Review Author: Kim GordonPublished: 2015Genre: Autobiography / Alternative Rock / Art / Music MemoirRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 There are music autobiographies that arrive kicking the door down, waving an empty whisky bottle and shouting…

Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss (2001) – Book Review Authors: Mötley Crüe with Neil StraussPublished: 2001Genre: Autobiography / Hard Rock / Heavy Metal / Music MemoirRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 There are rock autobiographies that tell you what happened backstage.…

Laura Jane Grace (2016) – Book Review Author: Laura Jane Grace with Dan OzziPublished: 2016Genre: Autobiography / Punk Rock / Music MemoirRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 Some rock autobiographies are basically victory laps. We formed a band. We got famous.…

Book Review: Booze, Bass, Bombers & One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s Greatest Characters Author: Lemmy Kilmister with Janiss GarzaPublished: 2002Genre: Music / Autobiography / Rock ’n’ RollRiff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 There are rock autobiographies. There are outrageous rock autobiographies.…

Five Sonicbond books. Five legendary catalogues. One enormous musical rabbit hole. 🤘📖🔥 There is a dangerous sentence every music obsessive knows: “I’ll just listen to one album.” Absolute bollocks. One album becomes another. Then you start reading about the recording…

High voltage, filthy riffs and decades of rock ’n’ roll examined one song at a time 🤘⚡ There are complicated bands. There are mysterious bands. There are bands whose music requires seventeen paragraphs, a university degree and a diagram to…

The quiet architect behind Genesis finally gets centre stage — and it’s about bloody time When people talk about Genesis, certain images tend to appear immediately. Peter Gabriel dressed as a flower. 🌻 Phil Collins behind the drums — and…

From ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ — Sonicbond’s On Track series tackles the years when four lads from Liverpool changed absolutely everything There are bands. There are massive bands. There are bands that define generations. And then there…