Books Reviews

Welcome to The Riff Report Book Reviews – proving that occasionally even the loudest rock and metal fans put the headphones down, switch off the amps and pick up a book. 📚🎸🤘

Although, naturally, there’s a pretty good chance that book will still involve massive riffs, legendary bands, backstage chaos and enough rock ’n’ roll excess to make your nan raise an eyebrow.

Our Book Reviews section dives into the written side of the rock, metal and entertainment world, covering everything from artist autobiographies and band biographies to music history, photography books, tour diaries, behind-the-scenes stories and deep dives into legendary albums, scenes and festivals.

There are some incredible stories hiding behind the music we love.

We want to know what really happened when the stage lights went down. We want the stories from cramped tour vans, chaotic recording sessions, disastrous gigs and those moments when bands suddenly realised they were becoming considerably bigger than anybody expected.

Rock and metal history is packed with fascinating characters, and books give musicians, photographers, journalists, producers, roadies and countless others the opportunity to tell stories that might otherwise disappear into rock ’n’ roll folklore.

And we’ll be digging into them.

Expect reviews of books covering legendary musicians, iconic bands, historic venues, famous tours, groundbreaking albums and the cultural moments that helped shape generations of music fans.

But this section isn’t restricted purely to music.

The Riff Report has always enjoyed wandering into the wider world of entertainment, so you might also find us reviewing books connected to film, television, gaming, comedy, horror, pop culture and anything else we reckon our readers might enjoy.

Most importantly, we’ll tell you whether a book is actually worth your time.

We’re not interested in simply repeating the description from the back cover. We want to talk about what makes the book interesting, the stories that grabbed our attention, what we learned and whether you’ll still be turning pages when you realise it’s somehow two o’clock in the morning.

There’ll be legendary tales.

There’ll be surprising revelations.

There’ll probably be several stories involving musicians making spectacularly questionable decisions.

That’s rock ’n’ roll for you.

So stick your favourite album on the turntable, pour yourself a cuppa – or something considerably stronger – find somewhere comfortable and crack open the next chapter.

Because sometimes the greatest stories in rock and metal aren’t sung through a microphone – they’re written on the page.

Bands. Legends. Backstage stories. Music history. Brilliant books.

Welcome to The Riff Report Book Reviews. 📚🎸🔥🤘