Review. 666 reasons to read Dayal Patterson's BLACK METAL. INTO THE ABYSS (2016)

1.The book is not just a book, as said before, it's a part of series, which includes three books and something more. And, it has a great site (www.cultneverdies.com) which makes books even more interesting, available. Metal Hammer's journalist Dayal Patterson created a real empire of Black Metal Investigations, and i wish him to reach all the world's countries and to publish 666 books. He is young, and there are lots of countries which also has great black metal (for example, my native Lithuania and our brothers in Latvia; they are not yet in Dayal's books, only Estonia's LOITS is).

2.The book is black and white except covers. It's done in a great zine-like way, full of interviews, photos of bands/musicians, album covers, and information which i, being a fan of black metal, don't even know. I'm happy to read about bands which play good music but are not yet known, so i can discover black metal's deepness. Exclusive interviews with 1349, FURIA, MASSEMORD, FORGOTTEN WOODS, TSJUDER, NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION, VEMOD, ONE TAIL, ONE HEAD, MYSTIFIER, BLACK ALTAR, BESATT, MORD ‘A’ STIGMATA, TRIST, HELHEIM, HYPOTHERMIA, LOITS, DEINONYCHUS, PSYCHONAUT 4, KOLDBRANN, URGEHAL, SACRILEGIUM and BLAZE OF PERDITION have lots of things to tell.

3.As i journalist and author of the first (and the only) Lithuanian rock (including black metal) encyclopedia (2011) myself i like journalistic style of Dayal. His interviews are long, slow, but questions are interesting, well-prepared, with many funny and serious things that make A band into THE band.

4.Interview with LOITS is not just 16 (sic) pages of interesting text and photos, but also Chapter 15. Every band has a Chapter. I like this point of view concerning Music. So, as You see, the book is more than serious even if You think or thought that black metal is something stupid or evil. No, it isn't. They are smart, interesting, deep, strange, black and play good music.

5.One thing which, i think, is a lack, is music itself. I would love to find a CD with this book, because some bands are not very well known, so a CD (or even DVD) of songs by the interviewed bands would be a great deal. Anyway, true black metal fan will find those albums, even if they are rare. And the book is really for true black metal fans.

6.There are 661 more reasons to read this book, but i cannot tell You them, because they are in the text: words. Wise, interesting, artful words. This is a serial encyclopedia which is worth to be read, kept and saved for other generations. Tusen takk, Dayal.