Wednesday, February 26, 2025

THE BIBLE OF HEAVY METAL - ENCYCLOPEDIA METALLICA … THE BOOK THAT GAVE METALLICA THEIR NAME! (1980)


This book by journalists Brian Harrigan (Melody Maker) & Malcolm Dome (Record Mirror/Kerrang! and later of Metal Fury/Metal Hammer/Raw/Metal Forces/Classic Rock/Rock Candy), was at least one of, if not the first book about Heavy Metal. Originally printed in 1980, it explains the history & evolution of the genre up to that point, but is heavy on photos & light on text. Due to it's success the book was later reprinted several times by Omnibus Books but this here is the original 1980 1st edition from Bobcat Books. 

THE BOOK WHERE METALLICA GOT THEIR NAME FROM

Metallica was first formed in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, in 1981 and Lars Ulrich was the one to secure the name Metallica for the band of merry metal makers.

At the time, Ulrich was chatting with his friend, Ron Quintana, who was in the beginning stages of creating a fanzine. (A fanzine, for folks who aren’t familiar, is a magazine created by fans for fans of a particular music group or genre.)

“He told me he wanted to start his own fanzine, like a hard rock fanzine, where he wrote about all his favorite bands. And he wanted—he asked me whether he should call the fanzine Metallica or Metal Mania. So I suggested that he call it Metal Mania,” Ulrich said in a 2018 interview.

The drummer recalled that he suggested Metal Mania because he wanted Metallica for himself. Perhaps it was a splash of clever manipulation, but in the end, there was no harm done. In fact, Quintana explained in the same interview that Metal Mania worked best for his fanzine.

“I was happy to give the name for him,” he said. “I was a metal fanatic so I chose Metal Mania, actually before he used the name Metallica because I actually did not want to use it. There was already the (name) Encyclopedia Metallica, which is a very good name, but for me, Metal Mania was better and when he told me he was going to call his band ‘Metallica’ I told him to make good use of it.”


If you’re a support Patreon member for as low as US$1/month 
you can download a copy of the book in Pdf format here!

Please report if the book gets back in print so I can take it down.