Book Review - "Doom Let Loose" by Martin Popoff (2006)

[stonerphonic]

Book: Doom Let Loose
Author: Martin Popoff
Year: 2006
Subject: Black Sabbath



I have THE best girlfriend on the planet. I don't know too many girls who even KNOW who Sabbath are, let alone love their guy enuff to appreciate his obsession with a band to the point of making sure he has the best possible collection of Sabbath fanboy material outside of Hugh Gilmour's private stash. But my girlfriend def makes sure I'm well looked after...

Doom Let Loose is a pictorial archive, and not just any pictorial archive, but seriously one of the best damn Sabbath print collections I've seen in the one resource in more than 24 years of collecting Sabbath gear. More than that, DLL chronicles the band's history, through all periods, and provides answers to some of the the questions about the music, the band, and the Sabbath legacy that for years now remained unanswered.

Popoff's candid interviews with band members is thoroughly fascinating, and altho there have been many previous attempts to decipher the meaning behind the songs and their lyrics, wait til you get a hold of this book. An exhaustive song-by-song odyssey takes us thru the albums, and thru the years of one of metal's best loved and at times most controversial bands. This 350+ page tome chronicles the drugs, drink, depression and doom that surrounded them, and how they managed to overcome their demons to go on and write some of the greatest albums of all time.

Tony Iommi discusses the band infighting, the legal battles, and how he managed to keep Black Sabbath together despite the line-up changes. Ozzy candidly speaks of his departure, and his continued observance of the band from afar, and opens up about the importance and meaning behind the Reunion gig. Bill Ward lets Popoff into the vicious cycle of alcoholism that plagued him, and discusses his allegiance to Ozzy. Finally, we get to take a trip into the mind of the group's writting force, Geezer Butler, as he explains in great detail the song writing process - and the emotional difficulty of dealing with different lead singers.

But it's the artwork that really stands out. And the collection is nothing short of breathtaking.



The book contains 22 chapters, a complete (and I mean complete) discog, and enuff bits and pieces in there to make this book one that any true Sabbath freak will not vanish "into the void" before having read it.

Popoff knows his metal well, and with 15 other metal chronicles out there, including books on Dio, Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult and UFO, you know this guy isn't going to let you down.



For only $19.95 US, this valuable Sabbath resource is def worth the effort to hunt down. Coupled with some never before told stories from the original band line up plus interviews with Dio, Tony Martin, Ian Gillan, Vinnie Appice and Neil Murray, this is in my opinion one of if not THE best Black Sabbath tome on the market today.

Doom Let Loose gets a perfect score out of 5 from me.



Written review by stonerphonic © December 2010
Book generously provided by my girlfriend. Thanks darlin' xoxo
All rights reserved

[The Shocker]

Great book!  Martin Popoff is by far and away my favorite music writer.  His guide to 70's Heavy Metal is my bible.  He was a SR.com member, but didn't post much.  I've actually conversed with him via email & he's a really nice guy.

[stonerphonic]

Thanks deaner33. Yea, his books covering the metal genre specific are very thorough, and I can't stress enuff how valuable DLL is for any real Sabbath fan out there. I've been into Sabbath since I was 16, I'm in my 40's now, and I thought I'd seen it all until this came out. Well researched, very well told, and the plates/ pictures are some of the most amazing vintage Sab stuff currently available. Can't recommend this highly enuff. I was on SR.com for many years, but never got into forum discussions or posting, but felt since this site is new, it's worth throwing a few things down to kick it along. Thanks for commenting man.

[sleestak]

i heard that his mama had a baby and it's head Popoff.

[stonerphonic]

i heard that his mama had a baby and it's head Popoff.

Let's play pull the tail off the lizard.....

[L. Ron]

I picked this up a month and a half or so ago.  Great read and lots of cool photos.

[EddieMullet]

I read the whole thing cover to cover in a day and half, couldn't put it down, awesome book.

I REALLY want to read his book on UFO, but can't find a copy for sale anywhere at a decent price.

[The Shocker]

I've ordered directly from Popoff before, you may want to check his website for prices.  I want that UFO book too.

http://www.martinpopoff.com/frame.html

If you order from him, he'll autograph it for you.

[goldwater]

really late to this thread. i cant wait for his 1979 ye olde metal book. 68-72,73-75,1976,1977,1978 all came out very quick. one after the other. this ones taking forever. i love his books. he's like me but motivated.

[The Shocker]

really late to this thread. i cant wait for his 1979 ye olde metal book. 68-72,73-75,1976,1977,1978 all came out very quick. one after the other. this ones taking forever. i love his books. he's like me but motivated.

Can't wait for that (getting to be an expensive collection) and I'm hoping he decides to do that Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal Volume 4: The 2000's... 

[goldwater]

in the forward to the collectors guide 80's edition he said he doubted he could do a 00's one. he said he would probably leave that to an apprentice of his. his site said he was really trying to focus on his artwork more lately. this would explain the slowdown.

[The Shocker]

I think I read on his site at some point that he was leaning towards doing it after all (but that was a while ago).  Really hope he does cause the 2000's had some interesting metal.

Probably like a lot of the bands we love, he's not really making that much money off of his books.  Lot's more money in art if people dig your work...

The 70's book is essentially my Bible...

[goldwater]

the 70's book introduced me to alot of stuff i never knew. hard stuff- bulletproof. potliquor. hydra. rex. granicus. many many more too. i thought his collectors guides had to be making him money. are'nt they still being printed even now? i doubt the "ye olde metal" series can make him rich, but they are a great way to read indepth about records that nobody else would even think about writing of. i hope for all our sakes he gets back to it.

[The Shocker]

Hey Goldwater, look at the email I got today:

Apologies if you got this a few times - my system's a l'il old school! But yes...





The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal: Volume 4: The '00s



Copies of new monster tome ready to ship! This is the fourth in the series of my reviews books, only this time I've written 1,748 reviews and buddy and BW&BK scribe extraordinaire David Perri has written 1,619, for a total of 3,367 reviews covering albums from the last decade.



The book is 580,000 words and 572 pages of metal madness covering the continuing catalogues of all your '70s and '80s favourites (these are mostly by me, the old guy) and all manner of newer metal stuff (this is mostly David... dude goes to 100 concerts a year and is a metal wiz and wicked smart writer). Lotsa crossover, but yeah, I wasn't going to be able to do this alone, and David's vast knowledge of metal's last 15 or so years makes this such that we've covered most of the major artists and albums in this anvil of a heavy tome – a crazy undertaking. Also included is an exclusive promo 14 track Metal Blade Records sampler.



Cheesy company blurb reads as follows:



"The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal: Volume 4: The '00s is the hotly anticipated new addition to a celebrated franchise of album review books from Martin Popoff, heavy metal's most famous journalist. Martin's previous volumes tore into and reconstructed the '70s, '80s and '90s, with each book being a hot seller for CGP, causing endless debates into the night for metalheads worldwide. But there's a twist this time: the book is a co-write between Popoff (author of 30 books on the genre), and David Perri, prolific star-in-the-making journalist for Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, 14 years in print, now gone digital (Popoff was Perri's Editor In Chief). Making full use of their respective areas of expertise, Popoff and Perri attack the albums each knows best, collectively amassing approximately 3400 headbanging, no punches-pulled rants, with band's catalogues represented alphabetically then chronologically, the writer of each review identified, and a grade out of ten confidently offered. A closing appendix records each writer's Top 100 heavy metal albums of the decade, sure to provide ammunition for a continued war of words about this controversial series. The battle rages on!"



Still available:



The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies (1,162 review; 344 pages)

The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties (2,528 reviews; 428 pages)

The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties (3,073 reviews; 518 pages)



If you need to catch up on any of these, contact me or see martinpopoff.com for more. There are some possible substantial shipping cost savings to be had, depending on weight of final order and where the heck you are.



Prices including shipping cost (higher than usual due to the book's weight and changes and the relative strength of the Canadian dollar - sorry! Nothing I can do about it.) are as follows

Ordering info:
US orders: $48.00 US funds.
Int'l SURFACE mail orders: $55.00 US funds.
Int'l AIR mail orders: $70.00 US funds.
Canadian orders: $48.00 Cdn. funds.



PayPal appropriate amount to PayPal addie martinp@inforamp.net


All books will be signed by me to you (for Perri's autograph, head to Montreal!) – so make sure you tell me if it's for someone else!
Personal check in US or Canadian funds also accepted: Martin Popoff, P.O. Box 65208, 358 Danforth Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4K 2Z2.

If you are in the US and want to use a money order, make sure it's an international one.



See www.martinpopoff.com for info on my 27 books, including:

Gettin' Tighter: Deep Purple '68 - '76

All Access: The Art & History Of The Backstage Pass

Ye Olde Metal: 1978 (ltd. to 1000 - FIFTH in series!)



Martin Popoff, PO Box 65208,

358 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON M4K 2Z2



Price is steep, but I'll still be ordering!

[goldwater]

thanks deaner. now we know he's still at it. i'm not much into the new metal, but i'll check it out. he's a good writer, just finished his judas priest book.

[The Shocker]

I'm hoping there's plenty of stoner/doom reviews in it.  How was the Priest book?

[goldwater]

at 572 pgs. there should be tons of stoner/doom. the priest book was as good as popoff could make of it. in the forward he complains that the guys just don't expand alot on the politics, personal problems,and any of the intricasies of the band as they were making each album. i love his enthusiasm for the 70's records. there's just not much in the way of tidbits to enliven the stories of the records themseves. it's still a good book, going song for song into each album. doom let loose is the better though.

[libertycaps]

Shit. I need this along with his BOC book.