Molten

I've been reading Ian Christe's truly excellent book, The Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. It's been a favourite of mine for years, and since I have little new reading material at the moment I decided to dig back into it and read it cover to cover. Christe's truly astonishing depth of knowledge and knowing smirk shine through his well-constructed narrative of the history of heavy music from its inception in the late 60's up until its publishing date in 2002. Anyone with an interest in metal or rock music should read this book, which also contains a series of handy genre guides listing essential recordings in all styles of metal.

Christe also curates and contributes to a fantastic blog at Bazillion Points Publishers which speciallizes in metal-related books, films and food. They have a particularly great collection of obscure metal demos from all manner of underground (and sometimes above-ground) bands. Check it out for an unholy collection of all manner of grimy,dungeon-production thrash, death, black and power metal filth by teenagers who can barely play their instruments. In other words, its fucking awesome.