Thursday, May 19, 2011

Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Eddie Trunk is a god among men (and women), especially those of the metal persuasion. He could be deemed as such just for bringing That Metal Show to television airwaves, but TMS is but one of the more recent high points in his decades of dedication to metal. It's a love that has manifested itself in a myriad of forms. A random sampling of the Trunk CV reveals that this proud son of New Jersey was: instrumental in signing Metallica to Megaforce, squired Anthrax while they tenured there, got Billy Squier in the mid-card between Skid Row and Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium, got Twisted Sister to reunite and was generally on the front lines for everything tri-State and metal for the last couple of decades.

Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal compiles 30 or so essays on his favorite bands, all posited against a backdrop of photographs from long-time cohort Ron Akiyama and supplemented with obscure facts and playlists of his favorite tracks from each. Trunk is an everyman metal fan with an encyclopedic knowledge garnered from first-hand interactions through radio, TV or print interviews. It's a shame that experts are so rarely afforded a forum as significant as That Metal Show, but you have to take the high spots when you can. This cannot come with any higher recommendations from the JS-NYC cognoscenti: if you are into metal and or hard rock in any, way, shape or form, there is no possible way you will not enjoy Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.

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R

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