Finnish publisher Johnny Kniga’s ultra-rugged hardcover edition of my heavy metal history book Sound of the Beast has just been scorched and stomped by a real monster from Japan’s Hayakawa Publishing. A sack these deluxe 600-page beasts arrived unexpectedly this afternoon like a storm of Ultraman villains, complete with chrome-embossed cover, matte black-on-black skull print on actual book beneath cover, gunmetal grey woven ribbon bookmark, and gonzo uber-metallic and detailed cover painting by Hayakawa Designs. (At least, that’s what I deciphered the katakana text to say).
If you’re keeping track, this joins American, British, German, Czech, French, Finnish, and Spanish editions of this book. Soon to come are Croatian, Serbian, Italian, and Brazilian editions. Yes, it’s fair to say that the success of Sound of the Beast has matched my wildest dreams. But of course there was never any question that the world needed a comprehensive overview of heavy metal like this.
Of course all of this is now fuel for Bazillion Points books. We’ve now got about twelve books in the incubator; everything from Andy McCoy’s ribald tales to Jeff Wagner’s dazzling prog metal book to the unannounced Slayer Mag anthology that has roared into life in the past couple weeks. And ANUS.com just did a lengthy joint interview with me and Swedish Death Metal author Daniel Ekeroth that talks about the origins of all this madness.
If your local Shane Embury toy source doesn’t carry SOTB-JP, here’s the LINK to Amazon.jp.
And domo arigato to book translator Yuka Nakajima!
That Japanese edition looks sick. Congratulations!