Featuring: David Baldacci, Jonathan D. Beer, Janice Hallett, Mike Lawson, Lauren Nossett, K.J. Parker, Iain Reid & Ellie Foumbi, Joe Manganiello, Amy Rossi, Richard Russo, Hans van de Ven, Kevin Wade
Dan Franklin
Out Now: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SCREAMING AND CRYING by Dan Franklin (Constable)
Back in 2020, I read Dan Franklin‘s excellent history and examination of heavy metal, Heavy. His latest book, which I somehow missed until yesterday, is Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying, a new biography of the band Slipknot. Published yesterday by Constable, the book’s release was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the band’s second album: Iowa.
The album was released shortly before I started university (and, less nostalgically, a couple of weeks before 9/11). I have many fond, quite vivid memories of buying the album on release-day, and spending the following days walking the streets of Oxford, discman in my cargo-pants side pocket, the album on repeat. It remains an excellent album, although (in my humble opinion), the follow-up — Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) — is better. I’m really looking forward to reading Franklin’s new book, and revisiting those heady days of nü-metal dominance. With Iowa blasting the background, of course…
Here’s the book’s official synopsis:
A captivating biography of Slipknot by acclaimed music writer, Dan Franklin, to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Iowa: an album that redefined metal.
Slipknot is one of metal’s most iconic and recognisable bands. In late August 2001, Slipknot released their extraordinarily brutal second album, Iowa. With it, nine masked maniacs from the American Midwest captured the zeitgeist and reimagined the genre. The album’s emotional intensity and aggression was matched only by its commercial success, as it topped album charts and defined the nu metal era.
Two weeks after its release, the world changed forever. After the attacks of 9/11, Slipknot collided with history and a generation in upheaval. As the band’s members struggled with their own demons, it wasn’t certain that Slipknot would survive. What followed is a story that’s as tumultuous, gripping, and as real as it gets.
Somewhere Between Screaming And Crying is the story of Iowa‘s difficult birth and its remarkable impact in a world seemingly coming apart at the seams. As nu metal is embraced by a new generation today, Dan Franklin unravels how and why this much-maligned subgenre still connects so strongly and explores the ongoing influence of Slipknot as one of the most recognisable and artistically vital bands in metal today.
Dan Franklin’s Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying is out now in the UK, published by Constable. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any information about a North American publisher.)
Also on CR: Review of Heavy
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Quick Review: HEAVY by Dan Franklin (Constable)
What exactly is heavy metal music? How deep do its roots go?
Long established as an undeniable force in culture, metal traces its roots back to leather-clad iron men like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, who imbued their music with a mysterious and raw undercurrent of power.
Heavy unearths this elusive force, delving deep into the fertile culture that allowed a distinctive new sound to flourish and flaying the source material to get to the beating heart of the music. From the imminent threat of nuclear apocalypse that gave rise to Metallica’s brand of volatile thrash metal to Bloodbath and Carcass, the death metal bands resurrecting the horror of medieval art.
But there are always more lines to be drawn. Cradle of Filth and Ulver trade in the transgressive impulses of gothic literature; Pantera lay bare Nietzsche’s ‘superman’; getting high leads to the escapist sci-fi dirges of Sleep and Electric Wizard; while the recovery of long-buried urns in the seventeenth century holds the key to the drone of Sunn O))).
Dissecting music that resonates with millions, Heavy sees Slipknot wrestling with the trauma of 9/11, Alice in Chains exposing the wounds of Vietnam and Iron Maiden conjuring visions of a heroic England. Powerful, evocative and sometimes sinister, it gives shape and meaning to the terrible beauty of metal.
This is a fascinating, intelligent and engaging examination of what it means for music (and a few other things) to be “heavy”. Using a few bands, their windows and genres as windows into the worlds of heavy metal, Franklin takes readers on an interesting tour of heavy music over the last few decades. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading
New Books (March)
Featuring: Marie Brennan, Rae Carson, Antony Dapiran, Eric Jerome Dickey, Seth Dickinson, Kate Elliott, Dan Franklin, John French, Sarah Gerard, Nicole Jarvis, N.K. Jemisin, Stephen Graham Jones, Val Kilmer, Yoon Ha Lee, David Litt, David Mack, Andrew Pyper, John Scalzi, Alexis Schaitkin, V.E. Schwab, Matt Sorum, Zoje Stage, Ryan Van Loan, Adrian J. Walker, Matt Wallace, Martha Wells, Ben Widdicombe, Anne Wiener
Civilian Reader 