Heroes of the Metal Underground
The Definitive Guide to 1980s American Independent Metal Bands
The only encyclopedic and definitive book on American indie metal!
If all you know about metal music was what was heard on commercial radio, then you don’t know metal at all. Heroes of the Metal Underground profiles over 1100 American bands from every town and city in the United States who ever released a record.
Metal bands exploded during the 1980s. Influenced by the heavy sounds coming out of Britain via Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, young guitar shredders turned the amps up and played harder and faster. American record companies scooped up a few bands and signed them to major label recording deals (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax) but that left hundreds of bands—and their fans—trying to get their songs heard.
These intrepid metal bands borrowed a page from punk’s DIY handbook and did it themselves. Regional favorites. Hometown heroes. Tour van veterans. Bands who invested their life-savings into recording and pressing their songs onto albums for a shot at immortality on vinyl.
“With his previous books, Crossover the Edge and We Can Be the New Wind, Alexandros Anesiadis has already proven beyond doubt his commitment to his subject matter when it comes to unearthing long-lost musical gems. A sonic archaeologist on an arcane mission, he does all the digging and gets his hands dirty, so we don’t have to. And once again, Heroes of the Metal Underground is no exception, a warm and enthusiastic trawl through the American metal underground of the Eighties – a deep dive so deep your ears will be bleeding… and not just from the hydrostatic pressure! This one will take you a month to read, but a whole year to digest, such is the colorful smorgasbord of rare delicacies served up for your attention.” - Ian Glasper, Silence Is No Reaction: Forty Years of Subhumans (PM Press, 2023) and Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980–1984 (PM Press, 2014)
“Alexandros’ in-depth research and clear love and fervor for this music bleeds all over this book! A reference book to a movement that changed music from the underside, through the back door and crashing the gates to get in. A never taking no for an answer youth movement of music which is like a library full of classics for you to discover! A must have history book! Alexandros has painstakingly amassed a wealth of history and it rings familiar to my memories of my high school band Cro-Mags and the underground DIY brute force culture of underground metal and hardcore that made us give our all at our ‘Stab at immortality.’” - Parris Mayhew, AGGROS and former member of the Cro-Mags
“The metal underground, the tape trading letter writing mangled demo pushing world was similar to the punk underground. And like that underground, there is even an underground under the underground! And this is where Alexandros come into the picture with his new book.” – Brian Walsby, Self Empunishment (Pelekinesis, 2020)
Alexandros Anesiadis was born in 1981 in Thessaloniki, Greece, and is now living between London and Greece. He's finishing his Ph.D. in Media and Communications while working on all things Social Media. He describes himself as a manic record collector, trying to get his hands on releases by bands that not many have a clue about. His previous books, Crossover The Edge and We Can Be The New Wind, document punk and hybrid punk-metal bands. Alex loves going to small club gigs, traveling the world, and attempting to keep his daughter and his partner happy!
