Customer Reviews

Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow, what a great story. Dave lets it all out and holds nothing back. Its truly a great read and throughly written. Its a must for metal fans. Buy buy buy it now.

This is the best autobiography about a rocker yet!! Once I started reading it, I did not want to put it down. I found every page to be entertaining. I have heard people say it was a bit rushed in the end.... but since he has turned christian, and has straightened out his life....what else is there to write about? Happy to say, I will be seeing him in concert in Calgary on the 18 of Feb..... if it wasnt for this book I probly wouldn't have sought out tickets for his sold out show. I have always been a Megadeth fan, and read about some of his struggles, but it is nice to hear his side of the story in more detail. So glad he is still with us today, and continuing to make awesome music. This book is deffinately a must have for any fan.

If you are a Megadeth fan and a Dave Mustaine fan this is a must read. Some of the stories have been told before but they do go into further detail here in the book making them all the more interesting. A ton of great pictures and Megadeth/Mustaine moments

A must buy

I've read many rock/metal musicians' autobiographies over the years in hopes to learn more about my favorite artists , Megadeth happens to be on the list of bands that I really like and have strong respect for (especially Mustaine) so this was a must read for me. Honestly, Dave Mustaine's autobiography shouldn't be really all that surprising to anyone who's been a fan of his following him for years; a big part of his life has already been covered (addiction, getting kicked out of Metallica, his drug and alcohol abuses and his conversion to Christianity for examples). Megadeth founder and frontman, Mustaine has been in the rock'n'roll business for years, he's been successful and he's been in incredibly dark places in his life. Mustaine : A Heavy Metal Memoir is a great look at the rock'n'roll lifestyle and the excesses that comes with it. It's very much the good, the bad and the ugly, there's no shortage of any of them in Mustaine's memoir (even if the good is a little rarer). To be honest I expected more ink on the subject of his Metallica exit (make no mistake, he does talk about it quite a few times) and I'm glad that he didn't stop there.

Mustaine comes off as a smart person who's well aware of what he's done. He knows the damage he's done to himself with alcohol and drugs while at the same time hurting others around him. In fact he apologizes for hurting so many people over the years and learned to forgive others (yet you still sense he will never let go of Metallica, however he seems angrier at himself for blowing it). It's interesting to read about feuds Mustaine has had with bands such as Metallica, Slayer (Kerry King only it seems) and Pantera, one way or another it always seems to turn out alright (I'm not saying he was right or wrong). Mustaine's conversion to Christianity is a well-known fact in the metal community but reading about how it actually happened and how he found god and changed his life for the best (while still providing metalheads remarkable music, Amen to that!) was inspiring to say the least. I liked to read how even if he's a Christian he doesn't try to change anyone's personal beliefs and how it helped him reach balance and happiness in his life, not to mention that it strongly helped him get rid of his unhealthy addictions. He certainly has no problem acknowledging what he did well and what he did wrong, I'll give him that. Mustaine has very interesting views on things, for instance he disproves of satanic bands and his views on rehab were certainly...well interesting!

The book is filled with emotions, mostly negative ones. From the death of his father to whom he was not very close to his first job (selling substances) , being alone and not much of a family to support him. It seems what really saved Mustaine life was music like many other musicians, he had a passion and a strong will to succeed. I loved that Mustaine went in analysis of each Megadeth album, he talked about the events that lead to it, who played on it and what he or his fans thought. A Heavy Metal Memoir shows the true Dave Mustaine, he tells us the good when there's been good and bad when it was bad, he's very honest about what he says. I was touched by Dave's childhood story and when he talks about what he felt when his father died, I have to admit I cried, it's an intense book. It was nice to read about Metallica's RNR Hall of Fame Ceremony and their invitation to Dave, the answer he gave them said it all and he was not being arrogant or inconsiderate. On another note the pictures that are in the book (thought I must admit I'm not a big fan of the book cover) are very good and there are some very good ones of Mustaine playing live with Megadeth and one of each of his kids. There are some colored pictures in the middle of the book as most bios have and there are also others in black and white that can be found at each beginning of chapters and at many other places throughout the book.

The impression I had after reading the book was that Mustaine was seriously considering retirement, but it's not really a surprise since he's been talking about it for quite some time. He definitely loves the music but he wants to spend more time with his family and the music takes a big portion of his time let's put it that way. Recently Mustaine along with Megadeth performed some concerts celebrating the 20th anniversary of the metal masterpiece Rust In Piece and is still talking about new music, yet still talking about retirement. Enough with the retirement issue, some reviewers have commented that Dave didn't give away enough unknown content but I was rather satisfied with the book's content and how it turned out. It's a really interesting bio and I don't have much to criticize, in my opinion this is stuff fans want to know and want to read. Solid book, 4 ' stars.

Dave Mustaine has long been known as a walking contradiction. His personal feuds with members of Metallica and Slayer notwithstanding, Mustaine blazed a path of self destruction for much of his personal life before finally wrestling control over his demons long enough to stay grounded. To this day, one gets the sense that it might all come apart at the seams if Mustaine strays but a little from his difficult path. Reading 'A Heavy Metal Memoir' reinforces this fact, tenfold.

To those who know of Mustaine's early life and his subsequent rise as a heavy metal icon, most of this is nothing new. The story was told in largely truncated fashion on VH1's "Behind the Music: Megadeth" piece which did a pretty good job of summing up the band's musical career while touching largely on Mustaine's ascension to the throne. His book brings all this up again while adding more layers of complexity to the story that weren't known before this. From his festering anger of being picked on by bullies as a child to his self-admitted problems with alcohol and drug addiction which soiled relationships with friends and family members, Mustaine is being downright honest.

Or is he?

It's no secret that Mustaine has a notorious penchant for contradicting himself, skewing the facts and acting in such a manner as to present himself in the best light. Even self-deprecation is a tool that he has mastered to some great degree. Readers must remember that this is the same man who ridiculed Steve Tyler for being pompous and arrogant enough to call himself "Aerosmith," only to go on and call himself "Megadeth" years later because he was the sole, true contributing member of the band (reference the feud between Mustaine and bandmate David Ellefson). Reading 'A Heavy Metal Memoir' requires a large degree of caution on the part of the reader, for nobody truly knows if Mustaine is painting himself in the best light possible to smear those he talks about. For as vain and egotistical as he comes off, he can also sound quite humble when speaking of the stupidity of mass drug and alcohol use, the latter of which would admittedly put him in a confrontational and aggressive mood. On the flip side, Mustaine displays a surprising amount of callousness and lack of empathy towards those he admitted to wronging; fellows like Ron McGovney, reps from Combat Records, female bedmates that he used for shelter, food and drugs, and (naturally) Metallica. Granted, Mustaine is being straightforward and brutally honest about the way he perceived the world and people at these specific times in his life, but there's not even a hint of regret in his tone most of the time.

Reading the book from cover to cover, one thing becomes very clear: despite reassurances to the contrary, Mustaine is still hung up on his past. Badly. He may have settled enough feuds with musical contemporaries like Slayer and Metallica to have finally made the Big 4 event a reality, but it's clear that he refuses to forgive AND forget. For all his worldly knowledge and experience, Mustaine is still very much an angst-ridden, angry young man trying to solidify his sense of place in the world around him. As such, his views and opinions remain clouded because of that anger and distort the reality of his situation. Even Mustaine's woefully inaccurate and disturbingly skewed opinion of Jehovah's Witnesses seems more like lashing out at the most convenient party, while the blame should actually be placed on the fragmented dysfunction of his family life at the time. That being said, it's one man's opinion, and he isn't asking for a psychologist to sort out the tangled mass of wiring in his head, but...perhaps he should. The book goes on to document the progression of Megadeth's musical career and, once again, Mustaine's problems with band members and industry professionals who were all apparently out to get him. There's a dreadful sense of disrespect that the man displays towards certain key people who, for better or worse, played a great role in Megadeth's rise to the iconic band they are today. Rather than let bygones be bygones as Mustaine has repeatedly promised in the media, the reader gets the sense that he may have been thinking "I still hate you, but I don't want to fight anymore."

They say you cannot judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, so one must exercise a bit of an open heart. Mustaine's humiliating expulsion from Metallica isn't exactly news, but his recollection of it is heartbreaking. You cannot help but feel a great degree of sympathy for a man who, in the space of a few hours, lost everything he held dear, only to board a bus with absolutely no money in his pocket and have to rely on the courtesy and compassion of complete strangers for donuts and water. Equally admirable is Mustaine's determination to fight back, starting with his penning of the lyrics to what would later become the Megadeth song "Set the World Afire" on the very same bus ride. While reading about Mustaine's powerful determination to become a metal icon and prove that he had what it takes to succeed, one can't really pinpoint if it is personal fortitude or a raging inferiority complex that fueled his stubborn will. Whatever the case, it's admirable that the man didn't stay in the gutter and fade away into nothingness, but rose from the pits of his personal hell to form one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time. Unfortunately, I never got the sense that the people who assisted him on this road to success were ever necessary to him, or even mattered. Those who have stuck with Mustaine through the years have always been spoken well of...until they leave the band, at which point Mustaine shows either contempt, or nonchalant indifference. The reader will find much of that here.

If one is to read this book, they should do so with skepticism. I highly doubt Mustaine is a liar, but the brain plays tricks on its host, especially when plagued with a lifetime of psychological issues and a disturbing amount of substance abuse. To call the material in this book "fact" may be unwise and potentially dangerous. Better to think of it as "one side of the story." Droogies will go nuts over the chance to learn more about their favorite idol, but those like me who grew up diehard Megadeth fans, only to finally meet the man in person and see his moody indifference spill over onto both myself and dozens of loyal and loving fans (at the 2005 Gigantour) will take this memoir with a grain of salt, and they would be right to do so.

The most interesting aspect I found after reading Dave Mustaine's autobiography was how the progression of time combined with the abuse of substances had created in Dave's life a distortion of events that becomes more clear in hindsight. This changing perspective, one of extreem highs and lows(literally), is how the reader and the writer explore Dave Mustaine's life. It is all very dramatic, and far from average as is the excessive life of a metal god if you will. You feel the drama more profoundly I find because of this kind of tone of self exploration Dave uses to describe his experiences that alternate between a 3rd person nararator and 1st person accounts of what happened. The use of this writing style sepparates the book into two stages, appropriate for how Dave's life unfolds. Admitedly, I appreciate the first "stage" of the story more than the second. Dave seems to speak from the first person more in the stages of building Megadeth, and tends to enjoy this part more than the second. His days in Metallica are described as "loud and dangerous", with many accounts of almost fearless wrecklessness with regards to risky behaviour including substance abuse. This first half talks largely about Megadeth in it's stages of inception, in Dave's youth and has many rich detailed stories ranging from the difficulties of finding the perfect band, to girlfriend issues that are often laugh out loud funny, but also are rather deep, and make you reflect about friendships, and what they mean.

The second "stage" begins roughly halfway through the book and reflects an emotional decline in Dave's life that eventually brings the reader back to the scene described in medias-rez style at the very first chapter, describing the disaster that finally caused Dave to turn his life around and make the latest monster of an album, Endgame. I enjoyed reading this part less because Dave seemed to enjoy this part of his life less. Whether adulthood and lost youth was simply taking it's toll or that the continual drug abuse and recovery was the source of pain, there is a marked change of tone that leaves a dark impression on the reader. This is the reason I give the book 4/5, Dave Mustaine is like a hero to me, and reading the stories of relapse, recover, rehab, repeat are a bit unexpected and kind of pathetic. Dave, however is a self-described fighter, and his life is one of significant struggle. One has to give him credit not only for what he's accomplished, but for his ability to take on his "darkes hour" and come out alive. Many who go down that road are much worse off than him.

I began to devour this book while waiting in line to meet Dave and have him sign my copy at a book signing in Toronto in July. Very quickly it was evident this memoir is written from a place of candor, humor, humility and honesty that I was both surprised at and appreciative of. After all, the Dave Mustaine of my youth was a balsy mouthpiece with a sneer that could send you running for the hills and melt your heart at once (if you were an impressionable teenaged girl who loved Metal that is).

This memoir is like having a conversation with a friend. The stories shared don't come across from a place of bragging or boasting, but from a place of experience, and sometimes veer into quite emotional and serious areas. Luckily though some tales told can also be both crude and funny at once, and it really feels like the words are falling from Dave's own lips. I found it a very deeply insightful look into both an amazing creature and a flawed man, he's human just like the rest of us. Huh, who knew? In the epic percieved battle of Megadeth vs. Metallica I think everyone will enjoy this look into both Dave's life and his thought process. I was a Metallica fan for many years, with only brief flirts of Megadeth in my musical landscape. Reading this memoir has absolutely made me a bigger fan of Mustaine and his life's work.....Megadeth. I thank God every day he got kicked out of Metallica - because without THAT part of his life we wouldn't have Megadeth.

I've now read the book twice and still adore it. Go get it!

Very great book, unlike the man there are no stutters. Whoever he got to write this did a great job. Highly recommended.

Dave Mustaine's Book made me a bigger fan of Megadeth, he is right up front about his life and it is a very interesting read. A Must read and I have seen Megadeth live this year and it was a great concert (Rust in Peace 20th Anniversary Tour)

I've been a Dave Mustaine fan since I was a teenager. I always considered him to be the modern Mozart of our time. The man knows how to write music..

His book is a very comfortable read, and it leaves you feeling very close to him.. I do feel he rushed things a bit at the end however, I would have liked to heard more about his reunion with David Ellefson, and really more about the last 10 years of Megadeth.. He touched on it, but didn't go too deep.. He was also very careful (which is smart these days) to discuss his political views.. He prefers to keep that in his music..

This book is a must read however even for Metallica fans...

I really should give this 5 stars because its so good.. But its just too short!! :) Ironic eh?

Here's hoping he still get's his #1 hit someday..

Thanks Dave for such a great book.