I read the book Doom Let Loose over a year ago, so I'm going from memory. It's about Black Sabbath. If you’re a fan, you'll love it. How's that for a review? Really I want to write about the author, Martin Popoff. He is one of my favorite writers of all things metal.
My first exposure to him was to his extensive three-decade, three-volume A Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal. Most buyer guides and review anthologies crib heavily from a variety of reviews published back when the record was released. In Martin's collection, covering tens of thousands of records, you get the sense that he has listened to every album and what you are reading is his personal opinion of every title. He often contradicts well-established reviews that took root merely because they were published in Rolling Stone.
I'll pick up his books to read about heavy metal, but find myself enjoying a kind of fellowship with another music fan. Whether I agree, or disagree with him, I respect him. He is the genuine article. We all have our weak spots–records or artists that we love despite their obvious flaws. Martin Popoff's support for anything involving Ian Gillian, becomes an on-going and amusing eye-roller. It is endearing because it reminds me of my own guilty pleasures and loyalty to great artists who have made more than one misstep. (I won't mention any names but his initials are TR.)
Popoff is a serious listener. Some of his positive reviews for records that RS or Creem took a crap over, are spot on. When he's right, he nails it. His revisionist approach elevates great records that were hated on release by the punk and Velvet Underground obsessed poseurs writing for rags of the day. He writes with an enthusiasm that is infectious. When he likes a record, he makes you want to like it too. And when you just can't come around to his way of thinking, you still want to acknowledge it's redeeming qualities. If Popoff sees something of value in it, it's music that must belong in the world. When he dislikes a record, you can tell that he has really given it a chance and he can point to specific reasons and a personal context for his opinion. Occasionally admitting that context might render him prejudice.
So how dose all this relate to his Black Sabbath book Doom Let Loose? Well, in the 70's volume, his review of Black Sabbath's Sabotage is one of the more fascinating entries. It's clear that he loves the album. The review, like the record itself, is cryptic and almost impenetrable. He views the record as something unforgiving and inhuman and advises us to approach this record with the same cold detachment it was created. At first, I was not sure I liked how it was written. I had to read it twice to decipher what he was saying. It is a review that, for me, once decoded, offered a fresh insight to an album I have known and loved for over 30 years. Although not necessary for me, he also provides some instruction for the non-believer, as if reading his review will help a neophyte understand what they would not otherwise be able to grasp. This would be unforgivably arrogant if he were not so sincere about it.
When I heard Martin Popoff wrote an entire book about Black Sabbath I had to read it. Doom Let Loose does not disappoint. It starts out as expected, giving pages to each members early years and the circumstances that threw them together. It fleshes out legendary anecdotes about Iommi's accident and Osbourne's extreme poverty with excellent interview passages. It brings them together in the setting of their time and place and serves up enough back story to get down to the business of properly telling you all about Black Sabbath. Because he is truly a fan, this is where Popoff really shines. The book is more of a biographical scrapbook. The graphics include personal ticket stubs, back stage passes, gig posters, fliers, autographed LP's and tons of photos. Each record is discussed from the writing and recording to the supporting tour. His interviews dig into the process and he gets all of them to tell stories about being on the road together. The dynamic of the bands relationships comes to vivid life. For example, drummer Bill Ward is the perennial butt of 90% of the bands ruthless practical jokes. It seems with each road trip the band blew off steam with some new and ever more savage way to humiliate Ward. The drummer himself recalls these ridiculous, often disturbing incidents with as much amusement as his terrorist band mates. There is a subtext of being piss drunk and stoned all the time, and like all substance abuse survivors, stories of inebriated antics are remembered in fragments, with equal measures of regalement and regret.
Popoff also brings insight to the complicated and unsavory business side of the Black Sabbath organization. Like many artists of their generation, while they indulged in the lifestyle, others indulged in their profits. Black Sabbath, in particular, seemed to have been handled by thugs and criminals. The paradox of Sabbath is that the mounting pressures of their out-of-control drug use, being ripped off by management and too wasted to effectively deal with it resulted in some pretty damn fine rock music. The aforementioned Sabotage from 1976 is in my opinion their masterpiece. It captures the maelstrom perfectly, culminating in 'The Writ’, which is a direct fuck–you to the bands management. But don't worry; the primary focus here, why we even care about these people, is the band and the music, not bitching about management. Almost every other thing I've read about Sabbath could never resist favoring exposé. So many pages are devoted to the fun they had with groupies, drugs, and alcohol — then the clichéd cautionary tale of the downward spiral — that precious few words are left for the tunes.
Not so here. Popoff readily admits certain albums suffered greatly because of drugs. He is a fan, but not every note is canonized. Details of the turmoil are plentiful, but serve to provide a necessary backdrop to the central theme — the music. Exactly the kind of band bio I'm interested in. Also to his credit, Popoff gives as much attention the bands critical and commercial failures as he does the hits and big sellers. Much has been written about Ozzy and Paranoid but Doom Let Loose gets deep into the recording sessions for beloved clunkers like Seventh Star.
Even better, he gives thorough attention to every lineup of the band. From the height of the original foursome playing in front of 300K at Cal Jam in the mid 70's to embarrassing episodes in the 80's like replacement singer Glen Hughes being so wasted he is unable to finish a show and getting booted off the tour of half-empty theaters. Of course the Ozzy era Sabbath is well documented, and so are the Dio years. But trust Martin Popoff to cover 1983's Born Again, the one-off album and tour featuring his hero Ian Gillian. The album was, of course, despised by critics, and adored by this author. Hilarious reading!
Doom Let Loose also gives appropriate attention to those shakiest of years in the 90's with Dio clone Tony Martin as lead singer. Though there are some mighty fine riffs to be found hidden on those records, this is nobody's favorite line up. But this is the history of a rock band. Their story would be incomplete and less fascinating without it. We can relate to these struggles and hardships more easily than rock super stardom. The ups and downs are evenly chronicled in Doom Let Loose. The book follows the Sabbath and Ozzy camps along and winds down with the sporadic appearances of the original line up at Ozzfest and culminates with the stellar 1998 reunion tour.
By the end, we understand these guys a little better. Bill Ward is the real hard case of the group. Geezer Butler is the most laid-back; he's the George Harrison of the band. Ozzy is Ozzy, the book does not fully capture what is so lovable about him, but does not short-change him either. It is Tony Iommi who emerges as the heart and soul of Black Sabbath. Doom Let Loose is not a book of revelation about Black Sabbath. It's not a scandalous as Hammer Of The Gods or as ambitious as The Beatles Anthology. Like the band itself, I would not recommend it to anyone but fellow metal travelers.
If you grew up in the LP era and enjoyed pouring over gatefold liner notes, looking at albums graphics and band photos, if you never stopped believing that Black Sabbath is an important band, I think you will have fun with it. If you were around in 1980 and were blown away by the release of Heaven and Hell as much as Blizzard of Oz, this is the book for you. The book was published before the recording of 13 and it's subsequent tour. Hopefully there will be an updated edition.
