Martin Popoff books

[DemonFilth2001]

Ever read one? Are they good? He has tons of books that look good.

Kind of pricey.

[daveg]

Read the BOC one that went through the entire discography.
Had lots of interesting stuff in it, but was obviously done on the cheap. Spelling mistakes..some things out of order.

If you're interested in a subject he has written on you probably will enjoy it.

[GreatWhiteSnake]

For hardore fans only. As noted poorly written, typos, spelling errors, not terribly compelling...

[fret123]

I’ve got quite a few and really like them all. His writing style is a little different but I like it. He’s kinda non-linear and unconventional but interesting. Always lots of cool rare pictures, lots of interview quotes and it’s usually pretty in depth stuff. He’s a fan first and foremost but it’s not at all amateurish. The books I have are all really good quality prints whether hardcover or soft. I’d totally recommend and don’t understand how anyone wouldn’t like them.

[dmbrocker]

I love Martin Popoff's books, especially the Rush illustrated history book, his Big Book of Hair Metal, and Fade to Black: Hard Rock Cover Art For the Vinyl Age. Nicely written stuff.

[jaxjaguar]

I have his 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s album review books. He reviews his record collection by decade, often to some humorous write ups and 1-10 ratings. As someone said earlier, he’s unconventional but gets his point across in unique ways. Worth the money IMHO.

[ALMOSTsaved]

He occasionally does album rankings with Pete Pardo on Pete's Sea Of Tranquility YouTube channel.

[BernieTaupson]

He’s often more like an enthusiastic fan with a word processor than an author. I have his three Lizzy books, they’re just okay. Padded out with a lot of low res pictures he’s downloaded from the internet.

His Whitesnake one (Sail Away) was pretty good.

[DemonFilth2001]

$39 on his site. Seems high.

Maybe I’ll get one of his Dio books.

[Ziggy Sawdust]

I disagree with his musical opinions on just about everything so I’d say no, save your money. Comes across as the average know it all on the Steve Hoffman forums, just trying to make a buck.

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

His review books are great, I've got all of them except the 70s book. I read his Day-to-day on Mötley, but not anything else.

[Psychobolia.com]

Read the BOC one that went through the entire discography.
Had lots of interesting stuff in it, but was obviously done on the cheap. Spelling mistakes..some things out of order.

I have it...it was interesting, but it was also a tedious read, a bit too much detail in some parts, boring details...

If anyone is passing through Paris and wants my book, it's yours!

[GreatWhiteSnake]

Everyone saying he's great, do you actually ever read real books? Cause this dude is a straight up hack...

[Zander]

I have the Maiden one where he goes through each of their records with various people, like Matt Heafy and Chris Jericho. Pretty unconventional structure, but it was pretty enjoyable.. Definitely not as bad as Joel McIver.

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

Everyone saying he's great, do you actually ever read real books? Cause this dude is a straight up hack...

Explain why he is a hack.

[AlexVonHaig]

$39 on his site. Seems high.

Maybe I’ll get one of his Dio books.

They were $9.95 3 years ago

[Nate S Axel]

Doesn't that Charles Bukaki guy own a library? Maybe he has it and you can just steal it or something.

[exitflagger]

He succeeds in butthurting all those who disagree with his subjective takes. I like that.

"His opinion is absolutely WRONG! "

Why is he wrong?

"Because my opinion is RIGHT!"

[Charles Bukaki]

Doesn't that Charles Bukaki guy own a library? Maybe he has it and you can just steal it or something.

hahah, I don't have any Popoff books. I bought one of his Rush books for a buddy who's a fanatic, and flipped through it and wasn't impressed so I never bothered with any of his other books.

[krisholmes]

Ever read one? Are they good? He has tons of books that look good.

Kind of pricey.

Yeah, somehow I've managed to get about a third of his books, because he writes about the bands I like, and that no one else seems to write books about: Accept, Deep Purple's non mk. II line-ups, Scorpions, Whitesnake, Mercyful Fate etc.

If you can get your hands on "Black Sabbath - Doom Let Loose" [2006] and "Judas Priest - Heavy Metal Painkillers" [2007], and in general his larger format books, you'll get something nice... His smaller books tend to get a bit samey, as they are all built up in the way: 1) a little pre-history, 2) the albums gone through chronologically 3) the future of the band.

As for his prices, they do include shipping, and he signs everything unless you tell him not to.

[Demon Kogure]

he writes about the bands I like, and that no one else seems to write books about: Accept, Deep Purple's non mk. II line-ups, Scorpions, Whitesnake, Mercyful Fate etc.

I've got two Popoff books, and I appreciate them for this reason.

I do admire the guy's ability to produce so much work, but you can tell that he just plows through and cranks them out without thinking too much about structure and organization. They read like he sat down at his keyboard and started typing until he ran out of stuff to say, and couldn't be bothered to look back at it for redundancies or typos because he's got another dozen books to write before the end of the month

[thechefs2003]

I've got one of his Van Halen books. Found it cheap on ebay, wasn't gonna pay the ridiculous prices on his website and was glad I didn't. I looked at it once, probably won't again. As some have said, it looked like he just scoured the internet for photos of stuff like single artwork, promo pics, magazine ads, etc... not sure how he avoids copyright laws? He cranks out several books a year so it's definitely a quantity thing over quality. I'm sure he makes a pretty good living off these and he probably has 100 different books about various bands.

[BernieTaupson]

At approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned 75 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor in Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost heavy metal publication in print for fourteen years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com. Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, the eleven-episode Metal Evolution, and the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic.

[wickedsensation]

I bought his eBook about Dokken’s Tooth and Nail album and it was great. Of course, it only cost $1 and was 30 pages, so that obviously made it a good value.

[King_Nothing]

I have his Dio, Accept, Mercyful Fate, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath discography books and love them. Lots of band member comments on each release. I also have the 80's, 90's and 00's review books. As stated, he has a unique writing style and if you read enough of his reviews you are probably going to love and hate him.