Album Description
Rhino’s 4-disc HEAVY METAL box is the most comprehensive anthology of the influential genre ever. Featuring legendary stars from multiple labels, the box’s size lives up its thundering sound arranged chronologically, it collects 70 classic tracks tracing the evolution of metal through its first golden age, 1968-1991. Encompassing proto-metalists, hard rock icons, thrashers, progressive acts, speedsters, pop-metal MTV favorites, and more, a who’s who of masters get their due. The box also boasts essays from Ronnie James Dio and Lita Ford, plus and a detailed history of metal by Mick Wall. Surveying the last years covered by the box, Wall concludes, metal had come full circle to the point where it was simultaneously riven by so many new categories and subgenres that you needed an encyclopedia to make sense of it all and yet it was more universally popular than ever before. The same could be said today so fly your devil horn salutes and crank it to 11 for five hours of musical mayhem.

Amazon.com
The trouble with a genre as sprawling as heavy metal--and one as identified with brawn and intensity--is that its adherents certainly won't agree on the shape of their obsession. And the disagreement won't necessarily be polite. Halfway through disc two, you find one of the precise moments that can split metalheads into two camps: Judas Priest's "You Got Another Thing Comin'," whose crossover success set the table for the likes of Y&T, Dokken, Ratt, Stryper, and Skid Row as they took metal into the primping realm of pop music. Metal purists will want disc one, with Hawkwind, UFO, and even Dio-era Black Sabbath reveling in their status as early headbangers. The question is: Are their heirs truly Dokken and their ilk or are the heirs Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax? It might be an academic point only, but across the back half of this 4-CD set, the "truer," faster, thornier metal lies intermingled with the more vapid, hair-teased stuff of the 1980s, before Nirvana nuked the whole genre. And people who love Metallica won't want Skid Row polluting the chugging air. One thing certainly is true: The physical box, with its Marshall amp vibe, is impressive, something any self-respecting metalhead would cherish. It's the track list that'll make 'em kick and scream. --Andrew Bartlett

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 18 reviews)

Should have been called Hard Rock: by warbox

2 Stars
November 10, 2009
There is very little metal in this set. some of the selections that are close are laughable. Did the person that compiled this set even listen to a metal track to compare some of these too? My bet would be certainly not! A much more accurate title would have been Hard Rock. Or Hair Rock. Or even something like Pre-Metal Madness. Cool box though.

Even if only for the packaging... by djclinear (PSL, FL, USA)

4 Stars
September 26, 2009
Really, why HASN'T this been done before? A Marshall amp head box set metal collection... maybe it took a lot to get Marshall on board for the licensing or something, but I'm amazed this set didn't come out a decade (or more) ago... Speaking of, the track listing really would be a bit more appropriate to a decade ago. The set covers the proto-metal standards (Iron Buterfly, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, etc.) of the late sixties/early seventies era until 1991-ish. We could argue song selection and what is "true" metal forever (and most metalheads do), but it is a pretty fair representation of the metal of the period, with some obvious omissions noted. No Ozzy or Ozzy era Sabbath, very light on the early Death and Black metal bands, a bit too heavy on the hair bands of the 1980's... but all things considered, I read the track list beforehand (which you should before buying it and whining). My only real wish... for the size of the box, which is beyond cool-as-heck status and made pretty solidly, I would love to see this be a ten or twelve (or more) disc collection. Maybe a bit deeper into the proto metal tracks of the sixties, a few more oddities and crossover bands from the eighties and nineties, even some of the better nineties and current nu-metal and metalcore bands. The whole history of metal in all the ugly, trashy glory... it would be pricey, but I'd be in for it!

Great box with a excellent booklet! by Death Metal Pat (Maryland)

4 Stars
August 24, 2008
This rhino set is actually a very good represention of metal from the last 40 years or so.It includes songs by Blue Cheer,Alice Cooper, UFO,Judas Priest,Angel Witch,Girlschool,Iron Maiden,Motorhead,Venom, Raven,Mercyful Fate,Metallica,Accept,Slayer,Metal Church,Prong,and Sepultura.Which is a huge span of metal,on the bad side it includeds to much Glam and non metal acts(Ted Nugent,Living Colour ,Kiss,Stryper,and Skid Row).If this were cut down to three disks and other bands such as Bathory ,Candlemass and Death were added to make a fourth disk, you would have a great metal set.Some stuff which is needed such as Early Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin isn't in here because of copywrite ownership issues.The 77 page book is great with alot of pictures ,a story about each song and small articules on metal and it's history makes up for some of the bad song choices.

Couldn't resist the box by H. P. Keable (Chicago, IL)

4 Stars
August 14, 2008
I'll admit it, I'm always a sucker for cool packaging. That said, I was mostly pleased with selection with my negatives being the Hawkwind and the Sepultura tracks. I'm not a Hawkwind aficionado, but didn't they have something better that could have been used instead? Lost Johnny is just awful. And Sepultura gets a thumbs down because I just don't dig non-melodic, growling kind of metal, which most thrash is. Otherwise, it's all good.... 70's originals, NWOBHM, 80's hair bands, glam, power metal, I love it all! But they should have thrown a couple other goodies to sweeten it, a guitar pick or something. Buy!

A great collection to take you back in time by Cricket (Seattle, Wa)

5 Stars
July 25, 2008
I purchased this on a lightning deals offer back in December for the outrageous price of $18.97. I've been taking my time listening to the CD's and months later I have no complaints. This is a nice compilation of a wide range of artists. I remember listening to most of this music in my early teens and so it has been fun to relive some memories. This has also been a huge conversation piece at parties, both the music and the box are memorable.

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