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Mean Deviation: Four Decades Of Progressive Metal
By: Jeff Wagner
Published by: Bazillion Points Press
Released on: 12/1/2010
MSRP: $24.95
Jeff Wagner knows his heavy metal. He was the editor of Metal Maniacs for some time and has since published books, done liner notes, and more or less 'been around.' This experience and knowledge makes him a pretty solid pick to pen a tome on the most bastardized of musical genres, but rather than just write about metal as a whole, Wagner has narrowed his focus on the progressive side of heavy metal. Great. Another book about Rush and Rush clones, right? Well, that does come into play here. By default it has to. That said, this three hundred plus page tome casts its net with a pretty wide birth and winds up pulling in some really and truly interesting insight, criticism, and musical history that should appeal to anyone with an interest in metal, progressive or otherwise.
Wagner, quite logically, starts at the beginning. He opens up discussing the influence of sixties era prog rock on the metal community, how it lead to Black Sabbath's more experimental work, how it gave birth to Rush, and how more marginally more obscure early prog-metal bands like King Crimson would have influence over a lot of what was to come. From the seventies we move into the eighties as metal gets harder and death and thrash metal are born. Here he discusses the influence of bands like Queensryche, Fates Warning, Voivod, Celtic Frost, Death, Watchtower and then later Dream Theater and the countless clones they inspired.
Wagner also heads into Europe quite frequently to cover the evolution of Scandinavian prog-metal, with a lot of focus given to Norwegian imports such as Opeth and, to a lesser extent Mayhem, as well as Swedish prog-metal masters Meshuggah. He more or less wraps up his chronological exploration of all things prog-metal by bringing us into the present day and discussing some of the more recent entries and with some speculation as to where it all might go.
Wagner's book is written with a lot of passion and insight. Not personally being a huge 'prog-metal' fan it was hard to say ahead of time how much value there would be inside, but it turns out to be a consistently entertaining and interesting read for anyone with an interest in metal at all. Of course, as mentioned, Wagner covers the titans of the genre. Rush, Dream Theater and Queensryche all get a lot of coverage here and that's all well and good. They deserve a place in this book, it wouldn't be complete without them. Where the book excels, however, is in its coverage of the numerous forgotten prog-metal bands and in its coverage of the more obscure groups who took and continue to take stabs at expanding what metal can be.
Those looking for massive, stretching biographies will be disappointed - this isn't that type of book and for most of the heavy hitters, there are (sometimes numerous) books out there that provide that type of information. This is instead a look at the formation and evolution of the prog-metal subgenre of heavy metal. As a how, why, and where explanation of prog-metal and its many deviations, it makes for very readable material. Wagner's style is intelligent and well informed without coming across as pretentious or heavy handed. His passion for this music comes through on pretty much every page and the man writes with enough style that the book is never dull. On top of that, the book is nicely illustrated with black and white pictures throughout and contains a nice full color section in the middle. Illustrations throughout which come courtesy of Voivod's Michel Langevin give parts of it an appropriately spacey feel while the index and appendices make the book a convenient reference volume as well.
For more information on Mean Deviation, check out the Bazillion Points website here.