Martin Popoff's Blog

History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff

Got a new podcast called History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, part of the Pantheon Media group, where many of the riffs from across my books tend to get discussed regularly. Short and sweet, about 25 minutes per. All heavy metal topics (so far).

Black Funeral: Into the Coven with Mercyful Fate

So at about 74,000 words now, half way through second to last album today... this was one where I really got a good deep revisit into how fantastic the catalogue is. These guys tried so HARD to be good,

Caught in a Mosh

That is more random, picking a title here, but I just wanted to salute Benjamin Kahn for obviously using... well, probably the most grey matter ever... than anybody who has ever thought about my books, and how much of a hack I am at times. I LOVE that quote from the only guy who's written more music books than me, Dave Thompson. He just blows off his accomplishment, 'Eh, I'm just a hack," or something to that effect. After over 100 books, he's come to the realization that we're just fans who scribble about actual artists. But yeah, thanks Ben for giving a good gosh-darn.

Led Zeppelin: All the Albums All the Songs

In light of reading the gorgeous 700-pager on the Stones right now, mine pales in comparison, but still, it's probably the chunk of writing I'm most proud of having done. Well, maybe this or Who Invented Heavy Metal?. It opened the door to the usefulness of books that are not interview-intensive. I can see doing more of this. Did one on The Clash too, but yeah... it's creatively pretty darn satisfying. I was surprised by that.

Holy Smoke: Iron Maiden in the '90s

Hi folks, still experimenting with this so call it test posting. So this book is at the printer right now. I should have by the end of this week. It's a fallow period for Maiden, but Bruce picks up the slack and half of it is about his solo career. I took a side trip before starting Empire of the Clouds: Iron Maiden in the '00s and '10s (or likely I'll just call it 2000s)... but eventually.

Queen Album by Album

Thanks for all the well wishes on the Queen book. It was a joy going through the catalogue in such detail and a career highlight was interviewing Paul McCartney for it. Still shaking my head on that one.