Joel McIver is the first, last, biggest and baddest word on ultra, uber, kick-you-in-the-teeth monster metal. The firstborn here, his 2000 tome Extreme Metal, was the ultimate in all things metal, and this current addendum serves to more completely flesh out the beast.

Using an encyclopedic format, the entries are brief, concise, and stuffed to bursting with memorable content. We find out who artists are, where they're from, what they've done, and why we should love them. There is an album recommendation, a website (where applicable), and quotes (selective).

Everyone from Abbatoir to Zyklon is given space, with groups like Anthrax and Body Count and Metallica (if you don't know about McIver's Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, you haven't even earned the right to open this book) commanding max comments.

If you think you knew about this medium, you were wrong. Read this and you'll see what you didn't know. Like the fact that Venom introduced the concept of thrash metal, that Ice Age is an all-female thrash band from Sweden (and, of course, touted as the girl version of Megadeth), and that Cradle Of Faith is extreme metal's most successful band.

If you want to know anything else, go out and buy this. It's blood money well spent.