The big book of Norwegian pictures
A coffee-table book that's guaranteed to start up a conversation, it's full of pictures detailing the black metal subculture from Norway. The photos and layout of the book are excellent and it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into the book's creation. This book is perhaps the best way for an outsider to approach Norwegian Black Metal since one can actually get a glimpse of the subculture without having to appreciate the music that goes with it.

Black Metal receives an appropriately artful treatment
Peter Beste has made this book an essential photographic record for fans of the genre and anyone interested or curious about it. Although the inherently extreme nature of black metal symbolism makes for an easy target this collection presents the subject matter through crisp, stunning visuals and an overall volume that's made with class and objectivity, if perhaps some enhancement of the philosophy behind the music with several grand quotes. This book also includes a great timeline of the black metal genre as well as a collection of tabloid-style newspaper and magazine (Kerrang, for one) feature articles regarding the "bad old days" of Norwegian black metal.
If you've listened to black metal for years, are just starting, or are curious about the genre, go ahead and pick this up. It's well worth every dollar of Amazon's reduced price tag.

Hail Norway
Specific details about the whole Mayhem controversy, well-taken pictures that describe the story just by looking @ them... from the very first page u can sense creativity. It's art delivered from someone that spent time to understand & finally came to love the style, just by saying what the music really is. That's it. U don't wana buy it, then don't. I just got a piece of history in my hands

Nice Book
This is a very nice photo book.
with a good quality of photos and a good quality of the printed paper.

a coveted gift
I was surprised at the size of this book; I wasn't expecting it to be so large. However, it's full of really amazing photography. Although I'm not the biggest fan of the subject matter, the recipient of this gift said something to the affect of "This is the best gift ever!"