James Hetfield: The Wolf at Metallica's Door

I only put this book down once, briefly, after I opened it the first time, and that was to make a sandwich to eat while I finished the last bit of Eglinton's tribute to Metallica. Oh, and the section of black and white photographs is something I have gone back to several times since finishing the book. I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed the writer's personal impressions and interpretations of a celebrity as inscrutable and seemingly impenetrable as James Hetfield. There's no way of knowing what this mega-star is truly like, and Eglinton's interpretation is as good as the next person's as far as I'm concerned, unless of course, the next person is James Hetfield.

I have followed James and Metallica since the early '80s. Much of what is in the book I already knew. The best part is the beginning, where his childhood and his discovery of music is described. Other than that, it is mostly just a chronological Metallica history. It would be great if James would sit down with a writer and describe for himself his memoirs. Perhaps someday he will. When or if that day comes I will be first in line.The songs on each album are reviewed and critiqued. I don't really care much for this style of writing because it is very subjective and opinionated. I would much rather hear the man himself describe his thoughts on his music.

I have been a Metallica fan since I could discriminate the difference between pop and rock (25+ years). I love Metallica, especially James Hetfield's musical and Lyrical abilities. This book adds NOTHING to the Metallica story or that of James Hetfield. Anyone familiar marginally with the band can readily access the facts in this book. No surprises here. If you watch Some Kind of Monster and Behind the Music, you have as much insight as this guy does. The most annoying thing in the book is not the facts and story, it's the album reviews. Why would an author subject a reader to their irrelevant opinions of each album, track for track. The writer comes off as a want to be music critic with absolutely no understanding of music. He is honest as his opinions are not always glowing, but this guy comes off like someone that was wounded by the band's evolution from the Black album era through St. Anger. Whether he likes it or not should be kept out of the narrative, as it is useless. If a non-fan reads this book, it is written as if to guide them through what they should or should not listen to. Art is meant to be taken in for each individual to decide what he or she thinks about it. I just think it's juvenile the way it is written. I wish I could get my money back. I honestly think someone else could do a better job.

this is a great book, a collection of Metallica news, ideals of James, heartbreak, definement of a great artist.Musically, a masterful of things your jaw would drop to the floor about...for any Metallica fan is a must for your collections...my husband loved it, this is his favorite band....next to the Beatles, Metallica is definitely the best!

Having been a huge Metallica fan for over 20 years now and having witnessed James Hetfield's stage presents and power live 12 times, I was of course interested in this book. Everyone that knows Metallica knows Jaymz, the riff machine and larger-than-life metal god he is at live shows. I was hoping this book would reveal a little more about James the person. While I have to give the author a lot of credit for his research, I didn't really take anything new from this book. As a matter of fact, 97% of the information is already readily available (such as the Playboy interview which gets quoted throughout the book) to those that do their research or have a general interest in the band and its history. The other 3% comes from interviews with a few people...a couple of James' friends (or so they claim) from back in the day and fellow musicians (most notably Anthrax's Charlie Benante and Megadeth's Dave Ellefson) who give their opinion and insight of James' persona. So, yeah, I guess there were some interesting things revealed but overall I was hoping for more "new" information. Also, the author took it upon himself to critique each album song-by-song which really has nothing to do with James as a person nor do I really care about his musical opinion, although I agree with 90% of it. To me it's clear this guy is a fan with a man-crush on James that decided to write a book about his idol. His writing style is pretty annoying at times as he is trying to be overly clever with his words. The author is also attempting his luck as an amateur psychologist, using his own assumptions to disect why James is who he is. If you are a new fan and want to know more about James and the history of the band, this is a good book. If you are a hardcore fan hoping to find out never-before-heard facts about James, you are out of luck.

I don't want to be negative, but there really isn't much here to get excited about, unless you somehow have never heard of Metallica. There are plenty of better books on the band. This one was very fan-boner. I really didn't appreciate the author giving his take on every freaking song from every album. Dude, we know the material. If we don't, then let us hear it on our own. Yes, we understand that you know the band. Yes, that's cool. But when the book bears a title that makes us think this might be in depth about Hetfield, maybe sharing his journey, I instead read about yours. 2 stars. Not recommended.

Questioned the accuracy of this bio on the very first page when it stated Disneyland is located in Norwalk. Um, what??

My 17 year old daughter is in love with James Hetfield! She was thrilled with it :) arrived sooner then expected too!

i am extremely disappointed with this product.that seller was great but the item overall was a hugh let down.you can not say this is a biography of james hetfield at all in no way shape or form!!! yeah you hear about his childhood which i already knew about after reading enter night. but after his childhood all he ever says about james is everyone elses opinions on him when they first met and the only thing he says is that he is quiet in hundreds of different ways.this book should no where near be this big as in every chapter the author is not talking about the personal life of james he is just going on about each track in every album and how bad all the tracks are after the black album.he does mention what james has done eg kids marriage rehab but he doesnt go into depth with anything about james which in my opinion is what a biography should be not about the songs they wrote.i havent even finished the book im on the 14th chapter out of 17 and i got so angry at the author with the way he slags off the songs that i had to tell everyone not to buy this book it awful.i was expecting this book to go into great detail about the feelings of the events of what has happened over the time of being with metallica eg the tragic death of cliff burton r.i.p and the passing of his mum and dad and later his marriage kids and especially when he went into rehad but nothing just the mention of it as if its like of and this year james went to rehab then all about the songs again.anyway i will be finishing the book only because i have got this far and not stopping but i will never be reading a book from this author ever again and i hope metallica see it and are extremely angry.

All you need to know about the best frontman, rhythm guitar player, lyricist, songwriter, the list could go on for a while! Insights to all aspects of Jame Hetfield's life. Whether you're a dedicated fan or someone who wants to find out about the man behind Metallica, get this book now!!

HETFIELD IS THE BEST FRONTMAN IN THE WORLD, LOVED READING THIS BOOK, A MUST FOR ANY METALLICA FAN, WISHED THERE HAD BEEN MORE PHOTOS

Excellent read

Unfortunately this book quickly turns from an attempted hetfield biography into a poor metallica biography, constantly quoting from another actual metallica biography book. The authors opinion of certain metallica albums/songs also becomes very tiresome after a while too. After reading the glaring error of metallica covering motorheads (!?!) stone cold crazy halfway through the book I lost any faith about the author and trudged through the rest reluctantly. Not a good purchase.