Murder In The Front Row: a new book that uncovers the earliest "big four" pictures including Kirk Hammett in Exodus, Dave Mustaine in Metallica, and Kerry King in Megadeth, is set to hit stores this December. Here is a little background:As "Big Four" thrash metal bands Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax prepare an historic performance together this week at Yankee Stadium in New York, further details emerge about the upcoming photo book documenting their origins: Murder in the Front Row: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew. Among the previously unseen photos from the original thrash metal explosion: Kirk Hammett performing with Exodus; Dave Mustaine rehearsing and performing with Metallica-including the band's very first practice with bassist Cliff Burton; Kerry King soundchecking and performing with Megadeth during that band's debut series of shows in 1984; and Anthrax's modest first-ever Bay Area appearance. These historic events are part of a spectacular large-format 272-page view inside "the metal scene that banged those heads that did not bang" includes over 400 of some of the earliest color and black-and-white photos of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus, Possessed, Death Angel, Forbidden, Legacy/Testament, Vio-lence, and many others key figures from the Bay Area thrash metal universe.
"Before they played the Bay Area, Slayer wore makeup onstage," says coauthor Brian Lew. "After that first Bay Area show they never wore makeup again. This book will show people why."
Murder in the Front Row will be available December 2011, wherever books are sold. To view page samples and place a preorder (with limited two-sided exclusive poster-size dustjacket), go here
