Booksology Reviewed: November, 2025Published: 2017, Carlton BooksRating: 3/5Reviewer: JP
In the past several book reviews I’ve written about Iron Maiden books for the site, and I’ve complained about how there are too many Iron Maiden books. Well, I should just stop complaining because I keep buying them! It’s my own fault. Yes, I found another book about Iron Maiden recently and added to my Iron Maiden library, already about 40 books deep.
This hardcover came out in 2017 and is published by Carlton Books, the empire that specializes in gifts, kids’ books, cards, magazines and reference guides. Generally things coming from Carlton are aimed at a very general audience, but that is just fine! This 144 page, oversized, hard-cover, coffee-table book looks good and is as one might expect, unauthorized. The cover is plain, but the interior design is bright, and the layout looks good and it is printed on nice glossy paper.
Author Chris Welch is a known and respected author, formerly with Melody Maker, who has done some good work on his Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin and many others as well. IRON MAIDEN: HEAVY METAL HISTORY could also be called ’Iron Maiden 101’. It is a broad introduction to the band and career overview at an entry level. It might smack of commerciality but there can be no fault in that. If someone offered me money to write a generic book about a popular Metal band I liked, I’d probably jump at the chance too!
The book is broken into three key sections, a history, an album-by album review and lastly a profile on each member. The book is big, glossy and loaded with photos and quotes. It is very nice to look at with many photos I had never seen before as well as memorabilia, live shots and backstage photos. If you actually dig deep, there is not that much script or text. In fact a quick examination reveals that much of the text was reprinted from any earlier Welch book called ‘Iron Maiden Vault’ from 2016 which was only 64 pages long. There is a brief discography, a timeline of ex-members and all the necessary credits and so forth. I didn’t learn anything new about the band but it is loaded with information, error free and presented with energy and enthusiasm and big, bold, rockstar quotes!
For an introductory look at the band, Welch did a very fine job. It covers all the minimum bases and looks good as well so you can’t go wrong. In comparison to the many other more advanced books about the band it is lacking in content, but that is sort of comparing apples and oranges. IRON MAIDEN: HEAVY METAL HISTORY is a great introduction to the band for non-fans and a collectible for the fans as well.
