Keep It True: Festival History Book 2003-2008

By Jowita Kaminska & Simone A. Peruzzi (Metal on Metal)
By Martin Popoff

Cool idea, a whole pile of enthusiastic metalheads getting together to celebrate the hard power “traditional” metal legacy of Germany’s Keep It True Festival. The straight goods: This is a good looking book, hard cover with silver foil, embossed, large format, and full color throughout with lots of photos of all the bands who’ve thrown the horns over the years. The text is both in German and English, and it’s a damn good read, best and most helpful bit being the overview with organizer Oliver Weinsheimer, but the impressive tract of work being all the recollections and “reviews” given by the myriad bands who’ve performed. The general vibe is that acts traveled from far and away, and were touchingly validated by having their obscure music appreciated, often by an audience they never thought existed in such loyal and robust form. Although only 64 pages, the text is tiny, with lots of substance to each large format page. All in all, a gorgeous memento.
(www.metal-on-metal.com)