Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and author. He is mainly known for writing about

heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a Music genre, genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal band ...

. The senior editor and co-founder of ''

Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'' (''BW&BK'') is a Canadian heavy metal website and former magazine. Although based in Toronto, Canada, ''BW&BK'' features writers from the US, Germany and the UK, allowing the magazine to represent metal music f ...

'', he has written over twenty books that both critically evaluate heavy metal and document its history. He has been called "heavy metal's most widely recognized journalist" by his publisher.

Career

Born in

Castlegar, British Columbia Castlegar is a community in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. In the Selkirk Mountains, at the confluence of the Kootenay River, Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, it is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local eco ...

, Popoff's interest in heavy metal began as a youth in

Trail, British Columbia Trail is a city in the western Kootenays region of the British Columbia Interior, Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Lan ...

, in the early 1970s, when bands such as

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

and

Iron Butterfly Iron Butterfly was an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal m ...

were in the collections of the older brothers and cousins of Popoff and his friends.

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

played even heavier music, and became the group his circle of friends thought of as "our band, not the domain of our elders". Other heavy rock albums of the era, such as

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

's ''

Razamanaz ''Razamanaz'' is the third studio album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in May 1973. It was the band's first LP record to break the charts and was produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple, who the band was on tour with at the t ...

'' and Kiss' '' Hotter than Hell'', further shaped his emerging musical tastes. Angel City and

April Wine April Wine is a Canadian rock band formed in 1969 and based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, led by singer-guitarist-songwriter Myles Goodwyn until his death in 2023. April Wine first experienced success with their second album, ' ...

were among Popoff's favourite bands as a teenager. Of popular music magazines around at the time, Popoff recalls being a regular reader of ''

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

'', ''

Hit Parader ''Hit Parader'' was an American music magazine that operated between 1942 and 2008. A monthly publication, it focused on rock and pop music in general until the 1970s, when its focus began turning to hard rock and heavy metal. By the early 198 ...

'', and later, "''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' blew our minds." He does not identify any specific writers as being particularly influential on his own writing style, saying "it never registered who wrote what." Popoff received a BA in English from the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

in 1984 and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in marketing at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

in 1987, working for

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

before co-owning a print brokering company. For a while in the 1980s, he also played drums in a bar band called Torque. In 1993, he released his first book, the independently published ''Riff Kills Man!: 25 Years of Recorded Hard Rock and Heavy Metal'', a collection of 1,942 critical reviews of heavy metal records. Shortly after its publication, he co-founded ''

'', which released its first issue in 1994. He soon returned to his reviews book, releasing a revised and expanded version in 1997 titled ''The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal'', which almost doubled the original book's number of reviews to 3,650. In the book, he identifies three major stages in the early development of heavy metal. The first stage, "invention", took place in 1970 with the release of ''

Deep Purple in Rock ''Deep Purple in Rock'' is the fourth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released on 5 June 1970. It was the first studio album recorded by the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Pai ...

'' coinciding with debut albums from Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep. Stage two, "re-invention", occurred in 1976 with

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

's ''

Sad Wings of Destiny ''Sad Wings of Destiny'' is the second studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 26 March 1976 by Gull Records. It is considered the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image, and songs from it suc ...

''. The third stage, "re-intensification", happened in 1984 with the release of

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's ''

Ride the Lightning ''Ride the Lightning'' is the second studio album by the American thrash metal band Metallica, released on July 27, 1984, by the independent record label Megaforce Records. The album was recorded in three weeks with producer Flemming Rasmusse ...

''. The 1997 ''Collector's Guide'' received positive reviews from critics, with Johnny Walker of ''

Addicted to Noise ''Addicted to Noise'' (ATN) was an American online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by ex-''Rolling Stone'' associate editor and senior writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it publish ...

'' dubbing the book "the definitive guide to hard rock / heavy metal and its many related sub-genres". In the 2000s Popoff revised and expanded his ''Collector's Guide'' one more time, splitting it up by decade into three separate volumes comprising a total of 6,763 albums spanning three decades of heavy metal. ''Volume 3: The Nineties'' was published in 2007. ''Volume 4: The '00s'', published in 2011, was co-written between Popoff and fellow ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'' writer David Perri. Popoff has stated that he considers the greatest record of all time to be Led Zeppelin's ''

Physical Graffiti ''Physical Graffiti'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. Released as a double album on 24 February 1975 in the United States and on 28 February 1975 in the United Kingdom, it was the group's first album to be released ...

'', followed by Black Sabbath's ''

Sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

''. He has also named Queen's self-titled debut as his personal favourite record of all time, and often regards

Max Webster Max Webster was a Canadian hard rock band formed in Toronto in 1972. The band was relatively successful in Canada, with several best-selling albums, and had some minor success in the UK, before dissolving in 1981. The band's founder, Kim Mitche ...

as his all-time favourite band. Newer groups that Popoff has spoken highly of include

Mastodon A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...

Opeth Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. The band incorporates folk music, folk, blues, classical music, classical, and jazz elements into its usually lengthy compositions, as well as strong influences from deat ...

Lamb of God Lamb of God (; , ) is a Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/John#1:29, John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, " ...

and

Dark Tranquillity Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Swedish death metal, Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates - regarded a ...

. His ''Collector's Guide'' became rather notorious in some circles of rock fans for a particularly scathing review of

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

's worldwide smash hit

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music, heavy metal that features pop music, pop-influenced Hook (music), hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat arena rock, rock anthems, and slow Sentimental ballad#Powe ...

album ''

Hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...

'', to which he awarded a score of zero out of ten. Popoff continues to defend his opinion of it years later, citing "just awful production, lyrics, singing, clichés of every musical and lyrical sort." A number of Popoff's other books are biographies of notable metal bands, including Black Sabbath in ''Doom Let Loose'' and Dio in ''Light Beyond the Black''. While the biographies are usually not officially authorized, a large amount of research consists of interviews between Popoff and members of each band. Popoff has said of his relationship with his subjects: "I censor myself because I don't want to write something to hurt people. You write a book on Sabbath and you don’t want to write something to hurt (their) families - I love those guys." A Judas Priest biography, ''Heavy Metal Painkillers'', was published in 2007. In 2014, Popoff stated that he is working on a new book, entitled ''Who Invented Heavy Metal?'' In March 2015, Popoff told Metal Shock Finland's chief editor Mohsen Fayyazi that he had finished writing the book and it will be published in approximately a month's time. Popoff is a reviewer for BangerTV and also appears frequently on the many shows featured on the YouTube channel of music publication Sea of Tranquility.

Personal life

Popoff lives in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario.

Partial bibliography

Collector's Guide series

* ''20th Century Rock and Roll: Heavy Metal''. Burlington:

Collector's Guide Publishing Collector's Guide Publishing (CGP) is a Canadian publisher based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. History The company's first publication was Robert Godwin's Illustrated Collector's Guide to Led Zeppelin released in 1987. Owner Godwin also fo ...

. 2000. . * ''Southern Rock Review''. Burlington:

. 2001. . * ''The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 1: The Seventies''. Burlington:

. 2003. . * ''The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 2: The Eighties''. Burlington:

. 2005. . * ''The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 3: The Nineties''. Burlington:

. 2007. . * ''The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 4: The 00s'' (with David Perri). Burlington:

. 2011. .

Ye Olde Metal series

* ''Ye Olde Metal: 1968 to 1972''. Power Chord Press. 2007. . * ''Ye Olde Metal: 1973 to 1975''. Power Chord Press. 2007. . * ''Ye Olde Metal: 1976''. Power Chord Press. 2008. . * ''Ye Olde Metal: 1977''. Power Chord Press. 2008. . * ''Ye Olde Metal: 1978''. Power Chord Press. 2009. .

Rock biographies

* ''Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home and Away''. Toronto:

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

. 2004. . * ''

Blue Öyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed on Long Island, New York, in the hamlet of Stony Brook, in 1967. They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. ...

: Secrets Revealed!''. Los Angeles:

Metal Blade Records Metal Blade Records (often shortened to Metal Blade) is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982 based in the U.S. state of California. The label primarily focuses on heavy metal. History Metal Blade Records was ...

. 2004. . * ''

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

: Shoot Out the Lights''. Los Angeles:

. 2005. . * ''

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

: English Castle Magic''. Los Angeles:

. 2005. ISBN B-00-13FZP6-U. * '' Dio: Light Beyond the Black''. Los Angeles:

. 2006. . * ''

: Doom Let Loose - An Illustrated History''. Toronto:

. 2006. . * ''

: Heavy Metal Painkillers - An Illustrated History''. Toronto:

. 2007. . * ''Gettin' Tighter:

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

'68-76''. Power Chord Press. 2008. . * ''A Castle Full of Rascals: Deep Purple '83-'09''. Power Chord Press. 2009. . * ''Sail Away:

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...

's Fantastic Voyage''. Soundcheck Books LLP. 2015. . * ''Time and a Word: The

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

Story''. Soundcheck Books. 2016. . * ''

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

: Album By Album''. Crestline Books. 2017 . * '' Rush: Album By Album''. Voyageur Press. 2017 . * ''

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

: Album By Album''. Voyageur Press. 2018 . * ''

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

: Album By Album''. Voyageur Press. 2018 . * ''

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

: Album By Album''. Voyageur Press. 2018 . * ''

: All The Albums All The Songs: Expanded Edition''. Chartwell Books. 2022 . * '' Bowie At 75''. Motorbooks. 2022 . * ''

At 50''. Motorbooks. 2023 . * ''

And The Dark Side Of The Moon''. Motorbooks. 2023 . * ''

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

Quadrophenia ''Quadrophenia'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released as a double album on 26 October 1973 by Track Records. It is the group's third rock opera, the previous two being the "mini-opera" song "A Quick One, While ...

''. Motorbooks. 2023 . * ''

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

At 50''. Motorbooks. 2023 .

Miscellaneous

* ''Goldmine Heavy Metal Price Guide''. Iola:

Krause Publications Krause Publications is an American publisher of hobby magazines and books. The company was started by Chester L. Krause (19232016) in 1952 and published '' Numismatic News''. In the coin collecting community the company is best known for its ...

. 2000. . * ''

The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time ''The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time'' is a book by Martin Popoff who is the editor in chief and writer of the Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine as well as the senior editor of bravewords.com. He also wrote ''The Top 500 Heavy Metal Al ...

''. Toronto:

. 2003. . * ''The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time''. Toronto:

. 2004. . * ''The New Wave of Heavy Metal Singles''. Scrap Metal Records. 2005. . * ''Run for Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs''. Aardvark Publishing. 2006. . * ''All Access: The Art and History of the Backstage Pass''. Los Angeles: Cleopatra Records. 2009. . * ''Worlds Away: Voivod and the Art of Michel Langevin''. Spider Press. 2009. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Popoff, Martin 1963 births Living people Canadian music journalists Canadian people of Russian descent McMaster University alumni People from Castlegar, British Columbia University of Victoria alumni