Review: Performances of a Death Metal Bard by Rob Leigh

Blurb:

Unfortunately, Death Metal doesn't get much play in this sleepy, peaceful, actually kind of boring kingdom. Of course not. It's tough inventing a genre on your own, and it doesn't help when all the instruments you've tried up to this point don't match the brutality necessary for a dark and heavy performance.

My coin only seems to be enough to get me to the next run-down village, and it's dwindling fast.

To make matters worse, my newest lute is not normal. It never stays in tune, it's barely holding together, and it keeps whispering to me. Over and over, demands for vengeance and murder echo in my head, with the promise that I'll find the sound I need if I just listen to the voices.

So what's a starving bard to do?

Performances of a Death Metal Bard is a brutal fantasy adventure inspired by The Witcher and Metalocalypse, merging the episodic travels of a musical elf with the darkness, blood, and raw riffs of the heaviest metal the kingdom has ever seen.

Review:

Heavy Metal has played a significant role in my life. Be it the symphonic rhythms of Metalcore or the rage-fueled growls of Death Metal, I used to listen to Metal as an escape from the everyday torment of just existing in an overcrowded, apathetic, and near-dystopian city. Eventually, life moved on and I started listening to more classic rock. However, I still sway and headbang to the occasional metal track. All this to say, I LOVE Metal. So, imagine my reaction upon seeing Rob Leigh’s announcement for a fantasy novella that features a bard who plays Death Metal!

What I liked:

Well, my intro pretty much sets the tone for what I’m about to say. I don’t care how biased I sound. I absolutely LOVED this novella! Even from an unbiased perspective, let me explain why I really enjoyed reading this story:

Imagine a really fun DnD campaign, and that’s what this book reads like. Fitting, because Leigh explains in his afterword how Mandy started out as a DnD character. And the way things progress in each of the four stories definitely reads like a bunch of friends figuring things out along the journey. It’s charming, and it is awesome. Be it the first moment that Mandy plays Death Metal in the inn, or his adventure through the dark woods, or even the last chapter where things get quite tense and fittingly brutal, Leigh keeps things consistently interesting throwing in tension and curve balls. There wasn’t a single dull moment in the plot. To make things more interesting, the episodic nature of the novella gives us four beautifully self-contained stories that hold on their own, while also having a compelling overarching story that gets a satisfying conclusion.

Mandy is your typical bard with empty pockets, so his motivation to keep pushing forward are very convincing. Every time Mandy decides to act on something, you don’t doubt him even once. While Mandy himself doesn’t get too much character development, he is far from an unlikeable character. In fact, he is the perfect everyman with the slight quirk of enjoying an unusually brutal genre of music. 

The supporting cast too isn’t all that special. Yet, the simplicity of their characters and tropes helps make this story a very cozy read. Now, you might be wondering, how on earth is Death Metal cozy? It is to me. And I’m sure it is for a lot of people. So, I guess you could technically call this a cozy fantasy book.

What I didn’t like:

Completely subjective take here: I had some trouble keeping up with the protagonist’s voice (for once, pun not intended); I just wasn’t able to ease into it even after four chapters of pretty awesome stuff happening in the book. I guess I’m no longer the same guy who once could listen to multiple albums of Cannibal Corpse and Nile in a single day. I say that, because the prose really does read like something you would expect to hear in Death Metal songs. While that’s a positive for most metalheads, that could be a negative for other readers. 

I wouldn’t call it a negative for me, more like a little complaint that I can look past and still enjoy the rest of the novella.  

Conclusion:

I’m 100% sure that this book would have been my favorite thing to read and re-read in my late teens and early adulthood. Metal may not be a huge part of my life anymore, but it continues to be a very important genre of music for me. Blending that with fantasy was like the perfect recipe for a delightful read.

Honestly, the author side of me is genuinely upset that I didn’t think of this first. But, I doubt I would have done justice to the concept the way Leigh has. 

TL;DR:

WHAT I LIKED: The Death Metal spin on the fantasy bard, episodic nature, fun adventure

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: The voice and prose didn’t work for me in parts