At last there is a book dedicated to the Polish metal scene from the 80's. It took several years of hard work to prepare "Jaskinia Hałasu" ("The Cave of Noise"), which is completely obvious: gathering and editing the materials into a coherent whole required plenty of time. There's no doubt it was worth waiting for, especially as that it's the first release covering the phenomena of Polish underground metal scene.

The book elaborates the early phase of scene's forming, the role of press and public radio in creating a publicity for the music. This shows how important were the broadcasts by Marek Gaszyński, Krzysztof Brankowski, Wojciech Mann in shaping the musical tastes of metalheads. "Metalowe Tortury" and "Muzyka Młodych" have left an unforgettable imprint on my generation.

Little interest in the metal music from the mainstream media pushed the young people to search the recordings on their own account. "Jaskinia Hałasu" reminds the phenomena of tape-trading as a way of promoting underground bands, as well as underground fanzines, with recollections by Marcin Wawrzyńczak ("Eternal Torment’ zine"), Mariusz Kmiołek ("Thrash’em All"), Tomasz Krajewski ("Holocaust") and many others.

It's interesting to read what people connected to the underground labels and bands have to say about the past times. Some of the interviewees are the members of Imperator, Vader, Merciless Death, Hellias, Hektor, Nightmare, Egzekuthor, Mortal Slaughter, Armagedon and many more. There are also recollections from the most memorable gigs ("S'thrash'ydło", "Thrash Camp", "Shark Attack", "Metalmania" or "Jarocin"), both from the audience and the organizers. In other words – "Jaskinia Hałasu" gathers whole bunch of information from people who contributed in various ways to forming the metal scene in Poland.

It's a shame that despite the author's interest many of the scene contributors haven't shared their memories to the readers. Some of the former musicians are ashamed for their metal past and don't want to talk about it. Others are hard to reach. "Jaskinia Hałasu" could have been easily twice as large as it is. We can only hope that the rest of the musicians and fans will be more outspoken by the second edition or another similar book.

I've experienced plenty of emotions while reading this tremendously interesting book. Each page brought back the pictures of the past, when as a teenage apprentice of metal I used to consume the sounds as essential to me as oxygen. Until now metal flows in my veins, which I'm very proud and happy of. The 80's taught me to respect the music, which has become my most devoted lover, accompanying me in the most difficult moments of my live, giving me strength and power to overcome difficulties.

Besides the information included, the visual form itself plays a huge role, being 666%-tribute to the "cut-and-paste" fanzine tradition. "Jaskinia Hałasu" overflows with unique photos, flyers, posters, demo covers, building a one-of-a-kind impression. Nobody should be surprised that the interest in the book gets larger, even in countries like Peru, Columbia, Chile, Brazil or Japan. People, who can't say a word in Polish want to get it, which proves how respected the Polish scene is worldwide. Someone should release the English version in the future, with the materials that for some reason didn't make it to the first edition.

One thing that lacks in the book is some larger comment by the authors themselves, a kind of a summary or any larger presentation of particular bands, like in the unbeatable "Swedish Death Metal" by Daniel Ekeroth. Either way, we should be grateful to Wojciech Lis and Tomasz Godlewski for all the work they put in writing "Jaskinia Hałasu". I only wish there were more books detailing our metal heritage.

Leszek Wojnicz-Sianożęcki