STEPHEN O'MALLEY Of SUNN 0))) Contributes Foreword To 'Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries'

Innovative metal musician Stephen O'Malley of SUNN 0))) has contributed a lengthy foreword to the upcoming 744-page hardcover book "Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries", an anthology and memoir by Norway's metal godfather Jon Kristiansen.

As a graphic designer during the 1990s, O'Malley befriended Kristiansen during the early 1990s, during the initial rise of Norway's black metal phenomenon. He later designed music packaging for Norwegian black metal artists, including MAYHEM, BURZUM, and EMPEROR.

Says O'Malley: "Discovering Slayer 9 in early 1993 was a significant step in my initial descent into the cultural underground via music, guided by the unique filter of Metalion. Right when it counted, Slayer mag brought the black metal thing into human perspective. Somehow Metalion's interview subjects were always at ease as human beings, projecting less of their anti-superhero or negative rock-star personas. I would say that each and every one of them was honored and pleased to be in the magazine... Slayer mag really is a true cult."

Part anthology, part memoir, and years in the making, "Metalion" includes over 600 reproduction pages from every issue of Slayer mag, spanning from the early 1980s through 2010. In addition, author Jon Kristiansen recounts his life's story, from alienated outsider to central figure in Norwegian black metal to world-weary metal survivor. The book also features over 100 rare photographs, including two color sections and a portrait gallery of photographs taken by Kristiansen himself.

"The greatest heavy metal story ever told" will be available June 6, 2011, wherever books are sold, and is available for preorder now with two bonus limited patches from Bazillion Points Books, "America's smallest but heaviest book publisher."

For more information, visit www.metalionbook.com.