By MaryAnn Bayer

This weeks band of the week isn’t a band at all.  It’s a book. Hellbent For Cooking by Annick “Morbid Chef” Giroux. Finally a book  intermingling my two favorite things: Food and Heavy Metal.  Hellbent was published by Bazillion Points, founded by Ian Christe, author of  “Sound of the Beast”  and host of metal history radio show “Bloody Roots” on Sirius radio so, you know this isn’t False Metal.  Bazillion Points, “America’s smallest but heaviest publisher” has quite a few books worth checking out if your into Metal, Hardcore, Punk, or cool shit in general.

Hellbent for Cooking is a 224 paged, full color cookbook compiling 101 recipes courtesy of Heavy Metal Bands from all over the world.  Mille Petrozza of Kreator gives us a boss vegan burger recipe,  Eyehategod offer up Rice and Beans while Lips from Anvil delivers Beef Brisket. Other contributors include Gwar, Thin Lizzy and black metallions Mayhem.  The book is laid out like a traditional cookbook, with sections on appetizers/sides, meats, poultry, seafood, desserts/drinks, even vegetarian recipes.   However some of the recipes names in Hellbent for Cooking are a touch more macabre than anything you’d find in a Rachel Ray cookbook, a personal favorite comes from Rigor Mortis “Rolled Swamp Bombs”. Sounds Delish.

Throughout Hellbent, are funny quotes from the bands, as well as helpful ‘Morbid Chef Notes’ guiding you through the recipes.  The recipes included are super varied and many of the dishes I had never seen in any cookbook before.  It should be noted that I am a baker and went to culinary school, so I have seen about a bazillion recipes in my time.   It’s not likely that you’ll find recipes for Speed Metal Vegan Tofu and Bull Testicle Surprise nestled together in another cookbook.

I tried a couple of the recipes out and found them easy to read and follow ranging in difficulty of super easy, no-skills needed to semi-difficult and multi-stepped but found nothing out of reach for a home cook.  Finally, it should be noted that The Morbid Chef sports the most awesome apron emblazoned with metal patches,  which makes any other apron look like wimp-wear.   Death to False Meals!