Metallica Biography: Da Capo Press Readies Two-Volume Book

It's perhaps not as exciting as Matt Sorum's proposed Guns N' Roses biopic, since books are fundamentally less cool than movies, but Da Capo Press has announced a forthcoming two-volume biography of Metallica, Loudwire.com reports. Birth School Metallica Death: Volume I arrives in the fall of 2013, with its companion following a year later.

"Metallica's story is an epic narrative finally getting the same multi-book treatment as Elvis Presley, Charles Darwin, and several former Presidents," said editor Ben Schafer.

Authors Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood have reportedly based the books on more than 75 hours of interviews. They hung with the rockers in their natural habitat, compiling information for what figures to be a comprehensive look at the enduring metal outfit's long and storied career.

As per Loudwire, the first volume will chart the band's early years and end circa the 1988 album ...And Justice for All, their commercial breakthrough. The second installment tells the remainder of the story -- a period that, though not without its triumphs, includes the group's divisive latter-day records, drummer Lars Ulrich's battle with Napster and of course, the icky inter-band squabbling documented in the 2004 film "Some Kind of Monster."