Featuring a foreword by Glen Benton of Deicide, the book takes the reader in reverse order from No. 100 to No. 1, the greatest metal guitarist of all time. McIver � a regular contributor to Total Guitar magazine, the biggest guitar mag in Europe � based his selection on the technical ability and historical significance of each player and adds that all generations of metal are covered in the book, with the oldest guitarist aged 61 and the youngest a mere 26.

McIver says, "The idea for this book came to me a couple of years ago after I read a list of the supposed 100 best metal guitarists of all time in a popular guitar magazine that should really know better. The list contained all these non-metal guitarists like Neil Young and Kurt Cobain, so I thought, 'Screw this!' and wrote my own list, which became an 80,000-word book."