Pros:
Great pace
Delightfully gory and brutal
Interesting cast of characters
Dripping in genre tropes (in a mostly good way)

Cons:
While the tropes are a lot of fun, there's almost too much relating to drugs/alcohol/partying - it's fun to start with and helps set the scene, but after a while it just started to make me cringe. May be intentional, I'm not sure.
The dialogue occasionally veered towards cringeworthy too - but I'm also willing to pop that down to genre tropes.
Spoiler: woman dies solely to advance man's development

A mixed bag, but a huge amount of fun!

Heavy metal music and horror make for a thrilling mashup in this novel by Zachary Ashford. It is a dark, twisted story that pulls on your strings to terrify and delight. The themes can be heavy at times, especially those surrounding addiction and recovery. It is a bleak story in the best way!

Thank you to NetGalley and DarkLit Press for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

Steven Oakes is fresh from Rehab after a near fatal onstage overdose. He is determined to make his heavy metal band, Polyphemus, the best in the world. But, to what lengths will he go to in order to make this happen?

This book is perfect for a metal fan who also loves horror. Full of dark entities, freaky rituals, gore and death, you won't know until the last page if any of the band will survive. The author has done a great job with this fast-paced tale of friendship, ambition, and sacrifice, mixed with enough blood and guts to satisfy any horror fan.

I'm glad I requested this book to read. It's a nice dark book about a former band and their struggles with horrid twists and turns.

Thank u netgalley for the advance Arc of this book
But unfortunately I have DNFD half way though because I could not keep myself engaged e ough

Dancing with the devil, the devil always leads - those deals just never end up how you thought. Shades of "Tales from the Crypt" in a hallucinogenic gore fest. No spoilers, but don't expect a real HEA ... but you knew that

I wanted to like this. I even like the cover! But the men were unlikeable, misogynistic jerks and the women were stereotypes. The way people acted was unrealistic -- people don't normally fall to their knees when they hear of someone's death, and this happened multiple times.
It was kind of a fun read, though, just for the sake of watching terrible things happen to terrible people.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Thank you to Netgalley, darkly press and Zachary Ashford for the Arc of Polyphemus.

We all have dreams don't we? Hitting big, being successful . And sometimes we can succumb to our biggest demons. This is what happened to Stephen Oaks when being the lead singer of Polyphemus massively overdosed on stage and left him at deaths door. After rehab, he sat in a half way house, trying to keep clean and rebuild his friendships with his best mates and band members. He's introduced to. Anton, a guru and a life coach who initiates him into something that's even darker than Meth!

Metal and dark forces? what can go wrong! I really enjoyed this book. I was drawn in my Stephen Oaks story and how he was trying to rebuild the trust within his friendship circle . I also enjoyed the bands separate stories which builds the characters ,made them 3D and built the dynamics between them all. The supernatural element was well done which built into graphic spatterpunk and didn't let go until the end. In some scenes, I could feel my skin crawl!

A great first read from Zachary for me and ill be looking to read more in 2024

Thank you to netgalley and DarkLit Press for allowing me to read this book. This book was so good. I overall enjoyed it

The cover is what drew me in and I’m so glad I was able to read this. I enjoyed that this story was about a vocalist and that there feels like a mystery going on. I really enjoyed what I read and look forward to more from Zachary Ashford.

Nice take on the lengths we are prepared to go to for success.
Lead singer in band on the brink of success succumbs to his vices and the future of the band is uncertain. Due to his vulnerability he is easy prey for manipulation, violence.and the occult.
Great book of flawed characters read in one go as it sucked me in!

"This band was what mattered; what had always mattered, and after everything, they were going to make it mean something to the rest of the world. Finally."

[3.5 stars] Horror and metal are two of my favorite things, and I love the idea of actually bringing the whole 'Satanic Panic' into fruition in novels. Stephen Oaks just got out of rehab and is determined to bring his metal band Polyphemus back together and catapult themselves into fame and riches. But because of all the bad press he's accumulated due to his addiction, everyone else in the band is a little skeptical, especially with other aspects of their personal lives at stake. When Oaks meets Anton, a supposed life coach who can turn his life upside down, he transforms into an entirely different person — he seems to be a few steps closer to his dreams, but what would it take for him to get there?

I love the music references and the way the jam sessions, concerts, technical aspects are described in the book. It's very well-written in that regard and it's clear that the author has a great passion and has done his research in this department. They would often intertwine with this sort of surreal reality that ties in with the supernatural aspect that Oaks is exposed to. And while the characters seem like the typical rock stars dabbling in drugs and misogynistic attitudes at times, the author does satirize these elements and I didn't find their insufferable personalities to hinder my enjoyment of the novel. The main thing that I'm critical about is probably how much of the book is spent of investing time in the characters' personal lives, individually. It felt a bit slow-paced (which is not a huge issue at times) and stagnant, but then the action would come in full-force.

The cultish elements along with the gore and the entity are quite eerie, vile but hypnotic; also strangely sexual in a way that's not too outlandish or seemingly done out of shock value. I did manage to get a little more invested in Spiros' character and how his relationship with his family works out, that part feels a little more fleshed out. But India's character and most of the female characters that are mentioned feel even flatter than the rest, and it was hard for me to accept Oaks' immediate sincere attachment to India (and vice versa).
Besides those issues I still thoroughly enjoyed them, this is very much a horror novel for metal enthusiasts who love to see this sort of chaos being manifested in an over-the-top, sensationalized way with blood and guts on the top.

Thank you NetGalley and DarkLit Press for the review copy.

Big thanks to DarkLit Press, Netgalley, and Zachary Ashford for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was crazy but I enjoyed it. Heavy metal, friendship, drugs, alcohol and demons. It was dark and brutal.

I will have to check out more of the author's work.

Some of the book was difficult to read and sometimes i couldnt relate to the characters but overall if you continue to read you will enjoy the concepts and the writing!

The band that Oaks is in has went on without him and has moved forward, but being out of rehab is looking to get back into the band as it was enoyable. The band members are moving in different directions, not necessarily with the band. He runs into Anton and he promises the moon! Oaks has to convince the others to buy into his promises and dreams that he is promising.

For the majority of the book, the men are jerks who do get theirs in the end, but the women in the novel are either reformed drug addicts or groupies.

Overall good read and would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read and review.

This book had a lot of potential, but just didn't quite live up to it. I loved the idea and the characters, but got really lost trying to figure out the setting. Between the slang and the descriptions of travel, I was never able to pin down a geographic location, or even a time period. I ended up getting really bogged down trying to figure it out, which negatively impacted my enjoyment of the story.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Polyphemus' vocalist ,Oaks, is newly out of rehab and is looking to get back into the band, the band that is moving on without him. Some are focusing on family, some are moving on with are bands, and some are slowly ruining their lives. Oaks runs into Anton, who promises him all of his dreams to come true. Oaks just has to convince the rest of the band to also buy into Anton's promises. For the most part, the men in this book are misogynistic jerks who do get theirs in the end, but the women in the novel are either reformed drug addicts, groupies, or nagging harpies. As a female reader, they were not relatable and difficult to read. I enjoyed the overall concept of this book, minor details notwithstanding.

Dope book!

This book was well written and the characters felt three dimensional. It was definitely a dark book with some graphic imagery, but the story was one that will stick with me.

I did have some unanswered questions regarding Anton’s network but beyond that this was a really fun read.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this book. It’s funny how it was able to stick with me. I started reading this book Back in Oct, got away from reading for quite some time yet I still had this book with me when I picked it back up to finish it.

Polyphemus is made up of Nathan the guitar player Steven Oaks the lead singer Spiro the bass player and chops the drummer. they were on tour and on the verge of hitting the big time when their lead singer passed out on stage due to a drug overdose he has been riding lyrics while in rehab and wants the band to get back together but is scared of relapsing Nathan is obsessed with the band due to not having much else happening in his life and so when Oaks goes to see him and tells him he wants to do the lyrics for the album their label wants Nathan is all for it but knows there are others that have to agree Spyro it’s happy being a family man that loves his childhood friends and fellow band mates something his wife Pandora makes him feel guilty for despite the secrets she has her self. The drummer chops is flailing with nothing to do and is excited to sit in with The Violent Dead and he secretly hopes he will be asked to be the bands drummer. After rehab Steve and Oaks is sent to live in a halfway house where the nurse Aimaly, who is in charge he believes that she is selling drugs and one of her visitors is a man named Anton. Oaks knows if he is to stay sober he will have to do things differently so after Anton introduces himself and tells him that he is a life coach of sorts. He also invites him to a club to meet other members he claims that we’re just like oaks and with Anton‘s help they prospered. Not having much else to do Steven decides to go in on the first night meets a beautiful woman named India she is an artist and one of those Anton told him about in the tube become quite close quite quickly.. this is where I start having issues because this is like the first 30% of the book and even in the summary it doesn’t say what happens in the rest of the book it is a book I loved he makes a Faustian bargain with Anton, let me be clear however I do not have issues with the book I have issues writing this review and trying to convey how awesome this horror book is Without giving away the part of the book where I was like OMG are you serious? I did love in the end however the We the band mates almost became the good angel and the bad angel and that the demon was not a demon from hell but one much older and much more ancient been that. I’m sorry this review is so long I loved it and highly recommend it it had some of the most gruesome happenings in the book and I am one of those who can eat while reading extreme horror even this book had me cringing. I want to thank dark lit press and net galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Creepy as hell. A very entertaining read full of thrills, twists, and adrenaline-inducing mayhem. I look forward to reading more from this author.