Free E-Book Downloads From Ryan Bartek

If anyone is looking for some interesting reading, this dude named Ryan Bartek has made available a couple of books he wrote as free downloads. The first book is "The Big Shiny Prison" which is a nonfiction road epic about fringe subculture & extreme metal journalism and the second is "The Silent Burning" which is about as metal a book could ever be without directly being “about” metal, per se.

Some of you might already be familiar with Ryan's writing anyway, as he has long been a metal journalist (Metal Maniacs, PIT Magazine, Hails & Horns + dozens of international webzines). He's also been in a slew of metal bands over the years and has toured nationally.

On surface “THE SILENT BURNING” is basically a scattered anthology about growing up in Detroit, but at core, it’s an anti-speech for the ages. No stone is left unturned – Columbine, occultism, pan-tribalism, zombies, psychedelics, madness, drug abuse, black comedy, al Qaeda, anarchism, punk rock, lunatic cops, bullshit cinema, heavy metal – all presented in a surrealistic fashion that will appeal to fans of Burroughs, Celine, Bukowski, Pessoa, Henry Miller, Lautreamont, etc.

It’s a tough book to describe because it has no direct comparison. It is also an extremely “hard sell” because it is so fanatically anti-commercial & jarringly shocking (to some). Furthermore, its audience are those who rarely read – but the second this book is put in front of them and they just skim through the pages, 9 times out of 10 they read half the book in one sitting. Honestly, no propagandizing.

Originally released on January 5th 2005 by Elitist Publications, “THE SILENT BURNING” was quickly pulled from stores because of its highly confrontational, raw & offensive nature. “THE SILENT BURNING” went on to become a legitimate cult phenomenon, with original copies appearing on e-bay for an upwards of $80.

Written for the sole purpose of brutal self therapy, “THE SILENT BURNING” is a take no prisoners account of bi-polar depression from the grim bowels of Detroit. Created during supreme hopelessness (circa 1998-2002), “THE SILENT BURNING” is a ruthless anti-speech that supremely capsizes the Post-Cobain/Pre-Columbine “Dark Generation” who soon grew into adulthood watching “Fight Club” one too many times.

Somewhere between “The Wall,” “The Downward Spiral” & every Napalm Death album, “THE SILENT BURNING” is a nexus of black humor so callous no one is quite sure if they are even supposed to laugh. It is essentially a mammoth poem fragmented into a quasi-anthology, featuring over 70 vignettes, soliloquies, dream narratives, journal entries, poems, rants & misanthropic outbursts.

On July 4th Ryan released his entire music discography for free (5 albums), all of which were Detroit-centric groups: A.K.A. MABUS, SASQUATCH AGNOSTIC & his acoustic project JACK CASSADY, which he nationally tours as.

View & Download “THE SILENT BURNING”

View & Download “THE BIG SHINY PRISON”

Download the music discography here

What others are saying:

“One of the most interesting, and perhaps honest, books of the last decade."-1340MAG.com

“This deeply personal memoir, one of many, as well as his views on racism, abortion, and drugs speak volumes about Bartek’s ability to analyze society from the perspective of someone who isn’t from the privileged class. From his disadvantageous upbringing, he has developed a brutal style of analysis, buttressed by an in-depth knowledge about innumerable subjects, qualifying him to speak for his generation…”-The Satanic Inquisition

“In many ways, ‘The Silent Burning’ reads like a counter-culture manifesto, an underground guide to the rebellion. Paranoia, anger and self-preservation guide Ryan Bartek’s decrees, which he operates in the same clobbering, sarcastic vein of Kerouac as he does Chuck D. Bartek rants to his hearts content, and his heart is blackened like the underbelly of hell.”-PIT Magazine

“Bartek slams you upon entering and like the ball in a pinball machine you are flicked aggressively from heartrending childhood story to barely coherent hate filled manifesto to disjointed poem to intelligently articulated commentary… This book is for those who are simmering with the anger of repression and persecution, and for those who want to understand them without judging. It also touches those of us who maintain a less hostile attitude towards society, but are just as disgusted with the mainstream version of reality.”-Clamor Magazine

“The Silent Burning is a postmodern polemic, a schizophrenic society, and a hyper charged imagination reflected in a funhouse mirror, populated by a narrator looking for something approaching understanding, but finding a head-on-collision with the world instead… You’re left with blood on the floor and screams ringing in your ears- but also a great deal of truth, if you can stand to look at it.”-JAM RAG

MySpace (Ryan Bartek)|MySpace (Big Shiny Prison)