Review

Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey successfully summarizes over thirty years of musical history in a tight 90 minute documentary that is both entertaining and informative. The film includes interviews with just about all of the important figures in metal, from Araya (Slayer) to Zombie (as in Rob), as well as a smattering of normal fans and esteemed rock critics including hipster scribe Chuck Klosterman. The host of this journey is co-director Sam Dunn, a proud, down to earth head banger who wrote his graduate thesis on Guatemalan refugees, a fact that not only illustrates the diversity of the metal scene’s inhabitants, but also provides Dunn with the credentials necessary for the common viewer to take his passion seriously. The film traces the metal scene from its roots in the late 60s, the coveted title of “first metal band” is a gleeful subject of debate, through its various permutations (ie. death metal, black metal, thrash metal) to its current status as a thriving community that just barely exists outside of mainstream popular culture. Dunn’s enthusiastic presence is welcome throughout as he provokes intelligent discussions on gender, sexuality, and religion with metal gods that range from the famous, such as Lemmy and Ronnie James Dio, to the frightening, such as Necrobutcher and Blasphemer, members of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem who wear necklaces made from pieces of the skull of their suicidal former front man. One of the film’s most interesting segments explores the presence of Satanism in the metal scene, which includes interviews with church-burning anti-Christians who are shockingly unrepentant regarding their past arsons. Its admirable of Dunn to include topics such as this in a film that sets out to dispel the negative myths associated with the scene illustrating the fact that media outlets are always looking for a society to blame for the actions of the individual. Dunn concludes that the metal scene will always be a culture of outsiders who are forced to validate the music they love. These are the people that this film was made for whereas viewers who fail to see the similarities between Macbeth and Alice Cooper’s stage antics may be left in the dark.

 -- Eric Bresler