Wednesday night, there was a late night festival party at a place called Cafe Cairo, where I met up with Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (co-directors of Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey). We shared responsibilities of buying drinks for a little while and spoke of metal’s glory days. It was a great conversation that amped me their screening on Thursday.
Then Thursday rolled around and I packed myself in The Little Theater with a room full of people to watch the film. From opening to closing, it’s an utterly brilliant and captivation journey through the world of metal (with all of it’s subgenres). When I was a young teen, I used to listen to some grindcore (bands like Spazz, Napalm Death, Charles Bronson, F**k on the Beach, A*****e Parade, etc.) like it was noone’s business. I used to love it. And this film brings up this little subgenre but doesn’t quite explore it, which is cool because this music was never really that important anyway. It was to me way back when, but in the world of music and metal, it has never blown up like the other genres had.
Both I and the crowd loved this film equally. They told me about their experience at SXSW, which apparently was a huge success there too. During the Q and A after the film, they assured us that the DVD will be released in the states in May, with a bonus feature containing a 40 minute extra doc on Norway’s brutal Black Metal.
Can’t wait. They also hinted at following this film up with even more metal history, covering topics like race, gender, and other such subjects. I admire their dedication to the music and to filmmaking. I anxiously await their next project.
Keep em f*****g coming guys.
