It’s loud. It’s rebellious. It’s obnoxious. Most authority figures don’t like it, and religious leaders believe it’s the moral ruination our youth. And it is the global phenomenon commonly known as heavy metal music. Global you say, how can that be with all the countries that are so restrictive? And so many different types of music styles. That’s what Sam Dunn thought too.
Sam Dunn, anthropologist and metal head, didn’t believe it either, so after his first documentary, Metal: A Headbangers Journey, elicited a global response he decided to film another documentary to investigate just how widespread this phenomenon is. So Sam, together with director Scot McFayden, head off on a multi-country jaunt to track down heavy metal music in the most un-metal places.
They visit Brazil, Japan, China, India, Indonesia and the Middle East. Sam searches out the local metal scene, it’s fans, local artists, and highlighted with concert footage and interviews with artists who have played or influenced the music scene in these lands. The first two, Brazil and Japan, have an established metal scene with Sepultura and Angra in the south and Loudness and EZO in the east. The others have been sheltered from the evils of the west by their governments, and their influences have been limited. But the stories of how these fans are thriving in the face of their new found freedoms, and in some cases, in spite of their governments.
In this documentary you will hear local musicians and fans explain how metal came to their countries after decades of oppression of their basic rights. As one local put it, with democracy came heavy metal. Max Cavalera of the Brazilian band Sepultura tells how they made up for lost time and how they incorporated Brazilian influences into their music to create their own sound. In Japan, who is known for their obsession with western music, Sam talks to fans, DJ’s and Marty Friedman, of Megadeth fame. Marty tells why he lives in Japan and is involved in a project called Death Panda and explains the appeal of Visual Kei bands like X-Japan and Sex Machineguns. Also in Japan you will visit Blackmore’s, a tribute bar to, you guessed it, Deep Purple.
There are countries whose heavy music scene is still in it’s infant stages. In India there are very few bands, and virtually no place to play. Here it’s not the government that is hindering the spread of ideas, but the family elders, and what’s considered popular by the majority. The locals here tell about the cultural taboos and the music made popular by a movie Baliwood. And India has never had a rock concert until Iron Maiden played there in 2007. China’s music scene is in it’s beginning stages because of the political climate and restrictions. It’s here we meet Kaiser Kuo, who was born in New York State but moved to China to play in a Chinese metal band Tang Dynasty. The next stop was Jakarta, who had a music scene until Metallica played a concert and riots erupted, so the government banned western music.
The next to last stop was the middle east, where Sam interviewed local artists in Israel. There the universality of metal became apparent, because the youth there embrace the most brutal types of extreme metal because of their climate of constant political struggles coupled with the constant skirmishes and threats of war. Desertfest in Dubai is next where metal fans sneak out of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other surrounding providences to attend a day of extreme metal. It’s in this segment where we hear about how music is smuggled into countries by returning tourists, tape sharing, and internet downloads. There’s also the story of the manhunt in Iran for the person that was spray painting the Slayer logo on walls in Tehran.
The last stop in the trip is back to India, where Iron Maiden is playing the first rock concert in that country. The stadium was filled by fans and people who wanted to experience the event.
This documentary is very similar to the classic surf travelogue Endless Summer. Both travel to places where the subject is either brand new or a hidden jewel waiting to be discovered. And in the same way Endless Summer opened the eyes of surfers beyond their local breaks, Global Metal shows how metal is basically the same but each culture brings a bit of itself to the mix.
The second disc contains Special Features.
Heavy Metal Baraka – A music video set to the music of Melechesh Rebirth of the Nemesis, from the album Emissaries.
Global Metal Out-Takes
Bali (Extra Segment)
Theatrical Trailers
Extended Interviews with Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Max Cavalera (Sepultura), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Melechesh, Krisiun, Sigh.
If you are simply looking for a DVD of music videos, then you need not pick up this DVD. But if you are looking to understand the culture of this style of music and how it affects the global community as a common bond, as shown at Desertfest. Who knows, you may even find some new music to add to your collection.
ComicsOnline gives Global Metal 5 extreme, brutal, head banging stars out of 5.
