Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

Name: Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Director: Scot McFadyen
Released: 2005

2005

Synopsis

The film discusses the traits and originators of some of metal's many subgenres, including the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, power metal, Nu metal, glam metal, thrash metal, black metal, and death metal. Dunn uses a family-tree-type flowchart to document some of the most popular metal subgenres. The film also explores various aspects of heavy metal culture.

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Recommendations

90
Variety
Superbly crafted documentary is strong enough to make believers out of non-metalheads, and inside enough to get the devil's-horns salute from the most diehard followers.
89
Austin Chronicle
There's so much information and so many finely honed arguments in this ultimately joyous film that it's liable to send audiences scurrying home to their computers to download the bands they've just heard.
88
New York Post
It'll make you want to dig out your Whitesnake T-shirt. It might even convince Tipper Gore that heavy metal thunder is all in good fun.
80
L.A. Weekly
At once playful and thorough, the documentary is also stacked teased-hair high with wicked performance footage.
75
Chicago Tribune
Sam Dunn's unabashed wet kiss to his favorite genre of music, heavy metal, a.k.a. devil's music.
70
Los Angeles Times
Dunn says he's been defending his choice in music since he was 12, and the film is a carefully organized and thoughtful argument for the merits of metal.
70
Chicago Reader
Metal culture is a giant topic, and Dunn has made an ambitious stab at it, exploring the music's social, religious, and sexual implications.
63
Boston Globe
As charming as Dunn's kid-in-a-candy-store exploration is at times, it's apparent that his ''anthropological" take on the scene isn't much more than the love letter he always dreamed of writing to his headbanging pals.

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