Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
It was a dull Sunday afternoon and everyone around me seemed to be excited about the Oscars telecast in the evening. I knew it was going to be a Slumdog lovefest and didn’t care much about it. I was helping my wife out with some household chores while Queensryche’s Revolution Calling played in the background on Pandora. Brunch was set on the table and I switched on the television, hit mute and began surfing through channel guide when something caught my eye – Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. A documentary I had heard about from fellow metalheads but had not yet seen. The dull afternoon just came alive.
I turned off the Queensryche song midway (a sacrilege on my part), and sat down as images from live concerts and interviews with the who’s who of metal began filling up the screen. In this documentary, Sam Dunn has not only given an overview of this often misunderstood art form but has also gone around the globe trying to explore deeper into the various sub-cultures that have spawned from this genre of music.
Some of the interviews were extremely insightful, especially the ones with Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) and Ronnie James Dio. Dio’s dig at Gene Simmons of Kiss was hillarious. Another insightful segment was the interviews with groupies of the bands and of course with the women in metal.
Interviews with Alice Cooper and Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead) were fun and light-hearted. Alice Cooper’s take on the black metal scene and how comical it seems at times was almost self-deprecatory and Lemmy’s statement which was something on the lines of “I think women should be naked backstage all the time.” just shows the lighter side of these artists who are often portrayed by the media as nothing less than the devil incarnate.
Of course, there had to be someone who had to make a total ass of themselves in the interviews and the band Mayhem played that part to perfection!
However, as the documentary left American soil and entered the Scandinavian borders, the seriousness of the black metal scene was a little disturbing for even a hardcore metalhead like me. There have been numerous instances of church burning in Norway since the 90s and the lyrics and music these bands play is extreme. The interview with Gorgoroth, though literally limited to a few words, just shows how deeply influenced these bands are with anti-Christian ideologies. This however, as the documentary rightly points out, has got more to do with the Viking ancestry and belief in Norse mythology.
Some of the most entertaining interviews are with the fans and one that really hit close to home was a fan describing metal, while he played his bass, as music that did not judge him, that accepted him for who he was and that it gave him the strength to never give up. No one could have put it better.
This is not a review of a wonderful documentary. It is more of an essay on what the documentary is about and my take on the world of metal in general.
The media has always portrayed metal to be the music for the misfits of society, a refuge for those existing on the fringes of what is termed acceptable by the community. A senior manager at the world’s top software company, a successful entrepreneur, a reputed doctor are not exactly misfits, but I have met each one of these at some concert or the other and they confess to being metalheads for life.
Metal has been a catharsis for me through some of my darkest and difficult phases in life. It definitely has helped me be stronger person. As a musician, I have had the opportunity to hang out with a lot of metalheads from the ages of 15 to 55 and I personally feel that the followers of this genre of music share the closest bonds than fans of any other form of music.
Over the years, I have expanded my listening choices to everything from Jazz, Blues to Techno, Trance, House. However, during a stressful day at work, or being stuck in rush-hour traffic, the one thing that calms me down is some metal blaring through my speakers.
The documentary has done a fantastic job in trying to educate non-metalhead viewers in the origins of this genre while at the same time making it interesting viewing for metalheads like me by getting some insightful soundbytes from our metal idols. What impressed me more was that it wasn’t an attempt to prove the world that metal is harmless by twisting and hiding facts. It in fact was bold enough to lay out the insanity that reigns in the black metal scene in Norway while giving a logical, cultural explanation for this aberration.
Sam Dunn correctly points out about the love for metal, “You either get it or you don’t.” I would like to add to that is that just because you don’t get it, please don’t go around bashing it.
I still remember the time when I had just started dating this girl and her exact words were “I don’t get metal”. I asked her if she would like to join me for a Queensryche concert to give metal a chance. She said “She would love to.” She accompanied me with a smile, was asking me tons of questions about the band, their songs and the music throughout the concert. At the end of the show, she said, “I still don’t get metal, but I loved the way you and the rest of the crowd enjoyed it thoroughly.” That amazing girl is now my wife! Since then, she has accompanied me to concerts by Judas Priest, Testament, Heaven and Hell and Motorhead. She still doesn’t get metal, but she accepts the fact that metal is an art form that has the power to move those who do get it.
However, not everyone has an openmind to accept metal and for all those, I’ll quote Dunn again. “If metal doesn’t give that overwhelming surge of power that make the hair stand up at the back of your neck, you might never get it, and you know what? That’s okay, because judging by the 40,000 metalheads around me we’re doing just fine without you.”
Yes, metal does make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. And yes, it encourages me to finally sit down and write again after a long time.
Tags: Black Sabbath, Dio, Judas Priest, Kiss, Metal, Motorhead, Music, Queensryche, Sam Dunn, Tony Iommi, Twisted Sister
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
This movie actually rejuvenated my classes of sociology which i usually used to buzz around, and i plan to do a project or a kinda docu film on Indian Metal scene lol
I have this docu with me. Very well made. Yes, loved Dio’s digs at Gene Simmons. And Mayhem – what a nutcase! “Who said that?…F$#@ them!…And f%$#you too!” ha ha ha
“You either get it or you don’t” – that’s an extraordinary and at the same time, a very true statement about metal. In my hostel batch, I used to be the only guy listening to even soft rock, leave alone metal. It was finally a rock competition that won over some converts. It’s amazing how that surge and the rush and the headbanging just come naturally to those who get it.
Dream Theater, Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Apocalyptica and Children of Bodom are the metal folk I still listen to
Queensryche…awesome taste sir…
Do check out Global Metal..
@Kenny..do you like liquid tension experiment?
Used to listen to quite a bit of LTE in hostel but don’t have it now.
Nice! Is it available anywhere – dvd, online? Will search but lemme know if you have found it already.
BTW, welcome back, to main!
I have seen this docu it is a gr8 wrk to make sense of the numerous Rock subdivisions and the wanna be Jim Morissions
it had gr8 songs as bakgrnd score
Its there on youtube..the entire docu and its amazing
I had never thought this documentary would be mentioned here in PFC. I have always appreciated this documentary and its one of my favorites related to Heavy Metal. Sam Dunn really did a lot of research and traveling in creating this award winning documentary. I liked the interviews of Norwegian bands, and artists like Necrobutcher and Blasphemer giving interviews(cool names huh..). His travels to places like Wacken(Germany) which is considered as Mecca of Heavy Metal is worth mentioning.
I love heavy metal and its nice to see it getting mentioned in PFC.
@Debarun – a docu on the indian metal scene would be awesome. Bands like Demonic Resurrection, Scribe, Brute Force in fact sound tighter and much better than some of the popular bands out here in the US
@Kenny – i’m with you on everything you said
@Sourav – thank you. Not many people get metal and from those who do, very few get Queensryche!
@ravptor, arijit – thanks.
Happy to see you write again.
I love your take on the world of metal and I love the way you don’t need someone to like or love it. I wish the others reading this could see the twinkle in your eyes when you hear Deo, Queensryche or some of your other favorites!
Continue writing….
Love,
me
Smita..ehehe..phamily bizzness???
Welcome on PFC :-)
Finally someone in the mainstream Indian media wrote abt this. Delighted!
\m/
lol smita. welcome to PFC too.
Try reading our stuff too sometime ;-)
@Smita – thank you wifey dearest and welcome to PFC
@Cyril – my pleasure
@OM, ravptor – it was one way to get her out here by writing myself.
yeah yeah… otherwise she would snooze away at the mention of PFC… there they go…
PFC Lingo!
Wonderful article! Ahhh.. I never thought I’d see much of metal on PfC. I had seen an article on Iron Maiden’s performance in India but hardly anyone commented on it. But heck, I was sure we’d have more than a few metalheads here.
Queensryche are legends. I missed them the last time they were here (Sydney) but I have been wanting to see them live forever now. Operation Mindcrime.. I mean noone has ever thought of making an album like that with a story! Empire, Promised Land were great albums but under-rated. Ah I can keep on going about them.
I had the absolute honour of meeting Alex Skolnick and Chuck Billy recently when they were here on their last tour (WOW). They were in a foodcourt and noone recognised them. I ran to the nearest music store and got a copy of ‘Formation of Damnation’ (inspite of me havin 1 already) and ran and got them to sign it for me. I mentioned to Chuck ‘Thank you mate. Ur a legend. Cant believe ppl aren’t mobbing you both’. To this he responded ‘We like it just that way’. I wish he’d have done a death grunt but heck… unforgettable!
Metal is not for everyone and it never should be. I like the exclusivity attached to it. The same way PfC’ians find an exclusivity to this website. Metal is much more soulful however weird that sounds to most. It is not ‘noise’. I would never prefer anything over it.
Which reminds me… I heard Kreator is coming back here. Need to check online for tour dates.
Thank you FenderBender.
well…within Scandinavian countries, Norway has a predominant black metal scene whereas countries like Finland, Sweden, Iceland etc have traditionally gravitated more towards melodic metal…places like Stockholm, Helsinki were centers of melodic movement… (ask me how I know Stockholm
Sajith
@Azazel – Thank you! Queensryche are amazing live and the best part was that it was a very small indoor concert and we were probably 40ft away from the stage. In fact before the show, we were just hanging around and Geoff Tate rushed past us backstage. Had I been a little more alert, I would have hugged him right there.
Everytime I hear the name Alex Scholnick, I wonder why Testament never got the glory it truly deserved.
And you mentioned Operation Mindcrime…aah! That my friend is an epic. I own the DVD of that concert and always dream about being there live.
Thank you SOOOO much for your post. Never thought I’d see it on PFC. It was such a treat to read. ^_^ In India however I’ve found the metal scene to be much more mainstream, and dare I say it – even the sort of thing that draws a lot of wannabes, because it’s considered totally COOL, like OMG. :P I grew up with bands like Atheist, Pestilence, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and old-school Metallica and they became the soundtrack to my life. Yes, particularly during my teenage angst phase. But even beyond that.
Initially, I loved the exhilarating high head-banging your way through a gig or concert ALL night long and requiring a neck brace the day after, gave you. Then, I loved the community I found myself a part of. And I was glad I was in India – because I never felt ostracized for it. Sure, I had a couple of THOSE conversations with guys wearing Linkin Park t-shirts, whose Metallica knowledge extended to Unforgiven and Fade to Black. Sure, I wanted to swat them with my guitar. But, at the same time I wanted to tell myself that they’d felt it too. Whatever it was that just had me hooked. Even if it was JUST Fade To Black they’d ever listened to in their whole lives, I HOPED that they’d always carry some part of Cliff Burton with them forever.
Then, I came to America and found myself being the college kid stuck in a room who headbangs with their headphones on. You can’t really get up air-guitaring or going totally berserk cuz your roommate starts to look at you funny. It is very solidly the age of “hip-hop is cool” here now. I was at a Vader concert in New York just last year. This was VADER. Come all the way from Poland. In America’s MOST metropolitan city. And they couldn’t even fill a room the size of a pub. It was just tragic. This compared to the Enslaved concert in Delhi being totally packed from what I hear.
Just makes me miss home that bit more. ;_;
Gr8 article…can’t claim to be a metalhead…the only metal I’ve heard is Metallica and Dream Theater. Still have a long way to go !
Fortunately and fourtunately..there are so many genres and sub genres of metal that it is invariably inappropriate to classify it the way Sam Dunn has done..although we can consider it as a thumb rule..but there are variants
Ohh my god..so many old guards..Azazel..Anushka
My first article PFC was on metal/movies…how’s that for a mixture..deadly mix eh?
What is your inspiration?
(Pause)
(Pause)
(Silence)
SATAN!
That was the funniest part of the documentary. The sequel – “Global Metal” was a fitting overview of metal all around the globe except India, where the bands (read: “Prakalp” or something) took the cake with some really retarded statements.
@Fender: Yes, I agree with you. A documentary on indian metal scene featuring SCRIBE is a must
Thanks for such an interesting piece on metal, I will check out the docu on youtube. Me, like your wife, dont really get it but I have been to a few metal concerts in my days and being there changes everything and even if you dont get it you feel the intensity when you’re among the metal crowd. Maybe we will get a chance to catch your band play when we come visit in SJ. Keep on writing, its definitely good stuff…Eman
@ Anushka – I had a couple of THOSE conversations with guys wearing Linkin Park t-shirts, whose Metallica knowledge extended to Unforgiven and Fade to Black.
Yea I’ve had quite a few of those too. But cant really blame the younger crowd. Thanks to Nirvana, metal had started to fade away. Thrash was nowhere to be seen. The end of Pantera, Metallica’s commercial ventures, Slayer, Anthrax, Testament on a sabbatical… there were not many flag-bearers. And during that period a lot of people were initiated into ‘metal’ thanks to the Black album. The fact that Metallica even sold so many copies of Load and Reload proved that metal was dead around that time.
But there has been a great resurgence thanks to a few good new bands. I shuddered when I saw Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and wondered if this was the future of metal. But am glad better bands emerged. Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, System of a down, Disturbed, Katatonia, Trivium, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, etc. have created a resurgence. There are a lot many bands touring now than there were a couple of year back. All the old bands have released new albums which sound like their best. Metallica, Testament, Slayer, Maiden.. have released their best music since the late 80’s in the last one year!
Good times are here. Its good to see great metal albums being released and the old gun’s performing all around the world.
@ FenderBender: Mateeeee Operation Mindcrime Live would be a dream come true for me too. I own the DVD as well but even better than the official DVD is a bootleg that’s circulating. Donno if u’ve seen that.
And you said what I have always thought – Why was Testament not on par with Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer? Why why why? Skolnick according to me is hands down the best guitarist. Chuck Billy is super versatile (heard Demonic?), Peterson, Christian… and now they have Bostoph on the drums! I could never understand how The Legacy, Practice what you preach are not considered as the best ever thrash albums. Sigh.
Alrite… Apologies – I get carried away.
@Anushka – I’m glad you enjoyed the article. And are you still playing that guitar or just using it to swat people?
@Doc Ock – thanks.
@Sourav – I agree that its impossible if not inappropriate to classify. Heard of the term Math Metal? Listen to the swedish band Messhugah.
@Srinivas – how are you my man? I had seen you guys play in Mumbai a few times but until I met you at IFFLA, I didn’t know you were the same Srinivas from PFC. And yeah, that piece from Gaahl’s interview was funny in a very creepy way.
@Paligirl – hope to see you in the crowd too!
@Azazel – you sure got carried away mate! just kidding
If you ever get a chance, do NOT miss Lamb of God in concert. And i’ll try to get my hands on the bootleg.
Been listening to Queensryche from morning… hooked! thanks!