Metal Meets Academia

This weekend marked the release of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey to theatres across the country, and perhaps North America. Needless to say, this was required viewing for an old school metal fan like myself and I must say, I wasn't disappointed in the least.

For those of you who don’t know, Sam Dunn studied anthropology at the University of Victoria before heading to the Big Smoke to do a Masters at York. Somewhere along the line, he got himself into a project that examined Heavy Metal music. But unlike The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years, this film isn’t a farce with scenes falsified and orchestrated for entertainment value. Sam’s academic sensibilities wouldn’t allow that. Good on him.

He manages to break the genre down into component its parts and presents things much as one would if organizing a lecture on the subject—and does it with enthusiasm. I can honestly say I was never bored, even when he did segments on bands I didn't particularly care for. He got to interview a variety of the founding fathers of the Rock pantheon, which must have unassailably cool (and a dream come true) for a lifelong metalhead, giving the project added credibility. My favorite part of the film is the interview with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister about his testimony in front of the Senate Committee regarding music lyrics in 1984.

It amazes me how limited the American collective memory can be. To think that they almost elected Al Gore for President, forgetting (or merely overlooking) that his wife Tipper was the head of a censorship brigade called the Parents Music Resource Center in the 80s. That must have been a heckuva choice, eh? A good ol' boy from Texas in George W. Bush, who as history has shown has led the last remaining Super Power into an unending and unwinnable war, or a censorship monger? Definitely glad I didn't have a vote in that one.

Back to the topic at hand. I related pretty well to this film because the heavy metal music of the 80s was MY music. I grew my hair long (or tried, at least. My mom always forced me to cut it before it ever got past the awkward stage), wore the black concert t-shirts and taped the weekly episodes of the Power Hour. It's no secret that I've always been an uptight and tense guy, but this music was my release. It was my way of letting go and cutting loose. I guess I was quite the paradox: totally conservative and restrained in the way I acted, yet listened (and found solace) in heavy metal music.

I think it's good that someone finally took the time to examine heavy metal music in a serious context. Whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, the genre was (and is) an influence on today's youth. At the end of the film, Sam says something along the lines of, "Either you feel it or you don't. And if you don't, that's okay, because there's 40,000 screaming metalheads around me that do and we're doing just fine without you." Damn right.