A headbanger's journey

[KiwiCoromandel]

Canadian metalhead Sam Dunn wondered why no one took his choice of music seriously.

"Metal is always dismissed as being the knucklehead music," he says. "Punk music came from the intelligentsia, the left-wing constituency in urban centres, whereas metal comes from suburbs and industrial cities. That's why metal got pushed aside as not having a lot of meaning."

So the 37-year-old anthropologist methodically lays out his case in his film, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. He brings a fan's passion and a sense of academic inquiry to the engaging rockumentary.

Dunn and co-director Scot McFadyen interviewed metal luminaries such as Alice Cooper, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Lemmy (Motorhead) and Rob Zombie. They tackled Satanic worship, censorship, sexism and the link between teen violence and metal. The results will surprise anyone who thought metal lacked ideas - or humour.

"[Tony Iommi] was great; we were drinking tea with him," McFadyen says. "It was like sitting with your polite English grandfather who happened to play metal."

The film also delves into the extremes of metal, interviewing Norwegian black-metal band members who are avowed Satanists jailed for church burnings.

"We say that metal likes to laugh at itself, but [the Norwegian black metal bands] really don't," McFadyen says.

Dunn argues that people who fret about metal's violent imagery miss the point: it's not really about the violence.

"Metal fans love metal primarily because of the music and the feeling that it gives you. That's why you get fans who wear the T-shirts - you want to identify yourself as a Mastodon fan. That's the main function of the imagery, not that it's depicting some action that you emulate."

McFadyen: "Except for slaying dragons. We do that all the time."

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

Directors Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn, Jessica Joy Wise

Stars Alice Cooper,Tony Iommi, Lemmy, Dee Snider, Rob Zombie...

images:AP/mog.com:SAM DUNN and SCOT McFAYDEN...a HEADBANGERS journey..

[slum_goddess]

Metal is always dismissed as being the knucklehead music,"

that's the biggest bullshit i ever heard in my life. Chris, who's totally brilliant, is a headbanger from way back when.

the other night, my friend Boudicca took this pic of Lemmy playing in Manchester (her comment was Rimone..this ones 4 u.. got invited backstage last nite at motorhead cos we were wiv r mate Marshall Gill (guitarist from New model army)