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STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $24.98
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Commentary by directors Scot McFayden and Sam Dunn
• Heavy Metal Baraka
• Outtakes
• Extended interviews with Lars Ulrich, Max Cavalera, Bruce Dickinson, Melechesh, Lamb of God, Krisiun, and Sigh

The Pitch:
Let’s explore how heavy metal music has permeated various countries and influenced the youth culture around the HOLY SHIT, Iron Maiden is playing in fucking Bangalore, man!

The Humans:
Sam Dunn, members of Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Sepultura, Tang Dynasty, and Orphaned Land.

The Nutshell:
An entertaining and insightful documentary on the global world of metal.

The Lowdown:
The makers of the excellent documentary ‘Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey’ are back with a very interesting and entertaining sequel that takes a look at the metal scene from a global perspective.  Religious persecution, government intolerance and censorship, poor economic situations…all of these things and more are touched on over the course of the documentary.  In the end, you’ll be amazed at the musical freedom that we take for granted in the West.


The crowd caught a whiff of the crazy Casbah jive!

In order, the documentary takes us to Rio De Janeiro, Tokyo, Mumbai, Beijing, Jakarta, Israel, and Dubai.  All of the places have different stories to tell, some of which are more entertaining than others:
– In Tokyo, we go to a metal bar called BLACKMORE’S and watch a bunch of middle aged Japanese men scream out ‘Highway Star’ in unison.  We also see Marty Friedman (Megadeth) talk about his love for various Japanese bands (X-Japan, Sex Machineguns) in a genre called Visual Kei.  Seriously, these bands look like a cross between Poison, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and Slayer.


Japan: where hairmetal goes to die

– In Mumbai, we see the struggle that the local metal bands have in getting gigs.  Indeed, a pretty amusing scene has a hard core metal band scoring a gig down the hall from a traditional Indian wedding. 
– In Israel, we discover that there is a pretty hard core Jewish Black Metal scene, similar to what is found in Norway.  The difference?  In Norway, the focus is on the occult; in Israel, the focus is on the everyday violence.
– In Dubai, we go to the Desert Rock festival.  This is the only country in the region that will allow metal music to be performed, so any Arab in the Middle East that lives in a repressive country (Iran, Iraq, etc…) has to journey there to rock out.  It’s not every day that you see an Arab woman with an Iron Maiden t-shirt and a burka.


Because nothing quite says metal like Dubai.

This isn’t just some superficial METAL RULES YEAH MAN kind of documentary; the host, Sam Dunn, has a graduate degree in anthropology, and he does a really good job at trying to dig deeply into the cultural impact that metal (and other aspects of Western culture) has had on some of these countries.  He gets really interesting, and sometimes very poignant, answers from many of the fans that he meets. 

And the music?  It kicks ASS.  The movie features quite a few local bands from every country (some good, some not so good) as well as many major bands in action.  In fact, the movie ends with the crew going back to Bangalore to watch Iron Maiden’s first concert in India.  Watching the crew rock out with the psyched Indian metalheads really drives home the film’s message: metal is universal.


Awesome.

My only complaint: the filmmakers never interview anyone who is AGAINST the metal scene in any of these countries.  An opposing viewpoint would have been interesting to see.

The Package:

This is a two DVD set, with the movie on one disc and the bonus material on the other.  The bonus features are definitely worthwhile and entertaining: the outtakes follows the crew members while they film this documentary, and some of the shit that they pull is pretty funny.  The audio commentary is funny and engaging, and the extended interviews are informative.

9.5 out of 10