Wednesday, December 20, 2006
I've been watching a lot of DVDs recently. Many of the DVDs have come from the library, and while some are documentaries, others are feature films. One thing I'm impressed with at the Ajax Public Library is the sheer number of Criterion Collection DVDs amidst the typical Hollywood drivel. As is typical for suburbia, nobody ever seems to take the Criteron discs out, so if I go looking for a specific Criterion DVD the library has, I'm almost guaranteed it will be available.
One of the DVDs I watched yesterday (not a Criteron disc) was a documentary called Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, which is an exploration by a metalhead anthropologist of heavy metal music and the culture that surrounds it. Unfortunately, the film is pretty shallow and only really touches on the heavy metal phenomenon. Still, for what it's worth, it was fun to watch; and I know I learned a few things about metal music -- like the fact that Dio is a tiny dwarf of a man.
All kidding aside, the director broke metal out into several sub-genres, some of which I know about, some of which I listen to regularly and some of which I don't know anything about. However, the focus of the movie seemed to be on the more hardcore trash, death and black metal, with several nods to the likes of Twisted Sister and Judas Priest. For more mainstream metal, Dee Snider (along with Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and Motorhead's Lemmy) was one of the few spokespeople used in the documentary.
Overall, the film is okay, but nothing spectacular. And it's really for fans of metal, not for the average person.
One of the DVDs I watched yesterday (not a Criteron disc) was a documentary called Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, which is an exploration by a metalhead anthropologist of heavy metal music and the culture that surrounds it. Unfortunately, the film is pretty shallow and only really touches on the heavy metal phenomenon. Still, for what it's worth, it was fun to watch; and I know I learned a few things about metal music -- like the fact that Dio is a tiny dwarf of a man.
All kidding aside, the director broke metal out into several sub-genres, some of which I know about, some of which I listen to regularly and some of which I don't know anything about. However, the focus of the movie seemed to be on the more hardcore trash, death and black metal, with several nods to the likes of Twisted Sister and Judas Priest. For more mainstream metal, Dee Snider (along with Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and Motorhead's Lemmy) was one of the few spokespeople used in the documentary.
Overall, the film is okay, but nothing spectacular. And it's really for fans of metal, not for the average person.
// posted by Chris @ 8:52 AM 
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