Metalheads revisited
There�s a very tense moment in Sam Dunn and Scot McFayden�s Global Metal, their travelogue through heavy metal subculture around the world, where the lead singer of Tengkorak, Indonesia�s biggest heavy metal band, insists that it�s the mission of all Muslims � indeed of right-thinking people everywhere � to kill �Zionists,� a sentiment that he voices while wearing a prominent anti-Nazi armband. Suddenly, the confused, inchoate world of early 21st-century politics has entered Dunn and McFayden�s world with a vengeance.
�It's kind of an unfortunate product of 9/11,� Dunn reflects, �with the hardening of views, and some young people feel that they have to take a very strong stance based on who they are in some countries. I think Tengkorak's politics are an example of that - being defensive, feeling attacked as a Muslim and having to direct your anger at something else.�
Global Metal is a sequel of sorts to the pair�s earlier film, Metal: A Headbanger�s Journey, which followed Dunn � a trained anthropologist and lifelong metalhead � around the world as he explored the roots of his favorite music. Global Metal came about as a response to all the letters he and McFayden received in the aftermath of the first film�s release, from metal fans insisting that they check out their country�s often small but vital scenes. Politics didn�t play much of a role in the first film, but it certainly does in the new one, with its stops in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Israel and Dubai.
�It's pre-political is the only way I can describe it, after the first film,� says McFayden. �You would have someone like Alice Cooper say that it has nothing to do with politics, and then you'd have Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine say School's Out was the most political song he heard when he was a kid. It's political, but it doesn't give you an answer - it's a feeling, it's emotionally political, not intellectually political. But in those countries we found that Indonesia is taking more of an intellectual political approach, and in China it seems like a combination.�
Their filmmaking partnership has moved on to documentaries on Iron Maiden and Rush that will take them into the next year, after which they�re still only speculating about another film in the series.
�I guess things do work in threes,� McFayden says. �I really don't know what would be the third installment of the metal trilogy...�
�We've talked about the possibility of expanding Global Metal into a series,� adds Dunn, �because when we started the research for the movie we had a list of about 30 countries where we knew there was metal, but eventually pared it down to the ones we thought were most interesting. So there's a list of countries that you could easily do a half-hour piece on - Colombia or Russia or Cuba. Morocco. There's a lot of interesting places.�
>> Read Metro's review on Global Metal.
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