Canadian filmmaker, anthropology grad and obsessive metal-head Sam Dunn first charmed and informed documentary fans with his exploration of metal culture, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. Global Metal picks up on that journey, taking Dunn (who is very present as a character in both films) to places where the metal scenes may be a little less obvious. Forget the glam metal of L.A. or the church-burners in northern Europe — Dunn wants to find out how the kids bang their heads in Indonesia, Israel and Dubai.
Luckily for Dunn, bangers seem to lurk in just about every corner of the Earth. Dunn starts his travels in Brazil, where he hooks up with Sepultura’s Max Cavalera and discovers why Rock in Rio attracts so many Brazilian metal maniacs (it has something to do with Brazil’s shift to democracy in the ’80s). He jumps to Japan and talks to Megadeth’s Marty Friedman, who now lives in that country, speaks fluent Japanese and has become a popular television personality (a recent project features a choir of teenage girls singing along to Friedman’s guitar as a soundtrack to a cartoon featuring a heavy-metal panda. For real.). From there, Dunn explores youth culture and rebellion in China, the Middle East, India and Indonesia, talking politics and music with a parade of remarkably well-spoken metal musicians and enthusiasts.
Global Metal is unusually informative, and Dunn is personable and earnest. While his anthropology degree (which he mentions repeatedly) does cause him to shift into term-paper mode a couple of times, this movie is a lot of fun. While tried-and-true metal-heads seem to be fading out in North America (or at least heading towards middle age), making way for gothier heavy-rock styles amongst angry disillusioned teens (thanks a lot, Slipknot), it’s nice to see that classic Slayer-loving bangers still thrive in other parts of the world. While each country has its own set of circumstances and the music varies in style (Jerusalem offers up some pretty unsavoury Klezmer metal and the Japanese mix Manilow-style ballads with their finger-tapping), one thing is sure: a banger is a banger. Long hair, black concert T-shirt, perhaps a goatee or a soulpatch or a spiked wristband — it’s a universal uniform. Rock on, global bangers. Rock on.
