Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

When this movie/documentary first hit theatres I loved it and thought that as a huge metal fan, we are finally getting recognised as just the die-hard fans we are, and not the social miscreants. Also the music was getting its voice out there amongst a wider public, that otherwise considers metal as mere noise.However after repeated viewings and looking further into the info provided I found that it has a number of flaws and just doesn't go deep enough into its source material. The initial heavy metal tree at the start, is impressive but also highly flawed. While I love artists such as Dio and Tony Iommi, most of the interviews are predominantly all one- sided. I don't get the repeated crosses to the Slipknot interview, which most true metal fans hate with a passion.The metal fans that get interviewed come off as a bunch of low fore- heads that are into metal for no other reason other than it's seen to be cool or to be deliberately contrary to their friends. I still like the film, but for a documentary it just doesn't go far enough or deep enough. And maybe this is an Australian thing, but I feel little about this so-called feeling of family or brotherhood that metal fans are supposed to share with each other. Most fans you meet at gigs, tend to be over the top, loud for the sake of being loud, and are opinionated beyond all reason. It's a good documentary but I would've love to hear from more serious fans as well as perspectives from the general public of what they believe metal is and what they think of it. Overall the movie does little for people who only know of the genre by way of Metallica etc. and seeing as most people who saw this in cinemas or bought the DVD were already metal fans there is nothing here that we didn't already know.

I have to warn people to take everything here with a pinch of salt. These guys call Opeth a doom or Gothic metal band, they can't make their mind up on that, either way that's wrong. They lump arch enemy in with old-school Swedish death metal bands like entombed. They even went and said cradle of filth are a Norwegian black metal band. Now i know there are some who still call them black metal but they certainly were never Norwegian. This movie fails to point out the progressive offshoots from the various subgenres and instead refers to progressive metal as one distinct group. No progressive death metal, post-black metal, avant-garde metal. They actually call Marilyn Manson and nine inch nails industrial metal bands. I just don't understand how they get away with this.

So... this documentary is part of a thesis? As the movie opens, we are explained that the guy tries to find out,among other questions, why the heavy metal genre is ridiculed or why people laughs at it... and after more than an hour of dumbness, the only answer he finds is "f**k you!". Neato! If this documentary was a thesis, I hope they flunked him for not knowing that most of his questions were already answered by people much better prepared than him to do so, and in a much more amusing way: "This is Spinal tap"Grotesque. Anyways you can have some fun watching/listening to some former glories like R.J. Dio or Dee Snider.

A thought provoking and interesting documentary about one of the most popular- and controversial- genres of music around today. Discussing topics like religion and sexuality in the world of metal, this features some fascinating interviews with pretty much everyone from Geddy Lee to George Fisher. for those unfamiliar with the genre, or those who consider it "pointless noise", this should hopefully open a few eyes. The director, Sam Dunn, a self confessed headbanger himself, has clearly researched his topic greatly, and whilst the "geneology chart" may need a few tweaks (last time I checked, Cradle of Filth were English, not Norwegian), the footage and interviews provided more than compensate. It addresses the musics critics head on, whilst also providing us with some very funny stories from the lives of its subjects. The interview with Dee Snider about the PMRC is particularly hilarious. And best of all, it has a killer soundtrack.