GLOBAL METAL, directed by Sam Dunn and Scot McFayden (Hopskotch/Roadshow)

Heavy metal might seem at first an unlikely global traveller, at least outside of the Western nations usually seen as outposts of American musical culture. But as the cliché runs, music is a universal language – so what really happens when you translate metal’s primal scream into the culture of India, Iran, Japan or Dubai? More variety than you’d expect from metal’s dark, obsessive image, for one, and a platform for a whole raft of local concerns, as filmmaker Sam Dunn is at pains to demonstrate in Global Metal.

Essentially a whistle-stop tour of some of the unlikelier places metal has reached, Global Metal gains plenty of entertainment value from the unexpected – courteous headbangers in Japan, thunderously dark metal in Beijing, an underground concert alongside a traditional wedding in India. What lifts the film above a pat tale of a musical form gone global is that it shows not only metal’s travel and transformation, but that it often connects to local concerns in a way not normally associated with ‘headbanger’ music. Sometimes the results are liberating, as in Indonesia or Brazil; sometimes they also form a worrying adjunct to pre-existing local hatreds, and Global Metal to its credit doesn’t shy away from the latter, including Metallica’s apocalyptic 1993 Jakarta concert – ringed with flames as the army raised hell in the surrounding city – and anti-Semitism in metal from Scandinavia to Israel.

The music itself? You’re probably not going to get such a solid serving of Metallica, Sepultura, Slayer, Japanese visual kei, Chinese black metal and Iron Maiden in any other single DVD, and it should intrigue both metal novices and experienced metalheads looking to broaden their tastes. It’s a shame that the quantity of material limits the length of most clips – you’ve just about gotten into the feel of the music when Global Metal fades out to narration – but a likely cost of having to cram so much into a single documentary. This is a collection of musical leads to follow, and clearly not an omnibus in itself.

Speaking of that narration, Sam Dunn’s background in anthropology has clearly informed Global Metal, but it might have worked just as well to let the material speak through selection and editing rather than narrative commentary. It’s certainly strong stuff. Presentation is fairly standard but adequate, with 16 x 9 widescreen and Dolby 5:1 surround. The special features are fairly minimal, but worth a look – apart from extended cuts of the interviews featured in the film, there’s an extraordinary roll of outtakes. They’re digicam-blurry, but in their unedited rawness they hint tantalizingly at a tougher, more confident piece of moviemaking.

Still, highly recommended – let’s hope that Sam Dunn doesn’t give up on chronicling the world’s metal just yet.

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