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Our Thoughts On Netflix's 2022 Movie: 'Metal Lords'
45 Plays1 year ago
Today we discuss the 2022 movie 'Metal Lords' and what it got right in the representation of Heavy Metal music!
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction to Metal Lords Film Review
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Minds of Metal. My name is Daria. And I'm Lars. And today we thought we'd share our thoughts with you on the film we watched last night called Metal Lords.
Overview and Spoiler Alert
00:00:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's really interesting. There's a movie released this year, I think it was in April, about these two friends who are losers in high school, who love heavy metal, and they're trying to compete in Battle of the Bands. And we'll leave it there, we won't say anything too much, although this episode kind of will be a bit spoilery. So spoiler warning, we will talk about stuff that happened in the movie. What did you think
Humor and Stereotypes in Metal Lords
00:00:44
Speaker
of it?
00:00:44
Speaker
You know, I really enjoyed it. I really did. It was such an easy to watch film. And, you know, as a metal fan, just seeing these guys, especially the guitarist guy, you know, being so passionate about it, it's just, yeah, it just warmed my heart. I thought it was funny. Yeah, it was pretty cheesy, but it had really funny moments. And I thought overall, some of the messages that were going through it were pretty cool.
00:01:10
Speaker
I don't think we've sort of reviewed this in terms of like of how it did as a movie, but just talking about the mental aspects of it, because there was a lot of stuff I resonated with throughout the movie. One of the things was that I mean, finally, I thought that
Metalhead Stereotypes and Personal Resonance
00:01:22
Speaker
Or they got so many stereotypes throughout the whole movie. You've got the little nerd who loves metal music, who just sat and doesn't know what to do with his life. You've got the metal guy who is overly passionate about metal, calling the band Skullfuckers and all that stuff. All the high school stereotypes as well, including the parents. Everything was a very overly stereotypical bit in a funny way.
00:01:48
Speaker
yeah and you know i enjoyed all these jokes and stuff it was actually quite funny like and not in a cheesy way sometimes it was like legitimately really funny and i loved that yeah i thought funny thing is that i thought it was quite accurate for the two main characters being metal heads and kind of growing up alone um i know that you know the the dad of the main character had some issues and that was between him the father and son but
00:02:15
Speaker
it is a lonely life growing up a metalhead as a teenager because you just don't resonate with many people when a lot of people don't really understand what it's like to sort of share the same interests and passions you do and that could be music all the way you dress oh because i didn't grow up a metalhead so yeah i wasn't exactly popular at school but uh i wasn't a metalhead how is it like growing up as a metalhead how why do you resonate well
Metal Music and Personal Identity
00:02:40
Speaker
Because in the movie, you saw a few things. I think it was very over exaggerated, but you did see how society reacts to people who like heavy metal. And I know that the guy sending his son to a rehabilitation center for liking heavy metal was a bit over the top. But it resonates because you have people who really think that, you know,
00:03:01
Speaker
going back to when metal started you really thought that there were people who thought that you were sick in the head because you followed and liked music that was worshipping satan and all stuff like that um so it's it's easy to like i said they over-exaggerated it but it was easy to understand how sometimes society looks down on these people because they just don't understand the kind of music no and you know i actually funnily enough i think it's still the case
00:03:31
Speaker
yeah it's still the case in 2022 and uh you know what i get a lot that i don't look like a metal fan it's like but how can you be a metal fan you don't look like one i'm like well
00:03:46
Speaker
I can like metal music and not maybe dress like a metal fan, you know, like a stereotypical metal fan, you know? Well that was like in the movie because the main kid, the main character, he didn't really dress, I mean towards the end he did. Overall, you know, you can be a metal fan and not look like one.
Metal's Evolution and Cultural Diversity
00:04:03
Speaker
Another thing I thought funny was that maybe this is just one small aspect that resonated with the character and myself is that
00:04:14
Speaker
When you grow up in Metalhead and when you like metal from such a young age, you can go off and do a bunch of other stuff that metal will always live on. It's Jack Black saying the metal, isn't it, in the Tenacious D song. But I did that. I loved metal for like years and years. Then I went and studied music and I got into everything else. Motown, jazz.
00:04:34
Speaker
soul and honestly anything everything you can think of you know i love all different kinds of music and you still do you still listen to everything but then in the end you know when you when you're done if you've ever if you had a couple of months of jazz and you're a bit tired of it you've got metal to fall back on and you know same with the other genres as well so
00:04:55
Speaker
the point with that is in the movie he went and started playing with that indie band and he played with them for a bit and he's the part where he's drowning and he goes so is every song like this just just the same beat and the guy's like yeah pretty much you know and he like throws a couple of uh he had like a double waist pedal yeah and i was like oh yeah what sort was it shape of you by the sheerity putting a cover of shape of you by the sheerity and he's putting in like i'm in love with you
00:05:28
Speaker
But it's interesting because like I said, you can go away, you can do things like other gigs. You know, we've done other gigs, there's other genres than that. So obviously we were professional musicians, you know, you have to do other gigs, you have to be able to adapt.
00:05:40
Speaker
coming back and having metal to fall back on is a really it's it's warm because it feels like home for me because obviously because I said that you know you know that I like grew up with it um so to have it to fall back on is always there which is cool I know I can resonate with it now because I just like that little bit of metal after like listening to I don't know prepping for whatever I'm doing like if I'm doing a lesson a singing lesson and my student is singing I don't know like Beyonce song and
00:06:10
Speaker
and then I've got like Lady Gaga to do and I... It's okay, we've got, we've got corn to come after this. But actually, you know, I'm not saying that it's like bad or whatever, but it's just nice to kind of have this home almost, you know, to just listen to some corn, listen to some, uh, a bench seven fall and be like, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yeah.
Song List and Metal Representation
00:06:34
Speaker
Another thing I was going to talk about was the nice message in there overall about metal. Listen, we know, all of us know that metal predominantly is guitar based drums and vocals, perhaps a keyboard now and then. But I thought the inclusion of listen, metal is an attitude, metal is a state of mind, metal is
00:06:59
Speaker
yeah all of those things above yeah and it doesn't have to be limited to that stuff you've got bands like apocalyptica who are just a four-piece string section it's true they're metal bands but you know i know what you're trying to say here aren't you trying to tell them about the cellist yes yeah yeah so this girl she she plays the cello and the main character the guy who overly loves metal is like no she can't be in it she she plays cello we're a bass player and in the end you know we won't spoil it entirely but
00:07:27
Speaker
the cello girl plays some metal and it's great and it rocks yeah it sounds great and it's just this nice message to say that listen metal is forever evolving you know always different things happening and why can't a cello player be
00:07:44
Speaker
the equivalent of a bass player in a metal band it can happen yeah and it can be different instruments i think this is what they're trying to say you know as well if you like if you play i don't know well what are some of those bands you did you did reactions a while ago in some of these bands was it um oh i did so many was it the who mongolian band who used like those traditional mongolian instruments yeah folk metal guys they used all sorts of instruments you know from their kind of culture and they work it's just great and i think that kind of you know being inclusive with it
00:08:14
Speaker
is important and this is what actually keeps metal evolving exactly yeah another thing i really enjoyed was the song list that they presented because the guy the guy who's overly into metal where he's trying to get his best mate into metal he gives him a song list and he's like right here listen live it learn it love it or something like that and the thing i thought was really cool about the song list was that it was kind of like a
00:08:37
Speaker
a who's who of metal. Now, you guys, I'm sure some of you guys watching and us know that there are way more than just 25 metal bands that are important to metal. But they set out this very, very, if you were to give this list to someone who doesn't know metal, then easily you could say go listen to this. And once you've listened to this, you can say you know a broad sense about heavy metal. And the thing that I liked about the songlist was that
00:09:02
Speaker
It had the older stuff on, your Sabbath, your maiden, your priest, your motorhead. But unlike other stuff, for example, School of Rock, where Jack Black does the history of rock on the board. He's talking about pop as well as rock. But he does all the bands of yesteryear, the bands from the 60s, 70s and 80s. This list had some modern bands on it, had Gojira, had Mastodon on, had his Venj Sevenfold.
00:09:27
Speaker
it's pretty cool and i thought it was cool just having some of these newer fresher bands in and giving them some of the spotlight in a show in a movie that is about heavy metal yeah but i have to tell you when i saw that the first track on that list was war pigs by black sour that just warmed my heart i was like yeah that's great this is it um other things i thought um yeah so what was really cool is at the battle of the bands so this is what spoiler warning now they they get the band together and they go and they play the battle of the bands
Live Performance Impact and Personal Stories
00:09:57
Speaker
and the band on before is the band that played that Ed Sheeran cover and everyone was dancing and vibing and when they came off they're like yeah well done well done you know good then when the metal band came on or the the main character's band they came on and at the start everyone was like what's going on but then as the music got into it when he started singing or shouting whatever he did the fans got into it or the fans the crowd got into it and then by the end of it they were you know you got the the people who were enjoying the Ed Sheeran thing just turned into their friends and going
00:10:26
Speaker
Metal! Like that. And I know it's over-exaggerated, but I have seen examples of this in my life where metal music can change depending on if you're seeing it live or not. Metal, as we said, and as the film says, is an experience. It's not just about what you hear from an album.
00:10:43
Speaker
80% of the time maybe, but the live element of heavy metal is hugely important. Two examples, I played my metal band, this is years ago, I must have been about 15 years old, we played at a school festival, so my school, we played at the festival, there was acoustic artists on, playing Mumford and Sons, there was people singing musicals from Les Mis and all that stuff, and we were on after playing our original metal music.
00:11:09
Speaker
And it was the same thing. At the start, everyone was just like, okay, so our friends were there and they were like, yeah, well done, lads, yeah, go. But by the end of the night, the momentum and the attitude and the power we brought into it, they all came down from their seats and jumped onto the stage and started shouting and moshing. Another example is, I had no one to take me to a festival.
00:11:29
Speaker
sonosphere two thousand eleven those of you who know no incredible festival i had no one to take me on the second day so my auntie who is not a metal fan took me she likes placebo and you know she likes some stuff but
00:11:42
Speaker
When we saw Lamb of God, when they came on, she was like, right, this is too much for me. And by the end, she was like, do you know what? I'd see them again. I wouldn't listen to their music, but I'd see them again. And I think metal, especially being performed live in front of you, has this way to just, it makes you completely forget what music do you like and just makes you experience the raw power that heavy metal brings in front of your eyes.
00:12:05
Speaker
yeah very well put very well put and you know guys i don't know if you'd ever share your video with you but you just you just should see it you know it's just it's just an experience itself like i didn't know you back then
00:12:23
Speaker
but oh my word, okay. I love that video. It was just, the whole school was like flooding the stage and like head banging the, oh, that was epic. I can't pull Sharon one time. And then we all took our tops off. Just yeah, just like airborne. Classic.
00:12:40
Speaker
You know, I actually really appreciated the fact that I think I'm pretty sure that the drummer and the guitarist were actually playing the instruments. Oh really? I think so. I think I googled some info about the guitarist guy. I think he was actually playing guitar.
00:12:59
Speaker
Which we found really cool. He's the one who I did think was playing his instrument. I wasn't convinced about the drummer and the cellist. Not at all times. Not at all times. I wasn't. But the guitarist I was. I think he played war pigs on drums, yeah.
00:13:13
Speaker
I think that looked very convincing. I was like, yeah, he must have played that. But listen, even if they didn't play, they made it look like they played well. It was very realistic. It was very convincing.
Metal in Mainstream Media
00:13:23
Speaker
So I thought another really cool aspect of this is that we got another kind of little injection of heavy metal into a mainstream media platform like Netflix. We saw it way back 10... Well, God, it must be almost 20 years ago now with School of Rock, where Jack Black was there, you know, doing his thing.
00:13:39
Speaker
And then we got it again this year in Stranger Things, when Eddie, is that the character Eddie Munson, played Master of Puppets in The Upside Down, which I thought was cool. That was huge. Master of Puppets actually didn't pick the charts for like ages. And it brought a whole other set of fans over to see Metallica, which again can only be a good thing.
00:13:59
Speaker
and i think this thing's really cool as well just them listing all the bands you know we mentioned the modern bands as well but he's going through all the bands you want to listen to and it shows their posters and the t-shirts he's talking about opeth i've never heard opeth mentioned in a movie it's like awesome stuff but yeah no quite enjoyable yeah i agree with you and i thought that the teenagers they're going to watch this movie just because they saw this like a high school movie yeah might get into metal you never know you never know indeed would you watch it again
Would You Watch Metal Lords Again?
00:14:26
Speaker
No, but it was lovely, but it's not like a two-time watchful. Yeah, yeah. It was great, but I wouldn't watch it again, though. Would you? Um, I might put it on, like, you know, if we ever have our songwriting sessions and our friend comes round, it's one of those to stick on in the evening. It's when you're winding down. It's in the background, you know, if you've seen it. Good soundtracks and funny moments, but yeah, an enjoyable mood. If you haven't watched it, go and watch it once, at least, I think. Yeah, especially if you're a metalhead.
00:14:52
Speaker
You'll
Conclusion and Listener Invitation
00:14:53
Speaker
enjoy that. Thank you for being here with us today. I hope you enjoyed our little conversation. If you've seen the movie, let us know your thoughts. If you haven't, go ahead and watch it and then let us know your thoughts. And yeah, we'll see you again soon. Have a metal day. Have a lovely day. See you soon.