Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

industrialselection 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.

d c A well done documentary that covers a genre I do not particularly care for. The whole death-black satanic metal really disturbs me. The interviews with those guys from Norway really turned my stomach. What a bunch of sickos! Other basic hair glamor metal I can get into on occasion, but the other stuff is just creepy. The 80's footage of the kids outside of a metal concert is priceless. I wonder whatever happened to them? This film will most likely not convert outsiders to the metal side. I can attest to this. But, it's interesting nonetheless. I was glad to see Klostertaler offering his insights. He's a legend!

movedout A documentary that wears its heart on its sleeves is often a documentary that keeps its eyes on the prize. And just days after viewing the disappointingly cursory "American Hardcore", "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" throws down a challenge in its first scenes when a frazzled youth with a microphone makes sure to add that "punk…does not belong in this world". Canadian metalhead cum anthropologist, Sam Dunn heads off on a personal odyssey to the United States, Germany, the UK and Norway to interview metal's luminaries and academics with two purposes in mind – to find out why metal has been so maligned and to gauge the obsession it inspires throughout its legion. Dunn angles a new perspective on its self-aware, perceptible fanbase and bands by personalising his journey in a formalised, but never didactic way, of approaching his subjects and interviewees as kindred spirits. He features erudite interviews with the subculture's leading and most influential personalities and accomplishes his first goal by juxtaposing their reasoned, informed views on metal with the irrational fear that advocacy groups have waged battles over. But in one of the film's most harrowing interview sequences, he also concedes that there are some bands that take the transgressive state of their cults of personality too far. Dunn's academic background allows him certain legitimacy and the documentary does try to counter the stigma of a pedagogic structure by employing some innovative and accessible use of the documentary within a documentary footage, accentuating Dunn's individual venture into his lifelong fascination.

infokrf I was dragged along to a film festival to see this by a mate after he convinced me based solely on a picture of a fat metalhead playing an inflatable pink guitar at an unnamed concert. Thus I was expecting something pretty cheesy and maybe a bit of fun. What a surprise Metal: A Headbangers Journey turned out to be. The guy who made it, Sam Dunn is a anthropologist and metalhead who treats his subject both seriously and with a bit of humour and his love for what he is describing, as well as obviously deep knowledge of the subject, goes a long way to making Metal: AHJ so worthwhile. It has an excellent global rather than US or British focus and covers everything from the roots of metal to all it's various past and present incarnations with almost all of the information coming from either band members themselves, fans or interested third parties from various academic backgrounds. The documentary is divided into sub-sections such as Roots, Controversy, Gender and Satanism and held together by following of our documentarian Sam as he conducts various interviews and visits festivals and countries like a touring band himself. Perhaps the most interesting part was the section on Black Metal, with interviews with both Norwegian church burners and advocates balanced against the Minister of one of said burnt churches without going the easy road into provocations and angry sniping. Every metalhead I know who saw this loved it (although equally everyone has some minor disagreement with the metal family tree Dunn presents) but equally everyone who I made watch it with me who was not into metal came away surprised at how interesting and enjoyable it was. Best moment: Ghaal from Gorgoroth's answer to "What is Black Metal?" (so dead serious but all the more hysterically funny for it). Complaints? Simply too short, even with all the extras on the second disk (many of which are excellent just as stand alone pieces-Lemmy is a highlight here too!) on DVD.