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Metallica & the Down of Thrash
Like many of you out there, I am and have been a fan of Metallica and can't wait to hear their next album which should come out later in 2008. And like some of you from that group, I've liked them for years, and for me, it goes back to 1986, just before the Master of Puppets album came out. Despite the lack of compromise in their music, it still garnered widespread attention and respect, which gave me comfort even as pop and rock music was non-existent for me during those years. Shoot, aside from Metallica, the only other artist whose albums I'd buy would be Jimi Hendrix! Metallica captured the frustration and angst better than any other artist for me growing up, and it showed in their music, with blazing fast drums from Lars Ulrich and rhythm guitar work from James Hetfield. It's that particular early component, the speed or "thrash" metal portion of their work, which is the focus of this 90 minute documentary produced for English release.
Metallica and the Dawn of Thrash spends equal time on Metallica, focusing on their origins to the time shortly after the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton in 1986 and on thrash music itself. Metallica's early influences, particularly the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal," are given ample time. Interviews with some members of that era, particularly guitarist Brian Tatler of Diamond Head, is given some time as well. Some of those who knew James, Lars, Cliff and guitarists Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammett, are also interviewed, giving the viewer the proper perspective on what the boys were doing at the time and any pertinent anecdotes on their activities. The boys themselves are shown, discussing the death of Burton, their early times playing and hanging out together, and other memorable experiences, illustrated via archived footage, though there isn't any new footage to speak of. And why's that? Funny you asked. For whatever reason, Metallica did not participate with or endorse this documentary. Perhaps it was because of any possible media ambush, or perhaps it is due to the efforts of the band to control their image as much as possible, but when the main subject doesn't participate in your project, you know there's some sort of problem.
With a narrator who isn't identified and participants who, while well meaning, simply aren't abundant enough. Members of Megadeth, Machine Head and other bands also talk about playing Metallica's albums and how much they mean to them, but Tatler and others discuss playing at the time and how different it might have been, relative to Metallica covering "Am I Evil?" all the time. Thrash metal's tie-ins with punk music are both discussed and explored in great detail. Metallica's relationship and fracturing with guitarist Dave Mustaine is discussed, and in a slightly interesting segment, former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland discusses how Mustaine processed the success of his friends, and when compared to the sequence in Some Kind of Monster when Mustaine finally confronted Ulrich, makes things all the more uneasy.
While it does look at some interesting components of Metallica's music and influences, the documentary is limited by a couple of things; the copious and excessive use of rock writers in the piece who contribute nothing new is just the beginning. The only person who might run contrary to this is Lonn Friend, former editor of Rip Magazine and has spent some time through the years with the band. However, Malcolm Dome, who's written books on several heavy metal acts over the years, and Joel McIver, who's kind of done the same thing for not as long and with more varied musical acts, seem to do nothing more than fill in a historical gap or two, and maybe provide some thumbnail review of the albums that are discussed, which I could do, and I haven't written a Metallica book that I know of. Additionally, some of the musical artists involved seem to think that they're a little too smart for the room. One man whose name escapes me seems to convey the suggestion that musical acts from the early '80s that came from Washington, D.C. were the front-runners of the "Emo" genre and demonstrated this during concerts, particularly during a concert by the group Rites of Spring. Sorry, but if Ian MacKaye, H.R. and others knew that they were going to spawn Jimmy Eat World and Good Charlotte, I'm sure they never would have considered going into music. Maybe I'm wrong on this characterization, but aside from this, the overall lack of enthusiasm to the possessed approach, and the lack of any real passion in the material, it's more than a little underwhelming.
The Disc:Video:
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this was probably something that was going to air on some sort of second-tier music television channel, so the 4:3 full-frame video presentation adequately shows some of these aging rockers in all their splendor and glory. It's a basic straightforward presentation that doesn't surprise or impress.
Audio:This documentary was recorded with two-channel stereo sound. Quite frankly, this is pretty much as good as you're going to get with an unauthorized documentary; if someone wanted to do a documentary on early '80s thrash metal, I bet that they'd get shot down on the spot.
Extras:Not really all that much. You get some biographical information on the interview subjects in the piece, along with some additional interview footage, which at three minutes is hardly revelatory. There's also a quiz, which is touted to be the "Hardest Metallica Quiz Ever," but really covers the thrash metal genre as the back of the DVD case says. After 25 questions, of which I answering about 80% right, this quickly became a tedious quiz, so I bailed.
Final Thoughts:There might be some sort of eagerness to explain the thrash metal genre, but Metallica and the Dawn of Thrash doesn't bring the goods or assuage the masses. The participants fluctuate between boring and really boring, save for a moment or two of arrogance, and the band's lack of participation, even on something as innocuous as discussing musical influences, hurts what could have been a pretty good feature. I'd skip it until the day when thrash becomes popular again, which I hope is sooner rather than later.
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