With their acclaimed 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Toronto filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen hammered a cultural study out of heavy metal, using Dunn’s lifelong devotion to headbanging —?and his background in anthropology —?as their guide. Such was the movie’s credibility as both a history of the subculture and a celebration of the music, it’s no shock that the duo have upped the ante with Global Metal. The follow-up, which kicks off North By Northeast’s film fest component at the Royal (608 College) Thursday (June 12) and opens in theatres June 20, focuses on both the interconnectivity and divergence of metal culture as it has disseminated throughout the world — in particular in Brazil, Japan, China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East. Think of it not so much as a sequel as an advanced study.

EYE WEEKLY caught up with Dunn by phone from Vancouver, where he and McFadyen were at work on upcoming docs about Iron Maiden and Rush, respectively.

It’s one thing to trace the history of metal and the basis of the subculture, but quite another to explore how it has colonized the world. How did you narrow down the many roads you could’ve taken?
We discovered metal had spread much farther than we’d imagined —?and we consider ourselves to be experts on the topic. But aside from Brazil and Japan, we really didn’t know much about it. We started with a list of about 30 countries where we knew there were scenes. Then, as we got into countries like China, Indonesia, Israel and even Dubai, we found they?all had their own unique story.

Did it start out as more of a continuation of A Headbanger’s Journey?
We didn’t want to do a typical sequel: get a few of the big guys we didn’t get in the first film and maybe talk about a few more themes. We wanted to push it somewhere that would give something new to metalheads and present these cultures in a different way than how we normally see them through the mass media. With globalization, people around the world are exposed to Hollywood movies or Britney Spears. Metal has globalized in a very different way — it’s spread from person to person, primarily now through the internet. Metal has always been a peer-to-peer culture — it was when I was a teenager trading tapes.

You move through many different cultures and circles of fans unified, almost exclusively, through their love of the music. Yet there is a universality to their ideas on identity and rebellion; metal becomes a common language. Of all the locales you visited, which stood apart the most?
Japan. It was the anomaly. It was a puzzle for us. Most of the other cultures that we researched,
there was a clear rebellion or anti-authority stance the metalheads were taking. In Japan it’s just fun! There is another layer to it, too: Japan has a very orderly culture, with high expectations on the way you’re supposed to behave. Metal has its specific place.

What about the way metal translates from, say, Europe to other cultures? The outer uniform is intact but there isn’t much of a metal orthodoxy in, say, Israel or China.
It starts with them being open to it and then turning it inward.

Chinese fans identified with Norwegian Black Metal because it made it cool to talk about your own culture. Instead of Norse gods and mythology, China looked to themselves. We saw this in Bali as well and didn’t get a chance to put it in the film —?it’s Hindu, of course, with strong animist ideas where everything in the natural world is infused with some spiritual power. Those elements of the culture are expressed and celebrated in the metal music. Bali will be a DVD extra!

You don’t shy away from how the music gets intertwined with politics and religion.
When Slayer came out of the suburbs of LA singing songs about war and conflict and suffering, they weren’t singing from personal experience. It was all part of the voyeurism of metal and still quite fantastical. For years metal bands have been singing about things that directly affect these kids in other countries. I’m curious to know how the larger public in those countries are going to respond to how their culture is being represented. The lens we use is metal music —?not the usual point of view. 

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