This is a section which we’ll be perpetually updating with videos or clips that we think are staples of heavy metal culture and history. We hope you enjoy. Any suggestions on cool things are always welcome.
Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) – This tailgate chronicle profiles some of the most ridiculous fans outside of a Judas Priest/Dokken concert at the now demolished Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, USA. It’s not just a good laugh at the dress and general inebriation of these people but also a time capsule of a fun loving Rock n’ Roll spirit that was almost entirely lost in the grunge-dominated early 1990′s.
The Lame List (AKA What’s Weak This Week) – Almost Live! entertained audiences in the greater Seattle area from 1984 to 1999 with dry humor and Seattle centric skits. One recurring skit featured some in-depth analysis of the week’s headlines by Seattle’s Hard Rock and Heavy Metal community.
Spinal Tap (1984) – The following is a short highlight reel of Rob Reiner, Tony Hendra, Michael McKean’s caricature of 70′s rock decadence. Being a cult classic, the whole movie is a must watch but this is helpful for fans of the movie who want a quick tour of some of its timeless moments. Today, even underground bands often limp forward far past their prime and the satire of Spinal Tap thus only gets more relevant with age.
Pantera – Cowboys From Hell (Live in Moscow 1991 on the Monsters of Rock Tour) At the risk of being strangely nostalgic I have to put this video in personal context. In 1991 I wasn’t yet six years old and lived in Moscow with my parents. Though the fall of the Soviet Union is not the lovefest of emancipation which the Western movies I later grew up on made it out to be, this was a milestone for metal and global artistic expression. I remember being five years old and watching tanks roll through the streets on my television. As I sat there in my parents’ apartment in the Moscovite neighborhood of Orekhovo, little did I know that only a few miles away a band of heavy metal maniacs was playing a song that would later become an anthem for me and my buddies in our twenties. Enjoy the video, a truly powerful moment. -Maz
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (2005) Sam Dunn’s brave attempt to cover the genealogy of heavy metal and its more extreme subgenres in less than two hours still stands as the most coherent and thoughtful narrative on metal’s family tree. The filmmaker’s anthropological background lends a unique perspective but doesn’t over-intellectualize or pigeonhole a phenomenon that defines itself, at least in part, by non-conformism.
Megadeth: Behind The Music (2001) Still the most impressive of the VH1 series. Motley Crue‘s episode is entertaining from a sheer decadence standpoint but this is the most substantive and insightful in terms exposing what is probably the most famous dichotomy of metal. Dave Mustaine’s off the wall personality, Dave Ellefson’s relative innocence and the thrash metal calvinism that ensued when Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica are the stuff of legend. This film really humanizes the split on both sides and provides a really unique glimpse into the drive behind the band that created arguably the greatest thrash record of all time, 1991′s Rust In Peace. This is just one humble opinion so feel free to heckle away.
