DVD- Metal Evolution: 11-Part Documentary On 40 Years Heavy Metal

[Yves]

Curious to know how many here have seen this? It's from the same guy who made the Heavy Metal movie a few years back. It's a very in-depth look at 40 years of heavy metal with tons of interviews and footage. It starts with the early years of metal in the UK and America in the late 70s, through the NWOBHM, hair metal, grunge, nu metal, power metal, progressive metal....

Really interesting stuff for any of fans of music history. Even the episodes about sub-genres I loathe are very interesting and informative.

[Yves]

Here is Episode 1:

[GuitarGeek]

I watched most of the episodes as they aired on VH-1 Classic. I knew the grunge episode was gonna piss me off, but I have to admit, they found a way I hadn't anticipated to do so. The rest of the ones I saw I thought were pretty good. I skipped the thrash metal and numetal shows (though I did see the end of the latter, where they were talking about the Limp Biscuit guy's behaviour at Woodstock 1999)

I still get a kick out of the idea that the German power metal guys were influenced by schlager music. Even more amusing because, I remember Rudolf Schenker saying that when Scorpions started, there was no such thing as German rock music. If you were German in the 60's and you wanted to be a musician, you either played schlager (which he described as being "awful") or you played classical music.

[100423]

What pissed you off about the grunge episode, Chris?
Thanks, Yves!

[mnprogger]

they did an Extreme Metal episode like a year or more after the original series. Kickstarter, etc...not awful, but there's way too many bands and subgenres to include what they should.

Even the Prog Metal episode showed Mastodon and Dillinger Escape Plan, yet Pain of Salvation or Between the Buried and Me were nowhere to be found.

In fact, I don't even recall Fates Warning being shown much, lol.

[Yves]

I agree that there are too many subgenres and too many bands in metal but this is still by far the most comprehensive metal documentary I ever saw. I still have 3 episodes left to watch on the DVD library rental but I plan on buying this on BluRay as I love music documentaries as much as I love watching live concerts. I'm a little miffed that stoner is not included in this show but he's only covering 11 of the 26 metal subgenres. Maybe he can go back and cover more. I have to think this was an expensive production as he criss-crossed the globe to get his interviews.

[progholio]

Here is Episode 1:

So without having watched episode 1 could you tell me - did they acknowledge Dick Dale as the godfather of metal?
(btw Yves - awesome avatar)

[dropforge]

(btw Yves - awesome avatar)

Ditto!

[rcarlberg]

[Vic2012]

I saw the whole series on Youtube a few weeks back. I've been gorging on rock documentaries on youtube recently. Yeah, very interesting. I like that Dunn kid. Forget which episode it was but it was one of the earlier ones where he (the Dunn kid) said that no one from Led Zeppelin would talk to him because they (Led) do not want to be associated with Heavy Metal in any way. I don't get why Zeppelin are so anal about that. They were very, VERY influential on metal. Then there was another episodes (I think it was the "power metal" epi.) where Dunn said Manowar refused to talked to him. Good grief . Get over yourselves Manowar, you bunch of fucking metal clowns. Anyway, good series. I like everything Dunn does. I've also enjoyed watching a lot of the BBC, blues, soul, and rock documentaries too. Good stuff. Very entertaining.

[Bytor]

Really interesting stuff for any of fans of music history. Even the episodes about sub-genres I loathe are very interesting and informative.

Intéressant. Merci

[GuitarGeek]

What pissed you off about the grunge episode, Chris?
Thanks, Yves!

There's abit wher ethey're talkign about the so called second generation grunge bands or post-grunge, whatever you want to call groups like Silverchair or Creed. One of the guys from whichever band, I think it was Tad, says something like that those were bands were "just as bland as the Grateful Dead". No frelling way should ANYONE from ANY grunge band talk about anybody else's music being "bland". Frelling snot nosed tin eared drannit!

[SteveSly]

Curious to know how many here have seen this? It's from the same guy who made the Heavy Metal movie a few years back. It's a very in-depth look at 40 years of heavy metal with tons of interviews and footage. It starts with the early years of metal in the UK and America in the late 70s, through the NWOBHM, hair metal, grunge, nu metal, power metal, progressive metal....

Really interesting stuff for any of fans of music history. Even the episodes about sub-genres I loathe are very interesting and informative.

It has been a while, but I saw the whole thing and thought it was really well done. Just about everything Dunn (Banger Films) has done has been excellent. I first got into him when he did the "Headbangers Journey" film which is another great doc.

[Yves]

So without having watched episode 1 could you tell me - did they acknowledge Dick Dale as the godfather of metal?
(btw Yves - awesome avatar)

Dick Dale does get mentioned, and interviewed. The pre-metal shows might be the most interesting of the series..

As for the avatar, it was the work of former PE member and photoshopper extraordinaire Kilgore Trout! I had asked him to use the Lovedrive album cover and put my face on the guy and use the queen or someone for the woman. He came up with Betty White!

[100423]

There's abit wher ethey're talkign about the so called second generation grunge bands or post-grunge, whatever you want to call groups like Silverchair or Creed. One of the guys from whichever band, I think it was Tad, says something like that those were bands were "just as bland as the Grateful Dead". No frelling way should ANYONE from ANY grunge band talk about anybody else's music being "bland". Frelling snot nosed tin eared drannit!

That explains it!

[UnderAGlassMoon]

This series was made by Banger films and Sam Dunn is the narrator and appears in all of the episodes. They have also done Rush's Beyond the Lighted Stage, Iron Maiden Flight 666 and Super Duper Alice Cooper just to name a few films. This is also the group that did the currently airing Rock Icons show on VH1 Classic.


On a side note, I think I pulled this from PE about six years ago, but it is pretty funny and kind of applies to this thread.


This will finally put an end to defining metal and it's subgenres. Behold the definite list, to be chiseled in stone

HEAVY METAL:
The warrior arrives on a Harley, kills the dragon, drinks a few beers,
and bones the princess.

POWER METAL:
The warrior arrives riding a white unicorn, escapes from the dragon,
saves the princess and makes love to her in an enchanted forest.

THRASH METAL:
The warrior arrives with a frayed denim jacket, fights the dragon,
saves the princess and fucks her.

VIKING METAL:
The warrior arrives in a ship, kills the dragon with his mighty axe,
skins the dragon and eats it, rapes the princess to death, steals her
belongings, and burns the castle before leaving.

DEATH METAL:
The warrior arrives, kills the dragon, rapes the princess in the mouth
and kills her, then leaves.

BLACK METAL:
The warrior arrives at midnight, kills the dragon and impales it in
front of the castle. Then he sodomizes the princess, drinks her blood
in a ritual before killing her. Then he impales the princess next to
the dragon.

GORE METAL:
The warrior arrives, kills the dragon and spreads his guts in front of
the castle, fucks the princess and kills her. Then he fucks the dead
body, slashes her belly, and eats her guts. Then he fucks the carcass
again, burns the corpse, and fucks it for the last time.

GRIND METAL:
The warrior arrives, screams something completely incoherent for about
30 seconds, and then leaves.

DOOM METAL:
The warrior arrives, sees the size of the dragon, and thinks he could
never beat him. He gets depressed and commits suicide. The dragons
eats his body and the princess as dessert. That's the end of the sad
story.

GOTHIC METAL:
The warrior in a velvet costume starts singing soprano. The
protagonist completes the duet by adding the beast part, while the
dragon plays the flute. Suddenly the dragon swallows the flute and
accidently scorches the beauty and the beast and suffocates to death.
All their souls are damned in hell for all eternity.

PROGRESSIVE METAL:
The warrior arrives with a guitar and plays a solo of 26 minutes. The
dragon kills himself out of boredom. The protagonist arrives at the
princess' bedroom, plays another solo with all the techniques and
tunes he learned in the last year of the conservatory. The princess
escapes looking for the HEAVY METAL protagonist.

INDUSTRIAL METAL:
The warrior arrives wearing a greasy overcoat, makes an obscene
gesture towards the dragon, and gets escorted out of fairy tale land
by security guards.

SPEED METAL:
Suddenly there, short solo, dragon is confused, someone's screaming
weird stuff, princess realizes she's been deflowered, dragon and
princess are still looking for the one who did this.

CHRISTIAN METAL:
The warrior rides in on his way home from church and sings a mushy
power ballad to the dragon about how much JESUS loves him and that the
dragon should turn to Him. The Dragon is immediately converted, and
when the princess wants to "thank" the protagonist he replies, "sorry,
but I don't believe in having sex before marriage".

GLAM METAL:
The warrior arrives, the dragon laughs at the guy's appearance and
lets him enter. He steals the princess' make-up and tries to paint the
castle in a beautiful pink color.

NU METAL:
The warrior arrives in a run down Honda Civic and attempts to fight
the dragon but he burns to death when his moronic baggy clothes catch
fire.

EMO:
The warrior sees the dragon and moans about how hard it will be to get the princess to fall in love with him. He gets eaten. The princess is very happy, because he was a whiny fag anyway.

[progholio]

Dick Dale does get mentioned, and interviewed. The pre-metal shows might be the most interesting of the series..

As for the avatar, it was the work of former PE member and photoshopper extraordinaire Kilgore Trout! I had asked him to use the Lovedrive album cover and put my face on the guy and use the queen or someone for the woman. He came up with Betty White!

I saw Dick many years ago and it became abundantly clear to me (at concert volume) that surf music was proto-thrash.

What's really cool is I'm sure Betty White would approve.

[Digital_Man]

They don't really acknowledge something known as proto metal. It's almost as if heavy metal just came out of nowhere to them although they do acknowledge influences. Metal did evolve but I wished they would pay closer attention to that.

Over all it's a good documentary though.

[Yves]

What's really cool is I'm sure Betty White would approve.

She could do worse!

[Trane]

sooo, when do we get chapter 2??

[Vic2012]

Trane, the whole thing is on Youtube. Just type Metal Evolution in the search field. All 11 chapters are there.

[Trane]

thx

[oilersfan]

Apparently you can also access all the episodes if you have the VH1 app for your iPhone or iPad.

I think it's a great documentary, yet another outstanding job from Sam Dunn and company. In fact, I even show the first episode to one of my classes to spark discussion of an anthropological/sociological approach to the arts. Even if they don't like metal the kids almost overwhelmingly enjoy the doc and learn a lot from it.

[Yves]

I should have had teachers like you ! Although our chemistry teacher did make us watch every episode of Cosmos back in 1980.