Lifelong headbanger [Sam] Dunn, along with Jessica Joy Wise and Scot McFadyen (Ginger Snaps), paint what may be the most comprehensive portrait of metal yet.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 23, 2024

Brings on a variety of eloquent voices from both the fanbase and the gods of metal themselves.

| Original Score: B | Oct 20, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 20, 2007

The success of Dunn's film in support of heavy metal music might be the result of not offering the audience too much music

| Nov 10, 2006

The metal scene emerges throughout the documentary as the recruitment center of an army of misfits, where the outcasts of the world can seek each other out based on their love of the angsty, eardrum-destroying tunes their parents warned them about.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 12, 2006

Enjoyable whether you're a fan of the music or not.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006

A documentary that preaches to the converted if ever there was one, but Dunn's enthusiasm for the subject and the range of pretension and humour of his interviewees makes for fun viewing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006

A film that manages to be intelligent without being boring, making it one of the better music documentaries in recent memory.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2006

This documentary about one of the most loathed, lampooned and beloved music genres isn't the kind of film to rock your world, though it may well inspire laughter.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 21, 2006

It'll make you want to dig out your Whitesnake T-shirt. It might even convince Tipper Gore that heavy metal thunder is all in good fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2006

The movie is woefully short on concert footage, which could have shown us the power of metal instead of just telling us.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 21, 2006

It's a measure of Dunn's success that even a total nonfan like myself could find his journey interesting.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2006

You might not go out and buy the latest Slipknot album after seeing it, but you will understand why some disenfranchised kid would.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 14, 2006

A lightweight fanboy valentine for ostensibly heavyweight music.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 14, 2006

Acts not as the window for the outsider into the spectacle of heavy metal music, as the filmmakers proclaim it to be, but an unprovoked fan's defense for liking what he likes

| Original Score: B- | Apr 14, 2006

Interviews with metal practitioners such as Tony Iommi, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Dee Snider, journalists and academic types paint a compelling portrait of a vibrant society of outsiders.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 13, 2006

The film is packed with hilarious, often poignant interviews with metal luminaries.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 13, 2006

At once playful and thorough, the documentary is also stacked teased-hair high with wicked performance footage.

| Apr 13, 2006

Unlikely to win many new converts, but its core audience should have a rockin' good time.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 7, 2006

There's so much information and so many finely honed arguments in this ultimately joyous film that it's liable to send audiences scurrying home to their computers to download the bands they've just heard.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006