In recent years we have had many heavy metal based documentaries come out. Many topics have been covered in much details and some have won a slew of film awards but none have touch upon the Australian heavy metal scene, until now.
In what is very clearly a labour of love film maker Nick Calpakdjian takes a look at the Australian metal scene from its humble beginnings with acts like Buffalo, Rose Tattoo and of course AC/DC to the extreme acts of the 80s like Mortal Sin and Hobbs Angel Of Death all the way up to the juggernauts of today like Psycroptic, King Parrot and Voyager among many many others.
Over the course of the 3 separate episodes that the documentary is split into we get to hear from those that were there. Wether they were in the bands, working in the record stores, createing the fan zines, working the radio shows or promoting the gigs or record labels all the talking heads on this production have incredible insights to offer and all seem to be fountains of information on the subjects as well as offering their own personal insights from their own experiences at the time.
Some of the highpoints of this documentary are the unique personalities of the likes of Peter Hobbs of Hobbs Angel of Death, Jason Fuller of Blood Duster, Matt Skitz from Damaged and Dave Slave of Sadistik Exekution. The humour and tongue in cheek approach that these guys take to their music while still managing to take the music as serious as possible is really what sums up Australian metal to me. Sure it can be just as serious as any of metal that is on offer from anywhere else in the world yet its still done by these guys to be fun and have fun. You can tell that if it wasn’t fun these guys wouldn’t even bother. They are doing it for the love of it, plain and simple and that love really shines through.
Another great thing this movie highlights is the importance of how if it wasn’t for the likes of Triple J being a national radio station with the shows “3 Hours of Power” and later “Full Metal Racket” that without those shows and for me especially the host Andrew Haug that so many rural kids would have had no exposure to anything heavier than what commercial radio had to offer growing up. For me when I was a young teen and the internet was still dialup only the “3 Hours of Power” was my life line. It exposed me to not just so many heavy bands in general but without it there are so many Australian bands I would have even heard of and the general public would not have heard of either.
Its also interesting because at the beginning of the first section they cover so many early bands that were there building the scene for years prior to the likes of Mortal Sin and and Hobbs and yet I had never ever heard of them. I was surprised there were so many respected bands like Black Jack, Renegade, Ion Drive, Nothing Sacred, Hyperion and Taramis that I was oblivious of. These bands have such a legacy in the scene and yet I had hardly ever heard them mentioned anywhere before, which is a shame I’d love to be able to pick up their Lps and Demos.
I cannot recommend this movie enough. It covers so much and leaves you wanting to go out and just buy so many albums that you may have missed out on for whatever reason. It makes me proud to be Australian and proud to support the local scene and really at the end of the day most importantly it makes me want to get out to even more local gigs than I already do. These guys work their asses off and in most cases do not get the recognition they deserve. So show some love and show your support, go and pick up a copy of this now. You will not be disappointed
“Metal Down Under” is available now
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