HMT MOVIE REVIEW - Metal Lords - A coming of age comedy with roots in Metal.

 

METAL LORDS
STREAMING on NETFLIX

About a month back or so I came across this teen comedy called Metal Lords on Netflix. It's brought to you by the producers of "Game of Thrones" and "Harold and Kumar". Two teenage outcasts find common ground through the formation of a make shift garage "POST" death metal band, Skullfucker. It's a coming of age comedy that reminded me a bit of an excellent British/Irish comedy called Sing Street. Hunter, the angsty extrovert metalhead has dreams of launching a band that will take him far away from his peers and vapid plastic surgeon dad. He eats, breathes and lives Heavy Metal. What this movie gets right that most don't, licensed music. We hear a soundtrack that ranges from Metallica to Judas Priest and references just about every great metal outfit since the early 80's. Hunter recruits his best (and possibly only) friend Kevin who has no musical knowledge to helm the skins for his band. Hunter gives Kevin a crash course in all things Heavy through mixtapes and assigns him a list of bands to emulate. The montage of scenes where Kevin is spending hours and days to nail down all of the assigned songs Hunter has given him is really entertaining. During these practice sessions Kevin hears the extraordinary cello playing of Emily coming from down the hall. Emily, a depressed/bi polar teen, becomes Kevin's love interest and the wedge between his and Hunter's friendship. Without giving away the whole plot, this movie in every sense is a love letter to heavy metal written in the form of a teen comedy. The soundtrack is excellent. The acting and take on modern themes is done with respect. This movie made the hours I usually spend scrolling through Netflix to find something I'm into bareable. Check it out.