I'm surprised at the high grade this film received. Anyone who wants to know about Norwegian Black Metal would be better off reading 'Sound of the Beast' which goes into far more detail than this.
After seeing 'American Hardcore' and 'Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal', I think I have an idea of what makes a good documentary about a musical movement.
Those include but are not limited to: putting the movement into some social context, having a good sampling of the music, having some actual live footage, describing how it developed and what its influences were and describing where it ended up.
All of these basic ideas were touched on in very limited quantities. So apparently Black Metal was a cultural war against American capitalism and commercialism. How is that any different from Hard Core and why Norway? Furthermore how does that equate with burning churches down? Where did this music even come from? Fenriz briefly mentions Bathory and we see a lot of Venom t-shirts and that's it. No contrast with other styles of music? Furthermore Fenriz complains about its supposed commercialization (a dubious claim in the first place), but what got it there? And why NO live footage? This film could have been great. The directors could have expanded on why perhaps someone is being *praised* for killing a homosexual. One of these musicians says it as if it's good with no followup, no balance. And really, what is the link between Black Metal and violent performance art, of which we see a lot of.
The film has LOTS of interviews - a virtual downfall of documentaries - and many with Varg Vikernes, arguably the most notorious member of the Black Metal scene, yet aside from his very black and white argument against conformity, there is no explanation at all about his racism and anti-Semitism and how this came from Black Metal. The closes thing to live footage is a grainy video of Mayhem rehearsing... by the way, who is Mayhem? Were they the first band, was Dark Throne, Burzum? And why is Harmony Korine thrown into this documentary, just because he likes the music? This is an interesting topic and I hope that another documentary is about it some day. Oh and Fenriz is the most boring character to center a movie around.
After seeing 'American Hardcore' and 'Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal', I think I have an idea of what makes a good documentary about a musical movement.
Those include but are not limited to: putting the movement into some social context, having a good sampling of the music, having some actual live footage, describing how it developed and what its influences were and describing where it ended up.
All of these basic ideas were touched on in very limited quantities. So apparently Black Metal was a cultural war against American capitalism and commercialism. How is that any different from Hard Core and why Norway? Furthermore how does that equate with burning churches down? Where did this music even come from? Fenriz briefly mentions Bathory and we see a lot of Venom t-shirts and that's it. No contrast with other styles of music? Furthermore Fenriz complains about its supposed commercialization (a dubious claim in the first place), but what got it there? And why NO live footage? This film could have been great. The directors could have expanded on why perhaps someone is being *praised* for killing a homosexual. One of these musicians says it as if it's good with no followup, no balance. And really, what is the link between Black Metal and violent performance art, of which we see a lot of.
The film has LOTS of interviews - a virtual downfall of documentaries - and many with Varg Vikernes, arguably the most notorious member of the Black Metal scene, yet aside from his very black and white argument against conformity, there is no explanation at all about his racism and anti-Semitism and how this came from Black Metal. The closes thing to live footage is a grainy video of Mayhem rehearsing... by the way, who is Mayhem? Were they the first band, was Dark Throne, Burzum? And why is Harmony Korine thrown into this documentary, just because he likes the music? This is an interesting topic and I hope that another documentary is about it some day. Oh and Fenriz is the most boring character to center a movie around.