So you like metal, or perhaps you are just a scholar of history. There are some good Heavy Metal (and other metal) documentaries out there. It is not uncommon to find History of Rock, History of Blues, History of Country, etc. Yet, Metal has a lot of negative preconceived images associated with it.

I occasionally go look for movies and TV series that cover aspects of the history of my favorite genre of music. It can be difficult to find. I decided I would make a post that offers you some of the media I have found. If possible I will link you directly to a source on the internet for what I am referring to. For some of the more obscure titles it is possible I'll reference what they are and you may have to HUNT on your own.

Metal Evolution

For me personally the best media is the series Metal Evolution by Banger Films. It has many episodes and it is extremely well made, and informative. It is the journey by documentarian Sam Dunn and he does a great job. (I note on the official Banger Films page he also has a Hip Hop Evolution for those of you interested, I haven't checked it out.)

Here is the IMDB page for the series.

Here is the official website for the series. It has a 3 DVD version that can be purchased. They can also be found on Youtube, but I find that sometimes youtube will tell me certain videos are not available in my country. I hate this censorship, so I encourage you to find a way around this if you are up to it, or just buy the DVDs from the link I provided above.

01 - Pre Metal

That is one that for some reason is not available in my country... (United States)... stupid.

02 - Early Metal Part 1 US Division

03 - Early Metal Part 2 UK Division

04 - New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)

05 - Glam Metal

06 - Thrash

One of my favorite metal sub-genres and this is a video that I do not see on youtube anywhere, they skip this one for some reason. You can find it out there if you look, or perhaps if you are so inclined and like some of the videos above I did show where you can purchase the DVD and support Sam Dunn and Banger Films.

07 - Grunge

08 - Nu Metal

09 - Shock Rock

10 - Power Metal

11 - Progressive Metal

This happens to be my favorite sub-genre at my current age. I gravitated towards this from Thrash. This episode happens to be another one that doesn't have a full version on youtube that I can seen.

Lost Episode - Extreme Metal

Global Metal

After the Metal Evolution series above Sam Dunn went on to make a documentary movie called Global Metal. He traveled around the world checking out metal bands, metal fans, and more in many other countries. This documentary is actually why I know there are Israeli's who really love Slayer's song Angel of Death.

Here is the IMDB page for Global Metal.

It is available at Amazon when I just checked.

Youtube has that one for rent/purchase, so of course I couldn't link you the full movie. You could watch it there though if you are interested.

Metal: a Headbanger's Journey

This is yet another Banger Films, Sam Dunn documentary. This is actually the one that started it all. He did this and then that kind of lead to making the Metal Evolution series.

You can find the IMDB page here.

It is available on Amazon as well if you are interested.

There may be missing parts, and you may need to look elsewhere or potentially purchase a copy. A good portion of it is at least in the videos above.

Heavy Metal Britannia

This is a fairly recent BBC documentary. It's not bad.

Here is the IMDB page for this video.

The Decline of The Western Civilization Part II The Metal Years

This is a 1988 documentary. It is thus going to be quite out dated. The Part III is on "Gutter Punk" if that gives you any idea where their mindset was with this documentary.

Here is the IMDB page for the documentary.

This is another one youtube would like you to rent or buy to watch. I'll provide you the link here and you can decide if you have interest. Keep in mind this documentary is quite old compared to the others.

Conclusion

There are other metal documentaries out there that are floating around in my head. There is a TV Series called Rock Icons which focused on specific people and is quite good. There are some documentaries on Black Metal and some of the craziness that has happened around that. There are other documentaries, and many that focus on specific bands. The actual overall history though is surprisingly sparse, and these were some of the most interesting ones I was aware of at the time.

If you have others you would like to throw out there, please comment, as I love watching this stuff.

Steem On!