Monday, January 17, 2011

"Black Metal - The Music Of Satan" DVD (director: Bill Zebub)

Having seen some of Zebub's past "works", this one wasn't exactly a shoe-in for greatness. However, "Black Metal - The Music Of Satan" takes a different tact from the many other black metal documentaries that focus on the same tired motifs and myths (Varg Vikernes, the church burnings, and murders). Zebub interviews a mass of early and present-day black metal (and related) artists, and presents an alternate personality, where the guys (and girls) aren't so serious. Beyond the poses and "evil" headlines are some rather regular people, with (gasp) senses of humor.
Basically, this is a jumbled (and formless) but fun collection of brief interviews where the artists are allowed to smile, make jokes, and have a beer (why do they all drink Heineken?).
Zebub's film dispels the notion that black metal is a humorless, dour, and po-faced assemblage of suicidal, homocidal, misanthropic misfits. Well, mostly. Included are chats with Attila Csihar of Mayhem & Sunn O))), Venom, Gorgoroth, Celtic Frost, King Diamond, Rotting Christ, Voivod, Ulver, and tons more. Good fun! (MVD Visual)

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