Documentarian Sam Dunn's seemingly "official" follow-up to his past film "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" is an exploration of the heavy metal culture in faraway countries, spanning from Brazil, to Israel, to China and more... Interviews are conducted with musicians like Tom Araya (Slayer), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Max Cavalera (Sepultura), Lar Ulrich (Metallica) who explain their views and personal experiences in the globalization of the metal scene. Select bands from each country are also apt to relay their part in their country's need for metal in the midst of religious confinement and censorship. Groups like Orphan Land (Israel), Painkiller (Indonesia), X-Japan and Sigh (Japan), and Ritual Day (China) are among a few bands featured. I must say, this didn't really "grab" me like "A Headbanger's Journey" did, probably because it seemed far more impersonal and rigid, lacking the enthusiasm that Dunn's first Metal "outing" seemed to convey. Just seemed like the metal cultures of these country's wasn't really explored in depth or else there just wasn't enough interesting material to last for a feature length documentary... Some of the bands interviewed were just a little too 'off the grid'. I would've liked to have heard some comments from bands like Blood Stain Child (Japanese death metal), Nail Within (death/thrash band from Israel), Bellzlleb (Japanese black metal) and maybe a little extended chat with Sigh (they were included a whole fifteen seconds!). Anyway, Sam Dunn's "Global Metal" is a pretty forced cultural anthropological look at worldwide metal and is nowhere near as absorbing as his first flick...
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