Metal: A Headbanger's journey is a great little documentary about the bands, culture, and public reception of the genre of heavy metal music. It follows a heavy metal fan as he makes his journey to discover more about the culture and reception of his favourite genre. The documentary sees him discussing the history of metal, the culture of metal (fans, looks, drugs/sex/gender, and the hows and whys of metal's reception by the outside world. Helping him are some heavy metal heroes and some amazing characters like Ronnie James Dio, Alice Cooper, Lee Snider, and several members of the 90's Norweigian black metal scene.<br /><br />The documentary is great in that it is aimed at both fans of heavy metal, but can also be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the genre. The themes of metal culture, its attitude, its audience, and the controversy surrounding it is the main focus of this documentary, and is something that all viewers can see, understand, and hopefully be interested or enlightened by.<br /><br />On a deeper level, the movie is full of rewards for the discerning metal fan. As a metal fan, I can recognise good taste which the main character certainly has. For example, he wisely strays away from obvious bands to focus on, like Metallica or Led Zeppelin. He interviews Tommy Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath, rather than the more obvious choice in frontman Ozzy Osbourne (whom I believe would not have been as interesting an interviewee). There are plenty of great songs and bands alluded to that a metal/hard rock fan would know and love such as Blue Cheer (truly the first band to make the sound), Rush, Diamond Head, Venom, and others. The death and black metal scenes, often overlooked in mainstream metal, are also given a sizeable chunk of attention in this movie, and their analysis was perhaps the best part of the movie for me.<br /><br />There are few complaints I would have for this movie. The more obvious complaints would mainly stem from those who have misunderstood the movie's nature. For metal die-hards, yes there will be bands that are not covered here (the melodic death metal scene, for example, is only noted, doom metal is not here), but the documentary serves as an overview rather than an encyclopedia in moving pictures. If there are any complaints they may be aimed at the movie's lack of information in some parts - background information is sometimes omitted or merely said off-handedly, and viewers with no knowledge of the genre or bands may feel lost at a few occasions. In a way, this may serve to pique many viewers' interests and encourage their own investigation into the subject. Either way, the themes of heavy metal culture are the main point here and, as stressed above, will appeal to everyone who has paid to see this film.<br /><br />Overall, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey is a great documentary, an accurate guide through heavy metal culture with a man who is obviously well-versed in the subject. The history is great, the interviews are great (and often very funny) and the way it's presented is excellent, fitting a lot of material comfortably in a relatively short running time. So whether you are a metal fan or not, this is required viewing for anyone with even the slightest interest in the genre.