Metal: A Headbanger's Journey is an amazing documentary, directed by Sam Dunn, that talks about the history and the legacy of heavy metal. It is an amazing presentation for both metal heads and non metal heads as well.
"It's a negation of the world that's handed to you. It just says, "You know what? This daily ass existence of this boring high school and this dead end dairy queen job... just, No! This is something that's mine, and that i own, and fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."
- Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machines/Audioslave
"First time someone who knows nothing about the metal scene, the first time they see on of our album covers or something like that, its going to shock them."
- Alex Webster, Cannibal Corpse.
"Unfortunately, the ignorance of republican, puritanical, old thinking is... they see a mosh pit and it's violent. That's all they see. And of course, pits can be brutal places. But at the same time, I'd rather have kids in the pit working out the stuff they have to go through in their lives, rather than hurting other people with no optimistic ends."
- Corey Taylor, Slipknot/Stone Sour
"Why has heavy metal been consistently been stereotyped, dismissed and condemned? It's become clear to me that metal confronts what we'd rather ignore. It celebrates what we often deny. It indulges in what we fear most. And that's why metal will always be a culture of outsiders."
- Sam Dunn, Director Metal: A Headbanger's Journey.
"For young people its a place to belong, where you can experience other possibilities and transcend everyday life in a very glorious way."
"... and its purging. I think metal performs that task; that sort of 'letting-us-get-rid-of-a-lot-of-tension'. Its a catharsis."
"People in their own way have different releases. Its something other than your mundane life."
"For metal heads, good, beauty and truth, is up there on stage."
"Is heavy metal a sacrament? For some people it is. It keeps kids alive. If it gives them a sense of transcendence, then i believe it is a spiritual force. I believe it is a pipeline to God"
"Ever since i was 12 years old, I've had to defend my love for heavy metal against those who say it is a less valid form of music. My answer now is that you either feel it or you don't. If metal doesn't give you that overwhelming surge of power that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, you might never get it. And you know what? That's ok. Because judging by the 40,000 metal heads around me [here at the Wacken Metal Festival in Germany], we're doing fine without you."
- Sam Dunn, Director, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Disaster Area
So my band has released a demo album. And I've heard that some people I've given the cd to found the cover and the lyrics on the inside leaflet disturbing. There is no hate filled, or gory meaning intended. You also have to realise that the album is a political record. All three songs on the cd have political thought behind them.
"Eyes of chaos" is based on the Hyderabad blasts that took place sometime ago and the blood bath that it was. "Nothing Remains" is based on the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The cover page has a really simple meaning. Basically, the norm is that backward countries are breeding grounds for terrorism; that undeveloped, and uneducated settlements of people are the cause for terrorism and pain and war and suffering. This can be seen in the way the US claims that Pakistan has become a country that harbours terrorists; in the way that the US became really wary when they thought Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction".
But as most of you know, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Saddam Hussein was executed by the Americans. The Mujahideen were created by the Americans (who wanted them to fight the Soviets during the cold war era).
Osama Bin Laden, Al Zawahiri and his Mujahideen were supplied with weapons by the US government. They were responsible for the shooting down of 149 Soviet helicopters, 89 fixed wing aircraft, and 274 tanks; all between the winter of 1987 and the spring of 1988. And all with the help of the Stinger Missiles supplied by the Americans.
The reason the Mujahideen became what they are now is the simple fact that after spending 4 billion dollars on supplying them with weapons, the Americans refused a 4 million dollar budget for building schools and shelter. When the Afghan people came back from fighting the Russians in the tough, Afghan environment, they found themselves abandoned by their benefactors. What do you do once you have created a group of warriors and supplied them with some of the most advanced weaponry money can buy? Is it not your responsibility to teach them right from wrong? If you're going to leave them out in the cold, armed with dangerous armaments then you sure as hell cannot expect them to grow up to be normal, sane, and regular people.
This is what the cover page of Disaster Area is about. What was once a fledgling country, underdeveloped and poor, has now become a haven for terrorists, not by any fault of their own, but by our so called "advanced" and "developed" countries. Money, Knowledge, Advanced Technology (which is the book shown on the cover) has destroyed and mutilated what could have been a beautiful land, if natural progress and nature had been allowed to take their own course and time. It has ravaged countries like Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and is slowly beginning to seep into the other parts of the world.
The lyrics inside the album cover is an extension of the same idea. It is not what we, as a band believe in. It is what we believe the thought process of a Mujahideen, or holy warrior, is. We do not endorse it, quite the contrary, but we hoped that lyrics would explain what the thinking is of a person who has been given a dangerous weapon, who has not been taught right from wrong, and has turned around to realise that he has been deprived of this right by his benefactors.
What does he do?
He is lesser than a child, and suddenly he has been given this amazing power and has not been taught responsibility.
What does he do?
His mother and sisters have been raped by his enemies in front of his eyes. His brothers have been blown apart by shells.
What does he do?
And still, he is sent out to fight for a cause that his not his. He is doing someone else's dirty work and is paying the price for it.
What does he do?
"I swear I will not dishonour my soul with love.
But offer myself numbly,
As a guardian of hate,
As a messenger of pain
As an architect of war."
This is not us. This is not Ston'd. We do not, in any way, subscribe to this way of thinking. I hope you have understood, and hence pity, the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and other places who have been made to move out of their line of natural development. Hopefully by now you have understood what this album means, what the songs mean, and the reason for the aggression behind it.
In the words of Texas Senator Charles Wilson, "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game."
"You are the cause, I am the effect
Created in hatred, a noose for your neck."
~ D. Randall Blythe
Lebensraum
Foraging for land,
And the wealth of the deceased.
Blood spilled on the wall twice,
Once for you and once for me.
The floods of the masses
The unceasing tide
Breaking all binds bound to a life of our kind.
War sells and blood is the fee
An unceasing tribute to hypocrisy.
The fires will rage and the spirit will burn,
Wait and watch, and play your last turn.
The dice will be rolled and the numbers shall fall
Of no consequence will they be for they doom us all.
The father cries for his son,
And calls for the Atonement,
A string of foul words,
With which we are all broken.
