Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

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