Review: Metal Lords
If School Of Rock had a illegitimate child with Superbad, then it’s offspring would most definitely be Metal Lords. A generic yet fun tale of teenagers who to fit in must win a battle of the bands to become ‘Gods’ in their school. Yes you’ve seen it all done before and yes this doesn’t do anything particularly different but, it is a whole (Uriah?) heap of fun with added huge amounts of swearing and a cultivated use of the C-Bomb too.
For teenage misfits Hunter and Kevin, the path to glory is clear: devote themselves to metal, win Battle of the Bands, and be worshipped like gods.
Metal Lords has decided to rock and whether you like it or not you are going to bang your head and reach those devil fingers to the sky and rock along with it. It fulfils all the teen outsider / loser tropes, it doesn’t hold back fro the second act breakdown before the final getting together, however it does throw some new angles in. It handles mental health issues very carefully while allowing it to be used for comedic narrative too. The music is obsessively contained within, with enough cameos and nods, winks and nudges to sate event the hardest of rockers.
The cast of Metal Lords are the films finest component as the three leads (Jaeden Martel, Isis Hainsworth, Adrian Greensmith) mesh well, even if Isis Hainsworth doesn’t get anywhere near enough screen time throughout. But it’s Adrian Greensmith as Hunter the metal obsessive, with a mission to become a metal God that stands out. He has the best moments, the most nutty set pieces and the widest of character arcs, that culminates in the voyage of self discovery trope, which again while hammered home, actually works really well within the context of proceedings.
Nothing in Metal Lords is subtle, nor is it meant to be, the huge amounts of swearing, loud music and occasional nudity is metals finest excesses laid bare. With the addition of the original song ‘Machinery Of Torment’ written by the films creator and director DB Weiss (Game Of Thrones), Carl Restivo and the former Audioslave & Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. It’s actually a decent tune that elevates the film against many of its peers. DB Weiss, better known recently for ‘ruining’ the end of Game Of Thrones puts in a workmanlike production here with the direction never veering off target or trying to do anything out of the ordinary with the script he has.
It’s not going to be remembered like School of Rock or Superbad, but while taking most of its cues from these films, the cast and music carry it through just about and make it worth a look if loud music is your thing.
Metal Lords is available to watch on Netflix now