Metal Lords Review

Plot: Two kids want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal. Hunter is a diehard metal fan who knows his history and shreds. His dream is to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands. He enlists his best friend Kevin to man the drums. But with schoolmates more interested in Bieber than Black Sabbath, finding a bassist is a struggle. Until Kevin overhears Emily playing her cello. The motley crew must contend with school, parents, hormones and teen angst while trying to get along long enough for Skullf*cker to win the Battle of the Bands.

Review: They don’t make movies about teenagers like they used to. Back in the 1980s, John Hughes orchestrated a renaissance of comedies and dramas about teens and starring teens like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club. The 1990s focused on reviving the sex comedy with movies like American Pie before the 2000s brought weepy teen romances and fantasy films. We haven’t really had a truly solid teen-centric comedy since Superbad. Netflix’s new film Metal Lords tries very hard to blend elements from all of the aforementioned eras for a good-hearted look at a group of outcasts forming a heavy metal band. At times funny, at times dramatic, and at times a bit undercooked, Metal Lords is still an enjoyable diversion with some interesting characters.

Metal Lords comes with some unexpected collaboration behind the scenes. Directed by Peter Solett, best known for Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Metal Lords is written by D.B. Weiss. Weiss, co-showrunner of Game of Thrones with David Benioff, instills what I can only assume is his own personal high school experience for this story centered on Kevin Schlieb (Jaeden Martell). A nerdy teen who is in marching band to avoid P.E., Kevin is befriended by Hunter Sylvester (Adrian Greensmith) to join his band, Skullfucker. Hunter’s mom left when he was in middle school so he lives with his plastic surgeon father (Brett Gelman). When the opportunity arises to compete in their school’s Battle of the Bands, Hunter and Kevin sign up while also searching for a bass player. Complications arise when Kevin befriends transfer student Emily Spector (Isis Hainsworth) who causes a rift between the friends.

As much as Metal Lords is an ode to the titular genre of rock and roll, the movie pulls together elements from the teen movie canon including bullies, drunken parties, precocious younger siblings, clueless parents, drug abuse, and sex. Metal Lords is respectful of the music it features and includes tunes from Metallica, Black Sabbath, Tool, and many bands that even the most clueless viewer would recognize but also more obscure death metal bands that only the most hardcore would know. But, even if you don’t have an appreciation for metal, you will still find this a relatable movie thanks to the solid performances from the teen actors. Almost all of the adults appear in a limited capacity, resting this story on the capabilities of the young cast.

Based on the trailer, you would assume that Metal Lords is a comedy and nothing more, but that undermines the story D.B. Weiss tells. While it attempts to feel genuine to the characters, the balance of the story feels a bit off. The narration from Jaeden Martell inconsistently crops up throughout the film and seems to fill in areas of the story that could not be delivered through dialogue. In others, the characters deliver lines that are so heavy with exposition that it renders the voice-over pointless. There are also scenes of profanity that feel genuine to how teens would talk while the adults sound underdeveloped. There are gross-out puke scenes, a shot of feces, and other relics of vulgar teen flicks that don’t mesh with the softer moments between Kevin and Emily. In short, Metal Lords sometimes feels like it needed another draft of the screenplay or a little more time in the editing bay.

The movie also features the musical equivalent of training montages as Kevin and Hunter prepare for the Battle of the Bands. Echoing sports movies, these scenes are enjoyable to watch but also feel like they are leading to a different ending than where the movie goes. The final act of Metal Lords is the weakest part of the movie despite an excellent appearance by Joe Manganiello as Dr. Tony Nix, a former metal guitarist, and idol of Hunter’s. I wish the movie had spent more time with Manganiello’s character or even expanded this film into a limited series to explore some of these plots more in-depth. Clocking in at just under 100 minutes, Metal Lords moves fast and doesn’t spend as much time on some glossed-over plot threads as it should.

Metal Lords is heartfelt, sweet, funny, and real and tells one of the better stories about teen outsiders and their appreciation of music than most. It may not hit all the right notes but it still delivers a good time along the way. Metal fans may find that this movie feels like it takes a superficial look at the musical genre just to set this story apart from similar films, but that should allow it to be appreciated by a much wider audience. Metal Lords feels genuine and will have you smiling the whole way even if it is somewhat forgettable. For a movie focused on a genre all about breaking the rules, Metal Lords tends to stick to the safe formula of the movies that came before it. That doesn’t make it bad by any means, but it could have been even better.

Metal Lords

GOOD

7