Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
I do not own a single Metallica album. When the great music war was being waged in the 90s between grunge and heavy metal, I took the side of the more fragile discordant Seattle emo-precursors over the cock-in-my-hand masturbatory-guitar-soloing king dicks of metal. Because of this allegiance, even now years after the war, I still find it hard to turn turncoat and dabble in some metal. Sure, I know some key songs by some key bands, but overall I still find the whole scene more amusing than interesting.
It was with this attitude that I approached this documentary - pretty much expecting to have a laugh. From all reports this film would be hilarious to an old-school grunger like myself. A bunch of ever-adolescent heavy metal musicians on the verge of imploding turning to therapy to heal old wounds and resuscitate their flailing fortunes. How very Oprah of them.
Unless you take these bands and this music as seriously as a heart attack (and you know who you are) there are plenty of laughs to be had here, no doubt, but Some Kind Of Monster also provides an absolutely fascinating dissection of band dynamics and goes some way towards demystifying the whole heavy metal scene and music heroes in general.
Watching the film, the question of ‘Why would they do this?’ was one I couldn’t get out of my head. I guess on one hand, it made some great press for the album we see them writing and recording (which features such lyrical gems as “My lifestyle determines my death style”), but it also makes them look like a bunch of damn fools. I guess they were either very brave in letting themselves be filmed, warts’n’all, or very stupid.
If I were a big Metallica fan, then this would be a heartbreaking revelation of who these guys really are. James is in full mid-life crisis mode, a recovering alcoholic and a man trying to let go of the intense anger that has powered the band along up until now. Kirk is deliriously positive, and doesn’t seem fazed by much, giving off the vibe that for much of the band’s journey he probably has just been happy to be along for the ride. Lars is the one pushing so strongly for the therapy – and his passion for the band is the only thing still keeping them together, albeit tenuously. Lars talks therapy ALL THE TIME. Non-stop. “Lets hammer it out in there (the studio) instead of hammering each other”, he pleads to the guys during one of their many Spinal Tap arguments. He annoyingly pre-fixes everything with “What I’m feeling is…”, and for a while you get the feeling that his attempt to heal the bands wounds has backfired, with Hetfield storming off and not coming back.
Still, they must have been relieved that former member and Megadeath nucleus Dave Mustaine appears and comes off the worst in his small cameo, joining the remaining members on the couch to help them all get some closure over his departure. You think you have it bad in your life? Spare a thought for poor Davey. Apparently, he gets told by dudes on the street that he sucks, like, ALL THE TIME, and Metallica fans are constantly pick on him. “People hate me because of you”, he tells the band before crying like a little fucking girly-girl. Strangely he came out denouncing the film for misrepresenting him through selective editing. Uh-huh, sure Dave.
James’ rehab takes him away from the band for almost a year, the rest of them waiting around with no clue as to how he is going or when he will return. Naturally, the therapist convinces them that despite the band not even being together they have to keep going with his treatment. How did they not clue into this hack? It gets hilarious when the therapist starts standing in on the studio recordings, slowly creeping in on all facets of the band, and I was actually expecting to see him pick up a guitar at some stage and show Hetfield a riff or two. Eventually the band does notice that he starts using ‘we’ when discussing band matters, and James remarks that the dude actually thinks he is in the band. When we hear from former member Jason Newstead it finally provides us with a voice of reason. His view of the therapist as something “really fucking lame” says what the audience has been thinking all along, yet the band would most likely attest that although he seems like a total sham, the guy did actually helped them, and the film ends with the band triumphant over their demons, equipped with a new motherfucker of a bass player, former Suicidal Tendencies meat-axe Robert Trujillo, ready to take on the world again and reclaim their mantle as the kings of metal.
An interesting note is that the documentary makers actually got this gig because of an earlier film they had made about delinquent teens accused of murder in a small town, Paradise Lost. The film focused on the questionable evidence held against these kids, and how their image as heavy-metal fans played a big part in convincing people of their guilt. They were big Metallica fans, and the band obliged the filmmakers by opening up their catalogue for them to use on the movie, forging a relationship between them, leading to this film.
Brilliantly crafted from hundreds of hours of footage, Some Kind Of Monster is both hilarious and fascinating…although for some ardent heavy-metal fans the sight of these hard rock legends openly discussing their feelings with each other in therapy might feel like it is against the very fabric of the music. Kind of like if Kurt Cobain had become a professional footballer or something.