FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
In fact, there used to be two categories, Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance, before the academy decided to combine the two last year for the first time since 1989. What was so special about ’89? Well…
Currently set to celebrate its Canadian premiere at the NXNE festival in Toronto, Så Jävla Metal is a documentary about the evolution of heavy metal music in Sweden. The film traces the beginnings of heavy metal through hard rock, beginning with bands like Europe, and continuing to trace the development of the sound as the music became heavier. It contrasts the way that Swedish metal grew up in tandem with metal in North America and other places in Europe, specifically in Norway, where the violence of black metal is contrasted again Swedish death metal. Writer and director Yason Hillborg found the time to talk to Hellbound about the documentary, his vision for it and his experiences making it.
If the Bobby Liebling doc Last Days Here was a testament to a man hitting rock bottom due to drugs, once could say that Jay Bulger’s new doc, Beware of Mr. Baker, shows the heights one can ascend to while totally whacked out on smack. But unlike Liebling, who got by with a little help from his friends, Ginger Baker finds himself in the twilight of his life isolated and alone–in South Africa, no less. OK, so this probably isn’t a pro-drug PSA, either…
I won’t ruin this wonderful rollercoaster ride through the history of rock with spoilers, but man! I will say it’s like the reader suddenly enters a time machine and travels back to through the history of rock and metal, and finds it’s both better and worse than they ever believed. And of course, everyone from Yul Brynner, Ozzy, David Coverdale (which is as it should be!) to Tony Iommi turns up!
“If someone had told me fifteen years ago that I would have an indoor shower I would think they were crazy (laughs). I couldn’t imagine I’d be working on the Howard Stern show. When I lived in a storage unit in Florida I showered with a garden hose outside. But I was young and it was for metal and we all need to make sacrifices to do what we love. I kept working on things and plugging away and played drums every day.”
Justin M. Norton in conversation with Charred Walls of The Damned drummer and Howard Stern show comedian Richard Christy.