Tag: Heavy Metal

Achieving Deathgasm, A Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

deathgasm

Metalheads will certainly love the pointed stab at which bands truly belong to this musical subgenre in the movie Deathgasm. This film is now out on Video on Demand (VOD) in select markets, and it’s worth checking out for the absurdities that goes on. I had to laugh when Poison‘s Look What the Cat Dragged In is hurriedly put back in the record stacks in favour of one of Autopsy‘s albums when this film’s hero Brodie (Milo Cawthorne) meets Zakk (James Blake) for the first time.

From bashing glam metal to loving death metal, that’s a detail few will pick up on and I have to praise that kind of attention to detail by writer/director Jason Lei Howden in a movie that’s truly dedicated to the music. From its Frank Frazetta-style cut scenes of the heroes posing powerfully atop a mountain to the anime-inspired gore-fest that goes on, this movie is a gem coming out of Kiwi-land that also unleashed the vampire mockumentary What We Do In Shadows last year. I suppose more tentacles could be used, but I’m glad this film did not go down that vein.

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Heavy Metal – The Dondero Way

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)


 
If you’ve never heard of Royal Oak Dondero High School from Royal Oak, Michigan then know that they’ve produced two greats: Glenn Frey of the Eagles and an enthused cover of Sweet’s song “Fox on the Run.”

When it comes to this tune, I love both versions. While Sweet’s version is considered mainstream, Dondero’s cover is considered outsider music. That means it’s either an oddity that exists or no one wants to admit that Dondero’s cover stands on its own merits.

Every year Dondero’s A capella group would put on the annual Pop Concert for friends and family. Aided by pyrotechnics, coloured lights and a smoke machine or two, it was up to the budding artists on stage to wow the crowd using a selection of songs both old and new.

In this concert from 1982, Dondero’s students perform their own version of the title track from the Gerald Potterton directed film, Heavy Metal. At the time of this concert the film was still playing.

I love Dondero’s version of the Sammy Hagar song and one of the reasons is the number of guitars used. It gave this song a harder, grittier, feel. I’m sure you could bang your head to Hagar’s original tune, but this version has so much power behind it that it would be like banging your head against a wall. To some this would be considered bliss.

On guitars (from left to right) are Paul Prange, Jim Zagone, Jon Houghton, Andy Rosenzweig and Jon Synnestvedt.

I only wish I could’ve seen just one performance by Dondero’s talented students. If Dondero High School still existed, then a trip to see their annual concert is needed. Sadly this institution is now Royal Oak Middle School. For the A capella alumni, there is no revisiting the past but with the body of work they created people can praise them for it.