An amiable teenage movie well handled, a high school teen comedy with a story that introduces the audience to the world of Heavy Metal but with quite innocent protagonists.
There are constant references to the world of Rock and Heavy Metal: bands, songs, musicians and anecdotes will be making an appearance in scenes and dialogues.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzAAtZx6xzk)We will hear songs by Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Mastodon, Metallica, Judas Priest, Pantera, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, and Tom Morello among others.
References are made to (illegal) drugs, sex, bullying, aggression disorders, the LGTBQ+ community, and parental issues. The main characters seek to strengthen their personalities at a difficult age, such as adolescence.
An extroverted nerd, Kevin (Jaeden Martell), a metal enthusiast with a lot of prejudices, Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) and a cellist girl with mood swings between shyness and unleashed violence, Emily (Isis Hainsworth). These are the protagonists of the film who manage to have between the three chemistry in front of the screen.
Kevin, is a shy boy, what is known as a nerd but has ability to play the drums.
Emily struggles with her mental health and accompanying insecurities however we observe in her a growth in character and a change in her image.
Kevin and Hunter have a heavy metal band and want to participate in their high school's Battle of the Bands. Hunter wants to be a famous metalhead. Kevin, on the contrary, is dragged by his friend in this adventure. But there is a problem, they are short of a bass player. Tensions in the band increase when Kevin finds a cellist, Emily (Isis Hainsworth), who he thinks would be a great addition to his band, which Hunter opposes with racist and homophobic arguments, plus the candidate has to live for heavy metal and honor the commandments that Hunter dictates.
Hunter bullies Emily in class after Kevin tries to bring Emily into the band, but Emily defends herself and angrily
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6h2VaEU6ag)Kevin meets Clay Moss the leader of rival band Mollycoddle, and plays drums for him at his sister's wedding, which upsets Hunter, who then tries to ruin the wedding by painting himself as a corpse . This is stopped for intent by the security guard.
Given his behavior, Hunter's father commits him to the Safe Path Wellness Center, where he meets former metalhead Dr. Troy Nix (Joe Manganiello), who releases him two days after the Battle of the Bands ends.
Against all odds Kevin goes to the rescue of his friend Hunter and manages to get him out of the center where he was hospitalized, under the eyes of Dr. Nix, who lets them leave.
Then they go to Emily's house so that she can join the gang, but she rejects Hunter's offer. Already in the Battle of the Bands to the surprise of the group she appears showing a radical change and before the impossibility of going out to scene with the name of Skullfuckers she manages to change the name to Skullflower, more appropriate for the school.
Due to an unexpected accident, the band has to interrupt their performance, being the winning group Mollycoddle in second place. But that doesn't matter as Hunter has realized that the important thing is the process and the pleasure of making music and not the material end.
There are cameos by Scott Ian (Anthrax), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Rob Halford (Judas Priest), who appear as angels and demons to Kevin.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQRulXTJf2g)We will observe a scene of levitation of the fanatic guitarist of Heavy Metal Hunter with which any self-respecting metalhead can identify.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoNMfcXewgk)This is an entertaining and solid teen comedy, which can be described as a love letter to Heavy Metal with an effective cast that makes you feel that you didn't waste your time watching this movie. In the credits there is a small tribute to Black Sabbath, with the song War Pigs. Not to be missed.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXqpw8-a_7M)The director Peter Sollett (director of series like: Evil, and Vinyl) directs a script written by D.B. Weiss the co-creator of Game of Thrones. Perhaps the weakness of the film is that the story refers to youth problems that only touches lightly and not in depth, but that does not mean it is not very bearable and fun. The film's music producer is Tom Morello.
I hope this review has been useful to the community, thank you very much for stopping by.
The Gif is of my authorship, being these the sources:
