Writer-producer D.B. Weiss started conceiving the movie that would become Netflix’s just-released Metal Lords years ago. Years, in fact, before his involvement with a little TV show you might have heard of called Game of Thrones. “My life was pretty happy and without major incidents, which does not make for great storytelling,” he said in an interview with Netflix, which was included with the press material for Metal Lords — a movie about two kids in high school who decide to start a heavy metal band.
“I look back at my experiences growing up and I was a big music kid. I’m still a music kid. I played in a band in high school, and when you do that, there’s a comic discrepancy between how important what you’re doing seems to you and how important what you’re doing looks to anyone outside yourself. Which is not important at all.”
Who made Metal Lords?
In other words, this is a mostly fictional movie — but drawn, Weiss says, loosely from real-life. The former Game of Thrones showrunner wrote and co-produced the movie, which debuted on Netflix on April 8. And it was directed by Peter Sollett, of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
Here’s Netflix’s official summary for the film. “Two kids want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal. Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) 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 (Jaeden Martell) to man the drums. But with schoolmates more interested in Bieber than Black Sabbath, finding a bassist is a struggle. Until Kevin overhears Emily (Isis Hainsworth) 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.”
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
The critics’ consensus over at the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes is that, while Metal Lords doesn’t exactly “rawk,” it’s nevertheless “a good-natured and overall enjoyable look at adolescence and the life-altering power of music.”
Audiences certainly seem to be enjoying the movie so far. Metal Lords has an 83 percent audience score on the site, which would seem to suggest an overall positive reception from viewers. While critics, on the other hand, have given it a middle 63 percent score. That’s based on 32 reviews, like this one from Entertainment Weekly:
“The story belongs to its young cast, and Lords’ ramshackle comedy sweetly captures the rank anxiety, random humiliations, and undiluted hope of being young.”
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