Usually metal either takes itself way too seriously or it doesn’t take itself seriously enough and ends up being an embarrassment. But you can count on the fingers of one hand the times that metal was able to laugh at itself with success and without losing self-respect. Especially Black Metal.
It’s not the first time that a comedy about a metal band is released and there have been quite a few cases of success, but some of them end up just being screwball comedies and losing focus on the story. And well, the quality of the music portrayed definitely makes a difference.
Heavy Trip is about 4 finish friends that play in a metal band that only plays covers. But the guys really want to play originals, and to be on the stage of one of the biggest metal festivals. So they struggle, and while all the episodes that lead them to their objective are funny in a clever and witty way, the music is good, not just acceptable. In fact, their song is really really great, which might be surprising for some, since it was a member of Stratovarius that composed it. Another thing that’s definitely funny is Impaled Rektum as a name for a metal band. Or not, if you’re that type of guy.
“Heavy Trip” is a parade of all the clichés that you’d expect from a metal movie, but they are all used intelligently and in a subtle manner, and all the crazy stunts the guys pull are not the usual Hollywood style gimmicks. The movie definitely has a somewhat 80s feel to it without ever losing it’s northern European humor while keeping the pace that a lot of times lacks Finnish cinema.
Better than that, it features a great deal of vomit, blood, loud music and heavy metal references and if you don’t appreciate all of these things together, it’s not the right movie for you. Or music genre.
Heavy Trip is now in release in limited U.S. theaters.
