DEATH METAL (2023)

New On Demand, digital download, and on DVD/Bluray, also streaming now on Tubi!
Directed/Written by Mike Kuciak.
Starring Nico Zahniser, KateLynn E. Newberry, Kara Joy Reed, Chris Richards, Shadia Martin, Carmen Gangale, Jonathan Yurco, Ray Goodwin, Joe Gaal, Kyle Severn, Tom Kondilas, Joe Gaal, John McEntee, Brian Thomas, Chuck Sherwood
Find out more about this film here!!

A struggling metal band load up the tour bus and head to a farmhouse in the middle of the country to avoid distractions and record their new album. Bandleader Ivan (Nico Zahniser) is basing the new album off of a legendary piece of music called “The Devil’s Concerto,” a haunted piece of music that taps into hell itself and drives the listener insane. Once the band begins recording their new tracks, all hell indeed breaks loose.

Reminiscent of EVIL DEAD and DEMONS by way of hard rock horrors of the eighties like TRICK OR TREAT and ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTMARE, DEATH METAL feels like a legit, underground and dangerous film. The music is most definitely hard core, as the film opens at a death metal concert with a headbanging crowd cheering on strutting musicians in various black metal garb. The soundtrack alone is a metal fan’s dream with Incantation, Cannibal Corpse, Shed the Skin, FaithXtractor, Embalmer, Nunslaughter, Blackfinger, The Convalescence, Prophecy of Azrael, and Adam Bratcher’s band Casket Sacrifice. But it’s established early that the band has seen better days as the crowd clears as soon at they hit the stage and the group seems to be falling apart backstage with various conflicting motivations threaten to tear the group apart. So the desperation of the band, specifically the band leader Ivan and his girlfriend/band manager Shadia (
Shadia Martin) as they illustrate how desperate they really are at this point in their career. Writer/director Mike Kuciak takes his time to establish how desperate the band is to make it and that this album feels like their last chance at greatness. This makes the film start off rather slow, focusing on the music and performances on stage to really establish who’s who and what they’re all about.

But once they get to the farm and begin playing the cursed music, the fun really starts with DEATH METAL. Practical effects and disconcerting edits, paired with the unnatural sounds of the music join forces to cause an extremely unstable feeling almost immediately once they get to the farmhouse. Blood is spattered copiously in all directions. There’s an awesome effect where a guy’s head and spine is ripped from his body as a result of a suicide. And one by one that band is over taken by demons. While the formula is evident as it follows your typical slasher/possession film, Kuciak makes every murder sequence unique, specifically the way the film is choppily edited at times to reflect the unnatural events occurring. I also love the way the possessed music is never really played, letting one’s mind fill in the banks as to what it really sounds like. It makes for a fun, but nightmarish experience for all of the senses.

DEATH METAL is definitely a low budget movie, but it reaches for the stars and most of the time succeeds. While the leads to a great job of holding their own among the carnage, there are the usual low budget acting issues where the delivery of some of the actors just can’t get to the level of emotion necessary, but with all of the metal music and blood inundating the viewer, you can barely notice it. Each death is unique and when the band members come back possessed, they become an all new original threat reflecting their manner of death. This reminded me of how the new Cenobites were created in HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH, yet pulled off with more of a sense of style.

If you’re as much of a fan of the darker side of metal as I am, you’re going to find a lot to love and bang your head to in this low budget shocker. Kuciak has pulled off an ambitious ballad of blood and gore with DEATH METAL, so play it loud and soak in the sights and sounds of this audio/visual nightmare.

Check out the trailer here!!