He's kind of intense, that's for sure. When the cameras were off he was pretty nice to us. After we did a Q&A after screening the film he came up to us and said he liked the movie and that it captured the essence of what he was trying to say. He bought us drinks and drank with us all night. There's a lot of belief there, but there's also a lot of theatrics.
Which artist surprised you the most?
Scot McFayden: Dee Snider. I was surprised what a good interview he turned out to be. I was even more surprised that we found the footage that matched exactly the story he was telling us.
Sam Dunn: I think we were pleasantly surprised by a lot of people. Someone for me that was a great person to talk to was Tom Araya of Slayer. Here's the lead singer of a notorious metal band and he's a friendly, very warm personality. He really appreciated the approach we were taking to metal and he liked the opportunity to talk about religion and what it means to him because I think he's used to answering questions about how the new record is coming along and all the usual stock journalism stuff. I never expected to hit it off so well with a guy like Tom Araya.
You had the chance to go to festivals in Europe like Wacken and also festivals in the U.S. like Ozzfest. What's the difference in vibe and attitude between the different continents?
Sam Dunn: I think the vibe is enormously different. There are a lot of differences between the European and North American scenes. With Ozzfest you're basically standing in a parking lot for a day and the bands are relatively mainstream. When you go to any of the European festivals you get a wide diversity of music. There's also more of a sense of community because people are camping out, meeting one another. People make friends and hang out. The music is important, but there's this huge social element to it, which is really cool.
What are the essential heavy metal albums?
Sam Dunn: Black Sabbath - Paranoid, Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast, Metallica - Master Of Puppets, Slayer - Reign In Blood, Judas Priest - British Steel and Motorhead - Ace Of Spades. If you pick up those albums you're going to get a pretty good taste of the core sound of metal and what it's about.
What's next for you guys?
Scot McFayden: We're almost fully financed for our next film. We're filming a documentary on the globalization of culture. We're focusing on heavy metal, and we'll be filming in Indonesia, Morocco, Brazil, Russia, Israel and Mexico. We have a lot of work to do.
