DVD Review – Metal Retardation
Directed by Bill Zebub
MVD Visual

Interviews, interviews, interviews. Even in metal they can become extremely boring. Once in a while the set of circumstances happens to be just perfect, as well as the mood, time of day and the amount of consumed alcohol. It is the time when the musicians let go and speak their minds freely, expressing radical opinions, shooting crazy remarks and performing acts of general drunken human stupidity and retardation.

Bill Zebub of The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds magazine is the guy, who knows how to provoke that kind of communication and his personal collection of metal interviews is fucking gold. Whatever you’ve seen before, this DVD is funnier, has more stars than you can imagine and on a 1 to 10 scale of can’t-believe-he-just-said-it gets 11. If you want to see piss-drunk members of Nevermore hit it off about record labels or maybe George Fisher confiding to the world his never-ending hunt for titties and his view on cereal mascots – then “Metal Retardation” is a must.

An hour and a half of killer footage (excluding the extras) will make you laugh so hard your stomach and cheeks will hurt. Every possible delicate topic is mentioned and discussed, every question that the musicians would NEVER expect is asked, every humiliating response is recorded verbatim and presented in perfect editing. The snobs of course will take parts of it seriously and instantly become “gay” as heeded by Zebub’s disclaimer. Nobody is insulted there, it’s all pure enjoyment and fun, even people like Messiah Marcolin, King Diamond and members of My Dying Bride are happy to laugh at themselves and the world.

“You have never seen bands interviewed like this” reads one of the tags. Maybe you have, one or two questions at a time, but not like this, not this long and certainly not as hilarious. Seeing the bands speak without restraints is something to be valued, because they can’t always do that. Just go and get the DVD, you won’t regret it. It’s guaranteed. Don’t you want to hear “Corpsegrinder” sing “Mary had a little lamb?”