Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story

Surprisingly light (in length & depth) doc about the birth of heavy music in the early 80s. Temporarily pauses the fun to acknowledge some of the genre's fallen heroes.

#nitrosMovieChallenge.

I think I would be hard pushed to describe myself as a thrash metal fan. On the latest count I have 6 thrash tunes out of 16,186 songs in my iTunes library - thats not much commitment to the genre by any objective standard. But if there is one thing I like and that's a music doc, so it stands to reason I was going to be interested in checking this one out regardless. While it is about thrash metal generally, its more specifically about the San Francisco Bay Area scene which kicked the genre off. Influenced by European metal, the thrash scene rejected the very popular hair bands of the day, who constituted what most people thought metal to be back in those MTV influenced years. Needless to say, it seemed to be of especial importance to the thrash people to exhibit no image at all - I recall back in the day Anthrax receiving a lot of stick for having an image, which when you consider that all that amounted to was the wearing of Bermuda shorts and the holding of a placard with 'NOT' written on it, it makes you realise how ridiculous this was. If you believed the furore you would be forgiven for thinking Anthrax must be trying to attract Liberace fans. It seemed that in order to appear a legitimate thrasher you had to look like someone you would hire to lay tiles in your bathroom. There is quite a bit of focus in this doc on how this kind of thing was pretty important.

The doc takes a talking heads format, with contributions from many bands, including the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus and Death Angel. We learn about their influences, outlook and the places they hung out. It's a look at a type of music which began as pretty underground and remained decidedly non-mainstream even when some of the groups were selling lots of records. There didn't seem to be a lot of women involved - especially in the bands themselves - so inevitably the scene was a bit of a sausage fest. With this in mind, there are a disproportionate number of tales of quite tedious macho behaviour from some of the more bone-headed fans. This didn't overly surprise me as it reminded me of attending the Monsters of Rock festival back in 1988, where the entertainment between bands seemed to be members of the crowd launching projectiles in the air - this, I recall, resulted in my mate Andy being hit on the back of the head with a plastic cannister full of urine. I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't get this kind of carry on at a Richard Marx concert.

All-in-all, this is a good music doc - its entertaining and informative, with a lot of bands covered. So, whether or not you are a fan of the genre, you should still get something out of this on purely a music history standpoint.

Having lived through and loved the thrash scene in the 80s I was looking forward to watching this. It did have some rough old footage and certainly nailed it with the cast, but I was hoping for a little more in terms of insight, or maybe there isn't any to be had!! It's all very familiar in the formulaic documentary style of talking heads all talking about the same incident or event. I suppose I shouldn't expect better footage from an 80s underground scene so maybe I was asking too much. Cliff Burton parts were well done and quite moving. I just think it didn't needed to have so much focus on the drinking and stupidity, with so little emphasis on the musicianship which seems to be sidelined here. In fact those musicians from that thrash era were ground breaking and technically brilliant. That was the appeal I guess. Passionate about the music and not taking yourself too seriously. It was riot!

Having grown up in the bay area in the 80s and graduating from punk to thrash,death and black metal,i have awaited this film since the book was released. It is fun and informative. Doesnt linger too long on any one subject and has segments on people no longer with us who were crucial, such as wes robinson, paul baloff and cliff burton.i imagine real fans will always want more and the scope of a documentary is limited by its own running time.for instance, testament was barely mentioned. Where was sadus? Or death angel. Robb flynn was interviewed , but i dont remember anything about vio-lence. Minor gripes when seeing your adolescent years on screen, i guess. Metal has for a long time lurked in the shadows and avoided being over analyzed, unlike punk. Finally there are a number of really good books, and films (like this one) about our dirty secret. Bang your head against the stage, indeed

Tired of Disco and the stadium-corporate-mainstream Rock that dominated the airwaves in the late 1970s, teens throughout the U. S. wanted music that was faster, louder and more intense, something that they could call their own. Hearing about and listening to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal but being unable to watch those bands live due to geography what did the kids do? Form band's of their own! Documenting this great and influential scene filmmaker Adam Dubin relives the origins and eventual breakthrough of the movement called Thrash that elevated Heavy Metal music to one of its most successful peaks both artistically and commercially.

Blasting forth with the ascent of Metallica, the foremost band of the scene the film depicts a community of men and women who hung out, formed bands, jammed and partied like no other. With interviews of band members, friends, writers, label owners, scenesters, etc., the doc showcases a highly creative and vibrant scene that thrived on great music and a lot of beer and wanton destruction (and a whole lot of fun in doing so!). Images and archival footage show priceless photos and vids of great bands like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus, Testament, etc., hanging out and ripping it up onstage with rabid appreciative fans moshing and stage-diving in communal frenzy. Great music is the soundtrack and it's great to see James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, Tom Araya, Gary Holt, Alex Skolnick and a host of others relive the glory days of their youth and the music. The fanzines and tape trading that were a huge part on why the music flourished are touched on not to mention the few ladies who were a big part of the scene including the one of a kind Debbie Abono who served as both manager and mother figure to the motley group of monsters.

With its direct, no nonsense approach that gives off a cool, somewhat amateurish vibe, "Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story" is an essential documentary on one of the most seminal and important genres in Rock history. This is one every crazed Rock fan and unhinged metalhead should watch and bang his head to. Two devil's horns up!