Death Metal is an indie horror movie written and directed by Michael Kuciak. It's about, well, a death metal band called "Abyssinister" who had just gotten back from a bad UK tour where they broke up, and reunited, and are now touring back home and people aren't feeling it. The band itself is pretty good minus the name, which people seem to be confused about. They sound like some kind of Cannibal Corpse/Old In Flames combo. The name sounds like something Hypocrisy would write about. Great concept name, but poorly executed. Anyways, they are great musicians, but people forgot who they were after they broke up.
They somehow secure the famous producer Fleming, who brings them to his remote studio. They are encouraged to let loose and get wild while making a record in his studio. What they didn't account for is Ivan bringing a copy of the Devil's Concerto back from the UK which is a cursed piece of music that affects anyone who listens to it. Suffice to say, this doesn't turn out well when people begin to get cursed.
One thing we really appreciated about this film was the practical effects. There was a decent amount of gore, and the practical effects were done right. You can tell that they put a lot of effort into this, and it paid off. It looks great, like something out of an '80s horror film. There have been several films where a piece of music turns people evil, so this wasn't anything new in the genre, but it was nice to see some heavy metal representation.
Overall, Death Metal is a pretty cool heavy metal horror film with some great practical effects and gore, and we really enjoyed it. We thought that there could have been a bit less band drama and a bit more horror, but it was still a decent balance for an indie film. We realize budgets and other things have to be taken into consideration when making films, and this one did a great job making that balance work in this film. The special effects team deserves a huge shoutout, and we would recommend this to any horror or metal fan and hope we see something more from Michael Kuciak in the future.
Death Metal was recently released and is free to watch on Tubi here: https://tubitv.com/movies/100007098/death-metal
Check it out!
