METALLICA's Fan Worship Documented On 'Metallimania' DVD

Killing Time Productions are releasing an unofficial 95-minute documentary on DVD, titled "Metallimania" and filmed between 1994 to 1996, that humorously captured METALLICA and the outer limits of fan worship in a pre-Napster world. Like "Some Kind of Monster", "Metallimania" was also financed with METALLICA money for the band's own private amusement, a way to document what was then the longest tour of its career: nearly three years playing all over the world in support of its self-titled 1991 album. Cribbed from thousands of hours of camcorder footage taken at outdoor festivals, "Metallimania" freezes in amber for future generations the group in its last mullet-wearing "ALCOHOLICA" days and some of METALLICA's drunkest, scariest and most confused devotees.

Uniquely qualified to bring you this story are Marc Paschke, one of the few intimates who's flown around the world with the band on its private jet, and Eric Braverman, onetime radio DJ and manager of FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, and best man at Jason Newsted's wedding. But Paschke and Braverman didn't just follow around METALLICA and its nutty fans. "We kind of went after them," says Braverman, laughing.

As "Metallimania"'s onscreen reporter and antagonist, Braverman continually praises METALLICA for building up the house of metal, while airing the grievances of fans who silently stew about the band "selling out to MTV." And he is persistently baseball-capped and sporting a beard that looks like one of those long fake ones that attach with a rubber band. (Today, it's still his look.)

In the past, Braverman had written many articles lampooning METALLICA for "So What", the group's official fan club magazine. "The guys in METALLICA have always appreciated our small contribution to their legacy, which was making fun of them and their fans," he says. "But because the movie plays on the myths of METALLICA — Are they total alcoholics? Are they Satanists? Is Lars Ulrich that much of a dick? Is James Hetfield really that intimidating? What planet is Kirk [Hammett] really from? — it was felt by the band's Hitleresque management that the fans wouldn't get a film that made the band look ridiculous. In retrospect, it's hard to imagine a film that could make METALLICA look more ridiculous than 'Some Kind of Monster'."

Ironically, Paschke had suggested the idea of documenting the making of an album to the band years ago, and the members felt that cameras would be obtrusive to the creative process. But back then, they didn't have a 40-grand-a-month therapist telling them it was a good idea.

"I guess the really big difference is they spent 4 million on "Some Kind of Monster" and we spent, like, 400 on "Metallimania" — and ours has Madonna," says Braverman. And unlike its big-budget counterpart, "Metallimania" is informed by years and years of traveling with the band and watching it work, not fall apart. And of course, by those zany fans.

Read more about the documentary at PhoenixNewTimes.com. Pre-orders of the DVD can be made at KillingTimeProductions.com.

(Thanks: The 4 Horsemen Website)