The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
Dave Mustaine of Megadeth is featured on the VHS cover and movie poster.
Directed by	Penelope Spheeris
Produced by	Jonathan Dayton Valerie Faris Guy J. Louthan
Starring	Aerosmith Kiss Megadeth Motörhead Ozzy Osbourne W.A.S.P.
Cinematography	Jeff Zimmerman
Editing by	Earl Ghaffari
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	June 17, 1988
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Preceded by	The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
Followed by	The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998)

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years is a documentary film directed by Penelope Spheeris about the Los Angeles heavy metal scene from 1986 to 1988.

The film features concert footage and interviews of legendary heavy metal bands and artists such as Aerosmith, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne, W.A.S.P, and Alice Cooper.

Synopsis

The documentary follows the heavy metal scene in Los Angeles, with particular emphasis on the glam metal sub-genre. Spheeris explores the more famous musicians, including Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Mustaine and Paul Stanley. She then explores unknown bands, such as London, Odin and Seduce. The film also features interviews with members of Poison, Tuff, Vixen, Faster Pussycat, W.A.S.P., and more. Serious issues such as drug usage, alcohol abuse, and censorship are tackled, as well as vanity issues like celebrity and sales.

The film is well-known for its many scenes featuring rock star excess. The scenes include:

• Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. is interviewed in a swimming pool beside his mother while extremely intoxicated. He stumbles through the interview, and pours a bottle of vodka both in his mouth and on his head. It was later claimed the bottle of vodka that Holmes poured onto himself was actually water.
• The unsigned band Odin talks about being more famous than The Doors and expects to become millionaires (It should be noted that Odin's guitarist, Jeff Duncan, while not topping the Doors' popularity and arguably not becoming a millionaire, managed later to secure a guitar slot in the more well-known band Armored Saint).
• An interview with club owner Bill Gazzarri (deceased) who used to organise a 'sexy rock and roll' dance contest, which was presented as being sleazy and sexist.
• Discussions with various musicians about the way women in general, and groupies in particular, are treated badly in the metal scene.
• Riki Rachtman and Taime Downe, then owners of the Cathouse club in L.A., discuss how girls get entry to the club faster if they dress 'sleazy'
• Paul Stanley of Kiss is interviewed in a bed while surrounded from head to toe with girls.
• Steven Tyler of Aerosmith talks about spending millions of dollars on drugs.
• As Ozzy Osbourne cooks eggs in a kitchen he spills orange juice all over the table, apparently due to uncontrollable shakes. This was later claimed to have been faked. Spheeris also interviews him about sobriety, to which Ozzy replies, "It fucking sucks."
• An interview with Lemmy from Motörhead. In his autobiography, he claims that Spheeris interviewed him from a distance, possibly in an attempt to make him look stupid.^[1]
• Lastly, Spheeris takes her cameras to Sunset Strip to film the nightlife in 1980s Los Angeles.

Musical performances

• Lizzy Borden – "Born to be Wild"
• Faster Pussycat – "Bathroom Wall", "Cathouse"
• Seduce – "Crash Landing", "Colleen"
• London – "Breakout", "Russian Winter"
• Odin – "Little Gypsy", "12 O'Clock High"
• Megadeth – "In My Darkest Hour"

Influence

It has been claimed in recent years, most notably in the VH1 documentary series Heavy: The Story of Metal^[2] that this film was partially responsible for the death of glam metal and the subsequent rise of Grunge. The suggestion in the documentary is that fans, disgusted by the scenes of excess, decided to turn elsewhere. A similar claim was made in the book 'Hell Bent for Leather' by British author Seb Hunter.^[3] Neither source addresses that the film was released four years before the rise of Grunge.

Some of Spheeris' featured musicians, and live footage of Sunset Strip clubs, ended up as part of the 1987 MTV Music Awards, broadcast around the world from Universal Studios in Los Angeles. In addition to a clip of the band Foxx performing onstage, the awards show that year had several presenters that were stars of The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

Faked footage

In a 1999 interview for 'A.V.Club', Spheeris admitted that the scene with Ozzy Osbourne spilling orange juice was faked and the kitchen was not Ozzy's.^[4]

On September 13, 2008, theclassicmetalshow.com posted a 3 part audio interview on youtube with Jeff Duncan^[5], of Armored Saint and DC4, which revealed a surprising truth about the pool scene interview with the intoxicated Holmes. Before the interview with Spheeris, Odin singer Randy 'O' Roberg helped Holmes to fill with water a couple of empty vodka bottles that Chris had already emptied. However, Chris was indeed extremely drunk during the whole interview, but all the time on camera he was drinking and pouring water all over himself, not vodka. It is unclear if this was intentional to heighten Holmes' disturbing excess or a deceitful prank. As for Randy's involvements, Duncan mentioned that he and Holmes were roommates at the time when this film was made. It is unspecified if this was his idea or Chris'.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on Capitol/I.R.S Records, and includes tracks from Armored Saint, Faster Pussycat, Seduce, Lizzy Borden, Metal Church, Rigor Mortis, Megadeth, Motörhead, and Alice Cooper with Axl Rose, Slash, and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses.

See also

• List of American films of 1988
• The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
• The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998)

Notes

External links

• Official website
• Watch The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years on Google Video
• The Decline movies webpage
• The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years at the Internet Movie Database
• The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years at Allmovie