8 Classic Movies That Introduced Me To 8 Classic Bands

8. Heavy Metal €“ Dio

Now to my parents credit, we were all pretty naive when it came to this new VHS or "Beta" technology, and they took one look at "Heavy Metal's" video cover and thought it may have been a nice little fantasy cartoon for the kids to check out and keep us out of trouble. You see, cartoons before this one were usually synonymous with children so my parents saw no threat. But they were completely fooled, just as I assume a lot of people may have been. You have to remember that at this time, vhs/beta was still very new in the bush & people literally took face value over everything that was on the shelf, and that's why we got to experience this gem of a flick at a very early age (as well as "King Dick", now that was DEFINITELY not for children...). The plot can be debated but the IMDB synopsis reads as "A sweeping story of the battle of good against evil is told through an anthology of short animated films about a glowing green orb (the Loc-Nar) that is the personification of ultimate evil in the universe..." although that fails to mention the sex, nudity & the language that is prevalent throughout this movie. But like a lot of the films that I will be mentioning, all of the adult themes were pretty much lost to the spectacular visuals (at the time) & awesome songs that accompanied the movie for its entirety. Although the soundtrack does consist of some truly great and legendary bands, it's the scene where the Loc Nar has crashed into a planet & transforms its inhabitants into bloodthirsty mutant barbarians that got (and kept) my attention as a child. As the mutants raid a peaceful city, the guitars kick in and the voice that was Dio (R.I.P.) telling us that in this situation, the Mob Rules, and I was completely hooked. Bit of trivia, Heavy Metal (the genre of music) wasn't actually referred to as "heavy metal" until after the release of this film.