Gutterdammerung

Saw them in Oslo. I kind of like the concept and the idea, but the execution leaves room for desire.

Basically, the "The loudest silent movie on earth" is not a silent movie at all, but a talky with dialog and sound effects. It has a clicheed, heavily religious as in "Heaven vs. Hell" story that is so corny you will flinch. And if you do not, than the ridiculous overacting of everybody but Lemmy in that movie will make you flinch, and you may have seen better acting in a Russ Meyer movie. Especially Henry Rollins, whom we know to be able to act, is dishing out overacting that is beyond any scale.

All in all, expect a rather average cover band playing some best of program through the years of rock and metal, combined with some video and sparse show effects. Expect large amounts of cliché in the video, all the chicks are thin and beautiful, rock is Satan, all blacks practise voodoo magic. I expected way more to happen in front of the screen, but the band kept on coming from behind it to show off and dance in front of it, totally distracting from the "in the movie" feeling.

They should have kicked the band, hired more actor personnel and more show effects, and played the songs off the really good records that exist.

On a personal note,playing the Rammstein song "Rammstein" to underline a witch burning may be slightly offensive to anybody understanding where the songs lyrics come from. Should've gone with "Burn the witch" by Qotsa instead. And,dear Mr. Drummer, if you want to play that Slayer song, please try to hold the speed and the timing. Slayer getting progressively slower because you can't bother isn't really what I came for.

When I first glanced at the early, not complete line-up of 'Gutterdammerung', I gasped. 'Um, what?'

This was a joke, right? I mean, it said: Iggy Pop and Lemmy and Tom Araya from Slayer and Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal. Did it say 'Grace Jones'? Apparently, it did. I saw the name of one of my all-time heroes, Mr. Henry Rollins.

I got lightheaded, and a bit dizzy. How on earth did this guy Björn Tagemose manage to get all these music icons on board for what seemed like a totally crazy idea - I mean: a silent type movie (it's not really silent, as it features talking and sound effects, but it looks like something that was made during the great era of the silent film) in black and white, projected on a large screen in a theatre, accompanied by a live rock band? Seriously? The question lingered for about five seconds, and then excitement kicked in. Man, I have to see this.

Then, Nina Hagen and Slash were added to the bill. Mark Lanegan. The guys from Vollbeat and Justice. Yeah, we got the message: 'Gutterdammerung' was something else all right.

'Gutterdammerung' is not a movie. It's a weird and fun and exciting and arty mishmash. Call it a heavy metal opera, if you like. Or: a traveling rock circus, centered round a beautifully shot and stylised film. An immersive rock and roll experience? (Yuck.) Whatever, just as long as you remember this: it's extremely beautiful, and so much fun.

The movie itself is lots of things. A big middle finger to religious fanaticism. A homage to all those tongue-in-cheek metal shows, with their pyrotechnics and juvenile behaviour. A nod towards Tagemose's fetish flick 'Häxan', a Swedish-Danish horror movie from the 1920s. The imagery of 'Gutterdammerung' calls to mind Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' and 'Nosferatu' by F.W. Murnau, but occasionally it's also goofy, and it's chock-full of references. Which are of course impossible to grasp during the show itself, as you're busy doing some serious headbanging. That is, if you're not just standing there, stroking your chin to the live band churning out tunes like 'War Pigs' (Black Sabbath), 'Dazed and Confused' (Led Zep), 'Ace of Spades' (Mötörhead) and, um, Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' - in which case you look like an idiot. Which can be fun as well, if that's your thing.

Anyway. 'Gutterdammerung' was every bit as impressive as the line-up suggests. It had me gasping for air when Iggy Pop threw that guitar down to earth, and it gave me goosebumps when the band dove into Slayer's 'Raining Blood'. It scared the wits out of me when Mr. Rollins yelled his orders, and made me cheer when the late Lemmy Kilmister - who else would play the army general? - gave the order to 'Kill 'em all'.

And, most of all, it made me realise: this guy Björn Tagemose is like a blacksmith who created something unique out of rock 'n' roll's very own core. A movie that's half pretty blue-eyed angel, half white-hot stinking devil, forged and hammered into a hell of an experience.

You may love every second of it. It might confuse you. It might have you grinning like the Cheshire Cat from 'Alice in Wonderland'. You may also beg to differ. But in the latter case, please keep in mind the words of the late Mr. Lemmy Kilmister, who said about 'Gutterdammerung' - well, it was something along the lines of: "If you don't like it, you can get lost." And indeed, you can.