Dust off, your vinyl collection, it's time to rock out to the glam hair bands of the 1980s. Much like the original movie, 1981's 'The Decline of Western Civilization', and its later sequel, 1998's 'the Decline of Western Civilization Part III", also directed by Penelope Spheeris. The second film of trio musical documentaries of hers, is less about, why & how the music scene, came to be, but more on the positive & negative effects of the hedonism lifestyle choices, the people involved with it, has taken. Featuring interviews with such popular musical acts like Kiss, Aerosmith, Poison, Alice Cooper, & others, also showcasing up and coming, unknown bands, like London, Lizzy Borden, Odin and Seduce through musical performances; the documentary electrifyingly chronicled the hair metal scene, from 1986 until 1988. Without spoiling the film, too much, I was deeply surprised, how many marquee names, the documentary has for a 1 hour and 33 minute movie. It's a who's who of prominent rockstars from that era of music. It was pretty cool to see them, all in one movie. However, I would had love to see more emphasis on getting acts like Guns & Roses, Quiet Riot, Val Halen, and Mötley Crüe to name a few, into the documentary to make the LA music settling, more personal & grounded. Scenes like involving the Rainbow Bar & Grill & Gazzarri's Club felt lacking, because of those bands absence. Besides, Motorhead's Lemmy, the famous musicians in the film, barely related to those locations; so scenes like the dancing contest at Gazzarri's come across as jarring and time-wasting. All of those talking sequences with the club promoters could had been cut; along with the die-hard fans spilling useless knowledge. The movie is already crammed with so many talking heads. So, why waste time on them? When Spheeris could had done, better, by getting those bands, I mention, to speak. Maybe, these bands could had given the film, a more in-depth insightful look into what it takes to be, in a hair metal band in Los Angeles; instead of, the silly surface level, highly repetitive, deadpan humor information, we, the audience, got, from these airheads. Because of this, the film felt more about a mockumentary like 1984's comedy film, 'This is Spinal Tap' than a serious rockumentary like VH1 TV Series 'Behind the Music' (1997-2014). We never truly get the serious emotional & informative complexities; a documentary like this, should have. Not only that, but it's not really that heavy, besides one, really off-putting, notorious interview with a drunken, Chris Holmes from WASP. The movie doesn't really expose much, the harsher, darkest side of the industry like the sexism, violence or living in a life full of excess. Nor, was the subject material, even that metal. Where were the performers, usually with fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work? The only one, I notice was Megadeth. Don't get me wrong, some of the songs have highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, with singers singing with overall loudness; but most of the time, it sound like something from glam rock. The lyrics is another thing doesn't sound metal. Most metal songs often deal with social issues and criticism of the Establishment, using direct and denunciatory language, an approach borrowed from hardcore punk. Songs like "Cathouse" & "Bathroom Wall" were not only cheesy, but felt out of place. In truth, the subtitle for the movie should had been call 'the hair metal years', than the latter. Regardless of that, most of the music in the film was somewhat entertaining to listen to; despite nearly sounding the same. Only one bands feature in the documentary, honestly irritate me was Faster Pussycats. The lead singer for that band is really, really, bad with his cringe-worthy creaking vocals & over the top aesthetic. No wonder, why the excesses of glam metal created a backlash against the genre; creating the rise of grunge & thrash. You kinda do see it, in the final performance in this film. It's very foreshadowing. However, the film doesn't really talk about the rise of LA's hip-hop. That was another big factor in destroying the glam metal scene. Overall: While, the film doesn't have the informative depths that something like 2006's documentary, 'Heavy: The Story of Metal' or the raw edge of the first movie in Spheeris's series; it still worth watching for the amusing musical acts and the hilarious sequences that follow, even if some of them, were highly exaggerated & staged, such as Ozzy Osbourne making breakfast scene & the amount of Vodka that Chris Holmes drinks. It's probably the most fun of the three 'Decline of Western Civilization' films. I just wish, it didn't jump around, as much. It needed a little more narrative structure, rather than rapid-fire series of interviews. Still, it's one documentary worth headbanging too. So, mosh over and go find it!

The 1980's heavy metal scene proves to be a gloriously ludicrous array of hideously overpermed hairspray-soaked coiffures, skintight leather pants, silly and immature macho grandstanding, slutty groupies with varying degrees of attractiveness, bands with equally erratic musical aptitude (it's no wonder that neither Odin nor London ever made it big, while Megadeath distinguish themselves as one of the few groups featured herein with considerable chops), appalling misogyny, and, of course, a dazzling surplus of decadence and hedonistic excess cranked to eleven. Yet somehow director Penelope Spheeris manages to still capture the humanity behind all the blatant posturing: Whether it's Steven Tyler admitting that millions of dollars of cocaine went up his nose, Ozzy Osborne candidly discussing the drab reality of rehab (Ozzy is a hoot to watch as he makes breakfast in his kitchen while clad in a bathrobe), Joe Perry remarking that at some point one gets sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, or, most memorably, guitarist Chris Holmes in a swimming pool drinking himself into oblivion while his mother sits poolside watching in silent disgust, Spheeris reveals that there's a definite dark side to the heavy metal lifestyle. It's also pretty sad and sobering to hear members of the lesser known unsigned bands admit that they are bound and determined to succeed no matter what; this speaks volumes about the tremendous pressure American society puts on people in show business to achieve a certain level of fame and fortune. So for all of the more garish aspects found throughout (for example, the clearly staged Paul Stanley interview with Stanley lying in bed surrounded by fawning hot babes), there's a good deal of pathos to be found that in turn makes this documentary worthwhile viewing.

I'm giving this a "7" rating because "The Metal Years" film is an interesting one. Interesting, in that almost all the bands showcased are so bad, and the "musicians" so horrid, that you can't take your eyes off them.You get a bunch of big guns, like Ozzy, Alice, Kiss, Poison, Lemmy and a few more. But mostly the movie is made of lesser metal heads, and it's not a pretty sight. It's like a Saturday Night Live skit that is 90 minutes long, all making fun of rock and roll, trying to make rock look as silly and ridiculous as possible. Only thing is, this film is dead serious."The Delusional Years" would have been a decent title for this movie, when it comes to the unsigned bands they speak to - ALL of them are sure they are going to be rich, wealthy, legendary rock and rollers. It's downright sad (almost), as in one incredible sequence, where the narrator asks a bunch of musicians what will happen to them if they don't "make it." All of them pretty much say they will make it. Now, positivity is a good attitude, but there were so many cookie-cutter hair metal bands back then, how can they all seriously think this.One band, Odin, is especially pathetic. Odin is one of the absolute worst bands you will ever hear, or see. The singer defines "unlistenable." But there they are, in a hot tub with sluts, all sure they will make it. One of them admits to almost killing himself at times, dampening the festive chicks-in-hot-tub mood. Odin what you see in this movie, is exactly what you'd see today if comics made fun of the era. They are BAD.But not to single them out, so are a bunch of the others. Truthfully though, you really don't get a sense of the inside of rock with this movie. It's kind of cookie-cutter, just like the bands - a typical documentary that really could have been about many genres of music.The saddest part of course is the Chris Holmes sequence, with him drunk in a swimming pool while his mom watches. The saddest thing here really isn't Chris - it's his mom, for just sitting there like a rock while her son drinks himself to death on a raft in a pool. Good going, mom.If you want to laugh for 90 minutes and think to yourself that some people out there actually took this (for the most part) horrible music seriously, this is the movie for you.

These comments are appropriate as a straight reading of the film, but I don't think Spheeris meant to create a more comprehensive view of heavy metal, and I don't think she was naive about the breadth of heavy metal. I think the title says it all if read as an ironic commentary on the original "Punk Years" film. The first film is such a brilliant snapshot of a certain time, and the social problems, great music, politics, and lifestyles on display are directly and deliberately contrasted with the dummies (NOT talking about Lemmy, Mustaine, and Aero here) in the "Metal Years" film. It's as if Spheeris, after capturing such a visceral authenticity--something so intense--in the "Punk Years" film, asked What the hell happened? seven years later in the "Metal Years" film. The "Punk Years" isn't a "decline" at all, but the "Metal Years" certainly represents one in so many ways if viewed through the lens of 1981.