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Rock On: Teen Misfits Go Heavy in Movie ‘Metal Lords’

Jaeden Martell. (AP)
Jaeden Martell. (AP)
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Rock On: Teen Misfits Go Heavy in Movie ‘Metal Lords’

Jaeden Martell. (AP)
Jaeden Martell. (AP)

Two misfits try to start a heavy metal band at their high school in new Netflix film "Metal Lords", a coming-of-age comedy part inspired by writer D.B. Weiss' own teenage musical experiences.

"Knives Out" actor Jaeden Martell plays student Kevin, who wants to please his best friend Hunter, a hardcore metal fan determined to win the Battle of the Bands contest with their group.

With Kevin on drums, Hunter on the guitar, their search for a bass player at school, where pop is more popular than metal, proves fruitless until Kevin overhears cellist Emily, played by Isis Hainsworth, practicing.

"Doing this movie definitely gave me a new appreciation for metal," Martell told Reuters.

"When it's a foreign genre to you, it sounds like people smashing cymbals and screaming. But really, there's a lot of artistry...it's almost like mathematical, it's really special and you have to be very talented to play it."

Actor and jazz guitarist Adrian Greensmith, who plays Hunter, said he watched "School of Rock" as part of his preparation while Hainsworth looked to cellist Tina Guo.

"I have mad respect for metal and people who play metal," Hainsworth said.

As well as focusing on the genre, the movie, released on Friday, also looks at growing pains and mental health.

"In a very oblique way, there are experiences that I had in high school playing music...that you accumulate over the years," said Weiss, co-creator of hit series "Game of Thrones".

"Years ago I started to see how they might shape together into a fun small personal story about three kids who don't fit in learning how to not fit in together. And so that's where it came from and then in the interim, obviously, it changed a lot."

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello served as executive music producer on the movie, and wrote Hunter's composition "Machinery of Torment". He said he could identify with the story.

"Heavy metal was my first love and the connection and the opportunity it provided to enhance a kind of self-worth when you're a teenager growing up, especially sort of as an outcast in a conservative suburb," he said. "It was my lifeline."

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UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
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UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)

John Mayall, the British blues pioneer whose 1960s music collective the Bluesbreakers helped usher in a fertile period of rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to prominence, has died at 90, his family said Tuesday.

Mayall, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who was dubbed "the godfather of British blues," and whose open-door arrangement saw some of the greats in the genre hone their craft with him and his band, "passed away peacefully in his California home" on Monday, according to a statement posted on his Facebook page.

It did not state a cause of death.

"Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world's greatest road warriors," it said. "John Mayall gave us 90 years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain."

Mayall's influence on 1960s rock and beyond is enormous. Members of the Bluesbreakers eventually went on to join or form groups including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and many more.

At age 30, Mayall moved to London from northern England in 1963. Sensing revolution in the air, he gave up his profession as a graphic designer to embrace a career in blues, the musical style born in Black America.

He teamed up with a series of young guitarists including Clapton, Peter Green, later of Fleetwood Mac, and Mick Taylor who helped form the Rolling Stones.

In the Bluesbreakers' debut album in 1966, "Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton," John Mayall enthralled music aficionados with a melding of soulful rock and gutsy, guitar-driven American blues featuring covers of tunes by Robert Johnson, Otis Rush and Ray Charles.

The blues music he was playing in British venues was "a novelty for white England," he told AFP in 1997.

That album was a hit, catapulting Clapton to stardom and bringing a wave of popularity to a more raw and personal blues music.

Mayall moved to California in 1968 and toured America extensively in 1972.

He recorded a number of landmark albums in the 1960s including "Crusade," "A Hard Road," and "Blues From Laurel Canyon." Dozens more followed in the 1970s and up to his latest, "The Sun Is Shining Down," in 2022.

Mayall was awarded an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.