- What do you think about metal music?
- The fans are just like wild animals.
- Anger. - Dark hair, dark clothing.
- Some spikes. - Piercings everywhere.
- Just too much screaming, maybe.
- Like f@#$ the patriarchy.
- Metal.
It's the central focus of "Game of Thrones" producer
D.B. Weiss's new film, "Metal Lords".
A story of two high school metalheads
trying to win the Battle of the Bands.
- Woo, heavy metal rules!
- And while some may characterize
the genre as aggressive and violent,
others view the relief of emotion as relaxing.
- Oh, I love metal music, if you couldn't tell.
- Absolutely. - No.
- I don't know.
- Well, we're about to find out today
on "Music Lab".
Does listening to metal make you stronger?
To kick off our experiment,
we're going to have each of our subjects hit the target
as hard as they can to establish a baseline of strength.
- Here goes nothing. All right.
- Okay.
Felt pretty good. It's been a while.
- Whenever?
- I feel like I just released some stress doing that.
- Um...Just once, miss.
- Okay! That felt very therapeutic.
- Before we move on,
we need to ask one simple question.
Metal is a subgenre of rock
that found mainstream appeal in the early 1970s
under pioneers such as Led Zeppelin,
Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple.
Metal differentiated itself in its use of heavy distortion,
power chords, tense rhythms, and epic vocals.
"Metal Lords" explores how the art form
is an expression of self.
This assertion of inner strength
is a key pillar of metal culture.
But let's see if there's any merit behind that feeling.
We're turning up the volume for our participants
to see how metal music directly affects their strength.
Initial feedback did show an increase in strength
while listening to metal.
- Oh, it got me hype.
I felt like I could run through a brick wall, I guess?
- I mean, it awoke something in me.
- Feels good. It feels right.
- And that shit made me wanna punch that thing more.
- However, several subjects soon contradicted this finding.
- Just calm.
Just like, all I could hear was the music
and nothing else going around me.
- Metal kind of, like, puts me at ease.
I felt like I wanted to punch something,
but like, softly, nicely.
- It actually is more relaxing than it was
making me a little bit more, like,
adrenaline going through me.
The opposite effect of what I was thinking.
- The results are in,
and our findings show that while metal music
made some of our subjects stronger,
for others, the opposite was true.
Metal is an intricate and perhaps misunderstood genre.
For people like Kevin and Hunter,
it's more than just music.
It's a culture and a vehicle to express the soul.
Whether it relaxes or empowers,
metal music undeniably has a dramatic effect
on its listeners.
Our experiment shows that this genre
is incredibly subjective
and hits different people in different ways.
Do you find metal relaxing? Let us know.
We'll catch you next time in the Netflix "Music Lab".
- Rock on.