‘The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years’ Captures Last Days Of L.A. Glam Scene

In the beginning was the riff and it was played on an electric guitar and it was good. And they plugged the guitar into a Marshall amplifier stack and played the riff again and it was heavy. Soon riffs would spread throughout the known world – which at that time stretched only from Birmingham, England to California – and those that played the riff and other riffs like it called it heavy metal. Should mankind survive the millennia, some version of metal will still be played somewhere on Earth and maybe even in outer space. The riff goes on forever.

While metal is still popular with audiences globally, now both young and old, the genre reached its apex in the 1980s. The decade saw the release of countless classic albums and metal bands dominating the Billboard charts and the new music video channel, MTV. Mutating like a virus, myriad sub-genres evolved and fought for primacy. Its commercial epicenter was Southern California, particularly the club circuit of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. The 1988 documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years captures the scene right before its collapse, as thrash and later grunge made the era’s prevailing glam bands look corny, irrelevant and old hat.

Directed by Penelope Spheeris of Wayne’s World fame, the film was a sequel to her 1981 documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization, which captured L.A.’s hardcore punk explosion. Whereas the first documentary profiled desperate teenage punkers and groundbreaking bands whose influence wouldn’t permeate the mainstream for another 10 years, its followup featured interviews with 30-something millionaire rock stars and scenester wannabes so convinced of their impending success that suicide seems preferable to failure. A third installment, 1998’s The Decline of Western Civilization III, chronicled the world of homeless L.A. crust punks. All three films are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Intro text tells us the movie was “Filmed August 1987 – February 1988,” as a smoke machine spews dry ice over an expectant stage. As rabid metal fans preen and pose for the cameras, opportunistic musicians whose careers started 15 to 20 years earlier tell us heavy metal is “a fist in your face” and “the true rock n’ roll for the ’80s.” Probation Officer Darlyne Pettinicchio explains how metal evolved from ’70s hard rock because who knows more about rock n’ roll and rebellion than a narc?

Poison, then celebrating their first flush of success, recall the hours of hard work passing out flyers night after night on the Sunset Strip, hoping to build an audience. The strategy is emulated by a Rumba-line of metal never-weres, some from as far away as Detroit, who say they’ve never held a dayjob and can’t do anything besides play in a rock n’ roll band. The crash must have hurt. Success, however, has its dangers as well. Aeromsith’s Steven Tyler, then newly sober, talks about the millions that “went up my nose,” while W.A.S.P.’s Chris Holmes does his interview completely shithammered, floating in a swimming pool in his leather stage clothes and chugging entire bottles of vodka.

Women are there to be exploited for sexual gratification and financial gain. “I like sluts,” says one failed musician. “Our dicks get real hard for gold cards,” says another. KISS’ Paul Stanley does his interview surrounded by scantily-clad women in bed while bandmate Gene Simmons talks about tossing a leftover groupie to the road crew. To be fair, some of the women interviewed seem happy with the loser sexual mores, though Vixen, the one female metal band included, aren’t given the same screen time as the boys. Judging the past by the standards of the present can be an exercise in futility, but having not watched the film since it came out, I was taken aback by the rampant and noxious sexism. I don’t fault Spheeris, though. What she got on film was indicative of the times, not just in the metal scene, but society as a whole.

Perspective is a funny thing. By the time The Decline Of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years came out in mid-1988, the L.A. glam scene was under siege by grittier hard rock bands on the right and the thrash metal uprising on the left. While these factions are represented in the film by sleazy rockers Faster Pussycat and seminal thrash titans Megadeth, the other groups included seemed passé and not indicative of where metal was at the time and certainly not where it was going. 30 years on, however, there’s no denying Spheeris’ expertise in capturing a moment that could never exist exactly the same way ever again.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Where to stream The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years