Der isländische Film Metalhead von Ragnar Bragason aus dem Jahr 2013 erzählt die Geschichte des jungen Mädchens Hera, das in den 1990er Jahren in Island zwischen dem Leben, das ihren Bruder nahm, und ihrer eigenen Unfähigkeit, auf eigenen Beinen zu stehen, gefangen ist. In ihrer Trauer findet sie Trost im Metal und träumt davon, eigene Musik zu machen. Der hochgelobte Soundtrack von Pétur Ben wird im Dezember endlich zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl erhältlich sein, begleitet von dem Film auf Blu-ray sowie einem Booklet und Poster, veröffentlicht von Svart Records.
Pétur Ben erinnert sich an seine Vergangenheit mit Metal und die Entstehung des Soundtracks: „My first compositional attempts happened in my teens when I was in a death metal band in the early nineties. I was just fifteen, but I think in a way it gave me a real window into the film’s time and scenery. In many ways I was like Hera. An isolated kid finding solace in music although her situation is rural, but I was in the middle of this scene in Reykjavik. Back then I had Entombed, Godflesh, Morbid Angel and a few other records on vinyl and the rest was just dubbed from my friends’ albums to cassettes. In 2012 though when I wrote this music, I had just released my album God’s Lonely Man. I was heavily influenced by drone music like Gerard Grisey and contemporary indie bands like Women and Swans. I was also listening to The Doors, The Stooges and a whole lot of Velvet Underground, so basically psychedelic, kraut, drone stuff that we could call minimalistic rock music.“
In Bezug auf Svarthamar, den bekanntesten Song des Films, fügt Pétur hinzu: „I wanted it to be very tone centric but with hints of the Lydian mode that has this distinct Icelandic pagan folk sound. The story of this song cannot be told without mentioning the main reason for its success, mainly Þorbjörg Helga’s vocal delivery. She came in with Ragnar to my garage. I handed her the SHURE SM 58 handheld microphone and a pair of headphones, and she just sang the living daylights out of that thing. I didn’t have an extra pair of headphones for myself or my director. We just stood there dumbstruck watching this gorgeous creature lament her brother and express the meaning of the impermanent, transient nature of humanity, acapella in my acoustically dead garage. I still get chills thinking about it.“
Regisseur Ragnar Bragason kommentiert das Erbe des Films: „Metalhead had its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. No film of mine has had a wider reach, it played numerous film festivals and was released in many countries. It soon reached cult status and a record number of illegal downloads for an Icelandic film. Books have been written about it. Many musicians have covered Pétur’s Svarthamar song and the web is filled with fan art from across the world. People even have Hera tattooed on their arms and legs! Years after release it’s being shown here and there from time to time. Still to this day I get messages from people all over the world who have discovered Metalhead and want to discuss it and tell me how much Hera’s story means to them. That is the greatest reward.“
12.12.2025 Pétur Ben: Metalhead (Original Soundtrack) (LP+Blu-ray)
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