Cult film 'Metalhead' original soundtrack by Pétur Ben out on vinyl in December via Svart Records • GRIMM Gent

The 2013 Icelandic film Metalhead by Ragnar Bragason tells the story about a young girl, Hera, in 1990s Iceland caught between the life that took her brother and her own inability to strike out on her own. In her grief, she finds solace in metal and dreams of making her own music. The film’s highly praised soundtrack by Pétur Ben will finally be available on vinyl for the first time, accompanied by the film on Blu-ray and completed by a booklet and poster in December via Svart Records.

Pétur Ben reminisces his past with metal and the making of the soundtrack:

“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.”

Talking about Svarthamar, the film’s most well-known song, Pétur adds

“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.”

The director Ragnar Bragason comments on the legacy of the film:

“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.”