Film captures metal bands' regional vibe

Courtesy of David Lipke

Zoroaster guitarist Will Fiore performs in a scene from the documentary "Slow Southern Steel." The film and the band can both be seen at the Hi-Tone tonight.

Given the cinematic sweep of the group's music, it is no surprise that the enigmatically named CT, lead singer of the Little Rock heavy metal band Rwake, is an unabashed moviegoer.

"I go to the film festival here in Little Rock every year," he says. "I don't download at all, so I go to the movies all the time. But I had never thought about making one before."

That changed in 2005 when a friend interviewed CT for a book he proposed to write called "Slow Southern Steel," documenting the scene of metal bands below the Mason-Dixon Line. Nothing ever became of the book, but CT immediately latched onto turning the idea into a documentary film.

Now after almost four years of production, "Slow Southern Steel," directed by Arkansas filmmaker David Lipke, is finished and finding its way before heavy metal fans. The film is currently on a 19-city, rock-style tour that stops at the Hi-Tone Café Friday. The evening will feature a screening of the movie followed by a concert by two of the bands featured in the film, Atlanta trio Zoroaster and North Carolina's Hail! Hornet.

"He's just trying to do what 'Such Hawks Such Hounds' did for the West Coast heavy music scene," says Unbeheld guitarist and CT friend Ben Aviotti, referring to director John Srebalus' cult classic covering 30 years of psychedelic rock and proto-metal. "He's trying to get a unique Southern perspective on the music."

Unbeheld is one of the Memphis bands featured in "Slow Southern Steel." Other groups include Hank Williams III, Kylesa, Eyehategod, Torche, Dark Castle, A Hanging, Haarp, Hawg Jaw, Black Skies, Ketea, Parasytic, Beaten Back to Pure, ASG, The Roller, Dixie Witch, Weedeater and Royal Thunder.

Though all the bands share a general affection for heavy music, CT says what really binds them together in the film are their roots in a particular place and the common spirit that arises from it.

"It has to do with a lifestyle and how people down here take it easy. That's where the slow comes from. And steel is from the type music," says CT.

The idea to make "Slow Southern Steel" incubated with CT for several years until he met Lipke. The Arkansas-based director had wanted to make a video for Rwake, stalwarts of Mid-South metal for more than a decade who last September released their second full-length album, Rest. But CT quickly turned the director around to his idea.

(Admirably, CT was adamant that his own band not appear in the film. "I was really against it because I'm making this movie, there's no need to put me in it," he says. "All my friends are saying the same things we would have said.")

Working on the fly, filming interviews with bands before and after shows held across the South, including in Memphis at the Hi-Tone and the Buccaneer, the filmmakers worked for three years before finally debuting the film last fall. Since then, the film has shown at the Little Rock festival, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and a festival in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"We didn't even use everything we shot," says CT. "There's lots more material. We could do a second movie. But I might need to take a break before a sequel."

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"Slow Southern Steel" Memphis premiere, with Zoroaster and Hail! Hornet

7 p.m. Friday at the Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar Ave. Tickets: $12 for movie and concert, $10 for concert. Advance tickets available online at hitonememphis.com. For more information, call (901) 278-8663.

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