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The Legend of Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Hazy memories, the first time I watched the video, a friend procured a VHS cassette tape, with a handwritten label, “Heavy Metal Parking Lot, scrawled on the label. My initial reaction to it was some kind of spoof. Some want to be comedian made some crude joke about heavy metal music. It was the mid-90s, heavy metal was a fresh corpse in the rock n roll graveyard. The first underground sensation I can remember. Before streaming video, before MP3 there was analog. Two young, aspiring filmmakers procured a tape machine to capture audio and a VHS video camcorder. That was their rig. On a late spring evening near Washington D.C, in Landover Maryland, the pair captured the essence of a rock concert parking lot pre-party.
My early teen years I was a heavy metal music fan. Our group of friends made each other mix cassette tapes, talked about our favorite bands, arguing who was the king of all heavy metal land. MTV and the legendary Headbangers Ball late night show delivered the goods. The thought of a homemade video capturing the atmosphere of a heavy metal concert before the opening band hit the stage was a scene I had limited experience.
I did have enough first-hand knowledge to quickly realize the filmmakers were not joking. Panel vans, sports cars and beaters filled the giant parking lot, a car stereo battle raged, Judas Priest pumping from a Trans-Am…
