AXS TV is ringing in Halloween with a block of heavy metal content, including the premiere of the documentary Metal Massacre: The Story of the Legendary Album.
The doc will anchor AXS TV’s “Heavy Metal Halloween” programming and makes its network debut at 9 p.m. ET on October 28th, immediately followed by an encore airing at 11 p.m.
The film centers around the making of the groundbreaking 1982 Metal Massacre compilation that helped launch the careers of Metallica, Ratt, and more. The LP is a time capsule of the California metal scene in the early 1980s and also birthed the long-running independent label Metal Blade Records (the comp was the first release on the imprint).
In addition to commentary and anecdotes from Metal Blade founder Brian Slagel and his collaborator John Kornarens — the two metalheads who made Metal Massacre a reality — the documentary features interviews with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield, RATT frontman Stephen Pearcy, and Black N’ Blue singer Jamie St. James, among others.
Additional programming for the “Heavy Metal Halloween” block includes documentaries about Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, a live Judas Priest concert, Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, and more.
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In other news, AXS TV is bringing back the Power Hour heavy metal/hard rock talk show for a second season. The flagship program of Danny Wimmer Presents, Power Hour will be getting 10 new episodes hosted by Matt Pinfield, Caity Babs, and Josh Bernstein. Each episode will feature recaps on industry news, in-studio and remote interviews with artists, and a Top 10 music video countdown.
Members of Metallica, Green Day, ZZ Top, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, and more are all slated to appear during the second season, which premieres on Thursday (October 5th) in a new 11 p.m. ET time slot.
You can watch the trailer for Metal Massacre: The Story of the Legendary Album and a teaser for Power Hour Season 2 below.
