Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 1151
RT slug: metal_lords
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/metal_lords
Release year: —
Runtime: 98 mins
Wide release date: —
Limited release date: —
Festival premiere date: —
Streaming release date: 2022-04-08
Tomatometer final: 62%
Audience score final: 83%
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music
Directors: Peter Sollett
Writers: D.B. Weiss
Producers: D.B. Weiss, Greg Shapiro
MPAA rating: R
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-08-12 10:44:52
Updated: 2026-08-12 10:44:52
Two kids want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal. Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) is a diehard metal fan who knows his history and shreds. His dream is to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands. He enlists his best friend Kevin (Jaeden Martell) to man the drums. But with schoolmates more interested in Bieber than Black Sabbath, finding a bassist is a struggle. Until Kevin overhears Emily (Isis Hainsworth) playing her cello. The motley crew must contend with school, parents, hormones and teen angst while trying to get along long enough for Skullf*cker to win the Battle of the Bands.
If it doesn't quite rawk, Metal Lords remains a good-natured and overall enjoyable look at adolescence and the life-altering power of music.
Canonical reviews: 47
Canonical fresh: 29
Canonical rotten: 18
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 62%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-08-12 10:43:59
Snapshot Tomatometer: 62%
Snapshot review count: 47
Snapshot fresh count: 29
Snapshot rotten count: 18
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #2721 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| BLB | production |
| Kingsgate Films | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaeden Martell | Kevin Schlieb |
| 2 | Isis Hainsworth | Emily Spector |
| 3 | Adrian Greensmith | Hunter Sylvester |
| 4 | Joe Manganiello | — |
| 5 | Brett Gelman | Dr. Sylvester |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1167 | processed | — | 2026-08-12 10:44:52 | Processed successfully into movie_id=1151 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2721 | 2026-08-12 05:43:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-08-12 10:43:59 | 62% | 47 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 47 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=47, fresh=29, rotten=18, tomatometer=62%. Net new reviews added=47, fresh=29, rotten=18. Current canonical totals=47 reviews, 29 fresh, 18 rotten, tomatometer=62% (61.702%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (47). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (62%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 241326 | Cidnya Silva | But Why Tho? | Fresh | 7/10 | 2023-01-04T23:21:39.000Z | 2023-01-04 23:21:39 | What the story lacks in plot, it is carried by feel-good messages. The ending of [Metal Lords] makes me give out the biggest toothy grin. Weird kids exist and that’s okay. |
| 241327 | Prahlad Srihari | Firstpost | Rotten | 2/5 | 2022-08-08T20:25:33.000Z | 2022-08-08 20:25:33 | Metal Lords plays its coming-of-age riff fast and loose. |
| 241328 | Rahul Desai | News9 Live (India) | Rotten | 2/5 | 2022-07-20T00:05:18.000Z | 2022-07-20 00:05:18 | Metal Lords plays out like a generic offspring born from a tryst between School of Rock, The Spectacular Now and every high-school movie featuring two childhood friends, a strange girl and a Battle of the Bands contest. |
| 241329 | Linda Cook | OurQuadCities / WHBF-TV (Illinois) | Fresh | — | 2022-06-19T06:36:19.000Z | 2022-06-19 06:36:19 | 3 stars 'Metal Lords' is a fun, endearing look at growing up. |
| 241330 | Dan Bayer | Next Best Picture | Fresh | 6/10 | 2022-05-10T03:35:27.000Z | 2022-05-10 03:35:27 | As big-hearted and good-natured as "Metal Lords" is, it can't help but feel like an inferior version of a story we've seen many times before. |
| 241331 | Grant Watson | Fiction Machine | Fresh | 7/10 | 2022-05-09T12:04:17.000Z | 2022-05-09 12:04:17 | The films that please me the most are not simply the best-developed, or written, or directed ones. I am at my happiest when a film firmly decides what sort of movie it wants to be, and then excels at being that kind of movie. |
| 241332 | Graeme Tuckett | The Post NZ | Rotten | — | 2022-05-03T18:08:12.000Z | 2022-05-03 18:08:12 | Maybe Metal Lords is the proof of what the final season of GOT made us all suspect: Unless they have someone else's writing to adapt, then Weiss and Shapiro can't be trusted to come up with anything interesting by themselves. |
| 241333 | Chad Byrnes | LA Weekly/Village Voice | Fresh | — | 2022-04-25T05:44:48.000Z | 2022-04-25 05:44:48 | Metal Lords works best when it squeezes all the comic juice from a genre that is equally loved and maligned, its Satanic imagery, homoeroticism, and masculine bravado, heavy metal is rife for comic possibilities. |
| 241334 | Lisa Laman | The Spool | Rotten | — | 2022-04-24T21:21:02.000Z | 2022-04-24 21:21:02 | A hodgepodge of familiar hallmarks of this genre mixed with equally recognizable metal music needle drops and all told without a hint of creativity or vision. |
| 241335 | Alex Maidy | JoBlo's Movie Network | Fresh | 7/10 | 2022-04-22T20:17:20.000Z | 2022-04-22 20:17:20 | For a movie focused on a genre all about breaking the rules, Metal Lords tends to stick to the safe formula of the movies that came before it. That doesnt make it bad by any means, but it could have been even better. |
| 241336 | Dennis Schwartz | Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews | Fresh | B- | 2022-04-22T11:48:21.000Z | 2022-04-22 11:48:21 | The slight film has charm. |
| 241337 | Nicolás Delgadillo | Knotfest | Fresh | — | 2022-04-19T02:29:08.000Z | 2022-04-19 02:29:08 | What Metal Lords understands so well about the music is just how transformative it can be for those who get into it. |
| 241338 | Peter Canavese | Celluloid Dreams | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2022-04-16T21:01:07.000Z | 2022-04-16 21:01:07 | Mostly a straightforward garage band teen movie reminiscent of "Linda Linda Linda' (2005). Plays like a passion project with a strong nostalgia factor. |
| 241339 | Asher Luberto | The Playlist | Fresh | B | 2022-04-15T23:14:53.000Z | 2022-04-15 23:14:53 | Captures the uncertainty of youth with the soul of Sing Street and the rage of a Rage Against the Machine guitar solo. |
| 241340 | Mark Meszoros | The News-Herald (Willoughby, OH) | Rotten | 2/4 | 2022-04-15T17:20:58.000Z | 2022-04-15 17:20:58 | Its charming at times and always appropriately heavy metal-worshiping but its more clunky than head-banging. |
| 241341 | Petr Navovy | Pajiba | Rotten | — | 2022-04-13T17:53:01.000Z | 2022-04-13 17:53:01 | Not only is there zero innovation in the template gaps here, but the fundamentals are all absent too. The film wants to make you laugh and to feel for these kids, their connection, and their struggle. It doesn’t succeed in any of these goals. |
| 241342 | Brian Costello | Common Sense Media | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-04-12T23:58:03.000Z | 2022-04-12 23:58:03 | It's a movie with about as much hard-hitting realism as School of Rock, but there is a sense of honest humanity to these characters that emerges in a way that often doesn't happen in coming-of-age movies. |
| 241343 | Robert Levin | Newsday | Rotten | 1/4 | 2022-04-11T11:27:25.000Z | 2022-04-11 11:27:25 | Play your favorite Rage Against the Machine album instead. |
| 241344 | Ferdosa | Screen Rant | Fresh | 2.5/5 | 2022-04-10T21:46:01.000Z | 2022-04-10 21:46:01 | Metal Lords attempts to subvert expectations and be a true ode to metal. To that end, the film is an endearing love letter to young metal fans. |
| 241345 | Brad Sanders | Polygon | Fresh | — | 2022-04-09T00:23:53.000Z | 2022-04-09 00:23:53 | It’s a slight film, and an almost self-consciously low-key follow-up to the massive Game of Thrones, but Weiss has the personal experience to make its humbler ambitions work. |
| 241346 | Ricardo Gallegos | La Estatuilla | Rotten | — | 2022-04-08T23:51:18.000Z | 2022-04-08 23:51:18 | It's impossible to buy the central friendship... Full Review in Spanish |
| 241347 | David Ehrlich | IndieWire | Rotten | C+ | 2022-04-08T23:33:17.000Z | 2022-04-08 23:33:17 | Peter Sollett’s Metal Lords is small and patchy even by the standards of a throwaway Netflix movie that feels like it’s already been forgotten for you. |
| 241348 | Leah Greenblatt | Entertainment Weekly | Fresh | B+ | 2022-04-08T23:02:45.000Z | 2022-04-08 23:02:45 | The story belongs to its young cast, and Lords' ramshackle comedy sweetly captures the rank anxiety, random humiliations, and undiluted hope of being young. |
| 241349 | Matt Fowler | IGN Movies | Rotten | 5/10 | 2022-04-08T22:53:13.000Z | 2022-04-08 22:53:13 | Metal Lords is earnest with metal but sloppy with character and story. It delivers a rousing finale but the journey there is uninspired and half-formed. |
| 241350 | Al Shipley | Consequence | Rotten | — | 2022-04-08T21:52:42.000Z | 2022-04-08 21:52:42 | Anyone whos watched School of Rock multiple times will probably enjoy Metal Lords, but they wont return to it over and over like a worn-out cassette of Reign in Blood. |
| 241351 | Noel Murray | Los Angeles Times | Fresh | — | 2022-04-08T20:11:55.000Z | 2022-04-08 20:11:55 | “Metal Lords” is disappointingly formulaic, but Hunter’s restless energy keeps the picture lively, all the way up to its cathartic musical finale. |
| 241352 | Simon Abrams | RogerEbert.com | Fresh | 3/4 | 2022-04-08T18:26:26.000Z | 2022-04-08 18:26:26 | The film may be cinematic comfort food, but its creators do earn our trust and nail all the essential beats they need to along the way. |
| 241353 | Kira Comerford | Ready Steady Cut | Rotten | 2.5/5 | 2022-04-08T18:20:05.000Z | 2022-04-08 18:20:05 | With so many points of conflict, and so many villains for want of a better word, it was almost like the film had entered into a game of one-upmanship with itself. |
| 241354 | Rick Marshall | Digital Trends | Fresh | — | 2022-04-08T17:34:16.000Z | 2022-04-08 17:34:16 | You might not be able to tell the difference between Black Sabbath and Pantera, but theres a good chance Metal Lords will make you believe in the power of heavy metal. |
| 241355 | Natalia Keogan | Paste Magazine | Rotten | 6.5/10 | 2022-04-08T16:43:34.000Z | 2022-04-08 16:43:34 | Though much of the film feels like a heavy metal rip-off of School of Rock, Metal Lords reveals a deep-seated sincerity. |
| 241356 | Ross Bonaime | Collider | Fresh | C+ | 2022-04-08T16:33:43.000Z | 2022-04-08 16:33:43 | Metal Lords ends just when it feels like its finding its footing, with its characters taking too much time to address their flaws, leaving the music and the bonds that have been formed via the music, on the back burner for too long. |
| 241357 | Ian Sandwell | Digital Spy | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-04-08T12:15:36.000Z | 2022-04-08 12:15:36 | You might not want an encore, but Metal Lords is still an endearing and funny coming-of-age tale. |
| 241358 | Mark Dujsik | Mark Reviews Movies | Fresh | 3/4 | 2022-04-08T03:27:11.000Z | 2022-04-08 03:27:11 | It's ... a sweetly sincere story about the troubles of being an outsider and the joy of finding one's place... |
| 241359 | Mike McGranaghan | Aisle Seat | Fresh | 3/4 | 2022-04-08T01:13:37.000Z | 2022-04-08 01:13:37 | Imagine Judas Priest recording a concept album based on a John Hughes movie and you've got Metal Lords. I adored every minute of it. |
| 241360 | John Anderson | Wall Street Journal | Fresh | — | 2022-04-07T22:07:22.000Z | 2022-04-07 22:07:22 | A romance, bromance and good-natured send-up of teenage obsession. |
| 241361 | Charles Koplinski | Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam | Rotten | 2.5/4.0 | 2022-04-07T19:23:14.000Z | 2022-04-07 19:23:14 | Sollett refuses to upend the establishment with a metal attitude. The intensity thats the genres trademark is missing. The result is a movie that resembles Taylor Swift more than ACDC. |
| 241362 | Natalia Winkelman | New York Times | Fresh | — | 2022-04-07T18:58:47.000Z | 2022-04-07 18:58:47 | Conventional but genuine, “Metal Lords” comprehends the riot of adolescent emotions and the many ways teenagers manage them. |
| 241363 | Nick Venable | CinemaBlend | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2022-04-07T18:17:28.000Z | 2022-04-07 18:17:28 | With his fun and informed screenplay for Netflix's Metal Lords, Weiss has definitely pulled off one of cinemas most rollicking odes to the riff-tastic heavy metal genre... |
| 241364 | Courtney Howard | Variety | Rotten | — | 2022-04-07T17:29:57.000Z | 2022-04-07 17:29:57 | Sex, drugs and rock n roll are on the set list, yet it plays too fast and loose, failing to achieve a good balance to make the chords reverberate louder. |
| 241365 | Steven Warner | In Review Online | Rotten | — | 2022-04-07T16:45:49.000Z | 2022-04-07 16:45:49 | Despite ... misgivings, Metal Lords is ultimately too successfully heartfelt to completely write off, genuinely moving even as the filmmakers pound you over the head with the irony that their metal film is the least metal thing on the planet. |
| 241366 | Jared Mobarak | The Film Stage | Fresh | C+ | 2022-04-07T13:37:01.000Z | 2022-04-07 13:37:01 | We're here to see how the characters grow individually and together, not a generic plot progress as it has for decades. Good and bad, it met expectations. |
| 241367 | Brian Orndorf | Blu-ray.com | Fresh | A- | 2022-04-07T13:18:40.000Z | 2022-04-07 13:18:40 | A delightful movie, managing the bigness of the premise and the metal mission with atypical attention to teen behaviors and tempers, keeping things real and highly amusing. |
| 241368 | Derek Smith | Slant Magazine | Rotten | 1/4 | 2022-04-07T12:57:11.000Z | 2022-04-07 12:57:11 | Metal Lords betrays rather than upholds the values of the very kids it wants to revere. |
| 241369 | Bill Goodykoontz | Arizona Republic | Rotten | 2.5/5 | 2022-04-07T10:06:46.000Z | 2022-04-07 10:06:46 | “Metal Lords” feels unfinished, rough, like a solo the guitarist never mastered. |
| 241370 | Robert Morast | San Francisco Chronicle | Fresh | 3/4 | 2022-04-07T10:05:56.000Z | 2022-04-07 10:05:56 | “Metal Lords” is engrossing and fun with a perfect tone — and not because of the metal riffs that surge through it. |
| 241371 | John DeFore | The Hollywood Reporter | Fresh | — | 2022-04-07T10:04:55.000Z | 2022-04-07 10:04:55 | Though there aren’t many laughs on the way to that Battle of the Bands, Sollett’s unassuming cast and breezy pace ensure we won’t be too bored before we get there. |
| 241372 | Robert Kojder | Flickering Myth | Fresh | 3/5 | 2022-04-07T07:18:50.000Z | 2022-04-07 07:18:50 | Anything that allows Ramin Djawadi to take a crack at some metal covers is worth checking out. Metal Lords sincerely cares about these characters, which is enough to make us want to rock out with them as they find a place of belonging |
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