Here's a rock doc like no other. A window into the making of the Metallica album St. Anger -- their first in five years -- that becomes a journey into the band's psychic inferno. Who knew? Certainly not filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, who used Metallica songs in their justly acclaimed documentary Paradise Lost, about three teens convicted of murder in West Memphis, Arkansas, while allegedly under the influence of the devil's music, heavy metal. Berlinger and Sinofsky thought it…

You think your parents' marriage is complicated? Maybe so, but at least they don't have to worry about hiring a new bassist. This absorbing, weirdly voyeuristic documentary follows the endlessly protracted, issue-laden recording of Metallica's most recent album, St. Anger. When the band got together to make the record, relations between members Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett were so strained that they needed a therapist -- always on-call at the bargain price of $40,000 a month --…

Heavy-metal band Metallica goes through two years of therapy to work through conflicts in their 20-year working relationship. This silly juxtaposition of hardened, tattooed headbangers lamenting about abandonment issues is precisely what makes this documentary both touching and entertaining.

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After a particularly rough jamming session, Metallica frontman James Hetfield warns his bandmates that he's in a ''shitty mood,'' which basically means he's about to become one extremely uncooperative…