FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK: MONSTERS IN MOSCOW.

• Author: Britschgi, Christian
• Position: DOCUMENTARY

The USSR ended not with a bang but with some very loud guitars. That's the impression one gets from For Those About to Rock: Monsters in Moscow, a 1992 documentary covering the massive 1.5-million-person heavy metal concert that took place at the city's Tushino Airfield just three months before the Soviet Union formally dissolved.

The scale and aesthetics of the event make the film worth watching, even for folks who wouldn't normally sit through 90 minutes of Pantera, Metallica, and AC/DC performances. One can't help but be wowed seeing a million moshing Muscovites drinking openly from vodka bottles while military helicopters buzz ominously overhead.

Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo sums up the scene pretty well. "Everyone has aggression," he says over footage of a police officer flexing a rubber truncheon. "There's no better music to let off a little steam to."

Still, some people letting off steam are more benign than others, and this film's revelations about...