Starring Thora Bjorg Helga, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, and Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, the film follows Hera Karlsdóttir (Helga), an aspiring black metal musician who returns to her family farm as she and her estranged parents struggle coming to terms with the death of her older brother Baldur in a tractor accident nine years prior.

Metalhead premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2013,[1][2] and was theatrically released in Iceland on 11 October 2013.

[citation needed] In the summer of 1983, twelve-year-old Hera Karlsdóttir lives a normal life on her family farm in a close-knit community.

One afternoon, Hera witnesses her older brother Baldur fall off a tractor before his long hair is scalped by its blades.

Her mother and father, Droplaug and Karl, attempt to regain a sense of normalcy by participating in the village church choir, where they meet the new priest, Janus, who is rumored to be gay.

One night, Hera overhears a news report on TV about the black metal scene in Norway and the arson attacks against several churches associated with it, which piques her interest, and influences her to don corpse paint the next morning.

They start having a friendly discourse on the topic, but when Janus tries talking to Hera on an emotional level, she attempts to seduce him, causing him to leave.

Still mesmerized by the news report, Hera records a black metal demo of her own, and sends several copies of the tape out in the post.

The men had come across her demo on the tape trading scene in Oslo and, highly impressed with it, want to release it on their record label.

They ultimately play a modified version of the black metal song with a slower tempo and clean vocals, satisfying both the audience and the band.