National Metal Day 2020: How The Celebration Was Actually Inspired By A Film

Wednesday marks National Metal Day, an occasion to belt out those heavy metal tunes to your heart's desire.

It is a day dedicated to all those metal bands from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and 80s, such as the Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Motorhead and Pantera.

The celebration, on Nov. 11, is barely a decade old. It was started in 2011 by 24-hour music network VH1 Classic. Back then, the network began airing metal concerts and metal videos on Nov. 1, and capped it off with a grand finale on Nov. 11, 2011, or 11-11-11, by premiering the documentary series "Metal Evolution."

The whole "11" connection dates back to the 1984 rock mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap," which follows the story of Marty DiBergi, a filmmaker who is a diehard fan of Spinal Tap, a fictional British heavy metal band. In the film, Marty (Rob Reiner) interviews each member in time for their comeback tour in America. In one scene, the band talk about their amps going up to "one louder" than 10. “These go to 11!”

Here's how the hilarious conversation goes:

Marty: "Are the amps louder than those used by other bands?"

Nigel: "Well, it's one louder, isn't it."

Marty: "Why don't you make 10 louder, and make that be the top and make that a little louder."

Nigel (dumbfounded): "These go to 11!"

The idiom "These go to 11" was based on this scene.