Modeled after Stephen King’s novella, “The Body” and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, Pewter, Murder, and Loaded Dice can best be described as pre-Columbine era adolescent crime fiction.

In 1992, eighth-grader Devin Predire only cares about becoming the lead singer of his friends’ heavy metal band, getting laid, winning school fights, and dodging a close friend’s murder wrap.

Emulating the heavy metal rocker lifestyle and exploring their limits in bigoted, ultra-violent role-playing games, Devin and his friends don’t flinch at opportunities to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, take drugs, steal porn for profit, steal cars, and terrorize their fellow students at Gracefield Junior High. All too quickly do they find themselves down a spiral that ultimately leads them to murder of one of their own.

The trials of eighth grade reality (fist fights within the playground pecking order, sex parties, and jockeying for position in their cut-throat but struggling garage band) forces these boys to sharpen their underdeveloped moralities. Each must decide what he is prepared to do to preserve the image and fantasy of becoming metal musicians and budding criminals.