Metal Songs Based on Fantasy Novels
Random House’s Suvudu blog has a cool post on metal songs based on fantasy novels. Of course, I had to chime in with some additions in the comments, which I’ll duplicate here:
- Amon Amarth–who are obviously named after Mount Doom, though they generally sing about Vikings–have a song called “Amon Amarth,” in which they reference Mount Doom, but they also mention Vikings, so I don’t know if it counts as being “based on” Tolkien.
- Every song by Battlelore. I knew that they sang about swords-and-sorcery sort of topics, but wasn’t sure until I checked Wikipedia just now–apparently ALL of their lyrics are derived from Tolkien. Which is appropriate, because I always pictured the dueling vocalists as an orc and an elf singing. (Give them a listen and you’ll know why.)
- A band called Jester’s Funeral adapted a bunch of John Shirley stories into songs for one of their albums (which they released online for free), called Fragments of an Exploded Heart.
- If Dante’s The Divine Comedy counts as fantasy, then this counts for the list: Sepultura did an album based on that.
- White Zombie’s “I am Legend” is based on I am Legend.
Can you think of any others not mentioned by me, or the original list?
Chris Willrich
8:29 am Aug-5-2008Sort of in the ballpark — Blue Öyster Cult also had “Veteran of the Psychic Wars,” which Wikipedia credits to Eric Bloom and Michael Moorcock, and which has some Eternal Champion-like images. Moorcock quotes from the song in his later novel _The Dragon In the Sword._ (And Wikipedia says “Veteran” itself quotes a Hawkwind song, “Standing at the Edge.”)
Someone in comments mentioned Led Zeppelin and Tolkien, and Wikipedia’s rundown for Zeppelin songs with LOTR references is “The Battle of Evermore,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Ramble On,” and “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp.” I remember getting a jolt when first hearing Robert Plant singing about Ringwraiths!
Ed
4:36 pm Aug-5-2008Recently reformed English metal band Sabbat, active in the late 80s and featuring currently much in demand producer Andy Sneap, released their second album Dreamweaver based on a book called The Way of the Wyrd by Brian Bates. Might be difficult to track down both of those but the band’s first 2 CDs were reissued a few years back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbat_%28band%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamweaver_%28Sabbat_album%29
And does Anthrax’s I Am The Law count?
Some Maidenhead
4:08 pm Aug-6-2008Also there’s “Strangers in a Strange Land” by Iron Maiden, based on the book by Robert Heinlein.
Mike Allen
10:40 am Aug-9-2008I had to add Metallica’s “The Thing That Should Not Be,” which to my mind erased any doubts about what “The Call of Ktulu” referred to (not that I really had any doubts.)
Best ’80s metal/sftnal song that apparently isn’t based on a book but should be: Judas Priest’s “Blood Red Skies.”