I’ve always been both a metalhead and a total fantasy geek—possibly the two most powerful formative influences on my teen years were Metallica and J.R.R. Tolkien. There exists a deep and occult connection between heavy metal and fantasy fiction, one that surfaces both obliquely—Spiked wristbands! Album covers that could double as Wheel of Time book jackets! Fire!—and overtly, as in the legacy of metal songs explicitly inspired by fantastical literary sources.
After the jump, check out a few of my favorite heavy metal songs inspired by fantasy novels. And I know I’ve forgotten a few, so add them in the comments!
Iron Maiden - "To Tame a Land"
Pretty much the entire Iron Maiden catalogue of powerfully narrative songs could be considered part of the classic fantasy canon. But special mention has to be made of "To Tame a Land," off Piece of Mind, based on the Dune novels. And they're really not kidding with these Dune references, which are serious and deep--this is Bruce Dickinson singing, as a fan, to other fans:
It is a land that's rich in spice
The sandriders and the "mice"
That they call the Muad'Dib.
He is the Kwisatz Haderach.
He is born of Caladan
And will take the Gom Jabbar.
Metallica -- "The Call of Cthulu"
On the other hand, Metallica's "Call of Cthulu" (Ride the Lightning) is an instrumental, and therefore features no explicit reference aside from the title--and its morbid mood--to Lovecraft's stories. But, after all, who but Lovecraft could find the words to express the horrors of Cthulu?
Blue Oyster Cult -- "Black Blade"
Blue Oyster Cult went one step further than any other band with this one: Not only is "Black Blade" based on Michael Moorcock's Elric novels, Michael Moorcock himself wrote the lyrics.
The Sword - "To Take the Black"
Based, of course, on George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. No one, no one, is more metal than the Sword Brotherhood of the Night's Watch.
Blind Guardian - All of Nightfall on Middle Earth
And here come the most hardcore fans of all: Blind Guardian, a German metal band who wrote an entire album based on The Silmarillon, called Nightfall on Middle Earth.
Megadeth - "Five Magics"
This is admittedly the most tenuous connection of all. Years ago, as a geeky middle schooler, I picked up a copy of a now out-of-print Del Rey paperback called "Master of the Five Magics" by Lyndon Hardy, persuaded that it had to have inspired the Megadeth song "Five Magics." The song does seem to be, like the book,
about an apprentice wizard, though I have no proof of any further connection. I ended up enjoying the novel immensely, however, and will have to track it down someday to see how it holds up.
This is really awesome and now I have to look up these songs!
Oh, come on now! No Kashmir??! No love for Tolkien?! Blasphemy, says I! ;)
I agree with Shawn! No Zep...I know it's an easy reference, and one could argue if Zep is even heavy metal...but still....ZEP!!! Awesome list though. Had a great time reading that.
There are too many to name in just one sitting. Good to see Blind Guardian's album get a nod. Ever heard of Battlelore? They're more of a doom-death band (harsh male vocals, angelic female vocals), but they base all their albums on Tolkien. And they don't play around; they're serious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRcl-NcIaE0
Check out their other videos, too.
Speaking of the Song of Ice and Fire series, there was once (and still is, though they're on hiatus) a band called Winterfell. They put out one demo EP and a full-length before disbanding.
http://www.myspace.com/winterfellmetal
The young singer sounded a lot like Matt Barlow (Iced Earth). Not as strong and polished, but for a young vocalist, he was great. Last time I checked, CD Baby still had a few of their demos for sale.
Cool post. How is it that you and I have never met?
I've got a few more bands for your list:
There's a band called Amon Amarth, who are obviously named after Mount Doom, though they generally sing about Vikings. There is one 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.
Battlelore definitely fits the bill. 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.
That's all I can think of for now!
In this context (and possibly only in this context), Rush deserves a shout-out. Sure, they're more prog than metal. And they tended to base their songs more on Ayn Rand than Fantasy (which is not to say that Objectivism isn't fantasy but that's fodder for a different comment).
Back to Rush, 2112 pretty much is a fantasy novel. Here's the opening lines of the Wikipedia interpretation:
Plus, Geddy and the boys just are Fantasy (think of Neil Peart's roto-toms!).
I don't know, but I think we have contender...
Most of Blind Guardian's songs are based off of fantasy novels or themes. Their most recent, A Twist in the Myth, includes songs based off of Tad Williams's Otherland, King's Dark Tower, and Peter Pan.
Within Temptations's Hand of Sorrow from their recent album Heart of Everything is inspired by Fitzchivalry Farseer from Robin Hobb's ELDERLINGS novels.
A lot of Iced Earth's songs and lyrics have fantastical content; their album The Dark Saga is based on the comic book Spawn and their most recent effort is something of a fantastical story.
The SFFWorld Forums where I am a moderator has a fairly recent topic on this: GRRM Inspires Metal!
Great list. There are some excellent suggestions listed in the comments as well.
Although they are not metal, many Yes lyrics have a fantasy/sci-fi bent to them, particularly Jon Anderson's first solo album.
I'm not metal either, but I like to write songs based on fantasy/sci-fi novels. On my blog, I just posted a new song based on Brandon Sanderson's Elantris.
One word.
Hawkwind.
Heidevolk!
You didn't mention Metallica's "The Thing That Should Not Be" from Master of Puppets, which is explicitly Lovecraftian, and contains this amusing paraphrase: "not dead which eternal lie / stranger eons death may die ... "
And I don't know if you would count this as fantasy, but Anthrax's song "Misery Loves Company" is clearly based on the Stephen King novel (the chorus repeats: "I'm you're number one fan ....")
Sure, it's based on a poem and not a novel, but I would add Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to this list. And I second replacing the Metallica instrumental with the explicity C'thuluan "The Thing That Should Not Be." And if Hawkwind counts as metal, some of their Moorcockian stuff could also be candidates-- though since Moorcock was actually a member of the band for a while, that may disqualify them.
Good detective work on the Megadeth song, by the way! I have always wondered if that was based on something specific...
Mike Allen, you can get more directly genre for an Anthrax->Steven King link. Their song "Among the Living" is taken directly from THE STAND.
Interesting list what about nightwish? They are symphonic metal but they have great lyrics for their songs, "Over the hills and far away" is rather fantasy like.