The Best Heavy Metal Songs Based on Fantasy Novels - Comments - Suvudu

Comment by Antjie

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:29:30 -0500

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.

- Antjie

Comment by Dave

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:43:20 -0500

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.

- Dave

Comment by Gabriel Mckee

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:46:34 -0500

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...

- Gabriel Mckee

Comment by Mike Allen

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:34:01 -0500

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 ....")

- Mike Allen

Comment by nicodemus

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:58:39 -0500

Heidevolk!

- nicodemus

Comment by Cat Vincent

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:17:52 -0500

One word.

Hawkwind.

- Cat Vincent

Comment by John Anealio

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:59:22 -0500

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.

- John Anealio

Comment by Rob B

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:27:04 -0500

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!

- Rob B

Comment by Pete

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:07:08 -0500

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:

In the year 2062, a galaxy-wide war results in the union of all planets under the rule of the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The world is controlled by the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx, who determine all reading matter, songs, pictures... everything connected with life during the year 2112 ("The Temples of Syrinx").

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...

- Pete

Comment by John Joseph Adams

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:14:44 -0500

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!

- John Joseph Adams

Comment by Ken

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:50:58 -0500

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.

- Ken

Comment by Darth Duff

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:15:13 -0500

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.

- Darth Duff

Comment by Shawn

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:00:05 -0500

Oh, come on now! No Kashmir??! No love for Tolkien?! Blasphemy, says I! ;)

- Shawn

Comment by Christine

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:50:26 -0500

This is really awesome and now I have to look up these songs!

- Christine