When cinema goes metal: Scenes accompanied by heavy music

Perhaps I´m one of the few people on this platform who enjoys heavy music as much as movies. For almost twenty-five years, heavy metal and its subgenres and influences have been present in my life as the soundtrack I listen to every day to relax or work on the computer. That's why when I recognize a metal tune in a movie, it becomes something special to me. It makes me smile and appreciate the producers' boldness in including this type of music that not everyone tolerates.

Next, I have the opportunity to show you a good collection of metal songs added to movies that really enriched the scenes they were added to or the soundtracks they were included in. Not all the songs here fit into what purists classify as metal, but some of these bands influenced this musical genre in different ways.

Before introducing this list of metal movies, I will acknowledge that not all readers of this article share my musical taste. If you don't enjoy this style of music, you probably won't become a fan after reading the last line of this article or even if you decide to listen to the songs included here. But I hope I have sparked some curiosity about this music, which is often unfairly labeled as noise when in reality there is usually a lot of dedicated work behind all that distortion and loud vocals.

The Crow (1994)

Darkness fighting darkness. Could there be a more heavy metal concept for a movie plot? Alex Proyas's The Crow was more than just an electrifying supernatural thriller with a cool soundtrack marked by the tragic death of Brandon Lee; it was the battle cry of the outsiders of an entire generation. A young couple wanted to pursue a career in music but fell prey to the worst scum of that decadent city, who cruelly murdered them. Eric Draven returns from the dead with a single goal: to hunt down those who ended his life and that of his girlfriend.

The Crow brought together the best of alternative music from that era, as well as bands that were carving out legendary careers. We have examples from Pantera to Rage Against the Machine, but the song I want to leave you with is Burn by The Cure. There will always be a gatekeeper who reminds me that The Cure isn't metal, but dude, do you have any idea how many bands sound and look like The Cure? Burn is the song that encapsulates the soul of The Crow, like Eric Draven's rage and pain burning inside him, driving him forward to fulfill his goal. And in terms of aesthetics, The Cure is the artist that most closely resembles the dark style of Proyas' cult film.

Old School (2003)

For some reason, metal music is often found in comedy films. It's as if this film genre provides the perfect space for the irreverence, rebellion, and counterculture that surrounds heavy metal music. Old School, the crazy story of a group of friends who decide to relive their college days and show today's youth how things were done in the old days, is such a wild plot that it required a soundtrack to match the chaos brought about by this group of comedians in a film that surprised everyone with its instant success.

If the film's title was to be honored, then an old-school metalhead anthem had to be included: Metallica's Master of Puppets. The iconic song by the Californian thrash metal powerhouse was added to one of the funniest and craziest sequences in the film. Having the protagonists driving people around in a van at full speed required a song with a lot of energy, and this masterpiece of sonic aggression worked great to add that effect. It's worth noting that Master of Puppets became a trend again a few years ago when the song was played in the final climax of the last season of Stranger Things, earning it new popularity among Generation Z. The old school never goes out of style.

Zombieland (2009)

We continue with comedies and Metallica. To tell the truth, zombie comedies tend to be very underrated. Shawn of the Dead, Dead Snow, Zombieland... Why make so many spin-offs of The Walking Dead when zombie fiction spiced with humor has always been a guarantee of entertainment? And as such, Zombieland offers a fun spectacle where it adapts Scream´s rules of survival from slasher movies to zombie movies.

On this occasion, a song from Metallica's classic era was also used, the sinister For Whom The Bell Tolls. It is worth noting the creative use made of it here, as it appears in the opening credits, where the zombie apocalypse is recorded in slow motion in different situations, setting the tone for the film, as the song's characteristic bells fit in with the horror theme of this hilarious comedy. Without a doubt, the music of the four horsemen from San Francisco is always recognizable in any fiction in which it is used.

Update: Hey, I´m posting the original song due to the difficulty of including the Zombieland intro scene in the article. You can watch the movie to admire the scene for yourself.

Lords of Chaos (2018)

Now we delve into films where metal music is a fundamental part of the plot, and we go with the more extreme side of the genre. While in the early 90s the whole world was celebrating the grunge trend and the different varieties of alternative rock that were emerging, in cold Norway, young people comfortable with their first-world lifestyle wanted to make music that was more evil, darker, more anti-establishment; they wanted to make black metal. Lord of Chaos recounts one of the most infamous episodes in metal history, when the young members of the band Mayhem (nothing to do with Lady Gaga) led a movement to promote their music, unleashing a wave of crime, church burnings, murders, homophobia, and vandalism in one of the most peaceful countries in the world.

Lords of Chaos is entertaining but falls short of capturing everything that was the inner circle of Norwegian black metal in the 1990s, leaving out some bands that were part of the movement and downplaying the self-destructive nature of its key members. Today, black metal is a musical genre that, while still feared by people outside of heavy metal, is at least more respected and taken seriously for its musicality. One of the crucial moments in the film is when the main band plays one of the most representative songs of black metal: Freezing Moon by Mayhem, which is played in the Live in Leipzig concert scene in the film. The song is a good example of what was being played in the style at the time, a piece that radiates ferocity, darkness, nihilism, and an aura of mystery, made by a group of young people who decided to channel all their anger and discontent into music.

Sound of Metal (2019)

“Rock star movies can't be any good.” “That music is just noise.” When you hear opinions like this, tell them to shut up and look up Sound of Metal. We're not talking about a typical indie drama about musicians for streaming platforms; we're talking about a film that surprised everyone with six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Not bad for a movie about metalheads, huh? In this story, we meet the formidable Riz Ahmed, who plays a drummer leading a promising band with his girlfriend, played by Olivia Cook (it took me a while to realize she was the same Alicent Hightower from House of the Dragon). They face the deterioration of the drummer's health when he is diagnosed with severe irreversible hearing loss that begins to ruin his career on stage.

My recommendation for Sound of Metal would be its entire soundtrack, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan of this musical style, but because the sound in this film is very well done, and in fact, it was another of the nominations it received in that Oscar edition. But if I had to choose one song to introduce anyone curious about this film, it would be Purify, which is precisely the opening scene where Ahmed and Cook give a powerful performance whose loud sludge metal sound sets the emotional tone for the conflict the protagonist will face. The scene is unmissable, and Olivia Cooke roars as loudly as the dragons of Westeros in the series where she is most famous today. A powerful scene marked by the most powerful music.

Metalhead (2013)

Once again, we head to northern Europe to discuss the infamous, intimidating, and seductive black metal, but this time in a more sentimental and introspective story. Málmhaus, or Metalhead as it became known internationally, takes us to rural Iceland in the 1980s and early 1990s, where a girl who loses her brother in a work accident adopts his taste for metal as a way to honor him and cope with her grief. As she grows up, her tastes become more extreme, as does her attitude, and she even begins to assimilate the influences of musicians from the Norwegian scene (already explained in the commentary on Lords of Chaos), causing problems in her family, her work, and ultimately in her community.

Far from being a story about cults or focused on the excesses of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (although there is a bit of the latter here), Metalhead unfolds as one of the most creative coming-of-age stories of the past decade. What works here is that the girl's love of metal, dark clothing, corpse paint, and all the trappings of this subculture serve as a catharsis to cope with the loneliness of a very isolated and cold land, a closed community that looks askance at those who are different, and the youthful uncertainty of not knowing your place in the world. Throughout the film, there are abundant references to heavy music, and Hera's performances playing black metal are impressive moments that show how much Thora Bjorg Helga prepared for the role. Now, choosing a musical moment from the film, I'm going for a song that is less heavy than black metal but very powerful to give the film an appropriate ending. After Hera's reconciliation with her parents, who are conservative and critical of their daughter's art, they decide to play Megadeth's iconic song “Symphony of Destruction” in the house, producing a very joyful and emotional moment and giving meaning to what those of us who know metal often say about the fan base of this musical style: metal is a family.

Rockstar (2001)

Do I like the inclusion of metal in movies? Yes. Will I like any movie that includes metal? Hell no! That's what happened to me with Rockstar. A sort of retelling of the story of Judas Priest during Rob Halford's departure from the band and the arrival of a promising Tim “Ripper” Owens, who had the arduous task of filling the enormous shoes of a singer who had proven himself to be larger than life both in the studio and on stage. All this was done with some artistic license, as the film was adapted in the 1980s (Halford left the band in the 1990s). Good intentions, terrible execution. They tried to take advantage of Mark Wahlberg's good looks and working-class bad-boy persona as he became known in Boogie Nights (1997), but without something near to the brilliant direction of Paul Thomas Anderson's film. The result is one of Wahlberg's most forgettable films, where apart from the songs, you won't remember anything else, and a Jennifer Aniston who was already showing signs of being Rachel in all her films.

The feeling of the 1980s glory and the music is everything Rockstar does, and for the curious, it's great to see a young Mark Wahlberg exuding presence and charisma. As expected, the soundtrack feeds on the common sounds of the radio formats of those days, glam metal with lots of attitude and energy. The musical emblem of this film is Steel Dragon's We All Die Young. If you don't recognize the name, don't worry, it's just the name of the fictional band in the film, which was made up of real-life musicians, including Zack Wylde from Ozzy Osbourne's band. The voice is not Mark Wahlberg's (sorry to burst your bubble) but that of Steelheart's lead singer, Miljenko Matijevik. If you want to see what musicians do on screen, you'll enjoy it; now, if you're looking for a good cinematic experience, well, Rockstar might serve as something to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I think there are more examples of metal songs that made it into movies that I left out. Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura, Linkin Park in Transformers... Can you think of any more examples? Would a second part to this article be worthwhile? Leave your opinions in the comments.