Various Artists’ Heavy Metal: Music from the Motion Picture Songs

If you’re a fan of heavy metal music, then you’ll want to check out the Various Artists Heavy Metal: Music from the Motion Picture Songs album. This collection of songs features some of the best metal tunes around, and it’s sure to get your head banging.

Various Artists

Heavy Metal is the first ever animated film to be rated “R” by the Motion Picture Association of America. The movie was released in 1981 and was an instant classic among metalheads and headbangers alike. The movie’s soundtrack is just as iconic as the film itself, and features some of the most famous and well-loved heavy metal songs of all time. In this article, we’ll take a look at the various artists’ songs that appear on the Heavy Metal soundtrack.

Metallica

American heavy metal band Metallica has released ten studio albums, four live albums, a cover album, five extended plays, 37 singles, ten video albums, 42 music videos, and four box sets. The band, formed in 1981 by James Hetfield (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Lars Ulrich (drums), has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band’s fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship placed them as one of the founding “big four” bands of thrash metal, alongside Anthrax, Mega Death, and Slayer. Metallica’s current lineup comprises founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett (joined 1983), and bassist Robert Trujillo (joined 2003). Lead guitarist Dave Mustaine (founder of Mega Death) was fired by Metallica just prior to the recording of their debut album Kill ‘Em All due to problems with substance abuse. He went on to form the successful band Mega Death.

The band achieved substantial commercial success with their eponymous fifth album Metallica (also known as The Black Album), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. With this release the band expanded its musical direction resulting in an album that appealed to a more mainstream audience. The album was also nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning two of them. In 2000 it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Their next two albums added elements of hard rock to their sound. In 1991 Metallica released their eponymous ninth studio album through Elektra Records; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and featured their most commercially successful single enter sandman”. Between 1996–2008 they mostly released live/compilation albums along with a new studio album every four years until Death Magnetic was released in 2008 which debuted at number one onboththe Billboard US top 200 chart and several other international charts including Australia’s ARIA Chart top 100and United kingdom’s Official Albums Chart

Megadeth

Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. The group was formed in 1983 by guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist David Ellefson, shortly after Mustaine’s dismissal from Metallica. A pioneer of the American thrash metal scene, the band is credited as one of the genre’s “big four” with Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer; responsible for thrash metal’s development and popularization. Megadeth plays in a technical style, featuring fast rhythm sections and complex arrangements. Themes of death, war, politics and religion are prominent in the group’s lyrics. In 1985, the band released its debut album Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!, which received mixed reviews. It scored a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 1986 ceremony. The group achieved commercial success with its fourth album So Far, So Good… So What! (1988), reaching platinum status in the United States. Rust in Peace (1990) was received very well by critics; it remains one of Megadeth’s most acclaimed albums. These albums were followed by Countdown to Extinction (1992), whose titles track topped both Billboard’s Mainstream Rock and Hard Rock songs charts simultaneously making it – to this day – the only song ever to do so; Youthanasia (1994); Cryptic Writings (1997); Risk (1999); The World Needs a Hero (2001); thirteenth studio album Endgame (2009); fourteenth studio album Super Collider (2013); fifteenth studio album Dystopia (2016). Megadeth has sold over 38 million records worldwide, earned platinum certification six times in the United Statesband been nominated twelve times for Grammy Awards winning two of them. Megadeth won its first Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for “Dystopia” in 2017. They have been nominated for five additional Grammy Awards between 1995 and 2010 spin-off acts including Vio-lence and Banshee.

Slayer

Slayer is an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo, and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer’s fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the founding “big four” bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Slayer’s current lineup comprises King, Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt. Hanneman and drummers Ernie Cunnigan and Jon Dette are former members of the band.

Slayer released its debut album Show No Mercy (1983) in December 1983. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number seven on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. It paved the way for the band’s 1986 release Reign in Blood, considered a classic of the heavy metal genre. Reign in Blood has been awarded certified Platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments exceeding two million copies in the United States. It debuted at number 94 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart upon its release and peaked at number 12 after 32 weeks. The album helped Slayer attract a wider audience with its controversial title track about serial killer Richard Ramirez, better known as “The Night Stalker”.

Since 1987’s South of Heaven, Slayer has not deviated musically from their initial thrash metal sound; however, production values on later albums have increased significantly from those early albums with graffiti-covered cardboard covers crudely assembled by the band themselves with help from producer/engineer Bill Metoyer. Hanneman opted not to participate in much of the songwriting on 2006’s Christ Illusion due to his failing health; he officially left the band two years later. King wrote most of 2009’s World Painted Blood himself as well; Holt joined as a full-time member during its promotion after Lombardo left to focus on his other band Fantômas. Drummer Paul Bostaph was hired to replace Lombardo before 2013’s consecutive releases—the live DVD Decades of Aggression: Live & Unreleased (2012) and tenth studio album Repentless (2015)—and has remained with the band since.

Heavy Metal: Music from the Motion Picture

The movie Heavy Metal was released in 1981 and was met with mixed reviews. Despite this, the movie’s soundtrack was well-received and featured several popular metal bands of the time. The soundtrack is significant as it helped to bring metal to a wider audience and introduced many people to the genre.

Theatrical Release

The film was released in North America on July 10, 1981. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures and produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Goldberg. Upon its release, the film was a commercial and critical success, grossing $130 million against its $17 million budget and receiving generally positive reviews from critics.

Commercial Release

On July 28, 2017, Rhino Records and Universal Music released Heavy Metal: The Album on CD and vinyl. The album features 16 tracks of music from the film as well as 10 minutes of previously unreleased dialogue from the film.

Reception

The film was generally panned by critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 31% “rotten” rating based on 28 reviews, with an average score of 4.9/10.

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

Writing in Variety, Todd McCarthy called Heavy Metal “a dim-witted attempt to recapture the old Easy Rider feeling by throwing everything possible at the screen and hoping that something will stick… it’s an appalling mishmash of silly characters and clashing styles.”

Film historian Leonard Maltin awarded the movie 1½ out of 4 stars, writing: “This nonstop barrage of sex and violence is too much even for most hard-core fans of fantasy films.”

Songs

Various Artists – “Heavy Metal: Music from the Motion Picture” – Songs, Songs, Songs. What a great album! This is one of my favorite CDs. I’ve loved it since the first time I heard it. It’s a perfect collection of songs for any metal fan.

“The Ecstasy of Gold”

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The Ecstasy of Gold” is a song composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In 2004, the track was voted No. 10 on revision magazine’s list of “The Greatest Movie Songs Ever”

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a song by American thrash metal band Metallica. It was released as the lead single from their second album, Ride the Lightning. The song was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and was inspired by the Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name.

The song is one of Metallica’s most popular, and has been covered by many other artists. It is frequently performed live, and was featured in the movie Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”

“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the opening track and first single from their third album, Master of Puppets (1986), on March 3, 1986. The song was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and was produced by Flemming Rasmussen. “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the band’s highest-charting single at the time. The song’s lyrics tell the story of a mental patient’s escape from a sanitarium.

The music video for “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” was directed by Bill Pope and Danny Lawler. It features footage of the band performing in front of a live audience, intercut with clips from the 1946 film Bedlam, which dramatizes conditions in England’s overcrowded insane asylums in the 18th century.

Legacy

On February 10, 2020, a metal tribute album to the 2020 film, Heavy Metal, was released. The album consists of metal covers of songs from the film’s soundtrack. It was released through Legacy Recordings, and was produced by Kevin Shirley.

Influence on Other Artists

Heavy metal music has had a profound and lasting impact on the world of rock and roll. With its forceful guitars and aggressive lyrics, metal has inspired countless other artists to create their own unique brand of music.

While some bands have chosen to emulate the sound of metal, others have taken elements of the genre and incorporated them into their own style. For example, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” has been credited with popularizing the use of palm-muted power chords, while Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction” is known for its distinctive staccato picking.

In some cases, metal bands have directly influenced the sound of other artists. For instance, Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, was heavily influenced by Nu Metal bands like Korn and Deftones. Similarly, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl has cited Metallica as a major influence on the band’s sound.

Whether they are borrowing from metal or creating something entirely new, all of these artists have been influenced by the powerful sound of heavy metal.

Influence on the Genre

The movie Legacy popularized heavy metal music in the 1980s and spurred a new wave of interest in the genre. It featured some of the most popular and influential artists of the time, including Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. The soundtrack was incredibly successful, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 charts. It has been credited with changing the sound of metal music and introducing the genre to a wider audience.

In the years since its release, the Legacy soundtrack has become a metal classic. It is still revered by fans and is often cited as one of the most influential metal albums of all time.