I love heavy metal. I listen to other kinds of music too but METAL is my first musical love and that will never change. There are many kinds of metal I enjoy, Thrash Metal, Power Metal, Black Metal, Speed Metal, Progressive Metal, Metal Metal, even Metal Metal Metal. There is however one very small and very specific sub-sub-sub-genre of metal that I truly love with the firey passion of a thousand suns. Metal Songs About Being Metal.
I want to share some of these elite songs with you and where better to start than with Primal Fear’s “Metal Is Forever”? After failing to become the replacement vocalist for Judas Priest after Rob Halford left, Ralf Scheepers formed the band with the awesomely named Matt Sinner. They proceeded to be a better Judas Priest than The Priest themselves were for a while. “Metal Is Forever” is one of their crowning achievements in metaldom and is a rousing anthem for us all.
Before forming Primal Fear, Ralf Scheepers sang in the band Gamma Ray who are led by Kai Hansen. Kai Hansen is a European metal legend having formed Gamma Ray in 1988 after leaving the iconic power metal band he co-founded, Helloween. Mr. Hansen is unbelievably metal, as told to us very succinctly in “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)” from Helloween’s debut album The Walls of Jericho.
However, for Kai Hansen being in just one massively influential metal band was not enough, nor was recording just one song about the majesty of heavy metal music. Gamma Ray released Power Plant in 1999 and on that album is this little ditty known as “Heavy Metal Universe”
Not to be outdone, Kai Hansen’s former bandmates would years later record another song about the greatness of being metal. Helloween’s awesome 7 Sinners album from 2010 challenges us with the mighty “Are You Metal?” Well? Are you?
Perhaps the definitive Metal Song About Being Metal comes from a slightly lesser-known band, Dream Evil. “The Book of Heavy Metal” communicates the majesty and glory of metal like few others could. Come, bask in its magnificence!
Before we go, one must also give credit to the mighty Manowar who all those years ago urged you to “Blow Your Speakers” and even though they use the term “rock and roll” in the song, we know they were truly paying tribute to the Metal Gods.