By its very nature, metal tends to get associated with some truly bad movies. After all, when they're filming Star Wars VII or the next instalment in the series, they're hardly going to say “I know what we need for the soundtrack: a bitchin' metal tune", now are they? So by default, it would seem almost that the badder the movie (and I don't mean bad in a good way) the more likely there is to be a metal soundtrack, or at least a metal song or two. But hey, you don't have to watch the movies, as I have scoured the net and found the best songs from them, so put your leather biker boots up, crack a can and prepare to rock out as
It's not really possible to rank them, as to be fair, none of the songs are what you'd call classics, so these are in no order.
“Dream warriors” by Dokken, taken from the album Back For the Attack, 1987.
Appears in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, 1987
There's probably no-one (apart from me) who hasn't seen the
Nightmare on Elm Street series, which ran to nine movies and made a star both out of Robert Englund and fledging director Wes Craven. In tribute to the memory of Craven, whose movies brought a whole new meaning to terror for kids in the eighties, we've put this one first, though it's by no means the best song. There's little point in me describing the plot of the movie, but you know the basic idea: Freddie Kruger, madman psychopath, stalks the dreams of teenagers, killing them in various inventive ways. Again. There is some humourous irony in the video, which, featuring Dokken playing, scares the slasher so much that Kruger wakes at the end of the video gasping “What a nightmare!”
“He's back (The man behind the mask)” by Alice Cooper, from the album Constrictor, 1986.
Appears in the movie Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, 1986
Another series of movies I wouldn't watch in a fit, the slasher genre of movie has proved very successful for about two decades, being surpassed now it seems by gorier, harder, almost torture-porn like the
Saw franchise (you don't even need to ask) but back in the eighties this was the movie that resurrected (sorry) the ailing franchise begun with the rampage of crazed killer Jason Voorhees in 1980 by bringing back the believed-dead psycho. In a way, it's poetic too, as Cooper was also believed to be finished, having gone through a stint in rehab with little success of his even surviving it never mind emerging from it, and the song is a triumphant up-yours to those who doubted him. Okay, so the song is a little more eighties synthesiser pop than we would like, but we can forgive him for that: it's fu
cking Alice!
“Trick or treat” by Fastway, from the album Trick or Treat, 1986.
Appears in the movie Trick or Treat, 1986.
So, a little overkill on the album/movie tie-in, but Fastway, formed by ex-Motorhead axeman “Fast” Eddie Clark and UFO's Pete Way, released this as their fourth album following the success (ahem) of the heavy metal exploitation spoof movie of the same name. It features Ozzy as a televangical preacher. I don't think you need to know any more, do you?