The Headbanger's Library
July 15, 2014 2:12 PM   Subscribe

 
Iron Maiden - Stranger In A Strange Land
posted by GallonOfAlan at 2:20 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I was discussing Rime of the Ancient Mariner with some coworkers literally two hours ago. Happy Coincidence. We convinced the teacher in High School to let us listen to that song after reading the poem.

Also going to see Mastodon in November and kinda stoked about that.
posted by Twain Device at 2:21 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


if Ayn Rand is literature, then Jethro Tull is metal. That is all.
posted by philip-random at 2:22 PM on July 15, 2014 [16 favorites]


Nothing by Bloodhag? What a bummer.
posted by beefetish at 2:23 PM on July 15, 2014 [8 favorites]


Flannery O’Connor’s Wiseblood

BZZZZT AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION. Also, yeah, little bit too loose on the definition of "literature".
posted by nanojath at 2:23 PM on July 15, 2014


My mom won over the 11th grade English class she taught by playing them Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in class.
posted by medeine at 2:25 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Jesus christ, I just read the list again and I swear to God we could do better than this, The Internet
posted by beefetish at 2:26 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


None of these songs are by BlöödHag, therefore this list is invalid.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:28 PM on July 15, 2014 [6 favorites]


Obviously Iron Maiden is already over-represented, but let's not forget To Tame a Land, based on Frank Herbert's "Dune."
posted by Verg at 2:30 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


on preview, hi beefetish, all hail BlöödHag.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:32 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Xanadu" >literary "2112"
posted by The Tensor at 2:33 PM on July 15, 2014 [7 favorites]


i still have a SCHOOL DISTRICT 666 sticker on my dashboard. THE FASTER YOU GO DEAF, THE MORE TIME YOU HAVE TO READ
posted by beefetish at 2:33 PM on July 15, 2014 [4 favorites]


I can't see any reason at this point not to link this again.
posted by nanojath at 2:33 PM on July 15, 2014


The only similarity between the book and the album of Seventh Son is the title and Rush isn't metal.
posted by zzazazz at 2:36 PM on July 15, 2014


"Xanadu" >literary "2112"

which gets us to the elephant in that particular room. Is Rush metal?
posted by philip-random at 2:37 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


on preview ... it seems zzazazz has that answered.
posted by philip-random at 2:38 PM on July 15, 2014


And what of Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth?
posted by deadbilly at 2:42 PM on July 15, 2014 [6 favorites]


I remember when our teacher, Rosemary Lanzer, played us "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in middle school for class.
posted by Kitteh at 2:52 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


It might be a stretch to consider A Song of Ice and Fire literature, but The Sword has something like three songs based on it, in the grand tradition of Zep/Tolkien.
posted by LionIndex at 2:53 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I was discussing Rime of the Ancient Mariner with some coworkers literally two hours ago. Happy Coincidence. We convinced the teacher in High School to let us listen to that song after reading the poem.

I did the same thing. And then she made me read "The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:56 PM on July 15, 2014


RUSH !== Metal
posted by humboldt32 at 3:00 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


You know, thinking about it, I think I got more book recommendations from Heavy Metal than from any other source. Everything from Judge Dredd to Beowolf. Far from destroying my life, metal has enriched it in ways I still am discovering.

Have conservatives ever been right about anything ever ?
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 3:05 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


While maybe not as spot on or metal as those in the article, I like "Motherless Child" (based on The Road) and "The Rapture of Riddley Walker", both by Clutch, whose singer has an English degree.
posted by Turkey Glue at 3:07 PM on July 15, 2014 [6 favorites]


RUSH !== Metal

!== <> !=
posted by The Tensor at 3:14 PM on July 15, 2014 [10 favorites]


Nothing by Bloodhag?

Thank you! I was trying to remember what their name was. Wiki.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 3:27 PM on July 15, 2014


*cough* Stormbringer and Elric of Melnibone*cough*

Deep Purple - Stombringer (though the band claimed Stormbringer was mythology but apparently at that point Michael Moorcock was mythology, so in a part inspired by Elric)

Blue Oyster Cult - Black Blade: Definitely about Stormbringer.

and, of course,

Blind Guardian - Fast To Madness
posted by lizarrd at 3:30 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


What? No Lizzy Borden's cover of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit?

Psh.
posted by davelog at 3:55 PM on July 15, 2014


The Thing That Should Not Be is based off of The Shadow over Innsmouth, not Call of Cthulhu.

I couldn’t tell you what “Split your lungs with blood and thunder when you see the white whale” means

Seriously? It means, "SCREAM WHEN YOU SEE THE WHALE." This writer doesn't seem to know enough about these songs to make good comments about them.
posted by NoahTheDuke at 3:59 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I think that Xanadu is better than 2112, but only because it's totally goofy to be rocking out to a chorus of:

For I have dined on honeydew
And drunk the milk of Paradise

Xanaduuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!



And then you imagine them wearing fuzzy slippers and silk housecoats on stage.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:19 PM on July 15, 2014


I always wanted to read the fictional story that the Light Queen / Dark Queen set of songs on Queen II is about.
posted by Space Coyote at 4:32 PM on July 15, 2014


black sabbath - "iron man"

what, comic books aren't literature?
posted by pyramid termite at 4:37 PM on July 15, 2014


I was a frat boy when Rush's Farewell to Kings came out. Believe me, the chorus of Xanadu was rocked out to by one and all.
posted by Ber at 4:37 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Iron Maiden, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Phew.

What about Anthrax's "Misery Loves Company" (yet another Stephen King tribute)?
posted by jonmc at 4:43 PM on July 15, 2014


*cough* Stormbringer and Elric of Melnibone*cough*

If you want Elric, you should surely also go for Hawkwind, with whom Moorcock collaborated. Warrior on the Edge of Time.

PS Brb, going to the alternate timeline where Lemmy stayed with Hawkwind.
posted by ersatz at 4:46 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


"Tales from the Thousand Lakes is the second full-length album by metal band Amorphis. A concept album, the lyrics are based on the Finnish national epic, Kalevala."
posted by outlaw of averages at 4:53 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Mastodon gets all the credit, but IMO Ahab is the far superior purveyors of Moby Dick-themed metal.
posted by Bookhouse at 4:57 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Always thought Sunn o)))'s my wall was an amalgamation of tons of Norse literature.
posted by schyler523 at 5:26 PM on July 15, 2014


List posts are not usually the best of the web. They are more typically "hey, let's discuss the thing some Internet jerk made a list about" and an opportunity to complain that something is missing from them.

That said, Tolkein Metal
posted by munchingzombie at 5:27 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


Can this please be about literature?
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:40 PM on July 15, 2014


I used to work with a stoner who would argue that every Led Zeppelin song was based on Tolkien, much to our amusement.
posted by klangklangston at 5:45 PM on July 15, 2014


There's six bands on there. Out of 11 spots. This person doesn't really listen to metal, but has a dick editor forcing the writers to put together listicles to get some clicks. I'd really like to read an actual piece about it since my friends and I were the ones asking our teacher(s) to play X song about X book as well.
posted by sleepy pete at 5:47 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


I always wanted to read the fictional story that the Light Queen / Dark Queen set of songs on Queen II is about.

Did you ever look into the Fairy Feller? That actually has a solid literary backing.
posted by No-sword at 6:30 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not only is Rush not metal, but "2112" is not about Anthem. "Anthem" is about Anthem. It's right in the title, for goodness sakes.
posted by Daily Alice at 6:34 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


Fair enough, but it's pretty safe to say that almost all Rush songs are based on some kind of Randian/Objectivist gibberish.

The exceptions being their best 2 songs- Fly By Night, which I'm fairly sure is about owls, and By-Tor and the Snowdog, which songfacts informs me is about... a couple of dogs that Rush met at a party.

the latter information being the very definition of "too good to fact-check"
posted by hap_hazard at 7:31 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Amorphis's Tales from the Thousand Lakes was almost entirely lifted from the Kalevala, and Elegy was built on the Kantelar.

Worth a listen.

(Oops, outlaw of averages beat me to it. \m/)
posted by ignignokt at 8:15 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


a few years back one of my more metal friends was in a band called Barbarians. the name was a mix of Barbarians and Librarians and they did metal songs about books and Dewey decimal and stuff. saw them play a house party or two, they didn't have anything as good as Metallica's "One" but they weren't too bad.
posted by dogwalker at 8:54 PM on July 15, 2014


Slough Feg's Alfred Bester shout-out.

Earth's self-styled Cormac McCarthy soundscapes.
posted by batfish at 9:02 PM on July 15, 2014


My mom won over the 11th grade English class she taught by playing them Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in class.

My senior AP English teacher played this in class too - of course, after we read the poem.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:51 PM on July 15, 2014


Marillion - Grendel

Based on Beowulf

(Extra points for Marillion being named after a Tolkien book)

Not that they were 'metal', necessarily
posted by DanCall at 2:38 AM on July 16, 2014


If you want Elric, you should surely also go for Hawkwind, with whom Moorcock collaborated. Warrior on the Edge of Time yt .

PS Brb, going to the alternate timeline where Lemmy stayed with Hawkwind.


Yeah, I was kind of ignoring Hawkwind because not quite metal but also Lemmy. So, yeah. I would absolutely agree that Hawkwind should be on that list otherwise.
posted by lizarrd at 3:28 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


And what of Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth?

You basically have to restrict yourself to non-Tolkien literature (preferably even non-fantasy), or else you'll get a huuuge list. (Never mind that Blind Guardian itself probably is cheating, as most of their songs seem to be based on books. If I parse their, well, "non-traditional" English the right way.)

It's all about genre literature and myth in general. Metal bands really like their fantasy, horror, sci-fi and vikings/greek smashing and ravishing. Don't expect Iced Earth to base an album on "The Tin Drum"...

(If the band is old and crusty enough, you might be lucky enough to get some odd Hesse references.)
posted by pseudocode at 3:42 AM on July 16, 2014


How did they miss Symphony X's The Odyssey? 24 minutes of metal about Homeric literature.
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 5:33 AM on July 16, 2014


(Extra points for Marillion being named after a Tolkien book)

And there's a Bard in A Song of Ice and Fire (but left out of Game of Thrones) named after them.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:15 AM on July 16, 2014


This FPP is horrible.

Rush obviously isn't close to metal.

The author clearly doesn't give a shit about metal and just did some googling. For one, Blood & Thunder is so not the best song on Leviathan and while its good, only a fool would think that.

Burzum, for all Varg's many faults, is fully steeped in old Norse myth and literature. His latest album is about some old Norse poem. It also sucks.

I believe Cobalt has some songs about Hemingway.

Isis' In the Absence of Truth is loosely based on a Arab poem.

But of course this author couldn't pick Burzum, Isis or Cobalt out of a lineup.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:50 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Before reading the article I surmised there would be plenty of Iron Maiden and Metallica. I rock.
posted by zakur at 4:36 PM on July 16, 2014


A friend's band, Blue Snaggletooth, is metal/hard rock in the Monster Magnet vein, and they just put out a single called "Beyond Thule."

The lead guitarist, Chris "Box" Taylor, used to play with Mazinga (on maybe permanent hiatus? I dunno), who call themselves "cosmic rock 'n' roll," which means sci-fi/fantasy punk, mostly. They were a lot of fun (and had the best posters in town for a long time). Taylor is kinda a journeyman around Ann Arbor, and has played guitar with everyone from the Ashtons to Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman), and a million other bands.

Blue Snaggletooth is kinda a terrible name for a band, but the music is fun and I'd really recommend them if you're into big rock about Time Lords and Macross and shit.
posted by klangklangston at 11:07 AM on July 17, 2014


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