Gritty Fantasy + Heavy Metal?

[Nerds_feather]

I've been listening to almost non-stop metal for the past month--I go in phases, when it comes to music, so I fully expect it to shift soon--to what, I'm not sure. Indie rock? Jazz? String quartets? Techno? Anything is possible.

But the whole metal thing got me thinking about metal is, in a sense, fantasy music. And the kind of metal I tend to like feels a bit like gritty fantasy. So I decided to pair some of my favorite gritty fantasy novels with some of my favorite metal albums. Here's the full article, with Spotify links so you can listen to everything yourself.

Questions for discussion: do you agree or disagree with the picks? What are some others that spring to mind (either albums to pair with these books or book/album combinations I didn't write about)? What about if we left gritty fantasy/metal and paired books/albums from other genres?

 

[Juliana]

Interesting selections... Will show them to my husband when he gets hone, as he's the big metal fan in the house.

How do you feel about projects that put music and stories together, like the Avantasia albums?

 

[Brian G Turner]

I DJ rock nights but don't associate metal with fantasy, though I know there's a bunch of regulars who are very much into their Warhammer.

When reading fantasy, my preferred music is period mediaeval music, The Medaeval Babes, the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris, and the soundtrack to the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures by Knut Avenstroup Haugen (even though one of his tracks appears to plagiarise a theme I composed for a small MMORG many years ago).

 

[Juliana]

So, I showed the list to my husband, and he liked your choices (didn't know all of them), but in his opinion melodic metal fits fantasy better, gritty or otherwise. For instance, when he was reading GRRM, he listened to a lot of Dragonforce and Freedom Call.

 

[Vince W]

Interesting selections.

I remember listening to Venom, but I just couldn't take them seriously. I would never have associated them with any sort of book.

Iron Maiden I can definitely see associating with books. Harris has written several songs inspired by books. If you like Maiden check out Iced Earth. They're essentially a Maiden clone and not bad really.

Death/Black metal in general seems to derive much of their inspiration from fantasy settings, so I can see where you're coming from, but Slayer doesn't make me think of fantasy.

 

[Nerds_feather]

Interesting selections.

I remember listening to Venom, but I just couldn't take them seriously. I would never have associated them with any sort of book.

Iron Maiden I can definitely see associating with books. Harris has written several songs inspired by books. If you like Maiden check out Iced Earth. They're essentially a Maiden clone and not bad really.

Death/Black metal in general seems to derive much of their inspiration from fantasy settings, so I can see where you're coming from, but Slayer doesn't make me think of fantasy.

Have you read The Company, though? It's not really like most fantasy--it's essentially a bunch of dudes on an island killing each other, and there's no magic to speak of. That's why it reminded me of Slayer. But I agree, very few fantasy books would bring them to mind!

Also, Venom are indeed pretty silly. That album is actually really good, but they were clearly having a laugh with the whole Satanism thing.

 

[svalbard]

I like the list and would generally play my favourite Sabbath, DP, Maiden, Manowar albums when reading. Manowar would be top of my list when reading fanatasy. They are a bunch of spoofers, but have listened to them since I was a teen and finally got to see them live a couple of years ago and they rocked. Essential listening for when I am reading David Gemmell.

http:// http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z95v7DTn-dw

 

[Vince W]

Have you read The Company, though? It's not really like most fantasy--it's essentially a bunch of dudes on an island killing each other, and there's no magic to speak of. That's why it reminded me of Slayer. But I agree, very few fantasy books would bring them to mind!

Also, Venom are indeed pretty silly. That album is actually really good, but they were clearly having a laugh with the whole Satanism thing.

No, I've not read The Company, so you're probably right about that.

I agree about Venom.

 

[Nerds_feather]

I like the list and would generally play my favourite Sabbath, DP, Maiden, Manowar albums when reading. Manowar would be top of my list when reading fanatasy. They are a bunch of spoofers, but have listened to them since I was a teen and finally got to see them live a couple of years ago and they rocked. Essential listening for when I am reading David Gemmell.

http:// http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z95v7DTn-dw

I think Manowar + Gemmell is a great pairing. Actually I think power metal in general fits with that type of heroic fantasy.

Also, I strongly considered using Sabbath's Paranoid for The Black Company, but it wasn't available on Spotify and that was one of the rules I'd set ahead of time.

 

[BAYLOR]

Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series . It's a very dark and gritty fantasy series .The main character is an immortal who is antihero/heroic villain. There are 5 books in the series.

 

[Chris Guillory]

Apologies for the thread derailment, but Baylor, what you mentioned sounds like Matthew Woodring Stover's work. It's a gritty fantasy about a antihero by the name of Caine! He's not immortal though, just sort of an a$$hole. I read the first one, liked it, but not sure if I want to move on.