Heavy Metal in modern media

Back in the day, heavy metal was a type of special society. To be part of it, you had to be knowledgeable about the bands, albums, and wear a black t-shirt with a skull on it. Now, it’s become part of the soundtrack of modern life. You might encounter heavy metal music while watching TV, playing a video game, or even watching a movie, and it will suddenly remind you of the concerts held many years ago.

A funny place to spot that is online slots. Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast Slot, a metalhead favourite at online casinos, is a good example. Play’n GO didn’t just stick a band logo on a set of reels and call it a day. The game jumps between different Iron Maiden worlds inspired by songs such as “Powerslave“, “Fear of the Dark” and “Aces High“, with changing features, wilds and bonus rounds. It feels closer to an arcade game than the old fruit machines many people picture when they hear the word “slot”. Even non-gamblers end up watching clips because the artwork and music are so unmistakably Maiden.

TV has probably done more than anything else to bring metal back into everyday conversation. Stranger Things deserves a lot of credit here. That scene with Eddie Munson shredding “Master of Puppets” on a rooftop was everywhere for weeks. Suddenly teenagers were streaming Metallica and older fans were acting like proud parents. The clever thing was that the show didn’t treat the song as a joke. It treated it as heroic.

Other series have caught on too. Cobra Kai uses crunchy guitar tracks whenever the fists start flying, and The Boys loves dropping heavy music into scenes that are already gloriously unhinged. Metal works because it tells the audience, “Right, things are about to get loud.”

Films have leaned into that same idea. Action directors know that a chunky guitar riff can do half the work of a car chase. James Gunn is especially good at it. He’ll throw a classic rock or metal track into a fight scene and suddenly everyone leaves the cinema humming a song they hadn’t heard in years. It’s hard not to smile when a villain gets flattened to the sound of a great riff.

Video games might be metal’s natural habitat. DOOM is the obvious example. The soundtrack is basically caffeine in audio form. As soon as the guitars start playing, you feel the urge to play faster. Moreover, rhythm games made it possible for countless players to discover music bands they would never find out about otherwise. Many people were introduced to the music of Iron Maiden, Slayer and Judas Priest by playing video games, not listening to records.

The thing I like best is that metal is now a music genre for all ages. Nowadays, children and parents can argue about what period of Metallica is best rather than listening to parents’ complaints about the noise. Though music itself is unchanged, with all its heavy instruments, incredible voices and lyrics about battles or monsters, metal has simply found a wider audience.