Introduction

I like music. Perhaps you've noticed it from the way I keep unnecessarily adding it to the games I LP. I'll listen to just about anything: pop, punk, reggae, rap, hip hop, rock, pop rock, alt rock, classic rock, classical, choral, new age, electronica, epic, jazz, rhythm and blues, folk, new folk, world music, anything. But the one thing I love above all else, the one genre I return to time and again, is video game and film soundtracks. But a close second to that is METAL.

So you can imagine how pumped I was to hear about this game coming into existence, and then how disappointed I was to learn it would only be a console release (the only consoles I have ever owned are a Game Gear and a PS2). But! Earlier this year the game was finally given a PC release through Steam, and not long after I found out, it was mine.

But I heard the game wasn't acutally all that good.

You shut your mouth you filthy fuck. Seriously, though, it is a valid point. Brütal Legend is sort of an odd mashup of an open-world fighting/driving game and a simple RTS, and it doesn't really bring anything unique or interesting to the mechanics of either genre. On the other hand, it has a more than ample supply of humor, character, style, a stupidly impressive array of voice actors, and of course all the METAL you could reasonably ask for. Besides, I'm the one behind the controller now, so what else do you have to complain about?

How come [band X] isn't on the soundtrack?

Depends. If everyone's heard of [band X], it's because they couldn't afford the song rights, and not because Tim Schafer is some kind of metal hipster. It's also likely why the biggest hits of the bands who do show up aren't present, like Mötorhead's "Ace of Spades" and Black Sabbath's "Iron Man."

If nobody's heard of [band X], then Tim Shafer and Music Director Emily Ridgway still probably came across them, but decided not to include their music. As it stands, they got 107 songs from 75 different bands, which is better than most music festivals can manage.

Speaking of hipsterism, I realize that hating on bands you dislike is as much a part of music fandom as gushing about the bands you love, but I don't want to see any of that dirtying up this thread. You're free to express basic opinions, like "I don't like [band X]" or "In my opinion [band Y] went downhill after [album α] because of [drugs/lineup changes/experimentation in a direction I dislike]," but just don't get personal, like "[band X] is terrible and their fans are terrible people for liking them" or "Nobody really likes [band Y] despite sales figures proving I'm talking out my ass" or, and this one's particularly important, "[band Z] isn't [genre Ω]." Some forms of METAL may be cast in the antagonist's role, but they are still a part of the Land of Metal, and all forms are welcome here.

Well, aside from that Linkin Park nu metal shit*.

But is it METAL?

Here's a quick test you can perform at home: if the experience of listening to a song can be noticeably improved by banging your head in time with the beat, then it is sufficiently METAL. I realize that this test can wind up including a lot of what's objectively hard rock, but hey, so does Brütal Legend. And if Black Sabbath and Mötorhead can coexist peacefully with KISS and Mötley Fucking Crüe on the same soundtrack, the least you guys can do is try and keep things civil.

Spoiler policy?

Not a word about character plotlines, please. Game mechanics and units can be discussed under spoiler tags (where applicable), and the soundtrack can be freely discussed so long as you keep such discussions free of the context the game uses it in. Also, album covers.

Album covers?

Album covers! Brütal Legend's art design is so heavily influenced by the artwork on metal album covers that they threw out ideas if they couldn't find a cover to back them up. As such, showing off album covers is completely on-topic and encouraged by me. I know I'll be personally adding to the list...

_{*Just kidding. Even Linkin Park fans are welcome here, at least as long as you aren't also fans of Insane Clown Posse^t.

^tNo, seriously, get out. KISS did their schtick twenty times better and twenty years earler. Besides, they aren't even a metal band. What are you doing here?}