There’s a strange and oddly fitting relationship between heavy music and video games that spans all the way back to the ’80s as the programmers and coders for the very first generation of games worked long, long into the night, fuelled by a soundtrack of Motley Crue and Iron Maiden.
Slowly but surely this unique style of music, with its soul-shattering and distorted riffs worked its way into the games themselves, and now in 2021 we’ve got an ample selection of games that are backed with a suitable heavy soundtrack.
From the almost ‘industrial’, midi-generated guitar screeches of early 90’s shooter Duke Nukem, to the faux guitar playing and knee sliding of Guitar Hero, to the sheer heavy metal bliss of 2016’s Doom, We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 games with the heaviest soundtracks of all time. Buckle up.
Not all games need a heavy soundtrack to succeed and Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a good example of a title that doesn’t. Music is certainly something that can improve the overall experience though, so whether you’re CSGO betting at some of the top gambling sites or playing through ranked matches, a good variety of metal tracks are sure to get you in the mood.
Doom (2016)
With one of the heaviest soundtracks going, the reboot of Doom in 2016 had a soundtrack supplied by Mick Gordon. Combining synths with his blistering guitar playing and ear-shattering bass, the soundtrack will have your adrenaline redlining and blood pumping. They say you never forget where you were when the rolling bass of the titular track ‘BFG Division’ kicked in…
Quake
Coming off of the success of their two previous games – Wolfenstein and Doom – Video game developers ID wanted a rock legend at the time to supply the soundtrack to their next blockbuster game, Quake. Cue Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor. Nine Inch Nails were one of the biggest bands at the time during Quake’s release in 1996, and ID couldn’t have picked a better musician to supply the absolutely stellar soundtrack.
Splatterhouse
One of the more obscure games on our list, the original Splatterhouse hails from the Todd Mcfarlane Spawn era of comics that launched a unique art style Splatterhouse fully embraced. Fast forward to 2010 and a relaunch of the game saw some heavy hitter in heavy metal supplying the soundtrack. Boot this bad boy up if you want to go on a rampage whilst listening to Mastodon, High on Fire or Municipal Waste.
Brutal Legend
What do you get when you get a video game creator who wants every single landscape in the game to look like the sleeve of an 80’s metal record? Brutal Legend is the answer. With some great heavy metal-based pun characters, a protagonist voiced by Jack Black and a laugh a minute, the fiery pumping and fully licensed 107 song metal soundtrack actually becomes just a nice bonus. Expect in-game cameos from rock royalty – including Lemmy and the prince of darkness himself, Ozzy.
Twisted Metal
With a poster character of a man in a snarling, demonic clown mask with fire for hair that also has a heavily armoured ice cream truck to cause destruction and mayhem, you aren’t exactly going into Twisted Metal expecting a nice and breezy soundtrack. The sound effects themselves are brash and brazen, so it’s only fitting that the music also be brash, loud and – as the name of the game suggests – metal. 2001’s Twisted Metal Black kept things just as abrasive, with a more industrial spin on the soundtrack.
God of War
So this one isn’t metal metal per se but still gets a mention. Whilst the series of games has had an almost comical and over the top style of gameplay, with a brooding soundtrack to boot, the most recent game in the series took things in a complete 180 and developed a more sombre and serious feel. The heaviness in the soundtrack from the 2018 God of War comes solely from the hard-hitting and perfectly timed soundtrack.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
Aside from being an absolutely kick-ass game when it first came out (who didn’t spend hours playing horse against a friend?), the soundtrack was absolutely outstanding for its time. Featuring an almost hectic blend of rock, metal, pop and punk, the tracklist of the game showcased lesser-known bands such as Goldfinger whilst also playing more well-known bands such as The Offspring, Bad Religion and even Rage Against The Machine.
Rocksmith
Want a game where you can actually plug in a guitar and play riffs from some of your favourite songs in real time? Enter Rocksmith, a game with which you could buy an actual, real electric guitar with. A special adapter lets you plug any electric guitar into your console, and then play one of 55 different songs. The tracklist includes The Rolling Stones, The Who and
Foo Fighters, all with songs you can actually learn how to play (and hopefully impress your friends with).
GTA V
There’s nary a gamer out there that hasn’t heard of the Grand Theft Auto series from Rockstar Games, With the fifth instalment being one of the fastest-selling games of all time. Featuring in-game radio stations, the rock station Los Santos Rock hosts Def Leppard, Boston and ZZ Top, whilst Channel-X features more hardcore and punk, blasting out Black Flag, Circle Jerks and The Zeros.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
The stealth based gameplay and tension filled orchestral based soundtrack of other Metal Gear games was gone in this instalment of the series, which was faster paced and a heck more frenetic. Cue a soundtrack to compliment the new style of gameplay. The protagonist Raiden has blades in his arms and feet and uses them to slice and dice scores of enemies, so you bet you’ll be dissecting said enemies to a soundtrack that has plenty of heavy, long and scorching guitar solos that keep you on the edge of your seat.
