Customer Reviews

Heavy Metal: Music From The Motion Picture

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie as a youth, and the soundtrack was the first record I ever bought that was rock 'n roll. A good start, I must say. The original record was a double-album. Funny nowadays that you can fit that on one CD.

But even after all of these years, some of these tracks still stand out as some of my favorites: Cheap Trick's Reach Out and I Must Be Dreamin', Black Sabbath's Mob Rules, Blue Oyster Cult's Veteran of the Psychic Wars, and the Devo and Riggs tracks are all great. The mellow stuff, even as a kid, I could do without. Interestingly, the follow up movie has a soundtrack that is truly all metal, yet that soundtrack and film are far inferior to this original.

The film has aged, but if you were a fan of the magazine back then and can remember what animation was like back then; you can still probably bring yourself back to that time and remember what made it so good.

Of the hundreds of "albums" I own, this is definitely among the most listened to. Forget what other reviewers say about "it's not heavy metal music" and there's only "x" number of good songs... This album will evoke and satisfy the audiophile in anyone who can appreciate music, regardless of genre. Heavy Metal was merely the name of the album, the movie which it aurally illustrates, and the magazine which inspired it. Don't be so literal. Don't be so judgemental. Shut up and enjoy the music.

(In fact, buy it, slide it into your CD player, turn it up loud and go for a nice long drive to nowhere... you won't regret it)

There's only one thing as cool as seeing this movie at midnight in the right state of mind, and that's this soundtrack. Even without the connection to the film, the tracklist is awesome. Included is the great title song from Sammy Hagar, the odd-but-cool cover from Devo, a huge hit from Journey, and killer tunes from Blue Oyster Cult, Don Felder, Sabbath (with Dio), and the beautiful Stevie Nicks. If the 70's were your decade, this is your soundtrack. Sure, by todays standards this might not be considered metal, but it is classic, it is heavy, and it does rock!

When I first saw the film in 1981, I rushed out to by the LP soundtrack. Over the years it has lost none of its sheer listening enjoyment. Naturally the cd is an improvement in sound quality over the LP.

This soundtrack really captures the movie's hugely enjoyable OTT ebullience. All the tracks in here can be listened to on multiple repeat plays. Cheap Trick's 'Reach Out' and 'I Must be dreamin' are both good. 'Radar Rider' is the stronger of the two Riggs tracks on the album. Stevie Nick's 'Blue Lamp' grows on you each time you play it, as does the Nazareth track 'Crazy (A suitable Case For Treatment). Chill out to Don Fagen's 'True Companion' and Don Felder's 'All Of You'.
What is the best track on here - two contenders in my opinion:
- Blue Oyster Cult's superb 'Veteran Of the Psychic Wars' Was this track ever released as a single, if not why not?
- Don Felder's Heavy Metal, mean, moody, and magnificent track. Slow build up to a crescendo, and then it just winds back down again to a graceful fade out.
Frankly it's a tie, both songs are too good to put into second place.

Get this cd for that drive into work, guaranteed to make it a somewhat more enjoyable experience.

Before metal in the eighties was all about hairspray, there was a generation of hard rock that really rocked. The Heavy Metal soundtrack accompanies the animated film of the same name, and many have said that the songs here are better than the movie. Truth be told, by today's standards, many of these songs don't qualify as "heavy metal." I mean, Cheap Trick, Journey and Don Felder? But, most of these songs work in the context in which they are presented.

Sammy Hagar's version of "Heavy Metal" has far more energy than the one on his solo LP. The guitar part is just more crunchy and aggressive and the bassline has more punch.

Riggs has two numbers on this disk, "Heartbeat" and "Radar Rider" and I've never heard of these guys since. "Radar Rider" has some cool distorted guitar licks and pounding drums and worked great with the corvette descending to earth.

Devo, now there's a heavy metal act, presents "Working in the Coal Mine" in typical quirky fashion with train and hammer effects. The lyrics are comic chain gang. This is a fun tune, helped me survive hell week in college, and only later did I learn it was a cover of a song from the sixties, I think by Leo Dorsey. I wish they would have also included "Through With Being Cool" from the movie "cantina scene" but both can be found on a Devo disk.

BOC's contribution was co-written with SF/Fantasy writer Michael Moorcock and is full of synths and tribal drums and space-age lyrics. "Wounds are all I'm made of..."

Cheap Trick also has two numbers, the synth-driven "Reach Out" and "I Must Be Dreamin'" with Bun E. Carlos really driving on the drums.

Don Felder steps out of the shadows of the Eagles with "Heavy Metal - Takin' a Ride" a slow burner with excellent lead guitar work. Even better is "All of You," a laid-back cruising tune for all those plutonium nyborg fans.

"True Companion" comes to us from Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame. This tune has a long instrumental with cool guitar licks that I'm guessing were by Jeff Baxter. Nice vocal harmonies.

Who would have thought of Elvis Costello being included here, but "Prefabricated" by Trust is a rocker! One of the most rocking on the disk.

Black Sabbath's Dio-era "Mob Rules" is one of the few truly heavy metal tunes, with it's machine gun guitar, thundering bass, and throbbing drums. This fit perfectly with the invasion/sacking scene in the movie.

Songs by Nazareth, Journey, Grand Funk Railroad and Stevie Nicks round out the set.

Original motion picture soundtracks don't get any better than this, folks. You won't here ME complaining. There are so many great things to be said about this collection. This is classic rock/metal at it's best. Don Felder's 2 songs are better than anything that the Eagles have ever done. Also you'll find one of the best (albeit lesser known) BOC songs - Verteran of the Psychic Wars. And fellow Black Sabbath fans will be interested to know that Tony Iommi does a completely different lead solo on this version of 'Mob Rules.' Believe me, I was surprised, too! Speaking of different versions of songs, Sammy Hagar's 'Heavy Metal' is much stronger, here, than on his own album. And if you haven't heard the song 'Crazy' by Nazareth, then you really are missing out. I'm not a huge Nazareth fan, but this song rocks! But I've said enough. -- Scott S. <sghost1@cool.com>

I had been wanting this CD for some time and was happy to find it here. I received my order in great time and good condition. I am happy with the product and would reorder again in the future if I found something I was llooking for.

I saw the movie when it came out, and a few times on cable over the years, and loved it. So when the DVD came out, I bought it. Major disappointment!! Apparently, the idiots who made the movie failed to secure the rights to use the music in the DVD release. The bland and generic rock they used just killed the film. So- I bought the soundtrack.
It's just as great as my memories! As I listened to Hagar's "Heavy Metal", I realized it was the music that made the film. Without it- the movie is flatassed boring.
Now- I just watch the DVD without sound and que the soundtrack at the appropirate moments. It works.

Just like Danno said, it's what FM rock radio used to sound like.

It was the summer of 1981 and rock music was about to come to an end. Disco was more or less dead and MTV was not yet on the air. By 1983, music would be dominated by the horrible likes of Michael Jackson and Culture Club!

When the movie HEAVY METAL was released in living animation (this was the rage before the Japanese introduced us to Anime in 1988), it came with a kick-ass soundtrack with bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick and Sammy Hagar. Back in 1981, acts like this could still fill an entire stadium on their own. And while all the music is not exactly "heavy metal", their are some other great tunes by Donald Fagen, Don Felder, Stevie Nicks and Journey (yes, "Open Arms" was a brand new song on this soundtrack before the "Escape" album was released at the end of the year.

The only flaw, in my opinion, is that the songs are not in the order in which they come in the movie, the way most soundtracks run. It's fun to follow the duration of a film in your head as you listen to the music.

In retrospect the album is much better than the movie. I saw the movie many years ago and recently rented it again. To say the least, I was disapointed. My memory serves me wrong. The movie really wasn't as good as I remembered but the album certainly is. This is a killer album that still stands the test of time. The variety of styles is very good with some truly original scores. Sammy is still the king but has a great supporting cast. I continue to listen to this soundtrack and still have not tired of it.