Over 80 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Metal Songs On Fantasy Realms
Voting Rules
Vote up the metal songs that successfully transport you to a fantasy world.
What would hard rock and metal be without fantasy? Songs of knights, swords, and the bizarre landscapes of the past and post-apocalyptic future have been tropes in music since Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath first took to the stage in the late 1960s. In their wake, a steady stream of hard rocking bands have also drawn inspiration from the fantasy realm.
If dragons, magic, wizards, and the glory of Valhalla are your thing, check out these great metal songs about Vikings, outer space, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Vote up the ones that have catapulted you into the most mythical - and metal - realms.
Ronnie James Dio released Holy Diver in 1983. According Dio, who was raised Catholic, the title track from the album is steeped in religious allegory. Though it takes place on another planet, it features a Christ-figure perishing for the sins of his people. As the singer explains:
All the people on this planet are calling him the "Holy Diver" because he's about to go to another world to do what he did to the first - absolve them from their sins by having himself [slain]. And the people are saying to him, "Don't go," with innuendos of tigers and stripes and hearts and being eaten. It was meant to show just how selfish humanity is, that this one form of humanity in this one world said, "No, don't go down there and save anybody else. Stay here, we need you, you are ours."
Before "Holy Diver" and his solo career, Ronnie James Dio fronted Richie Blackmore's Rainbow. "Stargazer," from 1976's Rainbow Rising, tells the story of a wizard who believes he can fly. He enslaves people to build a tower that he can soar from, and many of its builders perish in the process.
When the tower is finally complete, the wizard climbs to the top and immediately falls to the ground. With his demise, the builders' hopes are dashed - only to be renewed by a rainbow in the distance:
I see a rainbow rising
Look there, on the horizon
And I'm coming home, I'm coming home, I'm coming home
At least one member of Black Sabbath has admitted to being inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien. In an interview with Metal Sludge, bassist Geezer Butler said the lyrics to "The Wizard" were inspired by The Lord of the Rings' resident magic man, Gandalf:
Sun is shining, clouds have gone by, all the people give a happy sigh
He has passed by, giving his sign, left all the people feeling so fine
According to guitar player Tony Iommi, the song may have a double meaning, as substances also appear to have played a big part in its lyrics. He said:
Back then we did a lot of dope. One night we were at this club, in the middle of nowhere. Ozzy and Geezer saw somebody leaping around outside, being silly. To them it was like an elf or something. I fear it must have been the [substances], but that’s where I think "The Wizard" came from.
It's pretty much a given that "Lord of the Rings" is a fantasy metal song - it lifts its title from the J.R.R. Tolkien book of the same name. The song appears on Blind Guardian's Tales From The Twilight World LP, and is influenced by the inscription on the One Ring.
The lyrics are very close to Tolkien's words:
There are signs on the ring, which make me feel so down
There's one to enslave all rings, to find them all in time
And drive them into darkness, forever they'll be bound
Three for the kings, of the elves high in light
Nine to the mortals, which cry...
Members of Blind Guardian are such big Tolkien fans that they were in talks to be featured on the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Made famous by Guitar Hero, "Freya" by The Sword is an ode to Odin's granddaughter of the same name. Much like the goddess Venus, she represents love, intimacy, and fertility, as well as combat.
Featured on The Sword's Age of Winters album, "Freya" describes warriors perishing ("the battle rages but they fight in vain") and being taken up into the goddess's great hall, Folkvanga. There, they will prepare for Ragnarok ("When all is done it must begin again"), which signifies the end of the world.
It's no secret that Led Zeppelin was influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Imagery inspired by the series shows up in "Ramble On," from 1969's Led Zeppelin II:
Mine's a tale that can't be told, my freedom I hold dear
How years ago in days of old when magic filled the air
'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor, mm-I met a girl so fair
But Gollum and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her her, her, yeah
And ain't nothin' I can do, no
It wouldn't be the only time Zeppelin made their Tolkien fandom known. At least three other songs in the band's catalog have clear references to the writer - one of which, "Over the Hills and Far Away," was inspired by The Hobbit. Even the title to the song is directly lifted from a poem written by Tolkien in 1915.
