10 Best Opening Tracks In Metal

Metal music is a genre that is not known for its subtlety. From its early years back in the late 60's, metal has always been a style of music that relies on volume, intensity, and horror in order to elicit terror and intrigue in the minds of its listeners. When compiling an album experience, metal bands must take careful consideration as to how to set the tone off right from the moment the first track hits.

The highly-coveted opening track has a big job to do especially on a metal release. The tune in question definitely needs to be a headbanger of the highest variety while also not being too off-the-rails to make the rest of the album feel quaint. On the flip side, other great uses are tracks that lure the listener in with a more calming passage, almost like a lion slowly stalking its prey before pouncing.

It can be a great use of foreshadowing, a stomping metallic assault, or both at the same time. Across these albums, the opening cut always sets you up for the delightfully disturbed experience that you are about to undergo. Whether they are tearing your head off or just creating a mood, these songs will make any metalhead throw up the horns.

While Alter Bridge certainly left an impression with their first record One Day Remains, there were still many skeptics who felt that it may have been a fluke. Would this new reincarnation from the non-Stapp members of Creed be the face of rock to come or just a one-album wonder?

With one listen of "Ties That Bind" from Blackbird, all the metalheads' prayers had been answered. Starting off with a complicated rhythmic intro from guitarist Mark Tremonti, the song quickly broods with intensity before giving way to the angelic shrieks of Myles Kennedy. The song has a definite metal stomp while still having a signature groove that made it stand out from the other bands in the post-grunge scene. Kennedy's roar is only undercut by Tremonti's solos, whose brilliant phrasing and frantic speed give them a certain character that was missing from Creed's material.

Even when the band is slamming you with the chorus in the outro, the complicated riff from the beginning reemerges as a soaring lead part to close the song off. Armed with golden performances and a spectacular song arrangement, "Ties That Bind" was the call to arms to all Alter Bridge fans and an essential for any 2000's metalhead.