10 Rock Bands That Made Metal Songs

One of the greatest calling cards that comes with rock and roll music is its bad attitude. For all of the feel good songs about partying that are sprinkled throughout the mix, you have to remember that this was music that was designed to piss your parents off, and that rebellious spirit still rings true to today. Sometimes a bad attitude isn’t enough, and bands have tried to delve into the pitch black side of the rock scene.

Before we get into this though, we have to make one thing clear: are these songs worthy of being called metal? For some people, that’s a pretty strong no, with none of these songs getting into the same league as the likes of Slayer or Machine Head any day of the week. By the standards of what the rock charts were looking like, there were a lot more teeth behind these songs compared to what was being heard at the time, either bringing metal to the masses in later years or helping forge it in the early days.

Even though some of these bands might not have wanted the metal moniker, all the seeds for the genre are here in these songs, from the haunting atmosphere to the riffs that sound like absolute mayhem whenever they come across your speakers. The gatekeepers of the genre might not stand for songs like these, but there’s a good chance that the metal gods would look at these tracks and give them the knowing nod of approval.

Throughout most of their career, Muse has never been afraid to show their hard rock chops every now and again. Even though the comparisons to Radiohead have followed them around since the day they formed, their jams of songs like Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine or Heartbreaker by Zeppelin were a nice indication of what they got off on as teenagers. While Absolution holds together as a decent space rock project, they could also tear your face off when they wanted to.

From the opening seconds of Stockholm Syndrome, the guys sound out for blood, with the Drop D guitar riff smacking you in the face before the rest of the band come screaming in. Though the scope of this song is the same that you would find on a song like Falling Away With You, all those synthesizers are replaced with walls of guitars, only to get sucked back down when the keyboards come back in.

The lyrical content is also a lot darker than what you would expect out of Muse. Since the album kicked off with talking about the end of the world on Apocalypse Please, this is a different kind of horror, telling the tale a man who kidnapped someone and is holding them hostage in the hopes that they will one day love him. With the abrupt shifts that happen throughout this song, this isn't just the sound of a horrible situation. There's a good chance that we're getting a peek into the maniac's mind on this song.