3 Heavy Metal Classics That Even Non-Metal Fans Have To Admit Are Great

By the time a song becomes a classic, it has reached far beyond the diehard fans of any band or genre. The same is true of heavy metal, which was once an underground movement. Heavy music became ubiquitous thanks to Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead, and other groundbreaking bands. But many songs were once forbidden, censored, or banned. And like many banned things, heavy metal only grew in popularity.

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In that spirit, the following tracks might just entice you to throw the horns and turn you into a heavy metal fan after all.

“War Pigs” by Black Sabbath

In late-60s England, the blues got heavier, darker, more sinister. Black Sabbath emerged from Birmingham, and with Tony Iommi’s detuned guitars, a new kind of music developed. Though Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were also heavy, they weren’t this heavy. A trip through a Black Sabbath album, as the band name implies, was like a horror film put to music. However, “War Pigs” wasn’t inspired by fiction. It’s a protest song written against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

“Master Of Puppets” by Metallica

Sometimes it takes a TV show to understand the power of music you might not normally appreciate. When “Master Of Puppets” appeared in an episode of Stranger Things, it collapsed the show’s 1980s setting into the modern reality of streaming TV on Netflix. Metallica’s legendary epic first arrived on the band’s third album of the same name. Before the MTV breakthrough of “One”, Metallica were leading a thrash metal subculture. But they must have felt as though they were existing in The Upside Down when “Master Of Puppets” surged to a billion plays on Spotify after Eddie Munson’s apocalyptic shredding scene.

“Breaking The Law” by Judas Priest

Now I’m not a lawbreaker, but if I were ever in the mood for a little criming, I think I’d want to do it while cranking this Judas Priest banger. (Of course, I’m not advocating for such things.) “Breaking The Law” appears on British Steel, an album resembling a declaration. Judas Priest had simplified its sound with sparse riffs and memorable choruses, and singer Rob Halford repeats his lawless hook like an anarchy mantra. For inspiration, Halford tapped into the mood of union strikers and street rioters in the U.K. But you don’t need to protest the government or be a metal head to crank this one. Though, doing so might turn you into one. A metal head, that is.

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