Whether it’s real-life metal fans and bands or the fictional variety, pop culture has become infused with heavy metal in various ways over the past few decades, with metallers cropping up in all sorts of TV shows, movies, and video games. Here’s a look at some of the most iconic metallers in popular culture.
The Demon Slot Game
The English heavy metal band Demon, who formed in 1979, are considered one of the most important groups in British heavy metal’s new wave movement. In 2019, forty years after the band’s formation, Play’n Go released a hard-rocking online slot game featuring Demon and their thrash music. With a host of great features like free spins, hell spins, multipliers, and wilds, it is no wonder that this slot game has been getting a lot of attention. You can play Demon at online casinos likeCasumo.
Metallica in South Park
One of the world’s most famous metal bands, Metallica, were immortalized in pop culture when they appeared in season seven of the comedy cartoon show South Park. The episode sees Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny forming a rock band called Moop. When they learn about the adverse effects illegal downloading is having on the music industry, Moop decide to go on strike. It’s not long before members of Metallica arrive to support their cause.
Mondo Gecko
It’s not only real-life metallers that have become immortalized in popular culture. Heavy metal has also inspired a host of fictional metalhead characters. One of the most well-known metaller characters is Mondo Gecko from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With his ripped t-shirt and jet-black quiff hairstyle, Mondo Gecko is a giant, skateboarding, thrash-metal lizard who wouldn’t look out of place on a 1980s heavy metal album cover.
Spinal Tap in The Simpsons
It’s kind of ironic how the fictional band Spinal Tap started off lampooning heavy metal and then became celebrated as a band in their own right. When the comedy mockumentary movie This Is Spinal Tap hit cinemas in 1984, it was proof that heavy metal had firmly arrived in the public consciousness of pop-culture. The spoof band went on to make three hit studio albums, and they have toured extensively. When Spinal Tap appeared in an episode of The Simpsons in 1992, it was clear that their legacy in pop culture had become cemented. In the episode, called “The Otto Show,” Bart and his geeky pal Milhouse attend a Spinal Tap concert, which soon descends into utter chaos. Things don’t end well for the mighty Tap, as the episode ends with the band’s tour bus falling off a cliff. If you watch this well-known episode of everyone’s favorite comedy cartoon series, be sure to turn the volume up to eleven.
Bill and Ted
There are perhaps no fictional metallers as lovable as Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan. The slacker duo first appeared in the highly successful Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but it was in the sequel, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, in which their band Wyld Stallyns saved the world. Indeed, their heavy music becomes so popular that it goes on to create peace on earth. Who would have thought that music associated with hell and the devil would accomplish such a feat? You can find out what happens to the time-traveling rockers in the upcoming third movie,Bill and Ted Face the Music.
Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Best
Iron Maiden, one of the world’s most famous and iconic heavy metal bands, have crept into popular culture in various ways since they first rocked onto the music scene with their eponymously titled first album in 1980. Most recently, the band became immortalized in the 2016 role-playing video game Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast. Iron Maiden’s cartoon mascot Eddie has become just as famous as the band. Indeed, he has become not only an icon for the group. He has also become a symbol for metal music in general. In Legacy of the Beast, you get to play the game as Eddie, and you can alter his form to reflect his evolving appearance throughout the years. As you would expect, Legacy of the Beast also features several Iron Maiden classics that you can bang your head to.
