Gaming and heavy metal grew up together, with both truly breaking through into popular awareness in the 1980s. It was during this decade that gaming took a step beyond its wireframe and childlike ambassadors such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders and began to play with more mature themes.
When games like Doom came around in the early 90s, the visual content and topics appeared to have more to do with a Morbid Angel album cover, than the cookie-cutter presentation of the Super Mario Bros.
In fact, Doom is often credited with being the first earnest cross-over between the two media, with much of the title’s midi score being based upon popular death and thrash metal tracks of the past decade. This was no mistake, with creators id Software known to be passionate metalheads.
As gaming continued to carve out its niche in the entertainment sector, collaborations between new titles and some of the world’s biggest metal bands became increasingly commonplace. Below we’re going to take a look at the very best of these to ever see the light of day.
HammerFall
Headed up by inimitable vocalist Joacim Cans, HammerFall have long been the standard bearer of weighty NWOBHM-style power metal in the modern era. With bombastic lyrics, cutting riffs and more battle allusions than you can shake a stick at, they remain one of the leading proponents of pure metal still in the game today.
What few realise though, is that HammerFall have also branched out into gaming, with a self-titled entry among the annals of the world’s most popular online genre, that of digital slots.
Developed by industry mainstays Play N’ Go, HammerFall (the game) demonstrates that online slots can serve as standard bearers for metal might with the very best of them. This solid title looks like a forgotten artefact from the mediaeval era, incorporating war hammers, knight warriors and all manner of shields and sigils and battle implements. Its 7 reel, 7 payline format also provides gamers with plenty of opportunities to secure victory, and with minimum bets starting at 1p, it’s also one of the most accessible on the market today.
Brütal Legend
No survey of the world’s greatest metal-gaming collabs would be complete without a mention of Brütal Legend. This 2009 title is a 3rd person light-RPG adventure and unabashed love letter to the genre.
You take control of roadie Eddie Riggs, voice acted masterfully by none other than Tenacious D’s Jack Black as he navigates an evil hell-bound dimension with little more than his axe – both a guitar, and literal battle axe – to keep him company.
The game is packed to the gills with nods, allusions and cameos from the annals of metal history with legends including Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath) and Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead) making appearances.
The soundtrack, also, has to be seen to be believed, with tracks from bands including Angel Witch, Children of Bodom, Scorpions, King Diamond, Manowar, Accept, Testament, Enslaved, Savatage, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Crimson Glory, Emperor and Candlemass making up the roster.
World of Tanks
Released in 2010, World of Tanks is one of the most popular free-to-play titles in the world today with an estimated 140,000 daily players logging in to duke it out in realistically modelled tanks on vast sandbox arena maps.
In 2021, World of Tanks announced a surprising collaboration with the Power Metal band Sabaton. Based out of Sweden, Sabaton have distinguished themselves from the pack by eschewing the commonplace fantasy elements of most power metal, instead choosing to focus on modern mechanised warfare. In light of this their music is both heavier and slower than the more hyper-active acts that typify this off-shoot of heavy metal.
The collaboration took the form of a limited edition centurion tank, known as the Primo Victoria – the name of the band’s debut album. This special Sabaton tank came about after developers Wargaming discovered that the band were, unsurprisingly, great fans of the game. Sabaton have even released a music video of Primo Victoria that incorporated World of Tanks footage into the edit.
