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Pop culture is finally catching on to zombies. Werewolves and vampires have embraced abstinence, shun violence, and lack bite. Staple villains like Jason and Freddy seem kitschy. Horror needs new predators and the undead are taking central stage. The film Shaun Of The Dead was a brilliant parody of zombie films, George Romero is able to release his movies in theaters, and one of AMC’s top draws is the zombie series The Walking Dead.
Metal fans have long been hip to zombies. Bands have been singing about the mindless, flesh-craving monsters for decades. Here are the best metal hymns to the undead.
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10. “Revenge Of The Zombie”, Six Feet Under
from Warpath:
Back in the late 1990s, Six Feet Under still had it. Former Obituary shredder Allen West (also known as “Big Bar Al” for his distinct whammy bar dives) was on guitar and SFU hadn’t started playing cover songs. This is a mid-paced death metal song about a zombie coming back with a butcher knife and wreaking havoc. Listen as Chris Barnes screams “zombie!” near the end.
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9. “Embalmed Yet I Breathe”, Necrophagia
from Holocaust De La Morte
Killjoy and Phil Anselmo are longtime horror buffs, and this song is a meditation on zombie terror. The cover of Holocausto De La Morte features a montage of images from Italian gore-master Lucio Fulci’s films. The song is told from the perspective of the newly dead and describes his “inhuman craving” for flesh.
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8. “Sacrificial Zombie”, Nunslaughter
from Goat
One of the few zombie songs that could fuel karaoke at a Halloween party. It’s a short black thrasher that inspires heads banging – or head chewing: “Slaughtered remnants / in the grave / rotting bodies / is what I crave”.
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7. “Zombie Apocalypse”, Mortician
from Zombie Apocalypse
Opens with the mother of all zombie sound bites: “When there’s no room left in hell the dead will walk the Earth”. It’s a quote from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which chronicles a group of refugees hiding in a Pennsylvania shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse. The song plods along slowly like a Romero zombie, and while it’s not a musical masterpiece, it’s worthy for its inventive inclusion of the best zombie film ever made.
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6. “My Corpse Shall Rise”, Autopsy
from The Tomb Within
Surprisingly, Autopsy didn’t write much about the undead during their first incarnation. They wrote about butchery, disease, and sickness. When they returned late last year with a fantastic EP, they wrote a song that proved that they could spin a good zombie yarn and hadn’t lost any ferocity.
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5. “Pit Of Zombies”, Cannibal Corpse
from Gore Obsessed
Cannibal Corpse and zombies go hand in hand. Their debut album Eaten Back To Life could have been called instead Love Songs For Zombies. Some might include “Evisceration Plague” in this list; a song which inspired a graphic novel by Vince Locke that’s stacked with gruesome death. But this is a better song and an appropriately grisly scenario: a man is thrown into a zombie pit, dismantled and chewed up like a Shoney’s buffet meal.
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4. “Eaten Alive”, Repulsion
from Horrified
Arguably the first grindcore album, this has a pointed and powerful zombie song. It’s not even two minutes, but hits quick like a shot to the head: “Horror in the graveyard /an evil hellish sight / worm eaten corpses rising in the night / they’re seeking human flesh, they live for nothing else”.
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3. “Zombie Ritual”, Death
from Scream Bloody Gore
This is vintage Chuck Schuldiner long before he incorporated tech or prog. It’s a simple, powerful death metal song with a great hook and bare bones lyrics: “Revengeful corpse out to kill / smell the stench, your guts will spill / vomit for a mind, maggots for a cock / with his axe the corpse will chop”.
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2. “Slowly We Rot”, Obituary
from Slowly We Rot
This song never mentions the word “zombie”, and some might argue it’s about something else. But “Slowly We Rot”, comes as close as a song can to a zombie’s slow, menacing gait. The lyrics are abstract but seem to indicate that the protagonist fights a contagion or disease before embracing his new life as an undead killer. It’s the best song in Obituary’s long catalog:
“Fight them all in a living hell.
Slowly rot and you die.
You fight death as you’ll realize.
Kill them all.
Fight them all, join me, slowly we rot.
Slowly we rot. Dead to all”.
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1. “Breakfast At The Manchester Morgue”, Impetigo
from Horror Of The Zombies:
This lengthy tune is a wonderful homage to filmmaker Jorge Grau’s cult zombie movie Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. In it, police think a band of killers is on the loose until they discover that the undead are responsible for a string of murders. This track is slow but unrelenting and makes excellent use of film samples. It even inspired a YouTube zombie montage.
Cool list!
Here’s a suggestion. Would it be possible to create a playlist of all of these on YouTube an share it at the end of the post? That would make listening through them on the background a lot easier (no need to switch back to the blogpost every time).
The riff in Pit Of Zombies is fucking insane, one of my favorites, the way it seems to fold back on itself at the end before coming back again and never losing that distinct Cannibal groove.
“Baptism Of The Walking” by RAMESSES is a fine undead anthem. I also think DECEASED deserve a special mention for their entire living dead themed opus “Fearless Undead Machines”.
“Baptism Of The Walking Dead” by RAMESSES is a fine undead anthem. I also think DECEASED deserve a special mention for their entire living dead themed opus “Fearless Undead Machines”.
Where’s Death’s “Evil Dead”?!??!?
I had to choose one Death zombie track and I went with my personal favorite.
A good list; I was hoping “Breakfast…” would be the number one track.
St. Vitus had songs called Zombie Hunger and Return of the Zombie. Better than anything on here (except maybe Obituary and Death).
Wow, can’t believe you guys left off Saint Vitus.
In fact, it’s really sad, actually.
“Zombification” by NIRVANA 2002 is also pretty sweet!
We Live! by Electric Wizard is also a pretty awesome zombie song. Zombie stomp by Ozzy also comes to mind though it’s probably too lively to make it a top 10 zombie song.
We were thinking about a zombie mixtape as well, great idea! Here are a few others to consider:
The Crown – Zombified!
Entombed – Living Dead
Zombified – Zombified Slaughtermachine
White Zombie – I, Zombie
Blood Bath – Feeding The Undead
Brain Drill – Consumed By The Dead
no ELECTRIC WIZARD?
WE LIVE NOT DEAD WE KILL
awesome zombie tunes…. and as you may all now this is just a simple slice…HP Samhain!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Missing Deceased’s “Night of the Deceased”? List is bullshit.
Happy Halloween! How about a big undead hug? There we go.
Two of the many unspoken laws of heavy metal:
-Every metal-related list is “bullshit” in the eyes of the tr00.
-Thou shalt never let the fact that a list is limited to 10 items prevent you from bitching about the omission of your retardedly obscure favorite song (which you only like because of its obscurity).
I laughed at the second one.
“(which you only like because of its obscurity).”
Hah!
One of the longest running Death Metal bands in the country, who released half their albums on Relapse, one of which was an entire zombie concept album, is so much more obscure than Nunslaughter or Mortician. You got me!
Yeah, I know. Law #2 doesn’t directly apply to your post, I was being overly general for the sake of a joke.
Deceased fucking rule; you are fully correct, sir.
I have downloaded this album and will spin it today. Thanks for the recommendations. Even with my appetite I can’t hear them all so I appreciate the chance to expand my horizons.
That’s cool. I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s like the “Night of The Living Dead” of Sci-fi, horror-themed Metal. Great concept, tons of great riffs. No such list is complete without it!
Thanks for all the great songs. There are even a few I have yet to hear.
Also, I’m guessing that you didn’t included anything from Fearless Undead Machines because you haven’t heard it yet. I mean, how else could you explain the inclusion of Zombie Apocalypse and the Omission of FUM? Congratulations! Now you get to hear THE greatest take on Zombies in metal ever recorded. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it.
Yeah how the hell could you miss any of the songs on Fearless Undead Machines but you included a fucking Six Feet Under song? DA FUCK.
I’m apparently missing something special and will rectify that promptly.
If you ask me Zombies on just past there peak, and coming down. There will soon a be a twilight type story featuring the lovey zombie who retains a hint of love for his gf… which he realizes as he devours her face.
i’ve gotta give a shout out to send more paramedics… although they ere probably more hardcore than metal the slayer influence ran well along side the minor threat one and their entire output was zombie related… they even thought they were themselves
The best non-metal zombie song ever: Roky Erickson – I Walked With A Zombie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcGb24n9hvM
Oh, and let’s not forget “Devoured Death” by Incantation
Back when we used to play live, my band wrote a three song suite about being a zombie. It’s a little joke-y and not all of it is metal, but to this day it’s the only thing most people remember about us.
Part 1: Transgression Resurrection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgHOU9NTVOc
Part 2: Somberly Awaiting the End
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=gRaPuujoBhk
Part 3: The Sweet Sanctuary of Mortality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ39IDxq4-c
All together, it’s only about 11 minutes long, but if you don’t feel like listening to all that, Part 3 is probably the best.
This list inspired me to give “Fearless Undead Machines” another spin this afternoon. awesome album. Come to think of it “Rise” by GRAVE is also a good mid tempo walking dead stomp.
Revocation’s “Re-Animaniacs”
Death Breath did ‘Death Breath, ‘Dead But Walking’ and ‘Giving Head to the Dead’ a few years ago. Fucking great stuff from Nicke Anderson’s old school tribute band. Their video is great too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6MDOwo4-2Y
“Vengeance From Beyond The Grave” by TORMENTED is another good one!
I remember seeing the Corpse do Pit of Zombies at Wacken one year, its was 31c and mid afternoon and all the guys coming out of the pit were battered, bruised and tired and covered in this fine dust they’d kicked up, looking ironically like zombies.
Bloodbath – Eaten
Ok, so it’s FAR from an obscure underground classic, but I love its rotten little socks off.
I really enjoy this song, mainly because it is so damn catchy. In actuality, though, it is about Armin Meiwes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes
Is it really? Well I never.
Thanks man, it’s always nice to learn something new. Kudos!