If you’ve ever attended a Major League baseball game, you might have noticed most of the music is terrible. Most players enter the game to bad rap, jock metal, butt rock, or country. In an average game, a crowd will be exposed to more than 75 snippets of modern music. The shoddy music is tolerable because it blends into the fabric of the game. Given enough time, Five Finger Death Punch fades into Lil’ Jon … which fades into Toby Keith … and you get Five Finger Lil’ Toby Keith.
However, there is one time during a baseball game when a player’s entrance/introductory music matters. When a closer takes the mound, it’s one of the most exciting moments in a Major League baseball game. As the closer leaves the bullpen and jogs toward the mound, if he’s at his home stadium, the PA begins to blare his entrance song. The music helps to pump up the crowd and the pitcher – or at least that’s the theory. Over time, the closer’s song becomes indelibly linked to the closer himself.
Given metal’s characteristics, it shouldn’t be surprising that a number of closers have used songs from metal or related genres. Mariano Rivera, for instance, famously jogged out to “Enter Sandman” for years. The song fit him perfectly: his signature cut fastball put fear into batters’ hearts, and then it put them back on the bench. My current favorite closer/music combo is John Axford of the Brewers. Axford enters the game to the Refused’s “New Noise,” which means he Wins The Internet.
Here are a few other metal/hardcore/punk songs used by closers:
AC/DC – “Hell’s Bells”
Killswitch Engage – “The End of Heartache”
Guns N’ Roses – “Welcome to the Jungle”
Deep Purple – “Smoke on the Water”
Nine Inch Nails – “Hurt” (also not metal, but seriously, NIN! In a baseball game!)
Rage Against the Machine – “Killing in the Name”
Dropkick Murphys – “Shipping Up to Boston” (appropriately, it’s used by the Boston Red Sox’s former closer)
Alright, here’s the deal: In 2012, at least a dozen teams have lost or replaced a closer due to injury or ineffectiveness. Numerous new closers will jog to the mound this year, and they each need songs. If you could choose a closer’s entrance music, what song would he use?
Oh, and don’t forget, your song will be played on sunny summer Sundays in front of thousands of ballpark attendees and hundreds of thousands of television viewers. I once went to a baseball game with a coworker and his son. The son asked who Thor was, and my coworker answered, “A comic book character”. He didn’t want his son to have any inkling that another culture worshipped Thor as a god.
Keep that guy in mind when you choose your song. If you offend him, he doesn’t show up, and if he doesn’t show up, your team doesn’t get paid. That means no cussing, no gore, and no sex. Dirty/harsh vocals are fine, but only up to a point. Demilich and Ashdautas are out of the question.
Here are my top five choices:
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Kataklysm – “The Ambassador of Pain” from Serenity in Fire
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The music’s a mix of blasting to get our closer and the crowd pumped, and groove to help our closer establish his rhythm. It’s perfect for a loose cannon. The song says, “I throw 100 mph and I don’t know where it’s going, but I can still drill you in the fucking ribs anytime I want to.”
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Hollenthon – “Woe to the Defeated” from With Vilest of Worms to Dwell
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I’d only use the first 1:45 or so of “Woe”, which features male choirs chanting. It’s big, bold, bombastic, and energizing. It’s also perfect for warming up: it starts with a stately, methodical bounce, and then the guitars drop in and things get fast and exciting. Also, how awesome is it to tell your opponent that you feel woe for them before you defeat them?
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Iron Maiden – “Sun and Steel” from Piece of Mind
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First, this song is stupidly catchy. Second, I think there’s a parallel between the song’s subject, Yukio Mishima, and a MLB pitcher. Both are freaks of nature trained to near-perfection, and both live on the razor’s edge between success and total failure. Both make their legends via a series of duels. I can see an elite closer running to the mound to “Sun and Steel,” the sun on his back, a twinge in his elbow, knowing that today could be his last.
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Pharaoh – “I am the Hammer” from The Longest Night
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Yup, some power metal. What’d you expect from me? Anyway, the curve ball has many nicknames, the best of which is The Hammer. Closers are hammers, nailing down the end of the game. Calling yourself The Hammer sounds awesome. Need I go on? Here are the opening lyrics: “Forged in fire, but cold as ice / I will spare no sacrifice / You’ll pay with tears shed in mortal fright / All shall fear the hammer’s strike.”
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Penderecki – “Polymorphy”
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This piece is fucking terrifying. Terrifying is one of Penderecki’s calling cards, along with discomfiting, noisy, ominous, and evil. Use the parts from 7:00 to the end, and the stadium will feel like Death just ran His finger down every spine in attendance. Make sure your closer’s not intimidated, too. The major chord swell at the end just fucks with people’s heads.
Now it’s your turn. What songs would your closer use? Will he have an intimidating piece with swagger? Music that is raw rage? “O Fortuna”? Let us know in the comments!
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At this point, some of our foreign readers are probably flummoxed. I can’t explain baseball to you. Here’s a throwaway alternative: When your football or ice hockey team goes to a sudden death shootout or penalty kick/shot, they play a song for the shooter. Choose the song.
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Orwell – “In Tides I Wake”
I absolutely love baseball. If that wasn’t obvious by my name, now it is. The most metal baseball player is, without question, Pat Neshek. He was once a top prospect but, due to injuries, is now an average middle reliever. Prior to TJ surgery he topped out at about 96 mph with his fastball.
Anyway, I have put more thought into this very question than is necessary or healthy. Here are several of my choices:
Slayer – Kill Again. The way that tune charges out of the gates is just bad ass.
Stinking Lizaveta – The Hanged Man. Because, that’s just creepy and fucked up.
Melvins – Honey Bucket. Absolutely everyone would be swayed hearing that shit in an arena setting.
Goatwhore – Reckoning of the Soul Made Godless. The good kind of riff salad. Devastating.
Testament – Over the Wall. A challenge. Not a chance.
Cripple Bastards – Sangue Chiama. Everything about it but the fade-out just crushes.
I’ll stop there.
As I was writing this post, I had you in mind. After I submitted it, I heard that Trevor Bauer asked his fans to vote via Twitter as to which Amon Amarth song he would warm-up to in the first inning. He’s pretty much awesome. Hope he makes it back to the bigs soon…
Sick! He’s an elite prospect, as you know, but I did not know he was into the metals. He might have to be the name of my fantasy team next year. No, Pat Neshek will live on! Maybe.
Either Iron Maiden – “The Trooper” or Pentagram – “Be Forwarned”
Black Cobra – Sugar Water
Old Man Gloom – The Volcano
Meshuggah – Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion
Intronaut – The Literal Black Cloud
Mastodon – March of the Fire Ants
Without any deeper thought than gut instinct, here are a few that would just get me stoked to crush the opposition:
Black Sabbath – Supernaut. The opening hi-hat whets the appetite, then the riff hits like sex and suddenly your mortal pitcher is superhuman.
Ministry – Burning Inside. Distant sirens cue the closer’s identity, the drums kick in and pulses raise, then the riff lifts all those asses right out of their seat.
Metallica – For Whom the Bell Tolls. Tolling bells, and a perfect fucking intro riff with that whomping four on the floor stomp to get the fists pumping.
Not really a baseball fan, but kind of sports related, but last week while I was having falafel for lunch, I was also watching the women’s olympic beach volleyball semifinal between the US and Brazil. I could just hear the riffs of Sepultura’s Troops Of Doom whenever I see their serious as fuck facial expressions. Brazilians, just like in metal, they don’t fuck around with their sports!
nin “hurt” not metal????
I remember when this album (downward spiral)first came out, and let me tell you it was one of the heaviest original mainstream album out at the time.
I was into pro wrestling for nine months as an 11-year-old. A few years later, I heard “Genital Grinder” by Carcass and thought it would make great wrestler music. It’d be a great closer intro tune too.
“When your football or ice hockey team goes to a sudden death shootout or penalty kick/shot, they play a song for the shooter.”
I hope this never ever happens, although Manchester United already start their games to some ridiculous sub-Rocky brass muzak.
http://youtu.be/oxMJDTJXleI
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http://youtu.be/ekCmZDO4d8o
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http://youtu.be/NxU0C8XoLns
If I was a pitcher in the MLB, I would spend all of my ludicrous salary on Bolt Thrower merch and demand that everyone refer to me as ‘The Bolt Thrower’.
I’ve had a similar discussion to this one where we pick our intro music when we are professional wrestlers! I usually go for these:
Trap Them- Scars Align
Immolation- Majesty and Decay
“If I was a pitcher in the MLB, I would spend all of my ludicrous salary on Bolt Thrower merch and demand that everyone refer to me as ‘The Bolt Thrower’.”
Fucking brilliant. A million times yes.
You’d pretty much have to BE an MLB pitcher to afford some of that 2nd hand BT merch! Bolt Thrower would be an awesome nickname for a pitcher.
I’m a huge and (before 2010) long-suffering Cincinnati Reds fan, and I think the ideal alternate universe walk-out music for their closer Aroldis Chapman would be Napalm Death’s “You Suffer.” Because that song is twice as long as the time it takes one of his 102+ mph fastballs to cross the plate. Also, he makes batters suffer (though I get the sense that they do know why).
I love the idea of using “You Suffer” as Chapman’s intro. He, and his fastball, are ridiculous.
That would be Amon Amarth’s Twilight of the Thunder Gods for me. The part right after the breakdown is very Eye of the Tiger, come to think of it.
This song is of course about comic book superheroes.
South Of Heaven…..duh
Converge – Dark Horse
Simply because the intro to the song gets me randy
Very fitting for the Orioles since they have been the dark horse in the AL East all year as well.
Dodgers closer/reliever comes out to The Ultimate Warrior theme. That shit is kinda metal. It’s a riot when you hear it at the stadium.
Errr, Dodgers closer/reliever Todd Coffey**
Coffey was a reliever for the Reds a few years back, and I always liked how he would run full speed from the bullpen to the mound, his formidable man-boobs defiantly a-jiggling all the way.
In non-metal related baseball news, the Dodgers won the NL West this afternoon.
I’m celebrating with Champagne as I type this.
Also, the Dodgers did more at the trade deadline than any other team in the NL. Not a team I necessarily want to face in the playoffs.
Er, back to metal now.
JJ Putz from the Dbacks uses “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. They turn off all the lights and have lightning playing on the video screens. It’s pretty cool.
Songs that I like:
Behemoth – “Ov Fire and the Void” (The beginning of this song is awesome!)
Mastodon – “Blood Thunder”
Pantera – “Slaughtered” or “Regular People”
Quicksand – “Lie and Wait”
Motorhead – “Overkill”
Oakland’s Grant Balfour (a dirty aussie hesh) comes out to the the crazy double bass ripping part of Metallica’s One. At this point, the die-hards in the bleachers all bang their heads, including this one awesome black chick with long braids who does hella legit hair whips that get featured on the jumbo-tron everytime. It’s great to be an A’s fan.