As an aroace metalhead it’s really wild seeing all these ace or aro positivity blogs posting lists of all the songs they know that aren’t about sex and/or romance and there’s like… sixteen songs, TOPS.
Guys. Metal. You want some really good music that isn’t about sex or “love”? Here are my recommendations.
Amon Amarth: A melodic death metal band revolving around Vikings and Norse mythology. Recommended songs: Deciever of the Gods, Twilight of the Thunder God, The Way of Vikings, Guardians of Asgard
Judas Priest: They have like three love songs I know of. And one is mostly about being goth, so… yeah. They’re Judas fucking Priest, dude. Recommended songs: Ram It Down, The Sentinel, the ENTIRETY of the album Painkiller.
Candlemass: Do you like spooky things? Are you a goth? THEN CANDLEMASS IS A BAND FOR YOU. This is Black Sabbath with the goth factor cranked up to eleven. Recommended songs: The Bleeding Baroness, Solitude, Witches, Assassin of Light, Mourner’s Lament, Bewitched
Metallica: The archetypal thrash metal band. Their first four albums are amazing, the fifth started to slip. Don’t listen to Load or anything beyond. I… don’t think they have a single love song on any of these albums. Recommended songs: Master of Puppets, Of Wolf and Man, Ride the Lightning, Trapped Under Ice
Blind Guardian: Do you like fantasy? Listen to Blind Guardian. Seriously. Recommended songs: Mirror Mirror, Lionheart, A Voice In the Dark
Alestorm: Ahoy! Are ye the type to chase a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT kind o BOOTY? Then get ye some Alestorm, matey! They sing about PIRATES! Recommended songs: Fucked With an Anchor (it’s about a guy who is cursed with swearing in nonsensical ways. Catchy and HILARIOUS.), You Are a Pirate (Yes, a metal cover of THAT You Are a Pirate. Absolutely glorious.)
Metal, guys. Metal.
How about the Blind Guardian cover of To France (originally by Mike Oldfield)?
Taking on water, Sailing a restless sea From a memory, A fantasy. The wind carries Into white water, Far from the islands. Don’t you know you’re Never going to get to France. Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you? Never going to get to France. Could a new romance ever bind you?
(No, no it could not.)
Also, Van Canto, which is an a capella metal band. No, you heard me right.
Some of my favorites to add to this. These bands are all fairly “accessible” for people who aren’t into metal, since they don’t do screaming vocals and aren’t as extreme in their music. They’re just solid, badass, and have plenty of music that isn’t about love or sex (though they have some of that too). Pain of Salvation: Progressive metal. A lot of songs that aren’t about love or sex. Their whole most recent album is about the singer’s experience almost dying from a bacterial infection, and in the same hospital where he was born. The first track is all about him working through for himself what promises he’d be willing to make to whatever divine powers in exchange for living through the ordeal. Recommended song: On a Tuesday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEk-csUrQp8 Orphaned Land: Sort of folk/death/doom-ish metal band from Israel that uses a lot of middle eastern sounds in their work. A lot of their songs are about putting aside our differences and finding the things that we have in common, regardless of our backgrounds. They do a lot of activism through the middle east. Recommended song: Like Orpheus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hurWzo01FpM Trees of Eternity: Mostly pretty mellow doom/goth metal with ethereal vocals. Recommended song: Hour of the Nightingale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IWa9vmx8KY Porcupine Tree: They have songs that are about love or sex, but a whole lot that isn’t, too. Some truly beautiful songs. Progressive metal. See also solo work by Steven Wilson, who is the band’s singer. Recommended song: Arriving Somewhere But Not Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWhpfXisZw
Lemme add my favs to this because this is one of the reasons I enjoy metal so much - I’m sick to death of songs about love, sex, and relationships, and it’s why I moved out of American metal too tbh. European metal often differs quite a bit in the thematic elements, with more storytelling aspects to a lot of the music. Amon Amarth and Blind Guardian are AWESOME.
Did I mention Blind Guardian does that whole Silmarillion cover album? Yeah that’s them. Lord of the rings fans, if you haven’t listened yet….
Turisas - a folk/progressive metal band from Finland. Very accessible genre overall, and the singer has a really nice voice. Uses a lot of cool instruments, particularly violin and accordion, as well as choirs, and the music is composed as a blend of classical and metal so they have a lot of really awesome epic ballads and anthems. Themes center mostly on ancient military history, particularly Greek and Viking (most albums follow a continuing storyline about the Varangian Guard, the Vikings that went to fight for the Byzantine Army) but also include a lot of uplifting themes. Thoughtful in that they’re not glorifying war, but examining all perspectives, including the tragedy of it. Their latest album also includes some really nice nuanced political songs that reflect on history to inform the present. Songs all in English but with cool tidbits of several other languages. Battle Metal, Ten More Miles, Miklagard Overture, Piece by Piece, End of an Empire…
Finntroll - A great pick for anyone looking for folklorey folk metal, with a dark but fun side. Finno-swedish group, musically a mix of folk, black, and death metal - heavy guitars and growling, but highly melodic (not fast or screeching, something you wanna stomp around to!) and uses a variety of instruments, synths, and other things that really make it have a lilting whimsical feel. Themes of all the songs focus on ‘troll folklore’ or other related folk tales about witchcraft, forest spirits, etc. Band members have troll personas (check out the music videos!). Songs all in Swedish apart from a few but for those who do not know the language it just adds to the mystique and it’s a great language choice for the lyrical themes and sound of the music. I recommend the Vreth era (Nifelvind, Blodsvept). Ett norrskensdåd, Under Bergets Rot, Häxbrygd, Tiden utan tid…
Korpiklaani - another really unique Finnish folk metal group, with a heavier focus on the folk part. Singer has ties to traditional Sami folk-singing, and he has just a really astounding voice. Some uncommon folk instruments like hurdy-gurdy and others (I’m not even familiar with their proper names, sorry!!). Song themes revolve around folklore. Or drinking. Or both. I’m not a fan of the drinking songs but they’re easy to bypass. Accept the fact that there are a lot of drinking songs in Finland. Those tend to be in English, whereas the folklore ones are in Finnish. It is very cool to hear Finnish used in metal, it’s unlike any Scandinavian language (not even closely related) and again, doesn’t really matter if you can’t understand it, the music is amazing! Lempo, Ämmänhauta, Metsälle, Metsamies…
System of a Down - American-Armenian heavy metal. You may know the song ‘Chop Suey!’. There is no voice on this earth like Serj Tankian’s voice. He refreshes a stale American genre. Diversity of song themes, some are kinda out-there (borders on nu-metal of the late 90s) and are just weird and wacky (She’s Like Heroin for example lol), but the majority are political - anti-war, anti-capitalism, pro-environmentalism. From the American Idiot Bush era, but like Green Day, the messages never stopped being relevant and address a lot of current frustrations about police brutality, mass incarceration, and institutional racism as well as larger philosophical topics and interpersonal conflict. This is, at this point, one of the only bands keeping me interested in American metal. While they had a short run, it was very meaningful and they remain popular today. Toxicity, Deer Dance, Hypnotize, Ego Brain, Aerials, B.Y.O.B…
These four bands make up a fair proportion of the music I regularly listen to (along with Amon Amarth, Volbeat, Metallica, Blind Guardian, and a few others like Moonsorrow and Bathory). It’s nice to remind yourself there’s more to life than love and relationships, and that music can and should reflect the full range of the human experience. Metal is more than just people screaming about Satan (or whatever people believe it is?? idek). Metal often explores deeply philosophical, mythological, and social themes, exposing injustices and calling for change, or dreaming of a better world through fantasy or history. Metal is often angry, which is not bad (it’s way better than false, manufactured happiness meant to sell things and anesthetize its audience) but also can be wistful, melancholy, hopeful, and joyful. There’s a subgenre of metal for everybody, whether you think yourself a ‘metalhead’ or not. Go forth and find a new band to try out :D
We already got my faves Amon Amarth and Blind Guardian up there but this ace is gonna throw my own picks in, too:
Evil Scarecrow: If you feel like metal might be a bit too heavy for you then I recommend checking this band out. They’re completely comedy based and don’t take themselves too seriously. All their songs are about really weird and wacky stories like cyborg crabs taking over the world, losing your mind alone in space, and playing video games. I’d recommend Hurricanado as one of their best songs and music videos. And also I’d say they’re definitely my favourite band to see live.
Battlelore: Cos of course I’m a huge Tolkien nerd. I imagine this band would be much harder to get into considering it’s more traditional death metal and would probably be difficult to follow the lyrics to. It features one male and one female vocalist who sing about the Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings endlessly and that’s my whole cuppa tea. I think their song Dragonslayer gives a good idea as to what to expect from them (and is also a dope song, just maybe look up the lyrics so you can follow).
Elvenking: Folk metal and fantasy elves - it’s basically the perfect storm for this acey. Elvenking isn’t nearly as heavy as bands like Battelore and Amon Amarth, and incorporates more traditional folk instruments like fiddles along with the drums and guitar. Their songs are all about Elves and magic and revolution, and are also pretty great live. I’d definitely recommend checking out The Horned Ghost and the Sorcerer, as it’s one of their best and most well known songs.
Sabaton: A very good power metal band who sings almost exclusively about World War era battles (though my favourite album of their’s happens to be Carolus Rex, an album all about the rise and fall of the Swedish Empire). Their sound is consistently amazing (if you discount their early albums) and they always have very clear vocals, perfect for storytelling. If you like learning about twentieth-century military conflicts from all over the world, these are your guys. I’d recommend their song Carolus Rex to check out but it’s very hard to find a standout song because any album from Art of War onwards is just fantastic.
