SF Signal: H.P. Lovecraft, Headbanger

H.P. Lovecraft, Headbanger

An fun article at Burlington Free Press talks about books that have inspired heavy metal music. Headbangers, it seems, make ardent readers. Many of them base their music on the works of classic authors.

But which genre writers are most often echoed in the strains of heavy metal?

H.P. Lovecraft, for one, whose writings have inspired songs by Metallica and Dead Meadow. Led Zeppelin and Rush have songs based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Iron Maiden even does a take on Frank Herbert's Dune.

I googled that last one and found this bit of interesting trivia on wikipedia:

Also on the Piece of Mind album, renowned author Frank Herbert came into conflict with the band when they wanted to record a song named after the book Dune. Not only did Herbert refuse to allow the song to be called "Dune", he also refused to allow a spoken quotation from the book to appear as the track's intro. Bass player Steve Harris's polite request was met with a stern reply from the agent: "No. Because Frank Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially rock bands like Iron Maiden". This statement was backed up with a legal threat, and eventually the song was renamed "To Tame A Land" and released in 1983.