When it comes to killing zombies, music can certainly help set the mood. Whether you are hacking off undead heads with machetes or sporting a great shotgun, having the right play list for your zombie killing can make your zombie apocalypse almost fun. Zombie killing songs are of course subjective – what I like will be different from what someone else likes. For this list, I have pulled together a combination of my favorites and a few standards. So grab your iPod or your MP3 player and set up a play list that will carry you through your zombie killing.
Note that I am including YouTube links to some of the songs – not all. You will have to go find the others yourself you lazy dork. Notice that I have an eclectic combination of musical genres – that’s just how I am. Like it or don’t like it.
“Diadems” from Megadeth is my choice for a song to get psyched up with – before the head bashing starts. This song ends with the phrase “vengeance is mine.” What better admonition to get your head in the game before you go out and kick some rotten zombie ass?
Foghat’s classic “Slow Ride” might not seem like good zombie killing fare, but does everything have to be typical? Not at all and “Slow Ride” makes it onto my list because it puts me in the mood for opening a can on somebody. You can sing along too. If zombies had emotions, like say fear, they would definitely be a little freaked out by a shotgun-wielding chick singing “Slow ride. . .take it easy. . .”
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” as performed by Apocalyptica – This is not your mama’s Grieg. This heavy adaptation of an already-excellent classical piece rocks and inspires you to load your shotgun, sharpen your machete and dispense some flesh eaters.
Tourniquet is a slightly obscure band that you have probably never heard of. They have some excellent tunes for cracking zombie skulls and four of them make my zombie killing play list – “Vanishing Lessons,” “Perfect Night for a Hanging,” “Bearing Gruesome Cargo” and “Pathogenic Occular Dissonance.”
The Pantera song “Cemetery Gates” is one of my favorites – for whatever it is that needs to be done. Suffice it to say, it’s pretty good for zombie killing with it’s mellow interludes that are overtaken by harder riffs – this makes it great if the zombie attack is not a free-for-all and has a few lulls in the action. You can understand most of the words too – which is a plus if you like to sing as you are destroying the undead.
There are songs, of course, that have been used in popular zombie movies. I happen to like several of them with or without the zombie movie.
“Down With the Sickness” by Disturbed was featured in 2004’s Dawn of the Dead and it of course makes the list.
If you’ve seen Zombieland, you will remember the awesome opening of the movie which featured the Metallica classic “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” This was one of my favorite songs before that movie, but it is fitting.
When the Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash also showed up in Dawn of the Dead and it has to be on the list.
The riff from Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” makes it a good addition for a zombie killing play list. Heck – it worked for Godzilla.
One of my personal favorites for doing anything, especially zombie killing would be Filter’s “Hey Man, Nice Shot.” Fitting title, huh? This song was also featured in a movie – Tales from the Crypt’s Demon Knight.
Yeah, I realize that Rage Against the Machine’s “Killin’ in the Name of” is NOT about zombies. It works though and it makes my list. As I said earlier, like it or don’t like it.
My zombie killing play list is rounded out by Lordi’s “Night of the Loving Dead,” “Beast and the Harlot” from Avenged Sevenfold, “Redneck” by Lamb of God, “Push It” by Static X and “My Apocalypse” by Arch Enemy (which sounds very much like the female lead singer is hocking a loogie as she sings – I call it “loogielicious.”)
The last song on my play list is unusual. It comes from the Christian band Bride and it is an awesome song called “Hired Gun.” One of the best lines in it is “I hope you and Jesus have it all worked out.” If you’ve never heard the song, you have to give it a listen to understand. Check it out here.
