Fictional HR/HM bands in movies

Keir · Post by **Keir** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 1:44 am

I know this subject has been touched on a few times in other threads, but I'd like to put together a comprehensive list of fictional hard rock/heavy metal bands featured in movies from the 1980s (or late 70s/early 90s). I've been thinking about this because of the Sacrifyx discussion in the "Trading stories" thread, and also because I just watched Dr. Alien and was totally not expecting the excellent pop-metal "Killer Machine". Of course, many of the bands in these movies are far from actual metal, but if they are presented as such in the movie than I think that counts. There are lots more than this, but here's a quick list off the top of my head.

EDIT: I’m expanding this to include real bands, as long as their movie appearance is in a fictional sense.

Movie Title (Year)
Artist Name (pseudonym, if applicable): Comments.
Youtube link.

Beach Balls (1988)
Dr. Starr (as Severed Heads In A Bag)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuV1euKsMEY

Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Wyld Stallyns

Black Roses (1988)
King Kobra (as Black Roses)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFnPaI5rUJo

Blood Tracks (1985)
Easy Action (as Solid Gold)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy4BoSzOzGY

Dr. Alien (1989)
Sex Mutants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40V2cwXngNQ

The Dungeonmaster (1984)
W.A.S.P.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd36mSbmNcE

Eat The Rich (1988)
Motorhead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dj-q-SF7iA

Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas (1977)
The Nightmare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTvkRgbwPfI

The Gate (1987)
Sacrifyx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4h3suwonk

Hack-O-Lantern (1988)
DC Lacroix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7JuiP-0tPg

Hard Rock Zombies (1984)
Holy Moses: No relation to the German thrash metal band. Two of these guys formed the band Silent Rage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUEK6FlOmkY

The Invisible Kid (1988)
Puss 'N Boots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nyhGGGaxBo

Lone Wolf (1988)
Eddie Lupinsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qImy81vkfY

New Year's Evil (1981)
Shadow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euuX0aGvZ2o

The Rejuvenator (1988)
Poison Dollys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlwG3iWJit8

Rock 'N Roll Nightmare (1987)
Thor (as Triton)

Rocktober Blood (1980)
Sorcery (as Rocktober Blood)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmfAof2K2ao

Shock 'Em Dead (1991)
Spastic Colon: Features Michael Angelo Batio on guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWzxPncVXc

Sons Of Steel (1989)
Black Alice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBwW3K0ZUtA

Stunt Rock (1978)
Sorcery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXNBS4WqyX8

Terror On Tour (1980)
The Clowns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxcGu7eqCo

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Spinal Tap

Thunder Alley (1985)
Surgical Steel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZOU0I_I1p4

Trick Or Treat (1986)
Fastway (as Sammi Curr)

Vice Versa (1988)
Malice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GEuRhIntvE

Wild At Heart (1990)
Powermad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEz-cwJxtu8

Trigger · Post by **Trigger** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:39 am

Rock Star(the movie)-Steel Dragon(the band), one that comes to mind...

Black Axe · Post by **Black Axe** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:29 am

Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
By Goblin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2yGLTsnisc

Korgüll · Post by **Korgüll** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:33 pm

SONS OF STEEL (movie)
Black Alice (band)
http://www.sonsofsteel.com.au/home.htm

Nonseinormale65 · Post by **Nonseinormale65** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:37 pm

Opera( "Terror At The Opera", a 1987 movie by Dario Argento)
Steel Grave(fake monicker,actually Gow)

two songs included,"Knight of the Night" and "Steel Grave",listen to them on the tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsOlzkPkKM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0j12nQtDNk[/b]

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:54 pm

I've never seen this movie(want to though) but it should qualify:

NEW YEAR'S EVIL 1981
Shadow (performing as a punk band at a New Year's show)

Shadow website:
http://68.99.226.85:5803/Shadow/newyearsevil.html

youtube trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euuX0aGvZ2o

khiijol · Post by **khiijol** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:45 pm

new years evil is ok, the club shots are the coolest part of the movie

"hard rock zombies" though, holy shit, what an absurd film... highly recommended for trash and z-grade nonsense lovers. the band shots are just the icing on the cake (though contain many LOLs), this film sinks to much lower depths than just rocksploitation

i forget the name of the band (if theres ever one given?) but the main character in argento's "four flies on grey velvet" is a drummer in some deep purple-esque hard/downer/prog rock band

poison dollys were in rejuvenator... i kinda wish they were a fake band cuz that track is way cooler than the rest of their recorded output which really sucks

def con dos play the fake satanic band in "el dia de la bestia" but i also forget their name (something generic like 'infierno", their demo tape is shown at one point)

GJ · Post by GJ » Mon Apr 04, 2011 6:23 pm

You might find something of interest in this (related) thread.

Keir · Post by **Keir** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:20 pm

Thanks for the recommendations, though some of them don't really apply.

GJ wrote:You might find something of interest in this (related) thread.

I remember that thread, but most of the discussion seemed to center around soundtracks and the acting careers of metal musicians. I’m really looking for movies where the band actually takes part in the movie (typically by way of a live performance). I suppose there’s no real reason for me to limit this to fictional bands, that was just to keep documentaries and concerts off the list. So I guess real bands performing in fictional movies (such as Shadow in New Years Evil) will count.

khiijol wrote:poison dollys were in rejuvenator... i kinda wish they were a fake band cuz that track is way cooler than the rest of their recorded output which really sucks

Haha, I know what you mean. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that one, I guess I’ll have to add it to my watch list now. Speaking of all girl hard rock bands, I think Puss N Boots were in The Invisible Kid. I’ll have to double check that.

DeathStrike Kömmander · Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:26 am

According to The metal archives:

Malice (USA) appears as themselves in the 1988 movie "Viceversa", playing a live concert.

ugobo · Post by **ugobo** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:43 am

Powermad appears as themself in Davic Lynch's Wild At Heart (1990)...

MetalizeR · Post by **MetalizeR** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:22 am

Thunder Alley (1985)
Surgical Steel

Up in Smoke (1978)
Cheech and Chong (best rock performace ever!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHmBs3-uR6w

bigfootkit · Post by **bigfootkit** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:01 pm

Let's not forget SORCERY's appearance in the movie STUNT ROCK.
Didn't THOR & W.A.S.P. both appear in movies back in the '80's too?

Keir · Post by **Keir** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:16 am

bigfootkit wrote:Didn't THOR & W.A.S.P. both appear in movies back in the '80's too?

Thor "acted" in a bunch of movies, but I think Rock 'N Roll Nightmare is the only one to actually feature a musical performance. W.A.S.P. was on the soundtrack to a few 80s horror films (Ghoulies II imediately springs to mind) but I don't recall the band actually appearing in any of them.

Ernest Thesiger · Post by **Ernest Thesiger** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:20 am

Keir wrote:W.A.S.P. was on the soundtrack to a few 80s horror films (Ghoulies II imediately springs to mind) but I don't recall the band actually appearing in any of them.

W.A.S.P. were offered starring roles in a feature film back around 1984, but they decided they didn't want to look like "heavy metal Monkees" after all.