As you’ll likely have already gathered from today’s edition of Throwback Thursday, it’s World Cup time! We here at Horns Up want to make sure everyone enjoys their sportball to the fullest, so we’ve created a special Spotify playlist for you kids at home–a soundtrack to play in the background as you glue your eyes to the six-packed, hair-greased male models kicking a ball around on your television sets. We call it the 2014 World Cup of Metal.
Here’s how it works
IN THEORY: 32 different countries are contesting the 2014 FIFA World Cup. We pick one band from each of them, and then pick one song from each of those to add to the playlist, incorporating all kinds of subgenres and introducing you to some new music along the way.
IN PRACTICE: After a thorough dig through several well-established metal resources, we determined that only 28 of the 32 countries contesting the 2014 FIFA World Cup actually have any metal bands to speak of. We dug through the ones that do produce metal, found some acceptable song entries, and added those to the list.
At times, finding bands with Spotify-accessible recordings was a tricky endeavor; surely there’s no shortage of possibilities from England or Germany, but Uruguay or Croatia? Considerably more difficult. And the countries without any known metal bands to speak of? Don’t worry, we’ve found a way to cover them as well. But for now, take a look at the playlist below:
TRACK LIST:
GROUP A:
- Brazil: Sepultura – “Refuse/Resist”
- Croatia: Agharti – “The Sky is Falling”
- Mexico: Brujeria – “Brujerizmo”
- Cameroon: *
GROUP B:
- Spain: Machetazo – “Horca”
- Netherlands: Epica – “Never Enough”
- Chile: Necrosis – “Hidden Enemy”
- Australia: Psycroptic – “Ob(Servant)”
GROUP C:
- Colombia: Agony – “Die Alone”
- Greece: Septicflesh – “Order of Dracul”
- Ivory Coast: *
- Japan: Loudness- “Ashes in the Sky”
GROUP D:
- Uruguay: Upon Shadows – “Alchemy of Suffering”
- Costa Rica: Sight of Emptiness – “Essence”
- England: Iron Maiden – “Run to the Hills”
- Italy: Rhapsody – “Rain of a Thousand Flames”
GROUP E:
- Switzerland: Celtic Frost – “Circle of the Tyrants”
- Ecuador: Gastrorrexis – “Eaten by Worms”
- France: Gojira – “Flying Whales”
- Honduras: Khaos – “Roleando”
GROUP F:
- Argentina: Auvernia – “Blue Blood”
- Bosnia & Herzegovina: My Last Suicide – “Crucified for Nothing”
- Iran: Angband – “Persia”
- Nigeria: *
GROUP G:
- Germany: Rammstein – “Du Hast”
- Portugal: Moonspell – “Lickanthrope”
- Ghana: *
- United States: Pantera – “Cowboys from Hell”
GROUP H:
- Belgium: Aborted – “Coffin Upon Coffin”
- Algeria: Barbaros – “Old Shadows”
- Russia: Arkona – “Na strozyh novyh let”
- South Korea: Mahatma – “Unseen Enemy”
As you’ll see, the four countries that haven’t churned out any known metal bands–Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana–all happen to be African nations. (So is Algeria, to be fair, but they gave us Barbaros, who kick an ass) What to do to ensure these countries get their chances at goalshots and slide-tackles? Well, we couldn’t accommodate them on Spotify, but we may have found something better–a great little ditty from the team at Picnicface:
Boom! That covers us. Happy World Cupping, everyone!
Live. Love. Plow. Horns Up.
Nine Circles 
Rammstein over Equilibrium and Obscura, among many others. We sure are daring, us.
Dude, who says GERMANY more than Rammstein? They even made sure to tell us they were from there in the title of their greatest hits comp! Not thrilled about having to use Du Hast either (oh hai cliches!) but Spotify refuses to get more than four Rammstein songs.
Keep those page views comin, Caligula!
Keep those page views comin, Caligula!
Yup, and limiting the definition of metal is gonna do wonders for it! Because god knows refusing to push boundaries is the metal way! Judging those that have a more diverse interest in music is cool, too. Bigotry – sounds like just the thing the genre needs.
not a ‘best of’ list. but ya know, reading can be hard sometimes. youll get em next time champ!