Following the news that Primus are working on a concept album based around Willy Wonka we wondered what other movies deserve decent concept albums. Cradle Of Filth re-working Carry On Screaming, anyone?
MANOWAR // Conan The Barbarian
The first cinematic adventure of Robert E Howard’s musclebound noble savage is a no-brainer for Manowar; Schwarzenegger’s definitive sword-and-sorcery epic was a formative influence on the aesthetic and attitude of the band, whose debut emerged shortly after the movie (1982, great year for loincloths). New York’s true metal giants not only dressed like the Cimmerian warrior, but also turned to Conan illustrators Ken Kelly and Ken Landgraf for sleeve art.
**Potential Song Title: **To The Hellfires With Thulsa Doom.
ELECTRIC WIZARD // Dracula AD 1972
The Devon doomlords would probably morph the identity of Bram Stoker’s immortal titular Count into their own hallucinogenic twist on the vampire myth, Drugula, but this lurid tale of hip 70s groovers taking sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll too far and summoning Christopher Lee at a Satanic ritual in Swinging London is surely crying out for the E-Wiz treatment.
Potential Song Title: Tell Us About The Blood, Johnny.
AC/DC // Crocodile Dundee
A rugged frontiersman from the outback, who wrestles crocodiles and kills snakes with his bare hands, heads to the bright lights of the USA, frightens off punks with superior weaponry, gets the girl and triumphs a hero. A fine analogy for the early impact of AC/DC, whose raucous bar-room boogie broke even bigger in the States than Paul Hogan’s loveable Aussie archetype.
Potential Song Title: That’s Not A Knife (That’s A Knife).
CARCASS // Re-Animator
Released in 1985 – the same year the embryonic Carcass were formed – what better movie for the reanimated Scouse grind legends to get their teeth into than this fondly-remembered cult Lovecraft adaptation: a grisly medical horror with lashings of imaginative gore offset with a mischievous streak of black humour. Like vocalist, bassist, lyricist and designer Jeff Walker, producer Brian Yuzna studied forensic pathology textbooks and morgue photos for stomach-churning authenticity.
Potential Song Title: Cat Dead, Details Later.
NIGHTWISH // The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
As they’ve already tackled Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera, perhaps the next most suitable project for the Finnish operatic rockers is Disney’s big-budget fantasy based on CS Lewis’ lively children’s adventure of Christlike lions, talking fauns and white witches in a magical wintry realm. Tuomas Holopainen has often enthused about the orchestral soundtrack, and the film’s sumptuous mysticism and innocent wonder fits the band’s family-friendly MO to a tee.
Potential Song Title: Turkish Delight Suite Part I: The Tempting Of Edmund.
CRADLE OF FILTH // Carry On Screaming
Dani would possibly rather get his teeth into some old lesbian vampire flicks, but surely the most appropriate film for Cradle to tackle at this point is this pitch-perfect horror spoof from another long-running British cultural institution. Glamorous girls snatched in moonlit woods by lumbering wolf-men, a camp undead scientist reviving the Egyptian god Rubbatiti, tons of dodgy puns and Gothic seductress Fenella Fielding’s pneumatic cleavage: ideal grist to the Filth mill.
Potential Song Title: Foul Feet Smell Something Horrible.
FEAR FACTORY // Blade Runner
Burton C Bell has been name-checking Ridley Scott’s vision of Philip K Dick’s futuristic dystopia since his earliest interviews; his lyrics owe an acknowledged debt to the tale, and film dialogue was sampled on their 1992 debut. So it’s high time FF tried replicating the world of Deckard and the replicants with their industrial cybermetal grooves – or perhaps they should wait until 2019, the year in which the film is set.
Potential Song Title: EMS-3 Recombination (Repressor Protein).
BABYMETAL // Pokémon: The First Movie
A shamelessly crass, vacuous and meaningless corporate enterprise that will either confuse, bore or annoy anyone over the age of 10… and the film’s no good either (ho ho)! Japan’s controversial J-pop-tech-death lolitas Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal (they even sound like Pokémon) certainly owe a musical debt to the film’s soundtrack, featuring kindred spirits of chirpy teen girl-pop like Christina Aguilera, NSync, BWitched and Britney Spears’ worst song.
**Potential Song Title: **Pikachu’s Vacation.
HIGH ON FIRE // One Million Years BC
What more fitting subject matter for Matt Pike’s trio of rampaging barbarians than this kitsch 60s prehistoric cult classic? With giant spiders, huge lizards, marauding dinosaurs, cavemen fighting over meat, armed tribal revolt, volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides and voluptuous primeval beauty Raquel Welch in a fur bikini, there’s plenty of lyrical inspiration, although Pike should probably sing it in the primitive grunts that make up the film’s dialogue.
Potential Song Title: Rock Tribe Revolution.
FINNTROLL // Monty Python And The Holy Grail
Guitarist Skrymer has called this magnificently silly Arthurian spoof his favourite film, and these wacky Finns look like they’ve emerged from the Cave of Caerbannog via Terry Gilliam’s fevered imagination, and sound like Sir Robin’s minstrels with drums and electric guitars. Of course they’ll have to translate everything into Finnish.
Potential Song Title: Pyhä Käsi Kranaatti (Holy Hand Grenade), Tappaja Kana (Killer Rabbit) and Linna Pernarutto (Castle Anthrax).
