The heavy metal movie soundtrack everyone argues about is the one attached to the 1981 Canadian animated anthology Heavy Metal, a film released by Columbia Pictures on August 7, 1981, with a $9.3 million budget that returned $20.1 million at the box office. It was a moderate hit. The record was something else entirely: a snapshot of hard rock at the exact moment it split into metal, arena rock and new wave, packaged by a manager who knew exactly which bands sold.
Below you get the tracklist, the story behind who chose it, how it differs from the 2000 sequel, and where to actually find a copy. One warning up front: the two albums share a title and almost nothing else, more on that below.
01Who put the soundtrack together
Irving Azoff packaged it. That single name explains the whole sound of the record.
Azoff was a music manager with a roster full of arena acts, and he treated the album less like a score and more like a compilation he could sell on its own merits. The result: Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Sammy Hagar, Don Felder, Cheap Trick, DEVO, Journey and Nazareth, among others. That is not a metal record. It is a rock radio record with a metal spine.
Notice who is missing. There is no original orchestral score carrying the film, the music is a set of songs, and the film was built to accommodate them rather than the other way around. The movie itself is an anthology of science-fiction and fantasy stories tied together by a single theme: an evil force described as "the sum of all evils." Several animation houses worked in parallel on different segments, which is why the visual style shifts hard from story to story. The soundtrack shifts just as hard.
That mismatch is the first thing to understand before you buy anything.
02What's actually on the 1981 album
The original release is a double LP, and the running order matters more than most people expect.
Don Felder's "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" opens the record and became the song most people mean when they search for the movie's theme. Sammy Hagar's contribution is the other one that gets pulled onto playlists constantly, and yes, the version on the album is the one people usually want, not a later live or re-recorded take. Blue Öyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, DEVO, Journey and Nazareth fill out the rest.
If you only know the film from cable reruns, the sequencing will surprise you: the loudest tracks are not front-loaded. The record breathes.
Photo: Sami TÜRK · Pexels
| Format | What you actually get | Typical price (US) | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original 1981 2LP | Full tracklist, gatefold sleeve | $15-$60 used | Worn inner sleeves, surface noise |
| Later vinyl reissue | Same running order, cleaner press | $25-$40 new | Confirm it's the 1981 tracklist |
| CD | Full album, no side breaks | $10-$20 | Some pressings omit a track |
| Streaming | Most of the album | Subscription | Regional gaps and swapped versions |
Prices swing with condition and pressing, so treat those ranges as a sanity check rather than a quote. A sealed original is a collector item; a playable copy is cheap.
The streaming problem is the one that catches people out. Licensing on a 1981 compilation built from eight different labels' artists is messy, and tracks drop in and out of catalogs without warning. If a playlist looks short, it probably is.
For a different flavor of the same collector instinct, our guide to the best video game soundtracks covers how game scores get reissued and where the gaps show up.
03Heavy Metal 2000 is a different record
The sequel arrived in 2000 with its own soundtrack, and the two are constantly confused.
Heavy Metal 2000 leans harder into the nu-metal moment, the era's production, the era's bands. If you grew up on the 1981 film and buy the 2000 album expecting continuity, you will be disappointed in the first thirty seconds. They are two products from two different decades with two different audiences.
Search results mix them freely, which is exactly why so many people end up with the wrong file.
Photo: Jonathan Cooper · Pexels
04Three mistakes people make with this soundtrack
- Buying the sequel by accident. Check the release year on the sleeve, not just the title. "Heavy Metal" alone tells you nothing.
- Assuming it's all metal. Journey and DEVO are on this record. It is a rock compilation with a metal core, and that's the point.
- Trusting a streaming playlist to be complete. Compare the track count against the original 2LP listing before you decide a track "doesn't exist."
One more: don't assume the film's music is a continuous score. It isn't, and listening for leitmotifs will leave you hunting for something that was never recorded.
05Why this record still gets talked about
Because it caught a genre mid-split and didn't try to smooth it over.
By 1981, hard rock was fracturing into the polished arena sound and the heavier underground, and this album puts both on the same two discs without apology. That's why it reads as a time capsule rather than a curated statement. It's also why it keeps resurfacing in conversations about how music gets licensed for film, the same licensing knot that shaped later animated and game projects, from the Sonic original soundtrack onward.
If you want the short version: the 1981 album is worth owning, the 2000 album is worth hearing once, and the tracklist is worth checking before you spend anything.
FAQ
Who did the soundtrack for the movie Heavy Metal?
Music manager Irving Azoff packaged the 1981 album. It features Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Sammy Hagar, Don Felder, Cheap Trick, DEVO, Journey and Nazareth, among others.
What songs are on the Heavy Metal 1981 soundtrack?
The original double LP opens with Don Felder's "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" and includes contributions from Sammy Hagar, Blue Öyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, DEVO, Journey and Nazareth. Exact running order varies slightly between pressings.
What movie has a heavy metal soundtrack?
The 1981 animated anthology Heavy Metal is the one most people mean. Its 2000 sequel, Heavy Metal 2000, has a separate soundtrack built around the nu-metal sound of that era.
Is the Heavy Metal soundtrack on vinyl?
Yes, the original 1981 double LP and later reissues both exist. Used originals typically run $15-$60 depending on condition; new reissues sit around $25-$40.
Why are some tracks missing on streaming?
The album was assembled from several different labels' artists, so licensing is fragmented. Tracks can disappear from a service and return later without notice.
06More on the site
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