Heavy metal is sexy! Granted, if you grew up in the 80s that's hardly news, glam metal making it so you could barely move for bands singing about fucking like a beast while nu metal had its fair share of bands doing it for the Nookie.
Thankfully the genre has consigned a lot of its most misogynistic and patently grim lyrical tendencies to a deep, dark bin - hello, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang - but that hasn't stopped bands from helping metalheads raise their horns (ahem) or otherwise celebrating a bit of physical intimacy for the past 30 years.
That in mind, here's a countdown of the songs that brought horniness back to metal after the 80s.
Sleep Token - The Summoning (Take Me Back To Eden, 2023)
Where better to start than with the freshly minted 'sexiest band in metal'? Sleep Token might wear masks and cover themselves in body paint, but that hasn't stopped fans fawning over them. Take Me Back To Eden single The Summoning arrived in January 2023 and kickstarted a running theme of lusty Sleep Token memes with its decidedly provocative bass drop and lines like "Oh, and my love/Did I mistake you for a sign from God? Or are you really here to cut me off? Or maybe just to turn me on" showing you don't have to take a sledgehammer to subtlety.
Halestorm - Love Bites (So Do I) (The Strange Case Of..., 2012)
Right out the gates, Halestorm kicked off their self-titled 2009 debut with It's Not You and I Get Off, two songs that made absolutely no secret of the band's themes of empowerment and sexuality that would in turn help make them a truly iconic force in the modern rock and metal landscape.
Frontwoman Lzzy Hale has since penned plenty of tracks that celebrate sex positivity, but perhaps the most iconic came on their second record, The Strange Case Of... giving us the rip-roaring Love Bites (So Do I) with lines like "So come and taste the reason/I'm nothing like the rest/I'll kiss you in a way/You'll never forget about me" embracing bravado without making you want to cover your eyes in lye.
Ghost - Monstrance Clock (Infestissumam, 2013)
With all their talk of tickled taints and naughty nuns, is it really a surprise that the Satanic Swedes Ghost have a few raunchy hits in their belfry? Granted, the likes of He Is and Kiss The Go-Goat are veiled under the comparative innocence of love, but Monstrance Clock is, by Papa Emeritus' own reckoning, "a celebration of the female orgasm... in the name of Satan." Come Together, indeed.
Twin Temple - Let's Have A Satanic Orgy (God Is Dead, 2023)
We've come a long way from the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, Satan in modern metal less a scary figure of antagonistic corruption and more a metaphor for freedom from societal norms. Newcomers Twin Temple embrace that interpretation in its entirety, Let's Have A Satanic Orgy celebrating open, unabashed sexuality in all of its glory.
Taken from 2023's God Is Dead, Let's Have A Satanic Orgy is about as subtle as a bulldozer through your living room and gleefully, wonderfully brilliant for the fact. Just check out the chorus: "Take a ride on my broom/We're naked under the moon/Maybe we'll make love to you".
Scene Queen - MILF (Hot Singles In Your Area, 2024)
Metal's chief provocateur in pink, Scene Queen has never shied away from themes of empowerment and sex. But while songs like Pink Push-Up Bra and 18+ took aim at sexual misconduct, MILF (that's "Man I Love Fucking") is all about the celebration of sexuality, SQ mastermind Hannah Collins admitting in a Kerrang! interview it was written at a point where she was reclaiming her sexuality.
With lyrics like "Ooh, man I love fuckin'/Tickle me pink, smack my ass 'til it's blushin'/Down home, corn brеad, butter my muffin/Rhinestone cowgirl, buck, buck, buckin' yeehaw" we doubt anyone missed the message - and with a title like Hot Singles In Your Area we reckon there'll be plenty more to come when Scene Queen's debut album arrives in 2024.
Type O Negative - Christian Woman (Bloody Kisses, 1993)
Grunge might have killed the hedonistic excesses of hair metal, but that doesn't mean metal bands abandoned the idea of sexuality entirely after 1991. Type O Negative's doomed romanticism often left plenty of room for cheeky sensuality, the band's sense of humour shining through on the likes of My Girlfriend's Girlfriend and Wolf Moon (the latter an ode to oral fixations at a particular time of the month).
But when it comes to Type O Negative's horniest song, props go to their platinum-selling 1993 breakthrough Bloody Kisses and the song Christian Woman. A narrative about lusty nuns giving in to temptation, the track is exemplar of their arch sensibilities that could fold relgious allegory and romanticism into a sensual epic.
In This Moment - Adrenalize (Blood, 2012)
Effectively reinventing their sound and image on their fourth album Blood, In This Moment penned an anthem of self-empowerment with Whore, Maria Brink posing nude as part of the song's provocative online campaign.
But while Whore was all about challenging societal norms, preceding single Adrenalize takes top spot for sheer unabashed sexuality, pulsing rhythms and lyrics like "I crave excess, turning wine into sweat/Dripping down my neck/I can't deny, I'd die without this/Make me feel like a God/Adrenaline and sex" singing it loud and proud.
Faith No More - Be Aggressive (Angel Dust, 1992)
Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum came out publicly in 1992, the same year the band released the sprawling alt-metal masterpiece Angel Dust. Bottum was also the chief architect behind one of FNM's thrashiest and most unapologetically sexual songs, Be Aggressive.
That's no mean feat considering the band also had Jizzlobber on that same record, Bottum admitting in an interview that "(The lyrics are about) Swallowing. It was a pretty fun thing to write, knowing that Mike [Patton] was going to have to put himself on the line and go up onstage and sing these vocals."
Deftones - You've Seen The Butcher (Diamond Eyes, 2010)
There are whole Reddit threads and Tiktoks dedicated to pointing out just how horny Deftones - and their fanbase - are, the band's weightless melodies leaving plenty of room for interpretations of sensuality. While fans might gravitate towards the likes of Sextape - largely due to the title, with frontman Chino Moreno admitting the song is actually more about "spiritual isolation" - there's definitely a thin veil chucked over the content of fellow Diamond Eyes track You've Seen The Butcher.
Opening on the lyrics "Don't wanna take it slow/I wanna take you home/And watch the world explode/From underneath your glow" it's not a massive leap to see You've Seen The Butcher as Deftones most carnal song, the video certainly cementing that status.
VV - Neon Noir (Neon Noir, 2023)
For the past 20 years, Ville Valo has been synonymous with the idea of sex icons in metal, the mind behind Love Metal having more lusty narratives than a Mills & Boon catalogue. No surprise then that Ville got right to the heart of it all with his (semi) eponymous project, romancing a sheep in Loveletting before waxing poetic on Neon Noir, the title-track of his solo debut. "Hear the sigh from the deep/Kissed by desire/My sick rose in bloom for you" - yep, business as usual.
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (The Downward Spiral, 1994)
For all Trent Reznor's protests that Closer is actually a meditation on obssession and self-hatred, the fact remains that any time the subject of metal and horny songs comes up, Closer is likely to top the list. From its lyrical content ("You let me penetrate you" is hardly subtle) to its pulsing electro beat, Closer has been the soundtrack to many a metal club hook-up in the near-30 years since its release, becoming one of metal's biggest lust anthems (sorry, Trent).
Creeper - Cry To Heaven (Sanguivore, 2023)
Yes, another pick from 2023. Creeper going full Jim Steinman on a concept record based about a vampire couple, it'd be more astounding if they hadn't written an ode to lust. Thankfully Cry To Heaven has that base covered in spades, frontman Will Gould adopting his best gothic croon as he utters lyrics like "My cannibal baby, she has a hunger in her eyes/One hand on her hip and the other down his thighs/I've got a bloodlust baby, she wears a human disguise/Black lace and leather with her natural desires".
