Think that metal bands only listen to metal bands? Think again.
Every month in our unholy magazine as a part of our Discs Of Doom feature, we ask your favourite bands to name the album that no one will believe they own a copy of. A guilty pleasure of sorts, if you will. Sometimes the answers aren’t all that surprising. Sometimes they’re pretty spectacular.
So, without further ado, here are some of the more unexpected listening habits of some of rock and metal’s greatest names…
LMFAO
SORRY FOR PARTY ROCKING [INTERSCOPE, 2011]
CHOSEN BY: MATT TUCK, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
“About a year ago I bought an LMFAO album. I don’t love it but there were a couple of singles that were doing well and it’s good fun party music. Stupid and silly but kind of unique, too. I don’t know why I bought it…well I do, actually, I was drunk. Ha ha ha!”
NELSON
AFTER THE RAIN [GEFFEN, 1990]
CHOSEN BY: CHRIS JERICHO, FOZZY
“They were playing (Can’t Live Without Your) Love And Affection on the radio and I was like, ‘Who are these guys?!’ They were cool back then. It’s a really good record!”
KATY PERRY
TEENAGE DREAM [CAPITOL, 2010]
CHOSEN BY: AMY LEE, EVANESCENCE
“OK, I didn’t buy it, it was given to me, but I put it into my iTunes, so it’s Katy Perry. Don’t be hatin’, it’s definitely a guilty pleasure. I like that son E.T. I wonder if there could be a heavy version of it…”
LADY GAGA
BORN THIS WAY [INTERSCOPE, 2011]
CHOSEN BY: CRISTINA SCABBIA, LACUNA COIL
“I like it, it has good songs, but the previous album was a bit more sophisticated. I think the one before sounded more genuine. I like things when they’re more spontaneous than contrived.”
GWEN STEFANI
THE SWEET ESCAPE [INTERSCOPE, 2003]
CHOSEN BY: SHAGRATH, DIMMU BORGIR
“It’s actually pretty cool. Of course, pop music isn’t my favourite, but I’ve become much more open-minded in the last decade – to me, good music is good music. Every time we’re on a tour bus with a bunch of metalheads, it’s always a kickstarter to put on something like this or Lady Gaga. Everyone always sings along!”
DIMMU BORGIR
SPIRITUAL BLACK DIMENSIONS [NUCLEAR BLAST, 1999]
CHOSEN BY: DANI FILTH, CRADLE OF FILTH
“What do I like about it? I didn’t say I liked it, I just said I’ve got it! Ha, ha, ha! But it’s some of their better stuff.”
SHAMPOO
WE ARE SHAMPOO [FOOD, 1994]
CHOSEN BY: MR LORDI, LORDI
“I was a big fan of Shampoo. They were fairly big everywhere…for about five minutes. I liked the attitude, and I liked the choruses – Viva La Megababes and songs like that. I like girls singing.”
MICHAEL JACKSON
BAD [EPIC, 1987]
CHOSEN BY: ANGELA GOSSOW, ARCH ENEMY
“Thriller and Bad are two of my favourite albums, but if I had to choose it would probably be Bad. He was obviously a very tortured artist, but he made fantastic music.”
DEPECHE MODE
GREATEST HITS [AMIGA, 1987]
CHOSEN BY: SERJ TANKIAN, SYSTEM OF A DOWN
“What’s interesting is to see from someone else’s perspective and look at what they’d be surprised at. I didn’t listen to any rock and metal until my late teens. I like goth and New Wave in the 80s – Depeche Mode, Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus…”
BABAMANIA
JUNGLELIVIN’ [TEICHIKU, 2003]
CHOSEN BY: WADE MACNEIL, GALLOWS
“Alexisonfire was on a major label in Japan, so when I went to the offices to meet everybody. I got pretty much their entire record catalogue – all this J-pop stuff that is absolutely insane sounding to me. It sounds so foreign, and that’s why I absolutely love it.”
NICKI MINAJ
PINK FRIDAY [Cash Money, 2010]
CHOSEN BY: DAVEY HAVOK, AFI
“It’s difficult because people have so many varied ideas of what I am into! I love Nicki Minaj, I particularly like her first record. The things she does with her voice, what she says, her flow, the continuity of her entire aesthetic, she is just wildly talented. I’ve seen her perform live and it’s all just very fun!”
KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND
PART 3 [TK, 1976]
CHOSEN BY: STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN
“I was gassing up my RV the other day, and in the US, sometimes they have a television on the gas pump, playing commercials or music. They were playing I’m Your Boogie Man, and I was groovin’! I had a couple of those records back in the day!”
JANET JACKSON
RHYTHM NATION 1814 [A&M, 1989]
CHOSEN BY: LZZY HALE, HALESTORM
“This one actually isn’t my fault! When I went out on tour with Amy Lee from Evanescence she gave me this album. We’d had a few too many to drink one night and we started singing Janet Jackson, so Amy sent it to me, and then she rented us this karaoke machine for the end of tour party and we sang a couple of those songs… We weren’t bad, actually!”
BRITNEY SPEARS
FEMME FATALE [2011, JIVE]
CHOSEN BY: MICHAEL STARR, STEEL PANTHER
“I like it because every time I see her I want to fuck her.”
MILES DAVIS
KIND OF BLUE [COLUMBIA, 1959]
CHOSEN BY: JAMES LABRIE, DREAM THEATER
“That’s one of my favourite jazz albums. Would people think I go for that? Ha ha!”
EMINEM
THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP [INTERSCOPE, 2000]
CHOSEN BY: CHRIS MOTIONLESS, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE
“I love Eminem. When I was getting into music, it was all heavy, then he came in and that was the first [hip hop] I was able to listen to and think, ‘This is the same as those bands!’ Everything he does sounds so fucking heavy.”
