March Is Metal Month, So Proclaims Amazon

March is metal month. At least that is what Amazon Music Unlimited proclaims. So I got sick of watching the Metal Month banner rotate and I finally clicked on it yesterday. There are special play lists, all metal. Here’s some examples:

• The Top 100 Most Played: Metal
• Metal Forge
• Metal Strikes
• Instrumental Metal for Studying (Mike Portnoy makes an appearance here)
• Dark Industrial Metal

… and of course, the 100 Greatest Hair Metal Songs

So you know which one I picked.

The “Hair Metal” playlist is everything you would expect, from Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” to Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” There isn’t a single rare track in the bunch but Hanoi Rocks does make an appearance. I will say you could pop this play list on during a party and walk away. Everyone would be happy because every song is recognizable.

If you want to get into the weeds, you can argue if Van Halen is “hair metal” because they are on this play list a lot (both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar versions). Motley Crue, Guns n’ Roses and Poison show up a ton. Queensryche is on the list, but again, are they “hair metal?” Not really, but they are always looped in with the genre and they seemed to embrace it in the 80s and now, quite frankly.

I have no idea if the Top 100 songs appear in any sort of ranking. The first track on the play list is “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and the last is “High Enough” by Damn Yankees. If there is some ranking afoot, I’d move Damn Yankees WAY higher in the list.

So try the play list if you want to listen to songs you love but have heard nine million times before. The play list is nearly seven and a half hours long. So great for a road trip, too!