{"id":359415,"date":"2025-08-20T12:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359415\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T12:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:33:11","slug":"we-need-to-talk-about-those-heavy-metal-needle-drops-in-alien-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359415\/","title":{"rendered":"We need to talk about those heavy metal needle drops in Alien: Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alien: Earth is causing a major stir in horror and sci-fi circles right now – and with good reason. The Alien<\/a> prequel series, which launched last week on Hulu<\/a> in the US and via Disney+<\/a> in the UK and Ireland, has received widespread critical acclaim for producing a story and accompanying characters that feel true to the franchise’s origins, while offering some fresh ideas and surprising twists.<\/p>\n

One big surprise has been the series’ soundtrack. While Alien: Earth’s score, composed by Jeff Russo, offers the kind of drama, tension and otherworldly eeriness you’d expect from an Alien property, the show has also thrown out some delightfully left-field needle drops – including a clutch of metal classics.<\/p>\n

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Some soundtrack spoilers for Alien: Earth are about to follow, but we won’t spoil anything from the plot, promise.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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The end of episode one, Neverland, sees one group of characters about to attempt a rescue mission of sorts, with a beautifully timed drop of Dio-era Black Sabbath<\/a> classic The Mob Rules sending the ep into its end credits.<\/p>\n

It’s a startling change of pace for the Alien<\/a> franchise as a whole, and it’s not a one-off: the end of episode two, Mr. October, is soundtracked by hallmark Tool<\/a> anthem Stinkfist, while episode three, Metamorphosis, is played off by a blast of Metallica’s Black Album<\/a> cut, Wherever I May Roam.<\/p>\n

Yep, it’s official: Alien: Earth is for the metalheads – and a recent interview with showrunner Noah Hawley explains why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go into the filming planning to do that, but as I got into the editorial process, each episode kind of ends on a cliffhanger,\u201d the director tells Decider<\/a>. \u201cWhat I\u2019m looking for is to make an arena show, right? It\u2019s something that feels bigger than a small theater. It\u2019s an arena show. And so, you know, I started to put these songs in at the end, these big classic metal or hard rock songs.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

“You don\u2019t see a lot of Tool on soundtracks,\u201d he adds, mentioning that he is a “big fan” of Stinkfist before teasing another big, heavy band that’ll be getting a needle drop in the show soon: “there\u2019s a Queens of the Stone Age<\/a> track in there later on. That\u2019s really great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to create a big feeling in the audience as the episodes end and you realise that you have to wait another week to see it,” Hawley says, “but it\u2019s a celebration of what you\u2019ve watched before and throwing you into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

So there you have it. With five more episodes of Alien: Earth to go, we’re already excited to see what other metal bangers get a play before the show wraps up.<\/p>\n

Alien: Earth is available to watch on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland and Hulu in the US. New episodes drop every Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alien: Earth | Official Trailer | FX – YouTube
\n\"Alien:<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alien: Earth is causing a major stir in horror and sci-fi circles right now – and with good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115061116424679869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}