These 10 metal songs will seriously intensify your next yoga session

We understand your skepticism completely. Yoga is a discipline that strives for the physical and mental well-being of its practicioners. It is the complete antithesis of hard rock and heavy metal, a music and culture that readily embraces headbanging and moshing. However, this APTV clip suggests that some forward-thinking metal artists can be used for these healing purposes. Really. Which is why we are counting down 10 songs that could easily work as metal yoga songs.

Don’t grab another copy of Metallica’s Black Album along with a yoga mat on your next trip to Target. Our choices for metal yoga songs fall within the realm of the fringe underground.  Doom-laden drone metal, ambient black-metal and twisted prog-rock are highly appropriate soundtracks for practicing yoga enthusiasts.

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The artists we considered for potential yoga metal songs are quite diverse. We have the smartest band the genre of nu-metal ever produced. There’s the inclusion of a technical hardcore unit that still ranks as one of the most dangerous bands in the world. The classic stentorian work of one of the mightiest “fume-rock” groups that ever existed. The progenitors of post-metal are represented, along with an internationally acclaimed prog-metal unit.

Really, it’s not as far-fetched as one might consider. When the Japanese noise scene was starting its rise in the ’90s, the breadth of fans was quite large. The metalheads loved it for its extremity. Jazz aficionados appreciated the texture. And more than a few professional academics cited that if you played those extreme records at low volume, they were extremely relaxing. That same attitude permeates the mindset of metal yoga students.  The rationale? As one metal yoga facility posits, “You can’t fully appreciate the light until you understand the darkness.”