Brütal Legend

""What I hold in my hand... is not just gonna blow your mind. It's going to blow your soul.""

- Jack Black, Opening Cutscene

Brütal Legend is a heavy metal-themed Hack and Slash / Real Time Strategy with light elements of driving and Rhythm Games, developed by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts on Rocktober 16, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

The game is noteworthy in being inspired by, and providing a ludicrous amounts of Special Guests, Shout Outs, and references to just about everything metal. All the areas of the game are basically 1980s metal album covers, even. It provided yet another cult hit for Double Fine in their long history of cult hits, but received mixed reviews after its Development Hell ended. It has a very dedicated and vocal fanbase.

The story is pretty simple. Your average/The Ultimate roadie for your average Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore band is transported to the Land of Metal, where he must teach humanity the ways of true metal to free us from enslavement by the demons of the Tainted Coil. For literally all intents and purposes, it's a story that is neoclassical metal wish fulfillment, backed up by one hell of a soundtrack that encompasses pretty much all forms of metal.

Compare Metalocalypse, another Affectionate Parody of all things METAL.

"Eddie: Ok, I have a plan... Baron: Burn them?
 * Action Girl: Every single female character in the game. See characters page.
 * Affectionate Parody: Tim Schafer described Brutal Legend as "a love letter to metal." Special mention goes to Lionwhyte, who although is an Eighties Glam Rock stereotype, has some of the best metal and rock from that era, no matter how much people deny it.
 * Alien Sky: Lots of work went into the skies of Brütal Legend, which is never ever clear blue . Inspired by the popular works of Frank Frazetta, the sky's colors shifts all kinds of colors at all times, and at night, brilliant stars and evil looking nebulae shower the night sky. Each playable character has the power to change the sky to be themed around them, causing different effects.
 * All Part of the Show: When Ormagöden is summoned in the game's opening scene, no-one seems to realize his suddenly appearing and killing the entire band isn't part of the show. The crowd goes absolutely wild with joy, jumping, screaming, and throwing up horns.
 * All There in the Manual: Not the paper manual, but the in game Tour Book. It tells you everything about units, the world, and secrets. It's full of hilarious jokes and Lampshades things that don't make sense.
 * Almighty Janitor: Eddie. He can fix anything, (Except for Kabbage Boy's music,) build anything, and start a revolution with nothing. Yet he deliberately stays out of the spotlight. Check out his quote on the Hypercompetent Sidekick page.
 * And This Is For: Used during the penultimate boss fight.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Purchase the DLC, and you can change Eddie's clothing post game.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Every unit has a Load value. The total load can never exceed 40. What that 40 Load points consists of is up to you. Also, you can only have a certain number of specific units. As Ironheade you can only have one Rockcrusher, or as Drowning Doom you can only have three Brides.
 * Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: The Baron and Eddie, on how to deal with Metal Beasts-

Eddie: No.

Baron: Run them over with the bus?

Eddie: No...

Baron: Poison catnip?

Eddie: No, we're going to recruit them!

Baron: ... You must be joking."

"Headbanger1: It's a Devil screaming! Headbanger2: It's an Angel singing! Headbanger1: It is the pounding of Creation's Hammer upon The Anvil of Time! Headbanger3: It's fucking awesome! Eddie: It's called...Heavy Metal."
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The reason for the Titans' disappearance from Earth.
 * Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Eddie starts the game on one, and thinks it's awesome.
 * Autobots Rock Out: Subverted, considered a twist in the ending, many players expected one of these in the end and were taken by surprise.
 * Awesomeness Is Volatile: Ormagoden. Also invoked every time a character uses a guitar.
 * Badass Boast: "For the honor of Bladehenge, for the freedom of its people, and the glory...OF ITS METAL!"
 * Band Land: Albeit much less cute and innocent than most examples.
 * The Band Minus the Face: The ending.
 * Battle Cry: When Eddie performs the Battle Cry solo, a golden aura forms into Lars's sword (also called Battle Cry), and bursts into a soundwave. The sound compels allies to fight harder, boosting attack power (Double Teams can double in power.)

"Eddie: "A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good. Keep someone else safe. Help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good roadie stays out of the spotlight. If he's doing right, you don't even know he's there. And once in a while he might step on the stage to fix a problem. To set something right. And before you even realize he was there, or what he did, he's gone.""
 * Battle Cry can BUFF THE ROCKCRUSHER.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: The Titans are The Precursors, and are the strongest and most beautiful race of beings in the Age of Metal.
 * The Big Damn Kiss
 * Bilingual Bonus: The voices can be changed to a variety of languages. Tim Schafer commented that he did not have direct control over who dubbed the game in different languages, and that there is an actor who voices "German Jack Black", one for "French Jack Black," "Spanish Jack Black" and so on. His favorite foreign VA for the game is French Doviculus.
 * Book Ends: Eddie's expression of what he does.

"Eddie: Ha! I can't believe you fell for that twice!"
 * Bullfight Boss: Lampshaded with the worm-like boss.

"Eddie: Okay, but I can't be holding their hands the whole time. * chuckles* Get it? 'Cause their hands are too big. Ophelia: * sighs* "
 * The Call Has Bad Reception: Eddie's problems stem from this, and cause him to really
 * Cameo: The game features numerous appearances from major figures in metal:
 * Rob Halford plays General Lionwhyte and The Baron.
 * Lemmy Kilmister plays the Kill Master.
 * Lita Ford plays the Zaulia leader Rima (not Lita Halford, contrary to several internet sources).
 * Ozzy Osbourne plays the "Guardian of Metal," who basically is Ozzy.
 * The douche wearing the red "Kabbage Boy" shirt in the opening is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, who was previously Raz.
 * He also plays the guy who operates the Death Rack, later on.
 * Kyle Gass, the other half of Tenacious D, plays the role of a neurotic mortar cannon operating Bouncer who even has the same head as him.
 * David Cross plays the victim of the Screamwagon.
 * See the Intercontinuity Crossover entry below.
 * Camera Lock On
 * Camera Screw: The camera in the first boss battle automatically adjusts to give an excellent view of the boss and its attacks, at the cost of twisting your control plane around at odd angles.
 * When passing by side missions, the camera insists on showing them to you.
 * Also happens in the cannonier side missions when the cannon is fired. The game wants to make sure you see every badass explosion.
 * Car Fu: Your default attack for the Deuce is to ram people with it.
 * Cast of Snowflakes: Exaggerated. This is an action/RTS hybrid, and every single type unit is wildly different than every other. Check the character sheet!
 * Chekhov MIA:
 * Chekhov's Armory: Eddie has a hell of one. It includes
 * Chekhov's Gunman: When Eddie's climbing down the corpse mountain, you can spot a fan leech.
 * Chest Insignia: Several. Ophelia wears a bird with an ankh on her chest, which is a family crest from the Legend images. And each faction produces shirt merchandise with their crest on the center.
 * Civil Warcraft: General Lionwhyte's faction of Evil Counterparts.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The spotlights in the sky tell you what units are doing from afar.
 * Orange means attack or where they are attacking.
 * Pink means "Follow Me." They are chasing you.
 * Blue means "Defend." They are holding still.
 * Green means "Move," in which they are moving to a second green light that you designated.
 * Combination Attack: You can do this with all your units. They are called Double Teams. There are achievements/ trophies for doing it with all units of each side. They are also the most powerful attacks in the game.
 * A Commander Is You: They don't call it an Action/RTS hybrid for nothing...
 * Competitive Multiplayer: A first for Double Fine.
 * Concert Climax: As a stage takes damage, sirens blare and spotlights shoot upward in warning. At low health, fire and sparks flare up dramatically. The Tainted Coil stage actually bleeds.
 * Continuing Is Painful: If you die in a Stage Battle, the fans can revive you endless, but your opponent is awarded 50 Fans, punishing players who try to fight alone.
 * Continuity Nod: One can speculate on whether or not multiplayer is canon. In it,
 * Cool Car: All three Hero Units have their own, but the Deuce(AKA "Druid Plow") gets special attention in the campaign with a variety of weapons, upgrades, and paint jobs that can be bought from the Motor Forge.
 * Cool Hat: In team multiplayer, the avatars are distinguished by their stylish hats.
 * Cosmic Deadline:
 * Crazy Enough to Work: Action and RTS? Pffft. Who would even think something like that to be plasuible?
 * Cue the Sun: One of your solos does this. It gives a buff to all your units.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: In multiplayer, advanced players will control their armies as automatically as possible...so they can fly alone to your side, attack your units as much as possible and keep you on the defensive.
 * Summoning your car and driving all over your opponent's army nonstop is a quick way to make them Rage Quit.
 * In the single-player mode the fight between Lita and Ophelia is a curb-stomp battle. With a few swings of her pole-axe and a well-placed kick, Lita disarms Ophelia and knocks her to the ground. Only Eddie's intervention prevents Lita from killing Ophelia.
 * Damage Is Fire: Most vehicles catch fire when damaged.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: The Black Tear Rebellion, oh dear.
 * Dark Fantasy: mildly.
 * Dark Reprise: The romantic rock ballad "Holiday" plays over a dream sequence of Eddie and Ophelia frolicking on a beach stabbing druids, then as Eddie wakes up it brilliantly and eerily segues into the haunting and depressing "So Frail", by Mirrorthrone,
 * Deliberately Monochrome: When Skies Afire is active, the graphics switch to a flame-orange and b&w only color scheme.
 * Deus Sex Machina: Remember kids, enough orgy can initiate.
 * Development Gag: The older roadie in the intro is based off discarded concept art for Eddie.
 * Development Hell: And how! See the YMMV and Trivia pages.
 * Die, Chair, Die!: The Hero Unit will grumble and complain they're not doing any damage when they attack vehicles head on. In particular, Eddie provides obvious advice that the player should not be doing that, and should instead build anti-vehicle units.
 * Divide and Conquer: Inverted for beginners and played straight for advanced. Word of God says new players should start out by disregarding the RTS parts and focus completely on clumping your whole army together and fighting along side them on the ground, supporting them with buffs and using Double Team attacks. As players become more advanced, they must learn to spread their army around and bounce around supporting them as needed.
 * Don't Explain the Joke: When the Bouncers join Ironheade:
 * Don't Explain the Joke: When the Bouncers join Ironheade:

"Eddie: I'm going into the lair of the Metal Queen. Anybody got a problem with that? Bassist: *silence* Eddie: Look I don't have time to argue, my friend is dying! You sure you don't want to talk me out of it? Bassist: *silence* Eddie: *Departs then turns for one last glare.*"
 * Dronejam: In a moment of Wrong Genre Savvy, Eddie thinks a Thunderhog Bassist is doing this.

"Doviculus: You have your mother's eyes. And soon, so shall I. [Camera shifts to Eddie's POV] On a necklace, I think. [Pauses for a moment, then shoves his hand into the POV]"
 * Drop What You Are Doing: The "Rally Army" solo. Units will also call out to you in response.
 * Dueling Shows: Two rock stages set up. One stays standing.
 * Dying Like Very Very Camp Animals: All of Lionwhyte's faction, of the Les Collaborateurs type. Though Lionwhyte is the only one who could seriously be considered overly camp, since most of them are in it for the chicks and booze.
 * Earth-Shattering Poster: Drawn by Scott Campbell and, available for purchase.
 * Easter Egg: The game has a few:
 * If you play the game on December 8, the Ormagoden save game icon will be replaced by a picture of a dime in memorial of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, who was tragically killed on December 8, 2004.
 * If you play the game on February 19, the save game icon will be the lightning bolt from ACDC's logo in remembrance of singer Bon Scott, who died on February 19, 1980.
 * If you play the game on March 19, the save game icon will be an "RR", remembering guitarist Randy Rhoads, who died in a plane crash on March 19, 1982.
 * Easy Communication: Subverted; you have to be close enough to your units for them to hear your orders. However, the game gives you a "Rally Army" solo, which calls your troops to your position, no matter how far away they are.
 * Easy Logistics
 * The Eighties: Lionwhyte and some Ironheade.
 * Empathic Environment: The three factions can change the sky with guitar solos to benefit them.
 * Enormous Engine: The Deuce is upgraded with progressively larger engines as the game goes on (because "more powerful" equals "bigger" in this setting), to the point where you start to wonder how Eddie manages to see the road behind the hulking motor.
 * Epic Rocking: The equivalent of casting a magic spell.
 * Escort Mission: Tour of Destruction (all three of them).
 * Evil Is Visceral: Natch. Everything one could associate with Fire and Brimstone Hell is considered neutral or good, such as Ormagoden, meanwhile the Tainted Coil are the Big Bad and are disgusting, diseased, Body Horror covered demons.
 * Eye Scream: If you fail the stage battle against the Tainted Coil at the end.

"Eddie (setting beacon): Right there! Lita: How did you do that? Eddie:Light itself bends to my will!"
 * Faux Symbolism: Pentagrams as objective markers.
 * Doviculus' opening his chest and displaying his heart, complete with a thorny crown around it.
 * Fastball Special: Eddie and Ophelia's combo attack.
 * Final Boss Preview: Doviculus gets one hell of one. It involves one casual murder, a few words of truth, the destruction of a city with a bored snap of fingers. All set to Through The Fire And Flames.
 * Fling a Light Into the Future: Before they ascended to a higher plane of existence, the Titans left behind the knowledge and means to recreate their technology.
 * Forged by the Gods: A lot of the stone and metal land scape. In particular, the sword in the center of Bladehenge is called the Blade of the Metal gods.
 * For Massive Damage: Use your axe less, and Double Team more.
 * Four Is Death: Out of all the characters and monsters in the game, only four can wield the Power of Rock in battle. That said, not all of them get out of the game alive.
 * Frank Frazetta: A lot of in game art is inspired by his work. See Alien Sky.
 * When he died, Double Fine created lots of tribute art for him.
 * Frickin Laser Panthers!
 * Friendly Fireproof: As long as Eddie's the one dishing it out, his soldiers show an amazing immunity to fire, explosions, lightning, lasers, and zeppelin crashes.
 * Full Boar Action: The Razorfire Boar. This creepy, yet awesome mammal is a boar with the body of a motorcycle, and pointed tusks made of steel. You can ride them, but Ophelia kills them and converts their engine-like carcass into a massive rifle.
 * Functional Magic: Fuelled by Heavy Metal. Power of Rock indeed.
 * Best example: bass solos played on sufficiently thick strings can heal people.
 * Game Breaking Bug: A serious problem on Ps3. Players are reporting their save getting corrupted just by approaching 80% in the single player.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Totally averted. Everything in the game has an in-story explanation, like why Eddie is so good with a battle axe, why you are only gradually given units for Ironheade's army, the basis for the Command and Conquer Economy, why Eddie can fly around the battlefield to give orders, even why your car has a radio in it. Everything.
 * Hilariously followed once and Lampshaded during the first fight Eddie can fly and set a beacon.

"Lita: He said we'd meet him at Death's Clutch! Eddie: Is that like "I'll see you in hell?""
 * Played straight once.
 * Gameplay Roulette / Genre Busting: The core of the game is a third-person brawler, mixed with vehicular combat, Rhythm Game like guitar solos, with Real Time Strategy boss battles, all connected by a Wide Open Sandbox.
 * Genre Busting: Unless you're one of the very few who have played Sacrifice, Battlezone 1998 or Giants: Citizen Kabuto, this will be your first Action/RTS, in which you command an army with the size, scale, and command ability of a Real Time Strategy game, yet get to fight along side your army like an action game. Oh, and lets not forget the open world that contains it.
 * Gladiator Games: The Stage Battles. Where the viewers are the actual source of power.
 * Great Balls of Fire: So great.
 * Grim Up North: The obligatory northern mountains are called Death's Clutch. (Death's Fjord in multiplayer)

"Eddie: It's smells like a whale...ate a bunch of cabbage...and died in your mouth...like a year ago!""
 * Gross Up Close-Up: Eddie vs the Lamprey...

""I just hope I can keep my head today...""
 * Guide Dang It: Many frustrated players didn't know the game's true manual is the in-game Tour Book.
 * Tim Schafer conceded that the game needed more tutorials to get players to understand how to play such a game that combines Action and RTS. He created a guide to help players out.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: The Stage Battles.
 * Have a Nice Death: Go on, lose a plot stage battle. We dare you.
 * Have You Seen My God?: The Titans.
 * Heavy Metal Umlaut: They häd to do this. Yahtzee, who studied German, had some fun with this.
 * Heavy Meta: Several tracks are songs about how Heavy Metal is awesome, and how nothing can defeat it.
 * Deadly Sinners by Three Inches of Blood, was in the Demo Trailer, and is practically the Ironheade theme song.
 * Die for Metal by Manowar
 * The Metal by Tenacious D
 * Metal Thrashing Mad by Anthrax
 * Heavy Mithril: And how.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: This being a game fueled by heavy metal, pretty much everyone wears some amount of leather, but special mention goes to the Zaulia, who dress in nothing but spiked leather.
 * The demons dig up the old hotrods and motorcycles the Titans made specifically to get the leather.
 * A Hell of a Time: The beginning of the game.
 * Hero Unit: This is you.
 * Hold the Line: The first Stage Battle, set to One Shot At Glory, by Judas Priest, and it's awesome.
 * And again, in the Doom's Dawn mission, set to Frost by Loke, setting a dark, eerie mood.
 * Horny Vikings: The Titans, and the upgraded Ironheade infantry.
 * HUD: A minimalist version. HUD elements only appear when selecting / performing solos, building units, units are damaged, or when something happens involving your stage or a fan geyser.
 * Humans Are Special:
 * Human Resources: A light, humorous version. The Command and Conquer Economy is all about The Fans. Souls hidden in geysers who long to listen to some fucking METAL. By capturing a geyser, a Merch Booth gets built, and those souls visibly fly to your stage and begin to party there.
 * A possible exception is Tainted Coil. Their Merch Booth is called a Digestor, it's a giant mouth chewing fans. When Doviculus compels the fans to join him, he sometimes mutters "suckers..."
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Eddie towards, even though he seems to be the only one amongst the Ironheade ranks who believes this (try talking to the Razor Girls before appropriate stage battles).
 * Though he seems to forget this in stage battles, wailing away at her as freely as the player desires. Then again, like Eddie, she DOES respawn during stage battles...
 * Impossible Hourglass Figure: Every woman, human or otherwise.
 * Impressive Pyrotechnics: During attacks, they can launch enemies into the air or set them on fire. During Solos, they indicate successful notes and are color coded depending on your character.
 * Instrument of Murder: Got a guitar in the Land of Metal? Congratulations, you're a mage!
 * Intercontinuity Crossover: With Metalocalypse, appropriately.
 * Intercourse with You: "In the Still of the Night" by Whitesnake.
 * "Girlfriend" by Kabbage Boy throws in this at one point, but it's rather gross.
 * Interspecies Romance:
 * It Got Worse: The first half of the story is practically wish fulfillment for Eddie. Doviculus puts a stop to that hard and fast.
 * It's Been Done: Tim Schafer felt the Stage Battles were a Spiritual Successor to Herzog Zwei. He had no idea it played more like Sacrifice, or that he had hired one of its developers.
 * I Will Wait for You: Subverted in an awesome way.  There's more, see the trivia page.
 * I Work Alone: Brutally inverted. Try it and things will be difficult, if not impossible.
 * Justified Tutorial: The story teaches the stage battles slowly, and is woven into the story to the point where skipping straight to the multiplayer spoils many things, such as  Eddie starts off with basic weapons and car, and introduces the creation of Ironheade slowly, unit by unit. None of the factions were made possible
 * La Résistance: The heroes are this.
 * Large Ham: Doviculus hams up every scene he's in.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: 's Face Heel Turn was thoroughly spoiled by the game demo, the game commercial, the multiplayer, magazine previews...
 * Leg Cling: Eddie gets a Zaulia on each leg, Ophelia on his left arm, and a Razor Girl on his right. But that trailer was so early into the game's production that it has practically nothing to do with the game. (It's a now-dead Sierra trailer.)
 * The Legions of Hell: The big bads are this, with a certain Black Mass / Hellraiser sort of twist.
 * Leitmotif: One would think there would be many, but only  has one: Betrayal by Lita Ford.
 * Libation for the Dead: There are many empty beer bottles strewn about the graveyard, suggesting this is in heavy practice. One of the Kill Master's bass players spends his time there after the game, looking meaningfully at a grave while drinking. When Eddie asks him who's grave he is standing over, the bass player admits he does not know, he just prefers drinking alone and doing it in a graveyard makes it seem like less of a problem.
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: Eddie and Ophelia's car rampage in the temple.
 * Literal Change of Heart: Doviculus keeps his defeated enemys' hearts in his chest, though it doesn't really change his personality.
 * Losing Your Head: Drowning Doom gravediggers and brides will fight through decapitation. Lampshaded by the Gravediggers:

"Can you hear me?! I AM YOUR MASTER!"
 * Lost Technology: Cars and music. Only Eddie's Roadie skills and knowledge of Heavy Metal make them available.
 * In multiplayer, Doviculus demands obedience cars that he attacks, as if they are living things.

"spoiler:Through the woods a girl came sadly Something broken in her chest She had dared to love another Alas, no better than the rest Up my path a girl came gladly Something opened up my doors I longed to stop her bleeding heart So I drew her to my shores Those you trust will hurt you badly Something now I'm sure you see So drown your tears in me, my dear As you drown, my dear, in me."
 * Loud of War
 * Love Hurts: We have this little gem:

"Eddie: "Merch is a little like a wedding ring. Sure, it's a material thing, but it's a symbol of your connection.""
 * Lucky Charms Title
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Peculiarly averted, as is explicitly stated to not be Eddie's parent. (We do find out his parentage, but neither parent is ever met.)
 * Make-Out Point: The giant Iron Cross for
 * Match Maker Quest: There is one sidequest where Eddie must help a lovestruck young headbanger (complete with a Don Juan mustache) hook up with the razorgirl of his dreams. To do so he needs to use the mosh pit special attack to keep amorous bikers away from the woman long enough for the headbanger to woo her.
 * Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest: The Hunter's sidequests.
 * Meadow Run:
 * Set to "Holiday" by Scorpions. Even cute loves scenes can be metal.
 * Medium Blending: The main menu.
 * Mega Neko: The Metal Beasts and Laser Panthers.
 * The Merch
 * Merchandise-Driven: In-universe example. All of the stage battles run off this trope, because making merch booths for the fans is the only way to build and upgrade your army. It gets to the point where Eddie realizes  is going to be a problem just because she has merchandise.

"Lemmy: "No one is going to suck your dick playing a plastic guitar.""
 * Metalhead: Too many examples to count in this game.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Um... Every female lead?
 * Even the minor female characters adhere to this trope. The Zualia wear KISS makeup and Stripperiffic outfits, and the Razorgirls have tight t-shirts, tight-jeans, and Playboy bunny proportions. Even the battle nuns are, as Eddie puts it, "kinda sexy in a weird way."
 * Mistaken Identity:
 * Money, Dear Boy: The reason Metallica, Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin do not have music in the game.
 * Lemmy expressed that he does not like Brutal Legend or Guitar Hero, despite being in both.

"Ophelia: "What's a flagon of mead? Eddie: "It's a drink... Aren't we in Medieval Times?"
 * Mood Motif: Each faction has one. Ironheade is themed off classic Heavy Metal. Drowning Doom is based of Death Metal and Black Metal. The Tainted Coil is based off of Industrial Metal.
 * Mood Whiplash: It happens from time to time, sometimes depending on how fast you move on to one mission from the last.
 * Mordor: The Sea of Black Tears zone, as well as.
 * Musical Assassin: Eddie and Lionwhyte both wield the power of weaponized stage effects through the power of a guitar and a microphone, respectively. Later on there's and Doviculus, both with guitars of their own.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Several, but special mention goes to the Kill Master. He's deliberately invoking this trope in order to scare off people who might otherwise bother him.
 * The Need for Mead

Ophelia: "I, uh... We only have beer, but you can have as many kegs as you want."

Eddie: "TO BLADEHENGE!""

"Doviculus:"
 * Near-Victory Fanfare: The Rockcrusher plays the Ironheade stage's music wherever it goes.
 * Neglectful Precursors: When the Titans ascended, the left behind the Tainted Coil that they had kept as pets. Confused and frightened by the Titans' departure, the Tainted Coil attempted to recreate the Titans but created humans instead. Believing humans to be a mockery of the Titans and jealous of their ability to use their knowledge, the Tainted Coil enslaved them.
 * Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: The "genre" in which the Kabbage Boy played.
 * Nerf: For multiplayer, the three Nuke Solos became available only at Tier 2.
 * Unit specific Nerfs are available at the Character Sheet.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:

"Eddie: Uh... right shoulder. Ophelia: * shank*"
 * No Campaign for the Wicked: Sadly, there are no adventures as Doviculus or
 * Obligatory Bondage Song: The Tainted Coil are this trope made (abused) flesh.
 * Offhand Backhand: Eddie and Ophelia both pull this when they first meet.

"Headbanger: How did you make that light shine down from the heavens? Don't you know? Light itself now bends to his will."
 * There's an even more hilarious (and adorable) moment of this later on; Eddie dreams about running along a beach with Ophelia, happily slashing down Druids together with nary a glance away from one another.
 * Off with His Head: "DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!" (for nearly half a minute without stopping to take a breath)
 * Oh Crap:  gets one of these before his.
 * If you are fighting the Tainted Coil, you hear whistle in the sky, and the sound of something crashing into your stage, it's a Bleeding Death.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Just like Herzog Zwei, the Hero Unit can't destroy the enemy stage. Only your units can do it. If you try to, the fans residing there will visibly swat away your attack and hurt you.
 * Ordinary High School Student: The MacGuffin was meant for a Physical God, not for a roadie!
 * Our Demons Are Different: Well, they're, uh...sexy in a weird way.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Serpent Statues, as well as Metal Beasts, giant firebreathing panthers with rocker spikes ridden by half-naked amazons.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: They are intelligent, Turn of the Millennium Emo Teen crybabies.
 * Painting the Medium: The command beacon.

"Eddie: OK, I'm not killing any more of those. They're way too awesome to be made into a hat!"
 * Panthera Awesome: Laser Panthers. Black panthers with streaks of purple and eyes that shoot lasers.

"Lemmy Kilmister: "I'm playing Kill Master. Typecasting, y'know.""
 * Parental Incest: The Tainted Coil. ALL of them.
 * Passing the Torch: The Titans.
 * Pieces of God:
 * Polygon Suit Actor:
 * Eddie was intended to look like a cross between Jack Black and Glenn Danzig (although he behaves a lot more like the former than the latter).
 * Tim Schafer recounts that originally he merely was basing the character off Jack Black. Sierra however chose to just get Jack Black to do the role.
 * Ozzy Osbourne is pretty much playing himself. "Who, me? Oh, I'm nobody. Just The Guardian of Metal."
 * The Hunter is comedian Brian Posehn.
 * The Kill Master looks just like Lemmy Kilmister, his actor, down to the moles on his face.

"Lars: The time has come for you to shut the hell up, Doviculus!"
 * The Fire Baron looks like Rob Halford in the late 70s-early 80s (back when he had hair atop his head, rather than only around his mouth).
 * A cannon operator with whom you can converse to start secondary missions not only is voiced by Kyle Gass (Black's partner in Tenacious D), but he also has Gass' head mounted on a Bouncer body.
 * Power Glows: The infantry in all three armies, when upgraded, don neon streaks on their bodies and clothes.
 * The Power of Friendship: The Double Teams are the most powerful attacks in the game. Word of God often tells players they don't Double Team enough.
 * In contrast, the game was specifically designed to punish players who try to act like Eddie is Kratos or Dante. Getting killed gives your opponent a free 50 Fans. A common mistake by players is to fly into a group of enemies and start slashing.
 * The Power of Rock: Pyros. Headbanging. Face-melting guitar solos. And the hero is "the world's greatest roadie." This game is literally built around this trope.
 * Precursors: The Titans.
 * Puzzle Boss: The final stage battle in the campaign has this element tacked on.
 * Racing Mini Game: Druid Plow vs. Fletus' Squealer...GO!
 * Real Time Strategy: With lots and lots of Action mixed in it.
 * Rule of Cool: Only every single thing about the game.
 * Sarcastic Clapping: Lionwhyte, complete with "Bravo."
 * Scenery Porn / Scenery Gorn: The art design of the world is truly breathtaking; no matter where you are in the world it's virtually guaranteed that there is something cool to look at. And to make sure you don't miss any of it, the game includes mounted tourist binoculars of the best vistas and gives experience points and an achievement for viewing them all.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: arguably creates one of these.
 * Serious Business: Youtube comments for the tracks in the game. Oh dear.
 * The Seventies: Ironheade.
 * No man. Earlier. Like...The Early Seventies.
 * : Turns out to be the case for
 * Shock and Awe: The main attack for the guitars and many Drowning Doom units employ this. You can also pick up lightning cannons as a top-tier weapon for the Druid Plow.
 * Shout-Out: Besides the many, many shout outs to heavy metal bands and songs, occasionally Eddie will shout, "Super effective!" while attacking, and after playing the Call of the Wild, solo, he'll scream, "Call of the Wild was my favorite book!"
 * Previous Schafer game Day of the Tentacle gets a shout out in a rare response to Eddie's orders: "I'm on ya, lasagna!" Something Hoagie (a roadie, as it happens) would say to Benjamin Franklin.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: While listening to Doviculus monologue about and how much humans suck, Lars gets fed up and delivers one of these.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: While listening to Doviculus monologue about and how much humans suck, Lars gets fed up and delivers one of these.

"GamePro: Were there any other reasons for the lack of contemporary metal? Tim Schafer: You mean besides it sucking?"
 * "Shut Up" Kiss: . Ends up being quite amusing due to the topic of conversation.
 * Sidequest: The game has dozens. However, most of them fall into five basic categories:
 * The "Ironheade Sneak Attack" missions in which you and a small group of allies must eradicate a passing enemy patrol.
 * The "Riding the Death Rack" missions in which you must use the Deuce's weapons to defend a stationary point against waves of enemies.
 * The "Summon Fiery Death" missions where you have to direct mortar fire against incoming enemies.
 * Racing missions where you must beat Fletus to the finish line.
 * Missions given to you by the Hunter where you have to kill a certain number of wandering creatures.
 * The Siege: The Battersmith and Pleasure Gardens mission.
 * Single Tear: Ophelia sheds one near the end.
 * Snow Means Death:
 * Songs in the Key of Lock: The Relic Raiser solo.
 * Spikes of Villainy: Used straight and inverted. Good, evil, or even just part of the landscape; the game is loaded with spikes. No, not that kind.
 * Spiritual Successor: The Stage Battles are a faster, console version of Sacrifice or Battlezone 1998 (the remake), and the even more obscure Giants: Citizen Kabuto, both games by Shiny. The heavy metal theme and prevalence of bikers also tie it closely to an earlier Schafer gamer, Full Throttle - as does returning voice actress Kath Soucie.
 * Spawn Broodling: The Tainted Coil's Rock Stage can only produce these, in the form of Battle Nuns, Warfathers and Overblessers. They spawn demonic units by..uh...germinating Doviculus's seed.
 * Standard Status Effects: Color Coded for Your Convenience
 * Golden weapons and clothing trimming indicate and Attack Boost. Blue is Attack Down.
 * The unit's entire body glowing orange is a build rate buff(Tainted Coil).
 * Glowing Light Green indicates Defense Boost. Appearing very dark is Defense Down.
 * A blood red body is poison. According to the Tour Book, even cars can get their gas tanks poisoned.
 * Stab the Sky: Eddie on the cover.
 * Sticks to the Back: Eddie's axe and guitar. Lita's Blade on a Stick also sticks to her back when not in use, and Ophelia's swords stick to her hips. The only one with a proper scabbard for his weapon is Lars.
 * Subtitles Are Superfluous: Completely averted. Every minor line of dialog is covered in the subtitles, including the grunts of exertion eddie makes when he swings his axe, and the squeal of pain he makes when he tries to play his guitar when it's red-hot...
 * Summon Backup Band Members: Core game mechanic.
 * Super Dickery: Anyone who played just the demo can be quite forgiven for thinking that Ormagöden was an evil monster and the overall Big Bad of the game.
 * Super Drowning Skills: So much as dipping a character's foot in water deals damage, increasing with depth.
 * If you hold the block button, you'll never drown. Or burn. Or be poisoned...
 * Take That: Kabbage Boy is a very obvious Take That against the likes of Linkin Park, Korn, or Limp Bizkit. That said, even if you like that kind of music, it's done in an amusing enough way that you don't mind.
 * When two of the same army are fighting (Drowning Doom vs. Drowning Doom, etc.), they'll tend to take potshots at each other for the other's lack of "Trueness", often yelling out "Poser!"...
 * One of the Headbanger's Win Quotes is "Now you know what real metal sounds like!".
 * Word of God provided this gem in an interview:

"Eddie: "Maybe you guys can just blow me over the gorge?" Roadie: "I'm not blowing anybody!""
 * Tear Off Your Face: The special attack "Face Melter" (originally a generic term for a particularly powerful guitar solo in Heavy Metal) literally melts the faces off any nearby enemies who have one.
 * Terminator Twosome: Inverted in every aspect with
 * Testosterone Poisoning: And how!
 * That Came Out Wrong

"Lita: "Don't you long to return to your world?" Eddie: "Pfft!""
 * Theme Music Power-Up: During Stage Battles, the opposing stages are each playing a song from the faction's themed playlist. As they take over fan geysers and spread across the map, their music gets louder and starts to swamp out the other side's music. Played totally straight with the Rock Crusher, who plays your stages' music as it goes and gives friendly units a damage buff at the same time.
 * The Time of Myths: The Age of Metal.
 * Time Travel: Eddie is transported
 * Title Drop: Brutal Legend is an vinyl album that Jack Black is inviting you to look at, which serves as the title menu. The physical album actually exists as a prop. As you navigate the menu, Jack Black uses his hands to open, fold, and reveal different parts of the elaborate album and record inside. How it was designed can be seen here.
 * Title Scream: Subverted in which the developer 's name is screamed instead. DOUBLE FIIIIIIIINE!
 * For bonus points, every time you boot the game, one of the different musicians who participated in the game (including Jack Black; remember he's half of Tenacious D) will scream it. One of the best ones has to be Ozzy Osbourne's, which he follows with a "Crazy Train"-style laugh.
 * Thirty Minutes or It's Free: In one side quest you have two minutes to deliver kegs of beer to a party on the beach while they're still cold. This task is made more difficult by the fact that if you bump your car around too much the kegs will rupture, resulting in automatic failure.
 * This Is Gonna Suck: Even in the face of "brutal defeat" (as the game puts it), Eddie manages to keep his cool most of the time.
 * This Trope Is Bleep: Optionally, the game lets you censor swearing with bleeps. Just before the first curse in the game, it prompts you to choose - the button for turning on the censor says "It's funnier if it's bleeped out."
 * Time Skip: Three months are skipped after . It's a rare example of seeing a "X Time Later" screen in a videogame.
 * Tortured Abomination: The summonable but uncontrollable Tainted Coil unit named "Bleeding Death" may be this: it is a perversion of nature (not to mention the single strongest non-Hero Unit in the game), which is slowly dying, so its attacks are merely expressions of its agony.
 * Trapped In A World Based on Metal Album Covers: Subverted.
 * Tribal Face Paint: The Zaulia tribe wears it.
 * Troperiffic: It's a game by Tim Schafer that revolves around The Power of Rock. This was pretty much inevitable.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: A bit of an odd case, as it seems to be played straight but is actually a double subversion. Marketed primarily as a Hack and Slash game, subverted that it's truly an RTS, and subverted again with the final battle in the campaign.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Eddie seems to acclimate to the heavy metal world extremely quickly; acting pretty calm about hacking evil nuns to death with an axe and teaching Ophelia of French kissing. Eddie seems to be the kind of guy who would acclimate pretty quickly to anything. Besides, as he says himself about the world near the game's opening, "Some might call it hellish, but I have to admit, it's pretty Badass."

"Eddie: And now, I shall teach you of French kissing..."
 * Vagina Dentata: The lamprey in the Feeding Area map and early part of the campaign.
 * Victory Quote: In a multiplayer victory, you will either hear one from a unit involved in the stage's destruction, or a gripe from a unit defending it.
 * Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Justified. Ironheade exclusively has a lot of fire attacks, and they are meant just for attacking burning infantry, not being as effective on vehicles or structures.
 * Video Game Settings
 * Capital City: The Pleasure Tower.
 * Death Mountain: Thunderhorn.
 * Derelict Graveyard: Drowning Doom territory. Word of God says it's remains of the Black Tear Rebellion.
 * Dug Too Deep: The Sea of Black Tears.
 * Green Hill Zone: Bladehenge and Bladewoode.
 * Ice Palace: Death's Clutch, Death's Fjord.
 * Jungle Japes: Zaulia territory, and The Altar of Blood.
 * Lethal Lava Land: The Motorforge, and The Crucible of the Titans.
 * The Lost Woods: Northern parts of the eastern continent.
 * Palmtree Panic: The Beach, Screaming Wall, and Amplified Cliffs.
 * Planet Heck: The Coiled Remains, The Feeding Area.
 * Shifting Sand Land: Battersmith and Battered Bluff.
 * Swamps Are Evil: Central are of the eastern continent.
 * Techno Wreckage: Titan relics are scattered everywhere.
 * Temple of Doom: The Temple of Ormagoden.
 * Villains Never Lie: Doviculus.
 * War Has Never Been So Metal: Heavy Metal armies fighting to the death yet infinitely respawning from a Command and Conquer Economy fueled by The Power of Rock? Sign me up!
 * Weaksauce Weakness: In the Land of Metal, water kills everything.
 * Weaponized Car: While at first you're limited to just ramming people, The Deuce can be upgraded with machine guns or missile launchers, among other things. Said upgrades being sold to you by Ozzy Osbourne.
 * Weird Moon: In the very beginning, Eddie comments on the cool eclipse. Some theories state that it was the Earth he left behind, because of its color. Later on, in Drowning Doom territory (and during Encompassing Gloom in multiplayer), the moon is shaped like a skull.
 * Weird Sun: The sun is never visible and the sky is never a clear blue. See Alien Sky.
 * Welcome to Corneria: NPC in-game dialog in single is limited, but it's still a good idea to Talk to Everyone to hear all the jokes and little touches between missions. In multiplayer, the dialog is much more varied and the writing for Tim Curry and Jennifer Hale shines much greater.
 * What Are You Looking At
 * What Could Have Been: According to this article, when Tim Schafer was pitching the game, the execs wanted to make it a hip-hop or country music game.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The History of Metal is told as an epic.
 * They actually managed to make Bards cool.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Ormagöden at the Kabbage Boy concert.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?:

"Tour Book on Landmark Viewers: What's that? You thought these devices were invented in the twentieth century to take coins from tourists? You thought wrong. You could't be more wrong."
 * What Measure Is a Mook?: Defied. Every kind of unit is unique, without much overlap between factions even.
 * Played straight by Doviculus, can throw Soul Kissers, making them commit suicide and severely damage units.
 * What Were They Selling Again?: The advertising not only intentionally hid the core gameplay, but it also turned off some people who hate Jack Black, found the combat in the demo shallow (not knowing Eddie is a Hero Unit to something bigger,) and causing people to think the game is a "joke" or "Guitar Hero" game.
 * Wheel of Pain: You have to free a bunch of headbangers from one of these in an early mission.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Emoness: The fate of all who drink or bathe in the Sea of Black Tears.
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Though the campaign is heavily story-driven, it's threaded through an open world.
 * Wild Teen Party: The soldiers of Ironheade have a keg party, complete with bonfires and large amplifiers blaring heavy metal music, set up on the beach.
 * World of Badass Ham!: This is a game built on The Power of Rock after all. Even the porcupines and the deer are hardcore.
 * World of Buxom: Some ladies are Stripperific, some are Token Wholesome, nearly all are stacked.
 * Written by the Winners: Hidden throughout the Single Player world are Legends which flesh out how the Age of Metal came to be. During the second half, the player can fine some that are chained up until the story is completed. Then they can be unlocked, and they reveal the truth about
 * X Meets Y: Starcraft meets Dynasty Warriors. Sacrifice meets Ozzfest. Hack and Slash meets Real Time Strategy.
 * Or, for simpler terms, Kessen with a Rock and Roll theme.
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz: Lampshaded by Eddie, who tacks an "e" onto Ironhead to make it cooler.
 * More specifically, to let everyone they "Mean business".
 * You Fail History Forever: Lampshaded hard in the Tour Book.

"Eddie to Doviculus: I'll make an ashtray out of your hoof! Eddie to Eddie: I don't think this is symbolic at all! Doviculus blocking: That's the spirit! Doviculus taking hits: Oooooohhh...
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Considering Tim Schafer's history, a lot of these happen in multiplayer.

to Eddie: Does it make you feel like a man?!

to fleeing opponent: Ladybug ladybug, fly away home. Your stage is on fire and the children are all gone!

, enemy flies away: PULL!"


 * You Require More Fans
 * Zerg Rush: Doable with practically any unit, check the character sheet.