Autobots Rock Out

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Danny: Anything we can do?
Phineas: Yeah! Musical accompaniment!

—Phineas and Ferb The Movie Across The 2nd Dimension, before the song "Robot Riot"

This is it. Whether it be a culmination of a dozen hours of gameplay, or the first two acts of the film, or a season's worth of hour-long episodes, after all this time and effort, it's time for the Final Battle.

Cue the electric guitar.

For some reason, nothing says "Let's kick some ass!" quite like A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll" (except maybe Ominous Latin Chanting, or both). Maybe it's the heavy bass, or the wailing guitar, or the pounding drums, but rock music just seems to get the blood pumping, so it's typically used to underscore the big action scenes.

This trope applies to rock of any kind being played when the heroes do their thing. Sometimes it's a Theme Music Power-Up. May overlap with The Power of Rock, where rocking out is the heroes doing their thing. Occasionally accompanied by Ominous Latin Chanting, which means someone's really about to get wrecked. For even more epicness, add some Orchestral Bombing. Has every reason to be Crowning Music of Awesome, so it had better be up to it. Compare Big Damn Heroes.

The trope title is a pun based on the Transformers Catch Phrase, "Autobots, (transform and) roll out!"

Examples of Autobots Rock Out include:

Anime and Manga

  • FLCL. (Great soundtrack, too.)
    • It's all done by a Japanese alternative rock group called "The Pillows". The battle music is a song called "Advice", until Canti has pretty much nailed down a win then it's "Little Busters".
      • Canti only applies in the 2nd and 3rd episode. In the 4th Crazy Sunshine plays, 5th is Blue Drives Monster and the last one is I Think I Can.
  • Guilty Crown has done this three times as of episode twelve, and they're only halfway through season one at that point. Considering the people that were hired to write the music,[1] there is going to be a lot more of this in the coming series.
  • Occurs quite a few times in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
    • Bonus points to Viral's utterly awesome heavy metal Leitmotif, "Nikopol", and "Libera Me From Hell", which takes Theme Music Power-Up to new levels of Badass.
    • Another great example is the opening song, Sorairo Days, played during both the main series' and second movie's final battle between the two galactic mechs.
  • About Once an Episode in Saiyuki.
  • Used in the finale of Cowboy Bebop:The Movie, with the final fight between Spike and Vincent, shown here.
  • Shakugan no Shana plays the second season's first OP (a rock song) during the "victory moment" ending the battle in episode 21.
  • Every Macross is about this.
    • Macross 7 is 50+ solid episodes of this trope. Notable in that it had no other soundtrack but Fire Bomber's rock music, with an occasional other bit song thrown in.
    • Macross Frontier takes it to new heights, especially in the final episode, with a medley of the songs from the series being sung (in universe) during the climactic battle.
  • Bubblegum Crisis almost always has rock music during fight scenes.
    • Technically, the OVA series of BGC is practically a series of action-filled music videos.
  • Soul Eater does this quite a few times.
  • "The Raising Fighting Spirit"
    • Also "Strong and Strike"
    • "Need to be Strong" is angry it hasn't been mentioned yet. It will now proceed to whoop your candy ass.
    • Reverse Situation would like to have a word with you.
    • Crushing would like to "discuss differences civilly" with you.
    • While the Third Hokage reminds us that he still kicks major posterior, his epic battle theme certainly doesn't hurt.
  • The NA dub of Sailor Moon has "Carry On" for the season one finale, and "She's Got the Power" for the first battle with Rubeus.
    • "She's Got the Power" is by Stan Bush, best known for "The Touch" (noted above).
    • The original series also has "Moon Revenge" in the R movie, which is so awesome that you can't understand unless you actually watch the scene. Also, "La Soldier" during the battle against Doom Phantom, which was replaced by "Power Of Love" in the dub, both of which are kick ass, respectively.
    • Ai No Senshi was another song for an epic battle, the Sailors vs all of the Dark Moon sisters and Rubeus.
    • In the original series, Moonlight Densetsu played in the first season finale, and Sailor Star Song played in the last season finale, both accompanied by awesomely epic final battles.
  • Bleach breathes this trope. Inverted when the Big Bad, Aizen, blocks Ichigo's bankai and KILLS the theme music.
    • He's such a freaking troll!
  • Mew Zakuro's transformation theme is probably the most badass music you'll find in a Magical Girl show (Well, outside of Nanoha, but that's a whole different ballgame).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 breaks out Daybreak's Bell or Unlimited Sky whenever something epic is about to happen, not to mention how much of the show's Crowning Music Of Awesome features the electric guitar.
    • The movie took this concept to new levels of awesome by combining several themes from the main series at once, adding awesome chanting and then making it 8 minutes of pure awesome. Called Final Mission ~ Quantum Burst, you can listen to it here.
  • The first season Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex would often have the rock theme "Run Rabbit Junk" playing whenever the main team was storming a building or doing something else Badass but not part of the serious ongoing plot. The song disappeared for the second season, but returned for the climax of Solid State Society to signal that Section 9 was truly back in business.
  • "Gravitation", the title theme of Heroic Age, combines this with elements of Ominous Latin Chanting to great effect. Sadly, it's only ever used for the title theme. No Theme Music Power Ups for Age and company.
  • GaoGaiGar: Arguably, this is half the purpose of Mic Sounders the 13th's existence. The other half is to provide literal theme music powerups.
  • The climactic battle in Slayers Evolution-R featured the opening theme from the second season (Next). It was amazing.
  • The Pokémon anime's arrangement of Pokémon Red and Blue's trainer battle theme, Burning Battlefield features fast paced drums and wailing electric guitars.
  • Noir is all over this. Whenever Salva Nos kicks in, expect the drums to bring the awesome soon.
  • Fairy Tail uses Celticy folk-rock sounding music for it's fights. Yes, it's awesome.
    • Plus, there's plenty of plain ol' rock parts. And metal parts, such as the metal version of the Celticy folk main therme
  • Rebuffed Dragon Ball series Dragon Ball Kai decides it wants to get in on the action, creating several new hard rocking themes for certain people, including a theme for the Ginyu Force, Freeza, Vegeta, The Cell Games, a brand new theme for Trunks, and a completely unrelated awesome song just for a car traveling scene with Goku, Chichi, Gohan, and Krillin.
    • Bruce Faulconer's music for the American FUNimation dub of Dragon Ball Z is filled with this.
  • The original Japanese version of Sonic X used "Live & Learn" from Sonic Adventure 2 in their adaptation of that game's storyline; specifically when Super Sonic & Super Shadow fight the Final Hazard, which is the same place the song is played during the game. The 4Kids dub replaced it with a generic piece of music instead.
  • The final episode of Digimon Xros Wars features the X7 version of "We Are Xros Heart" playing during the Final Xros and epic, though short, final confrontation with DarknessBagramon.
  • For a magical girl series, Heartcatch Pretty Cure has some awesome songs, especially in its fights. The most prominent one was "My Bag Of Tolerance Has Snapped!", named after Cure Blossom's Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner Catch Phrase, which usually plays before she and Cure Marine go to town on a Desertian.
  • In the Mazinkaiser OVA series, whenever the titular Super Robot would go to town, the song "Mazinkaiser's Theme" would play. When the last episode's final fight kicked, the full version started to play.


Fan Works

  • Invoked by resident vigilante badass Garrus Vakarian in the Mass Effect fanfic Interregnum; during combat sequences he uses his visor to pipe in music, including "Die For The Cause": "the only imperial anthem to feature an electric guitar solo".
    • It's canon, too.
  • Short but technically fanfic. The Warhammer 40,000 Disco Marines here.
  • Because his broken magegift is triggered by listening to music (and he tends to prefer rock music), this pretty much describes every fight Doug Sangnoir of Drunkard's Walk takes part in.
  • Several of the missions in Neon Exodus Evangelion start with DJ Croft calling for music to play as he fights.

"Right-ho," said DJ. "That oughtn't to be too difficult, now we know what we're looking for. Slap on some choons and let's get down."
"I'm still not entirely sold on the music thing," Misato mused.
"Helps me think," DJ said.
"Well, I suppose if Rei has no objections..."
"None," Rei chimed in.
"Music in combat? That's ridiculous," Asuka contributed. "What are you going to do, dance them to death?"
"Can't dance," DJ admitted blithely. "But the beat helps me keep my thoughts organized."

—Neon Exodus Evangelion: Exodus 1:9—Carry On Wayward Son

Film

  • Top Gun starts off with "Highway to the Danger Zone...", and has a guitar riff as a musical motif.
  • The final battle in Jet Li's The One.
  • A few portions of the Three Hundred soundtrack featured rockin' electric guitars.
  • The whole freaking soundtrack to A Knight's Tale.
  • Most of the soundtrack to In Bruges is tinkly piano music, of the sort that is played while the camera focuses on the ripples made by a swan's passage through a canal. However, towards the end of the movie, in the first genuine action sequence, a snarling electric guitar shows up.
  • Dario Argento's Inferno gets the Rock and Roll and Ominous Latin Chanting version (courtesy of Keith Emerson, he of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame).
  • Godzilla: Final Wars
  • Hot Fuzz. And how!
  • Watchmen. All Along The Watchtower, baby.
  • Literally the entire score of Iron Man.
    • It also doesn't hurt that most of it was performed by Tom Morello.
    • It really doesn't hurt that most of the sequel's soundtrack was provided by ACDC.
    • Special props go out again to the sequel, wherein a drunk-as-fuck Tony asks his party's DJ to bless him with a proper soundtrack. Cue Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust", and later, Daft Punk's "Robot Rock".

"Goldstein! Gimme a phat beat to beat my friend's ass to."

    • And then he invokes it on an even grander scale in The Avengers, as he hacks a quinjet's PA system to blast rock music as he arrives on the scene.
  • Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers has a mean electric guitar version of Michael's regular Leitmotif play at several points.
  • Shrek 3. The best use of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" ever. Snow White uses it to defeat two evil trees standing guard. (And it's followed by a cover of Heart's "Barracuda".)
  • "Shipping Up to Boston" from The Departed.
  • Done entirely with AC/DC in Maximum Overdrive.
  • This trope got invoked in-universe in several 80s films (Iron Eagle the "Bishop of Battle" sequence from Nightmares), as kids wanting to concentrate on things like games or flying would put on Walkman headphones, crank up the volume, and then kick some ass while blasting their ears with hard rock.
  • Last Action Hero. Played straight, subverted and an Homage - all at the same time.
  • Frequently invoked in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where the big fights happen during rock gigs (and in one memorable case, the fight actually is the rock gig).

Kim Pine: WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB, AND WE'RE HERE TO WATCH SCOTT PILGRIM KICK YOUR TEETH IN! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!


Literature

  • The Battle of Hope, the military turning point in World War Z, begins with the U.S. Army blasting Iron Maiden in an attempt to draw hordes of zombies to the slaughter. The soldier being interviewed notes that it really didn't matter to the zombies what music they were playing, but the heavy metal soundtrack got the soldiers hyped for the battle.
  • In the Posleen War Series by John Ringo the hero Michael O'Neal, Jr leads his team of Powered Armor troops by broadcasting to them inspirational music. In his book, he even lists the songs that O'Neal has on his list. Most, but not all, are rock songs.
    • There's even a justification thrown out—powered armor being what it is, the troops take long, loping strides while traveling overland and normal marching cadences don't work well. Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult, and Heart, on the other hand...
    • O'Neal also uses "Immigrant Song" as a psywar tool on multiple occasions.
    • Subverted late in the first series as O'Neil is preparing for what he thinks will be his unit's Last Stand, he selects what he feels is appropriate music and queues the playlist with great gravitas and then.... deep in the bowels of the transport hauling his unit to the front lines one of the heavy-weapons troopers hears the opening bars and bitterly complains to the new guy, "It's his WE'RE GONNA DIE playlist" after hearing "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" start playing.
  • Fate/Zero, the prequel novel (and now anime) to Fate Stay Night gives us The Berserker as the theme for the Berserker of the 4th War, aka The Black Knight, aka Lancelot. ARTHURRRRRRRR!!!!!! Only time will tell if this music makes it into the anime, but we can but hope.
    • Nope, not yet. But we get "The Battle is to the Strong," which also fits on this list.


Live-Action TV

  • When Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes back to life to go kick the Master's ass, her theme starts playing.
  • Power Rangers, whose main theme had an electric guitar riff so awesome and memorable as to be engraved on to the souls of those who grew up in the 90's.
    • Hell, Masaaki Endoh, king of hot-blooded theme song performances, did a cover of the song for his "ENSON" album where he does hot-blooded covers of anime themes. It's the only English song to feature on the album.
    • For major battles, the Rangers often have other theme music to fall back on. Invincible is a good example of this Trope overlapping with Let's Get Dangerous.
  • In Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, the Cylons get an awesome inversion, as the rock song "Apocalypse" scores their attack on the Twelve Colonies.
  • Self-invoked by one of the Misfits of Science, when electricity-powered Johnny B. starts singing his favorite Chuck Barry song before blasting hell out of some troops. Justified, as he's a former rock musician who needed to psych himself up.

Professional Wrestling

  • This is the reason why about 90% of the entrance music used in WWE, TNA, and Ring of Honor are hard rock or heavy metal.
  • For an object lesson, compare this to this. Rey Mysterio, Jr., for one, certainly benefits from rocking out.


Video Games

  • Alan Wake has an amazing sequence which takes place on an old stage on the farm of two aged heavy metal rockers, formerly known as the Old Gods of Asgard. All the lights and fireworks go crazy and rock n' roll blares loudly from the speakers as you fight of hordes of enemies to the tune of "Children of the Elder God", which is surprisingly rock-tastic.
  • Brutal Legend. Hell, it's pretty much the entire premise of the game, given that it takes place in a world created by "Metal Gods" where spells are cast by playing sweet guitar solos.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 implements rock and metal music themes for each faction which are activated whenever you enter in a battle situation, the result is really cool!
  • Many recent RPGs use this trope for battle themes, especially during climactic boss fights.
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog games, from Sonic Adventure Series to Shadow the Hedgehog fall under this, as the final battles of these games feature Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow fighting the final boss as the game as (Usually) the main theme of the game plays in the background. This changed with the fifteenth anniversary game, as since then the final boss battle takes place to an orchestral version of the game's theme song.
    • Until the twentieth milesone, in which they used an original song. Granted, Generations didn't have its own theme song anyway.
  • The battle themes in the recent Prince of Persia games aren't straight rock, but you can definitely hear the influence. Especially in Warrior Within (where Godsmack contributed two songs to the soundtrack).
  • Super Smash Brothers Brawl's Final Destination stage music is a hard rock remix of the main theme. Ominous Latin Chanting intact! As heard here, it is epic.
  • Final Fantasy VI, VII, and even Mystic Quest, have rock music for boss battles.
    • And Advent Children used a rock version of a piece, and even used a new Latin chant.
      • "Once upon a time...(ominous long pause)... YOU WERE TOO!" I totally dig that part and that music!
      • It was even performed by The Black Mages.
    • The theme "Otherworld" in Final Fantasy X, is first used during Sin's arrival. It then becomes Jecht's battle theme. It's not so much rock as a homage to everything Rammstein (even though they didn't actually perform it.)
    • Final Fantasy IV's final battle theme, which already rocks hard, was re-used as the final race theme for Chocobo Racing. Ooooh yeah.
    • Final Fantasy VIII has The Extreme as its final battle music. It starts slow. Very slow. And then it gets awesome.
    • Final Fantasy VI's final battle theme Dancing Mad manages to pull this off in epic fashion, with the first three movements of the piece consisting of operatic organ instrumentals with the last being a chaotic rock song that fits the final showdown with Kefka himself perfectly.
    • Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy gives us Cantata Mortis & God in Fire as a battle theme for Feral Chaos. Back-to-back with an orchestral ambient and epic Latin chanting (Cantata Mortis), and blazing guitars, head-banging, and blood-pumping rock song (God in Fire), this song is PERFECT to slay or to brawl as a upgraded (unless you challenge him at the start, if you master the game) or handicapped, but cooler version of the game's villain.
    • Chaos's theme in the original Dissidia also is a deliciously hopeful rocking out, even when you hit his third form, struggling for victory.
    • Pretty much all of the battle themes in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII consist solely of hard rock and metal. The most notable song is probably the final boss theme, which begins with a pounding drum beat reminiscent of marching soldiers as the two combatants face off before the guitars kick in and the swords start flying. And it is awesome.
  • In Fate/stay night, the most common fight music is Colliding Souls, which arguably counts... then you get to the Heaven's Feel route, specifically Bad End 40 (Sparks Liner High), and Mighty Wind takes its place to accompany Shirou fighting Saber Alter to a standstill at the cost of his own mind by using his Dangerous Forbidden Technique. This is the only scene in the entire game worthy of that song, and it's a giant Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • And whenever you hear the song "Emiya" play you know shit just got real.
  • In EarthBound, the final boss' first form's music sounds like an innocent throwback to NES music, then halfway through, BAM! Metal. Also counts as Nightmare Fuel.
    • There's also the music of the battle against the Natural Killer Cyborg in Mother 3.
  • The Thunder Force series (specially III, IV and V) is the embodiment of this trope.
  • The otherwise completely-forgettable RTS Star Wars: Force Commander had a couple of kickass rock arrangements of John Williams' "Imperial March".
  • Elite Beat Agents' remix of Jumpin' Jack Flash.
    • Technically the final battle is made up of two parts, the first one being "Without a Fight" by Hoobastank, and the second one is Jumping Jack Flash. Both parts fit this trope perfectly though.
  • Not quite the same, but when the Americans win in Call of Duty 4, their victory music is a little RAWK.
  • Nearly every boss in Baten Kaitos has an electric guitar theme. Motoi Sakuraba loves the electric guitar.
  • Hell March. Also counts as Crowning Music of Awesome.
    • And it just gets cooler with each new iteration
    • Kane's Wrath featured a remix of "Act on Instinct", the opening theme to the original Command & Conquer, during its opening level.
  • Geez, the final boss battle in Guitar Hero III. Sure, there are other boss battles (including the ones present in Aerosmith and World Tour), but none of them can top this one. You may never listen to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" the same way again because of this.
    • For bonus points, after you defeat Lou, you get to play the final stretch of the song alone, undisturbed and, why not to say it, gloriously.
  • In Soul Nomad and The World Eaters, the main character's "soulmate" Gig gets one in the form of his Theme Music Power-Up, Rock'n Rocks, which does triple-duty as the game's Crowning Music of Awesome. When this song plays, shit is about to go down hard.
  • The original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness deserves a mention: Little Miss Badass Etna has just unveiled that she's been playing both the main character and the current villain who is holding her memories of the King hostage for chumps since before the start of the game, declares that she's through toadying around for him, and decides to beat the baddie so utterly senseless that he begs her to let him be her slave. Cue metal-infused punk rock backed up by a pipe organ, courtesy of the song "Invasion From Within" by Tsunami Bomb.
    • This song only plays in the PlayStation 2 version with the English audio. When set to the Japanese audio, Etna's Leitmotif "You Go Girl" (or "Do Your Best, Girl") plays instead. The subsequent Updated Rereleases on the PSP and the DS use "You Go Girl" in both languages.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the musical track "Powerful Foe", which is used for major boss fights, opens with an electric guitar rift followed by Ominous Latin Chanting.
    • Many of the boss battle themes of the DS Akaneia remake duology are very much rock-themed; the best example may be "Clash of Two Virtues", the theme for the fights against Michalis and Camus, themselves climatic foes responsible for much of the ill fortune befalling the world. Similarly, "Dark Emperor Hardin" and "Medeus, Shadow Dragon", the themes for... well, Emperor Hardin and Medeus, and "Tearing Shadows", the theme for Gharnef's assassins.
  • In Advance Wars, CO Powers tend to open up with awesome songs, usually including some sort of electric guitar solo. Combined with the ridiculous power of Double CO Powers of the later games, you begin to feel the awesome flowing in your veins.
  • While not actually at the climax, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne does have Arthas and a number of other heroes rock out at a concert during the credits of the game, singing "Power of the Horde".
  • Free Space 2 has mostly rather ominous and moody music, but in certain levels the dynamic background music steps it up by several levels.
  • Halo had the literal Rock Anthem for Saving the World that would play during more intense parts of the game.
    • And Ominous Latin Chanting aplenty.
    • In the second game, an instrumental version of "Blow Me Away" plays when the Master Chief enters the Mausoleum of the Arbiter, where the Enemy Civil War is at its most epic. Cue the urge to kick ass and Chew Bubblegum.
      • Cortana even tells you it'd be better to sit this one out and wait for the enemies to kill each other. But with this music it's just impossible to do.
    • And not to mention that the second and third games had Steve Vai shredding over the more intense themes.
    • The Mjolnir Mix of the main theme yet.
    • And then ODST pretty much blows everything that has come before away with a little thing called Air Traffic Control: imagine that playing while fighting against hordes of Covenant air support hundreds of feet in the air on the edge of a skyscraper.
  • Half Life: Episode Two has the final boss battle. You've just beaten back multiple Strider waves and are rewarded with a moment of eerie calm to catch your breath. Then the final push comes in from all directions, and the soundtrack kicks in.
  • The Kirby series usually just has intense- or melancholy-sounding music for its final bosses, but in Kirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knightmare Ultra's final boss is accompanied by a hard-driving metal tune.
    • And when you see him again in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the first half of his boss fight is rather easy and the music is an intense, but slow, theme from another boss. Then when you get him to half health and he Turns Red, the difficulty picks up and a remix of his Super Star Ultra theme starts.
  • Inverted in Persona 3: The battle theme for Evil Counterpart Strega is a rock song aptly titled "Unavoidable Battle."
  • Lost Odyssey's final battle actually uses this and Ominous Latin Chanting together for its final battle.
  • Blue Dragon tried to invoke this trope with it's boss battles.
    • The same song was used in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam Gaiden with an awesome effect.
  • Guilty Gear is this trope exemplified. The most notable songs of this type are "Awe of She" (Dizzy's theme), "Meet Again" (Justice's theme), "The Midnight Carnival"(I-No's theme when fought as a boss), "Get Down to Business" (Holy Order Sol's theme), "Still in the Dark" (theme when Millia and Eddie fight) and "Keep the Flag Flying" (when fighting Order-Sol as Ky). And there's also "Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds" from Overture, which is the theme song of Raven.
    • BlazBlue has "Awakening the Chaos", the theme of Nu -13-. It starts out as Ominous Latin Chanting, but after a minute and 20 seconds it goes into pure heavy metal with the chanting intact. After a second loop of the main riff it suddenly goes into a orchestra solo, then back to metal for the remainder of the song. Then we have "Black Onslaught", the theme of Ragna's boss form. It's pure death metal, complete with Narmy Engrish lyrics courtesy of the same vocalist from "Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds". It's amazing this didn't come from Dethklok
      • Bang's Crowning Music Of Awesome "Beat a Nail With a Hammer". My goodness.
      • Don't forget the theme of Mu -12- in Continuum Shift, Sword of Doom. It starts out ominous like Awakening the Chaos before it gets rocking; if anything, it's even more epic than Awakening the Chaos!
  • Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, a platformer/puzzle game hybrid, allows the player to activate "Tea Time" (because he's British) when the Super Meter fills, transforming the titular Henry into a giant robot. It's awesome! The soundtrack during the transformation starts as a simple classical song, then proceeds to ROCK OUT COMPLETELY.
    • The final battle also has an awesome metal song, simply called "Heavy Metal".
      • And you had better learn to love "Heavy Metal" because like the rest of the later part of the game, the final boss is as hard as hell. And don't even get me started on Gentleman's mode (aka SO HARD YOU WILL RIP YOUR OWN SPLEEN OUT THROUGH YOUR EYE SOCKETS mode)...
  • Boss battles in Serious Sam - The Second Encounter are accompanied by upbeat music with loud guitars.
  • Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis gives us "The Menace" and "Nefertiti" for the strong regular encounters and one of the climax bosses, respectively.
  • The Dynasty Warriors series abuses the hell out of rocking music, particularly in the third and sixth installments. Whether you're trying to put down a peasant rebellion or engaging in the truly epic flaming ships battle, you will be accompanied by a wall of electric guitars and thrashing drums proclaiming your awesomeness. Especially hilarious because the games are set in ancient China.
    • The siege of He Fei Castle, which is the final showdown between the Wu and Wei kingdoms, seems to particularly lend itself to epic rocking guitars, as heard here.
    • The seventh installment introduces the Kingdom of Jin, who bring the Three Kingdoms era to a close with the power of rock.
  • Yoshi's Island, normally a very childlike game, culminates in an intense, hard-rocking electric guitar theme in its final battle. And it is AWESOME.
  • In Paper Mario, the final boss, Bowser, has a pretty heavy theme, mixing some organs in there, too. In TTYD, the boss Rawk Hawk's song owns almost TWICE as hard.
  • While it's not the final boss of Tales of Vesperia, electric guitars are abundant and awesome during Yuri's climactic duel with Flynn near the end of the game. Merely part of the reason why the fight's so cool.
  • Doom and Doom II both use generic versions of heavy metal songs (Them Bones by Alice in Chains among others) for its music.
    • Doom II is arguably an inversion, since the entire game is spent rocking out right up to the Icon of Sin, which is... eerily quiet
  • Iji wicked awesome Heavy Metal in quite a few of the sectors. Fully in line with the trope, however, is the truly epic final boss theme, which takes the metal of the series (pardon the pun) Up to Eleven.
  • Nothing says "Rugal will kick your ass and then bronze you" quite like this number.
  • Not even games without much music are doomed to lack this if they have microphone chat support. A personal example from this editor(since there doesn't seem to be a Troper Tales/Truth In Television yet): The BLU team of Team Fortress 2 is losing during cp_Steel. Someone begins to micspam "Ride into the Danger Zone" as the entire thing begins to reach it's end. The BLU team manages to pull through just in time.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has several heavy metal sequences. Probably the most impressive during the helicopter ride when you do your Last Stand in the form of Death From Above. Of course, Hans Zimmer is responsible for this, so no surprise there.
  • Supreme Commander has Cybran Razors. The guitar takes a while to kick in, at about 1 minute in.
  • The final level of the Dark Carnival campaign in Left 4 Dead 2 takes place on a concert stadium, already set up for the fictional band "Midnight Riders". In order to signal a helicopter flying around in the area, the survivors have to start up the sound system and fireworks. The Riders are apparently not averse to the use of playback, because as soon as you hit the button rock music starts playing, attracting a horde of zombies.
  • The final stage of the Tower of Lost Souls in Soul Calibur IV uses a rock song, interspersed with blaring trumpets sounding out the game's recurring riff.
    • Happens again when you fight the same guy in V. Algol sure likes his rock, doesn't he?
  • In the videogame for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie, the final boss music is also electric guitar.
  • Many of the track and character themes of F-Zero F-Zero are practically made of this.
  • The last boss fight of the first disc of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time featured "Divine Spirit Of Language", a driving electric guitar song.
  • Do Don Pachi Daifukkatsu's soundtrack has a pop/electronica feel to it. The Black Label release, on the other hand? DonPachi Squadron, rock out!
  • No More Heroes and its sequel do this quite a bit. Assassins, rock out!
  • While the main themes of Punch-Out!! Wii are all heavy on guitar, the final boss, Mr. Sandman, is outright metal.
  • The Touhou fangame Mega Mari (a takeoff of Mega Man starring Marisa) is no stranger to RAWK throughout, but the final boss fight against Patchouli and her Humongous Mecha kicks off with the title theme.
    • Sakuya's theme, "Luna Clock ~ Luna Dial" from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. That is all.
    • Not to mention Reimu's series of Last Words from Concealed the Conclusion, which are set to a rock version of her final boss theme.
  • The aptly named "Save the World" from Final Fantasy Legend II

Release the Smasher.

  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night opens with a subdued choral theme, and the title sequence features ominous, orchestral opening music. Then the game begins with a replay of the last battle between Richter and Dracula in Rondo of Blood. What's the music? That's right: driving, wailing electric guitars. But only for a short time: Dracula's music is the epic orchestral music, remixed from Rondo.
    • Inverted with the rest of the game - there are two main boss themes, a face-melting metal style one, and a more orchestrated one. The orchestrated one becomes more common throughout the game, and many of the later bosses have it, giving it a tone of "important boss music" (key characters like Death and Shaft have this theme). Dracula has another different orchestral theme altogether.
  • Devil May Cry The games are basically nothing but this trope.
  • EVE Online's soundtrack is pretty muted and focuses on ambience, but it does have a few combat tracks like Retribution and Fight Like You Live.
  • Monster Hunter Tri's final boss theme song is a mix of this and Ominous Pipe Organ. The result is pure awesome.
  • The original Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64 has different music for each level, but is perhaps unique for having an amped-up version for most, if not all of these themes that kicks on most missions once the action really revs up (i.e. when Joanna's cover is blown, when a bomb is about to go off, and so on).
  • Earth 2150 has the UCS battle themes containing large amounts of this trope, unlike the orchestral-themed ED and LCS soundtracks.
  • In the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World video game, the final boss music is this.
  • The final boss theme in Jumping Flash! and the penultimate boss theme in the sequel.
  • Klavier Gavin much? In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the prosecutor/rock memetic Sex God Klavier Gavin's theme music "Guilty Love," a looped metal track, picks up every time he's at an advantage - and it's awesome.
  • Blue Wish Resurrection Plus mostly plays techno tracks but for the True Final Boss we get Fortune.
  • RefleX uses the organ most of the time but the battle against Cancer have the rock powered Despair -Cancer-.
  • Jet Set Radio was all about this, particularly the screwy final boss music - simply titled Grace and Glory.
  • Zone of the Enders is incredible. Just listen. And that isn't even the best track. That whole series is like the biggest most badass sci-fi film you have ever seen (and there is a film - Zone of the Enders IDOLO).
  • Mech Assault 2 Is made of this . Mid-way boss theme? Getting Away With Murder- Papa Roach. Final boss theme? Right Now by Korn. Besides those around 90% of the original music is some form of hard rock.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne's endgame is basically made of this trope, to the point where one path ends with what can best be described as a techno rock battle. at the end of the universe. with the Devil.
  • Transformers: War for Cybertron has some good soundtracks during the game but it's the end credits everyone looks forward to, leaving us with an amazing song by Stan Bush that has us feeling good and satisfied after all we fought against.
  • Yoko Shimomura's soundtrack for Legend of Mana uses rock music for nearly every boss theme, most notably The Darkness Nova.
  • Rock music is the basis of a lot of the battle themes in Xenoblade Chronicles, though Those Who Bear Their Name could be considered the defining example.


MMORPG

  • The MMO City of Heroes has several city zones with rockin' intro themes, though these fade after a few seconds. If you make it onto the downed Rikti Mothership during a raid in the Rikti War Zone, however, you are treated to inspiring ROCK for the few minutes the ship is vulnerable to attack.
  • La Tale contains a surprise version of this in the very first instance dungeon. To be specific, the background music spends the first ten seconds or so sounding like generic "cave" music, and then becomes awesome.
  • The World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King features a 5-man boss that is essentially one big Shout-Out to James Brown. His boss quotes and attacks in-game are all references to Brown's music, his title is <Godfather of Souls>, and when you start the boss encounter, you get treated to this.


Web Animation

  • This [dead link] episode of Red vs. Blue. The awesome twanging electric guitar, combined with the show's new animation and some awesome choreography, makes the whole episode one long Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • The two final episodes of the RE-series tops this even further, with an instrumental version of this epic track when Tex and the Reds and Blues fight their final battle against The Meta.


Webcomics

  • Tom Siddell recognizes this. At the end of Gunnerkrigg Court's particularly girly 13th chapter, he left a note jokingly promising that the next chapter would feature "monster trucks and rocking electric guitars". Unfortunately, a few too many fans took the note at face value[2] and began asking "Where are the electric guitars?" halfway through Chapter 14, so Tom just deleted the note.
  • The trolls' Final Boss fight against the Black King in Homestuck isn't animated and is in the form of a quickly-glossed-over flashback, so it doesn't have music. But then the AlterniaBound album answered the question of what that final boss theme would sound like: Rex Duodecim Angelus, a hugely awesome theme that ties all of the trolls' musical motifs into fitting music to precede the creation of a new universe. Nightmare organs, harpsichord, chainsaw noises, honks, and culminating in a heavily distorted guitar Western-style showdown theme for Vriska.
    • Cascade, the theme for the End of Act 5 and the climax of the story up to that point, consisted primarily of rock music.


Web Original


Western Animation

Soundwave: Your axe is useless, Autobot.
Optimus Prime:[4] But yours isn't!


Real Life

  • During the first Gulf War, American pilots would frequently blast "Rock The Casbah" by The Clash, which features a line about "dropping bombs between the minarets".
    • A fact which, reportedly, made the band's lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Joe Strummer, weep.
  • During the Battle of Fallujah, the U.S Military used music as a means of demoralizing the insurgents and getting their troops pumped up for combat. It mostly consisted of metal and hardcore gangster rap. The insurgents, in turn began blasting prayers, chants and Arabic music. The music was blasted so frequently that the Marines fighting in the city started calling it "Lalafallujah".
  1. ↑ The popular J-pop band, Supercell
  2. ↑ or thought they were the first to pretend to take the note at face value, which was no less annoying
  3. ↑ Shh! Don't say that too loud! Michael Bay might be reading this right now!
  4. ↑ referring to guitar Decepticon Laserbeak
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