remembering J.S. Bach on his birthday - an inspiration to numerous metal musicians!

Bach is associated with spooky Halloween music. Megadeth, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stratovarius, and so many other metal bands have borrowed, covered, and used Bach for their music, consciously or unknowingly. A bunch of King Diamond albums sounds like Bach’s music with metal. In metal, Bach's influence sometimes is obvious, and sometimes it’s less obvious. There is a whole bunch of YouTube guitarists who cover Bach. There is even an electric guitar orchestra (from Spain, it seems) that has covered Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685 – July 28, 1750) was a German composer famously associated with the Baroque era for perfecting counterpoint, which is the art of weaving different melodies together at the same time. He wrote over 1,000 pieces of music, influencing Western music in innumerable and foundational ways.

An interesting tribute to Bach has been done by Alkaloid, formed by Hannes Grossmann after his time with the progressive technical death metal band Obscura: Alkaloid - Bach Out of Bounds (2026). The album contains three Bach covers, and the other five songs are Alkaloid performances that bring together metal, Bach, and European music in a different way altogether.

Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565

Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: II. Air on the G String.

Wolf Hoffmann (ACCEPT) - Air on the G String (Suite No. 3, BWV 1068) J. S. Bach, original instruments

Alkaloid - Bach Out of Bounds (Official Album Stream)