National Metal Day is a holiday that’s observed annually on November 11th and is used to celebrate metal music. Actually, this holiday was created in honor of the mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” a movie about a fictitious metal band that was released in 1984.

Nowadays, this holiday is merely an excuse for “metal heads” to rock out. It doesn’t matter if they’re fans of alternative metal, death metal, black metal, thrash metal, or even glam metal. All that matters is that they turn the music way up and have some fun. We know that when this day rolls around, we’re going to be rocking out as well.

The History of National Metal Day

To many people’s surprise, this holiday was actually created by the 24-hour music network known as VH1 Classic. They created this holiday on November 11th, 2011; that day was chosen because it’s the 11th day of the 11th month in 2011.

That’s a direct reference to the movie “This is Spinal Tap” because, in the movie, the music is cranked to an “11.” And yes, this day was created as a direct reference to that movie.

Of course, just because a holiday is created by one organization or another, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to retain its original purpose over the years. Metal heads have since claimed this holiday and have used it to celebrate their favorite metal bands and music. And since metal is such a diverse category of music, that means this day is being observed in a variety of unique ways.

Fun Facts About Metal Music

We’ve collected a lot of metal music facts and would like to now share those facts with everyone enjoying this holiday. Let’s dig into them and see if there’s anything we can learn about Heavy Metal.

• Heavy Metal was originally a term used to describe bands such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
• Thanks to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, Heavy Metal was blamed for a variety of societal ills, such as drug use, suicide, and even murder.
• The Swedish metal band Bathory is named after Elizabeth Bathory, a murderous Hungarian noble who allegedly killed hundreds of young girls to bathe in their blood.

Observing National Metal Day

There is no right way or wrong way to enjoy this holiday. People can certainly enjoy this holiday by taking the time to enjoy their favorite metal music. Or, people can take the time to enjoy the movie “This is Spinal Tap.”

So, let’s all crank the music up to an 11 and enjoy the day. It’s also a good idea for people to spread the word about this holiday using the hashtag #NationalMetalDay on social media.