10 celebrities you didn’t know were metalheads

Volodymyr Zelensky

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is an high profile fan of metal music and a supporter of the Ukrainian metal scene. He particularly enjoys the bands Nokturnal Mortum, Drudkh and Hate Forest.

Zelensky has insisted on the role that homegrown metal plays in the consolidation and promotion of Ukraine’s national identity and famously recommended the use of metal as a means to boost the morale of soldiers and civilians alike during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Barron Trump

Donald Trump’s heir is an enthusiastic listener as well as musician in the metal genre. The youngest child of the current US President had a one-man bedroom black metal project during his teenage years, inspired by acts such as Xasthur, Leviathan and Striborg. Although he generally prefers to maintain some privacy about his musical taste and endeavors, he has revealed that some of his favorite bands include Disturbed, Orphaned Land and Melechesh.

Timothy Chalamet

The famous thespian has disclosed that he grew up listening to metal and even has a tattoo of the logo of Metallica’s “Ride the Storm” (his album of choice within the genre).

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is known to enjoy metal music and regularly shake her curvaceous figure to the vigorous rhythms of bangers like Pantera’s “Walk” and Sepultura’s “Roots Bloody Roots” (that is, when she doesn’t venture into even heavier territory like Devourment).

Lars Ulrich

Yep, that’s right! Celebrity musician Lars Ulrich also happens to be an heavy metal fan; more specifically, he admires the precise and intricate drumming of bands like Cynic, Defeated Sanity and Spawn of Possession, which figure among his favorites.

George Soros

One of the world’s richest men is also a metalhead. One of his many philanthropy projects involves financial aid to bands struggling to make their way through the music industry. Soros’s funds are generally aimed at artists that promote progressive and liberal values such as Napalm Death (grindcore also happens to be his subgenre of choice).

Idi Amin

Uganda’s president from 1971 to 1979 was an avid appreciator of metal with a particular penchant for goregrind. He was drawn to genre’s relentless intensity and uncompromising brutality. The military and political leader, whose full title included “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fish of the Seas”, “Conqueror of the British Empire” and, later in life, “Supreme Headbanger”, even personally sponsored the first Cannibal Corpse concert in the country.

Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great famously appreciated metal music, one of the many western imports that were popularized throughout the vast empire during her reign. One of Catherine’s numerous reforms was a grant to aspiring musical artists working in the genre, which generated a nationwide sprout of metal bands, particularly in the Tartar metal subgenre.

Saladin

Saladin was known to appreciate Chuck Schuldiner’s oriental melodies.

Copernicus

Copernicus discovered heliocentrism through an LSD trip during which he listened to Blood Incantation’s trippy music.