The heavy metal influence was strong in the latest season of the hit Netflix series ‘Stranger Things‘, mostly in part due to the character of metalhead Eddie Munson. However, the metal impact doesn’t end there. Apparently the actor who played the villain ‘Vecna’ in the show’s latest season listened to such heavy bands as MAYHEM, SUNN O))) and DARKTHRONE in order to prepare for the role.
Actor Jamie Campbell Bower recently gave an interview to the “Kyle Meredith With…” podcast via Consequence, and said: “When I was prepping for Vecna, to get into Vecna, I would use a lot of bands like Sunn O))), Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone, Mayhem. A lot of black metal kind of stuff that I just really latched onto and thought, ‘Wow, this is great.’ There’s also something about the sensitivity in the way black metal is made and their belief system which I really fucking vibe with.”
Bower also touched on his process of getting out of character, saying he listened to a lot of Kate Bush and PLACEBO.
“That was Vecna getting into Vecna. Escaping Vecna… I’m a huge fan of Placebo. I love Placebo. And obviously Placebo covered Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” sometime in, I dunno, I guess it must have been the late ’90s, early 2000s. And so I would go with that. Why not stick to the theme that’s already in the show? But the song is so beautiful, we love Kate Bush, we stan Kate Bush… Or if I’m being really naughty, if someone wanted me to be naughty, and they asked, ‘What would you pick?’, I would say, ‘I dunno, fucking Miley Cyrus’ ‘Party in the USA” or something bollocks like that.”
Volume 2 of ‘Stranger Things‘ season 4 is streaming now.