Kaiju Big Mettal

Like a lot of guys my age whose childhoods revolved around dreary nowhere Midwestern towns, my formative Saturday afternoons often consisted of marathon sessions of Japanese dudes in rubber monster suits whaling on each other. Kaiju eiga were a staple of my childhood, and I've been binging on them lately after a good decade away. Watching the original,uncut Gojira (sans a drunken, condescending Raymond Burr) and Rodan (which is essentially a doom lovers' story), I was struck by just how grim, how metal those movies really were in context. The subtext was probably lost on me at 10, but, like me, plenty of heavy musicians have drawn inspiration from what, on the surface, were pretty ridiculous seeming popcorn flicks.
If you'll allow me to step away from grind and hardcore for a moment, I want to pay tribute to four monstrous sounding bands who also have a fondness for the King of All Monsters. It's like Kaiju Big Mettal.

Starting with the very first generation raised on rubber monsters, proto-metallers goofs Blue Oyster Cult went straight for the best of the beasts with "Godzilla."

Godzilla

When they weren't being all dour and gloomy and bummed out by Birmingham, industrial titans Godflesh sang the praises of peaceful lady creature "Mothra." Look for her to be stamped on tramps everywhere.

Mothra

Whales in space would make for a great kaiju flick on its own, but French metallions Gojira prove their titanic monster bonafides by going straight to the source, swiping their name from a more correct anglicazation of our beloved Godzilla.

Gojira

I'm just gonna straight to Wikipedia for this one because I can't make it sound more metal: "Gigan is a cybernetic monster sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands. Gigan is considered Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponent, alongside Destroyah, both of which were easily able to severely injure Godzilla. Gigan was also the first monster in the Toho sci-fi series to cause Godzilla to visibly bleed."

Gigan

Now I'm totally in the mood to start a Halo- and Burmese-style bass and drums sludge band named Battra.