10 Pro Athletes Who Crank Metal Before the Big Game

Walk into almost any locker room an hour before kickoff and you will hear some version of the same playlist: a little hip-hop, a little arena rock, maybe a motivational speech set to a beat. But a growing number of professional athletes are reaching for something heavier.

We spent a month talking to players, fighters and lifters about what is actually in their headphones when the tunnel lights come on. Their answers ran from Finnish melodic death metal to thirty-minute doom epics, and almost none of them picked a song for the reason you would expect.

The List

1. Deshawn Pryor, All-Pro center

Doom metal before a game sounds backwards until you hear him explain it. "Everybody else is trying to get hyped. I am trying to get heavy." Pryor listens to one song on repeat from the bus to the tunnel, and he says it slows his breathing down to the pace of a snap count.

Go-to track: Weight of the Tide by Rust Cathedral

2. Mika Laine, Pro hockey defenseman

Laine grew up on Finnish melodic death metal and never grew out of it. He keeps a single earbud in during warm-ups so he can still hear the puck. His teammates have stopped asking him to change the locker room speaker.

Go-to track: Frostbite Hymn by Northgate Ruin

3. Tomasz "Tank" Nowak, Pro rugby prop

Nowak describes his pregame playlist as "anything that sounds like a truck falling down stairs." He times his final track so the breakdown hits as he laces his boots.

Go-to track: Scrum Engine by Hollow Anvil

4. Alana Reyes, Welterweight

Reyes has walked out to the same blast-beat opener for six straight fights and she is not changing it now. "The first ten seconds are pure noise. By the time the riff kicks in, I am already in the cage in my head."

Go-to track: Blast Radius by Cinder Throne

Everybody else is trying to get hyped. I am trying to get heavy.

Deshawn Pryor, All-Pro center

5. Corey Batts, Pro baseball closer

A closer needs one inning of pure focus, and Batts gets it from the slowest, ugliest sludge he can find. He listens in the bullpen with his hood up and says the song is exactly as long as his warm-up.

Go-to track: Ninth Inning Funeral by Grave Tempest

6. Jonah Whitfield, Pro lacrosse midfielder

Whitfield builds a new playlist for every opponent and names each one after the team he is about to face. His current favorite is technical, fast and full of time changes, which he says matches the way lacrosse actually feels.

Go-to track: Serpent's Crossing by Serpent Choir

7. Priya Nandakumar, Competitive powerlifter

Nandakumar saves one song for her final deadlift attempt and refuses to listen to it anywhere else. "If I hear it in the grocery store, the spell is broken."

Go-to track: Iron Psalm by Iron Covenant

8. Luca Moretti, Pro soccer goalkeeper

Moretti is a thrash guy through and through. He says the tempo keeps his feet light, and the lyrics, which are mostly about disasters, keep him humble.

Go-to track: Penalty Box by Blackwater Riot

9. Sam Okafor, Sprinter

Okafor picked his pre-race track because the drummer plays at almost exactly his stride rate at top speed. He admits he measured it. Twice.

Go-to track: Two Hundred by Vultures of Dusk

10. Grant Heller, Pro linebacker

Heller keeps it simple: loud, fast and angry, and on a speaker, not headphones. "Headphones are for studying. Game day is for the whole room."

Go-to track: Collapse the Pocket by Ashen Crown

Why It Works for Them

None of these athletes described metal as a way to get angry. Most talked about control. A fast song sets a pace their body can lock onto. A slow, heavy song gives them room to breathe. The noise itself becomes a wall between them and the crowd, the cameras and the nerves.

Several also mentioned ritual. A song heard in the same place, at the same time, before every game, becomes a switch. Hit play and the brain knows what comes next.

Build Your Own

• Pick one anchor song you only play before competition, and protect it.
• Match tempo to the task: fast for explosive efforts, slow and heavy for focus.
• Time the playlist to your warm-up so the last track ends when you step out.
• Keep one ear open if your sport needs you to hear the game.

Have a pregame song we should hear about? Send it our way through the contact page. The best ones make the next list.