In a world where metal music has turned to pop and its high pitched yells have turned to boy band hell, you’re one of the last few with metal in their soul. Your name? Eddie Riggs and you’re one of the best roadies left in a musically deprived world.

You start off backstage while the band is ready to start the show. As you hand the guitarist with the Kabbage Boy shirt his guitar, you realize that the music you once knew and loved is long gone. Dead. As the band hits the stage, the guitarist decides to climb the beast decoration. During this scene, you’re given the option to censor out bad language just as Eddie is about to drop the F-bomb. In an obvious turn of events, the guitarist falls, you’re there to save him, and you disappear into the darkness. Before you know it, a huge piece of steel slab falls on you, crushing you to death. As blood pours out of your metal body and leaks down into your metal belt, out of metal hell comes a metal beast (literally) and releases a metal wave of destruction upon the non-metal; decapitating them… assuming you’re ok with gore. Yeah, this game is metal!

You wake up to see a group of cult demons around an Axe in the center of the stage, which you will later realize is positioned atop a tower of death and despair! After an exchange of hilarious dialogue, you’re able to move around freely. Avoid picking up the Axe so you can hear the lines of Eddie. I found them hilarious. Your first obvious objective is to pick up the Axe, which goes by the name of The Separator, all the while avoiding the evil cult of evil hell! Once you pick up the Axe, which is controlled by the A button, a couple of basic moves become available. Tapping A will give you a light attack, while pressing and holding will give you a strong attack that will strike your opponent so hard it will decapitate them. Metal style! Just after picking up the Axe and defeating a couple of drones, you pick up another Axe, this time it’s a guitar and it’s named Clementine. The guitar also comes with a set of moves that are attached to the X button. Just like the Axe, you have a light and strong attack. Using both A and X gives you an AOE (area of effect) attack where it pushes away nearby enemies.

As you progress, more moves become available and both can be put into play for massive damage. The Left Trigger is reserved for targeting enemies. While targeted, moving the right analog stick will toggle between who you want to target. The B button is for blocking while the Y is reserved for picking up objects or action commands. The Right Trigger is for selecting solos that you can shred with your guitar. More on that later…

Half way through the demo, you meet a female character that was also seeking Clementine. You team up with her to reek metal mayhem and learn moves in which you partner up to cause even more damage! Immediately after, you come across something known as Relic Raiser. It’s “A rare vine that grows wherever the land is steeped in legend.” Press the Right Trigger near a vine and select the Relic Raiser solo to begin. You have to press the corresponding button when necessary. It’s similar to music games of today. Once you rock that solo, a cut scene plays in which you put your roadie skills to work and build a vehicle that you lovingly name “The Deuce” or “The Druid Plow.” Once in the vehicle, the Left Trigger is used to go in reverse while the Right Trigger is to accelerate. B is for sharp turns and clicking in the Left analog is for nitro which will be used to defeat the boss which was quite easy. The short vehicle section was fairly easy. Just drive forward while running over anything you see in sight. When you reach your destined location and defeat a couple more cult demons, a huge skeletal creature appears and, you guessed it, boss battle time! You just have to circle around the vagina with teeth looking beast and avoid its attacks. Once it misses, you have to nitro boost into its tentacles that got stuck to the ground. After that, you’re done with the demo. Short and sweet…

The demo, while linear and fairly easy, got me hooked and wanting more metal mishaps. The sound track alone should please every metal head out there and if metal isn’t your style, the story and dialogue should be enough to keep you entertained. The game play itself falls a little short in the demo but I’m sure it’ll expand as you dwell deeper into the wonderful metal world that Tim Shafer has created. I’m looking forward to picking this up come October 13 and I recommend you do the same. In fact, we here a Couch Campus will take it a step further and provide the link as to where to reserve it! Here you go and rock on!