Metal Up, Buttercup: Pat Mac’s 5 Must-Have Songs for Your Gym Playlist

If you don’t follow Ballistic contributor Pat McNamara on Instagram (@TmacsInc), well, for starters, you’re an idiot. It also means you probably aren’t familiar with his workout routine, which is of the superhuman variety. Mac also loves to work out with music — of the metal variety — blasting in the background. We at Ballistic can’t get enough, so we asked Mac for the go-to pump up jams he has on his gym playlist. So without further ado, hear from the man himself.

In 1979, I was 14 years old. I took some of my paper route money to a yard sale a few blocks from where I lived. There was a milk crate full of vinyls. I flipped through and pulled one out that caught my eye. It was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” I bought it for a quarter. I took it home and played it repeatedly, driving my parents bat shit. They said to me, “That horrible genre of music will be dead in five years.”

I still have that vinyl and the matching CD signed by Ozzy. Ever since, I’ve been a metal head.

There is something about metal that unlike any other genre of music. No. 1 — because I am biased and play guitar and drums — I’d say it is the hardest genre to play. Additionally, though it is aggressive, it is positive and uplifting. Metal flows through my veins and it is cranking at level 11 even when it is not playing.

I have converted many a meek, sissy, lame ass, whiny baby music listener, to the paint-peeling, flesh-shredding, head-banging, fist-pumping world of METAL … and they are better for it.

I am a snob when it comes to metal and won’t listen to just anything in the genre. The musicians have to be that: Master musicians. The singer has to be legible and a good lyricist. And they must perform live just as well, or better than, their studio recording.

I’ve got a slamming gym playlist on my iPod to fire me the fuck up during my workouts. If I were to pull just five songs off of it to transform a “would be” metal-head, I’d choose these five. These are not my faves and yes, I know I left out the biggest bands in metal, but these are chosen by me to transform the lame music lover into a world of coolness and badassery. Enjoy your new gym playlist!

Lamb of God — “Walk With Me in Hell”

Megadeth — “Tornado of Souls”

Pantera — “Shedding Skin”

Chimaira — “Down Again”

Soulfly — “Bloodshed”