Forget about Guitar Hero Metallica or AC/DC Rock Band, for what sounds like perhaps the most metal video game ever has just been released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

It’s called “Brutal Legend” and revolves around a heavy metal roadie’s adventure through different worlds, each represented by a different metal sub-genre, after being sent back in time. But wait, it gets even more metal than that. The main character, Eddie Riggs, is voiced by one half of the most metal duo of comedy actors with acoustic guitars, Jack Black.

Other cameo appearances include Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmeister of Motorhead and Lita Ford. The soundtrack to the game is also delightfully brutal, featuring 108 songs by 75 different bands ranging from juggernauts like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to lesser known underground bands such as Angel Witch, Cloven Hoof, Riot, Brocas Helm and Slough Feg. This extensive play list took about two years to compile and was thought out very carefully. “It became a hunt for the best metal I could find,” music director Emily Ridgeway said. “I was after metal that should have been famous but wasn’t. I wanted to expose people to really great music they would have never heard of.”

The game has been described as fantasy incorporating elements from every facet of heavy metal music in one way or another. Screenshots show Jack Black’s character atop a mountain of human skulls with a large bloody axe and an electric guitar slung across his back. The president of the company that created the game, Tim Schafer, perhaps described the imagery the best. “Every frame of this game looks like a heavy metal album cover.”

On a closing note, I’m sad to say Metallica fans will be disappointed to find that the band refused to grant the rights for their music to be used in the game. Oh well, its certainly not the first time Metallica has disappointed their fans, and probably not the last.