'80s rock music was a time of big songs and even bigger hair. Glammed-up guitarists shredding their fingers to the bone, knocking out wailing solos that sent packed arenas into raptures, all performed with uncontrollable glee and unashamed cheese. And it's this feeling that Cobra Kai's composers were channelling for the third season on Netflix.
Despite the show being set over three decades after the original Karate Kid movie (released in 1984), the score pays homage to the music of the time, and none moreso than on the new season's end credits track Miyagi Metal. Surging with power metal energy and huge guitars, it's bursting with fun and fist-pumping energy, blasting out guitar and synth solos in such epic fashion you feel like you can karate chop the world in half. But where did this extravagant '80s rock-inspired track come from?
“Miyagi Metal came to us in a very natural way," composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson tell Kerrang!, explaining that the show's creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg "expressed the desire to have a piece of music for the end credits of the season that both encapsulated the spirits of our two warring dojos, but was also frickin’ badass as hell.
"When we score scenes that generally revolve around Cobra Kai – the dojo, not the show – we lean into heavy metal instrumentation and retro synthesisers," they continue. "Conversely, when we are scoring Miyagi-Do-centric scenes, we utilise more traditional symphonic orchestra topped with ethnic flutes, percussion, and stringed instruments. We concluded almost immediately our final cue should be a symphonic metal track, since by the simple nature of the genre, it’s the perfect amalgamation of both our rock and orchestral palettes. We were particularly inspired by bands like X Japan and DragonForce, as well as anime end credits songs and video game music – all of which evoke some sense of triumph but also just plain fun.