On September 11, 2001, coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 killed 2,977 people from more than 90 countries. Twenty-five years later, the attacks remain part of a collective memory that extends far beyond the United States.
Rock music responded almost immediately. Some musicians wrote from grief; others tried to understand the fear that followed, paid tribute to firefighters and rescue workers, or challenged the military response beginning to take shape. In one extraordinary case, the impact went even further: Gerard Way has said witnessing the attacks from New Jersey forced him to question what he was doing with his life, becoming a crucial catalyst for My Chemical Romance.
These ten tracks are not simply songs that listeners later associated with 9/11. Each has a documented connection to the attacks or their immediate aftermath.
1. My Chemical Romance – “Skylines and Turnstiles”
Before The Black Parade, the arena tours and even My Chemical Romance as we came to know them, there was September 11.
Gerard Way was in Hoboken, New Jersey, heading to a professional meeting when he witnessed what was happening across the Hudson River. He later recalled wondering what he was doing with his life. The experience became instrumental in the creation of My Chemical Romance and “Skylines and Turnstiles,” eventually released on I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.
Rather than simply documenting the attack, the song captures confusion, fear and the realization that normal life could disappear almost instantly. Its significance goes beyond its lyrics: 9/11 directly altered Way's trajectory and, consequently, part of the course of 21st-century alternative rock.
2. Slayer – “Jihad”
Slayer approached September 11 from an entirely different and intentionally disturbing angle.
For 2006's Christ Illusion, Jeff Hanneman wrote “Jihad” from the imagined perspective of a terrorist involved in the attacks. Hanneman explained that if Slayer were going to address 9/11, he wanted to approach the subject from the perpetrator's point of view rather than write a conventional condemnation.
Both Hanneman and Kerry King stressed that portraying that perspective was not the same as endorsing it. The result remains one of metal's most provocative treatments of terrorism and religious extremism.
3. Dream Theater – “Sacrificed Sons”
The opening moments of “Sacrificed Sons” establish its context immediately, using snippets of September 11 news broadcasts before Dream Theater moves into an extended progressive-metal composition.
With lyrics by James LaBrie, the song confronts the attacks, religious extremism and the questions left behind by mass violence. The band has acknowledged that its subject demanded particular sensitivity and prompted discussion over how directly the lyrics should approach the tragedy.
Released on 2005's Octavarium, it remains one of progressive metal's most substantial musical responses to 9/11.
4. Epica – “Façade of Reality”
On their 2003 debut The Phantom Agony, Epica were already using symphonic metal to examine religion, ideology and contemporary events.
“Façade of Reality” is specifically based on the September 11 attacks and incorporates excerpts from a speech by then-British prime minister Tony Blair. Its subject also fits Mark Jansen's broader writing about religious fundamentalism and the dangers of unquestioned ideological certainty.
It remains one of symphonic metal's clearest direct connections to 9/11.
5. Yellowcard – “Believe”
Yellowcard's “Believe,” from Ocean Avenue, was written specifically with first responders in mind.
Ryan Key has explained that the band developed an important early following around New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, making the aftermath of September 11 especially close to their community. He has also identified Bruce Springsteen's The Rising as a direct inspiration.
Instead of concentrating on the perpetrators, “Believe” remembers the people who ran toward burning buildings while thousands of others were trying to escape.
6. Bruce Springsteen – “The Rising”
Few rock records became as closely associated with post-9/11 grief as Bruce Springsteen's The Rising.
Springsteen has recalled that communities around his part of New Jersey lost numerous people in the attacks and that he could see the burning towers from the coast. The title track centers on the image of a firefighter climbing through the World Trade Center carrying his equipment while others descend toward safety.
Springsteen transformed that image into something both physical and spiritual: an ascent toward duty, danger and potentially death. It became one of rock's defining musical images of September 11.
7. Neil Young – “Let’s Roll”
The events aboard United Airlines Flight 93 produced one of rock's quickest musical reactions.
Neil Young wrote “Let's Roll” after reading accounts of passengers and crew attempting to overpower the hijackers after learning about the other attacks. Its title references the phrase famously associated with passenger Todd Beamer before the counterattack began.
Written and recorded only months after September 11, the song does not function like a distant memorial. It attempts to inhabit the urgency of those final minutes aboard the aircraft.
8. Anti-Flag – “911 for Peace”
While much of the United States was demanding military retaliation, Anti-Flag responded from its established anti-war position.
The band was working in the studio when the attacks took place. After stopping for several days, Justin Sane returned with “911 for Peace.” Chris #2 later recalled that only around three days had passed.
The song condemned the attacks while rejecting the idea that further bombing and civilian deaths could provide an answer. In retrospect, it remains a revealing document of the tense political climate that emerged almost immediately after 9/11.
9. Eagles – “Hole in the World”
“Hole in the World” began taking shape on September 11 itself.
Don Henley recalled that the Eagles' scheduled recording session was cancelled that day. That evening, he sat at his home piano and began building a song around the phrase “hole in the world.” The refrain arrived quickly, although completing the song would take much longer.
By its 2003 release, the Iraq War had given the composition another layer of meaning. What began as a response to September 11 ultimately became a broader meditation on loss, war and the people who never return home.
10. Goldfinger feat. Mest & Good Charlotte – “The Innocent”
Pop punk also produced a direct response to the attacks.
Goldfinger, joined by members of Mest and Good Charlotte, recorded “The Innocent” after September 11. John Feldmann confirmed that the song was written following the attacks, while Goldfinger's official discography describes it as a pop-punk 9/11 meditation co-written with Benji Madden.
Rather than embracing militaristic rhetoric, the song concentrates on innocent lives and on the danger of answering hatred with more hatred, particularly when that anger is redirected toward people because of their religion or background.
One tragedy, heard from very different places
Together, these songs reveal how deeply September 11 entered popular culture. There was never a single rock response to what happened. My Chemical Romance emerged partly from Gerard Way's desire to change his life; Springsteen wrote from communities mourning friends and relatives; Yellowcard focused on first responders; Anti-Flag challenged the rush toward war; and Slayer deliberately entered the mind of the attacker.
Twenty-five years later, revisiting these songs does not require turning tragedy into nostalgia. They remain documents of how musicians from radically different scenes attempted to understand, confront or simply process an event that, at the time, seemed almost impossible to comprehend.
