Why You Might Recognize The Song In Liquid Death's 2022 Super Bowl Commercial

Children partying hard and chugging what at first look like beer cans might seem like radical imagery for a brand called Liquid Death — but that's exactly what the company's new Super Bowl LVI commercial depicts. Raging heavy metal music plays in the background as tweens jump around, yelling and dancing. While a voiceover points out at the end of the ad, "Don't be scared. It's just water," viewers will find the soundtrack mesmerizing ... and oddly familiar.

There's a reason for that — it's a clip from the 1980 song "Breakin' The Law" by heavy metal icons Judas Priest, a breakthrough hit track from their album "British Steel," Songfacts reports. And it's not the first time it's been used on a soundtrack, appearing in many other commercials, as well as movies and TV shows.

In 2009, songwriter and lead singer Rob Halford told Billboard of the ode to bad times and rebels, "It was a time in the U.K. when there was a lot of strife ... there were street riots. It was a terrible time. That was the incentive for me to write a lyric to try to connect with that feeling that was out there." Halford explained in his biography "Confess" (via Songfacts), "Writing the lyrics for 'Breaking the Law,' I tried to put myself in the mind of a jobless young bloke at his wits' end." With that in mind, the song is an appropriately cheeky anthem for a group of supposedly "rebellious" pre-teens.

This is the debut Super Bowl ad for Liquid Death, and the brand seems to be taking it with a sense of humor. "Time to crack open an ice-cold tallboy and rage with your underage buds! Check out our first overpriced national TV commercial from the Big Game!," the company wrote in the video description on YouTube.

Viewers came out of the woodwork to post on Twitter how much they loved the spot, which generally seems to be receiving ravingly positive reviews. One fan tweeted, "I know the games not over, but I'm pretty sure Liquid Death wins for best Commercial of the #SuperBowl."

The twist at the end got a lot attention, too. As one Twitter user exclaimed, "What in the actual F***...is this super bowl commercial? Oh, wait! It's just mountain water & sparkling water in a tall can. When I saw this moments ago, I thought it was PSA to get kids not to drink." Others poked fun at the hard partying spoof, with one fan joking, "All the ravers having ptsd from that liquid death commercial."

Most importantly, many felt it was smart branding. One person commented, "What Liquid Death just did there on their #SuperBowl commercial is how to make people remember a brand they've never heard of before," to which another person replied, " Liquid Death is AMAZING ... but I was convinced that I was the only one who drinks it. Perfect ad!"