Headhunter is a song by the Belgian EBM band Front 242. It was released in 1988 on the album Front By Front, in two versions (Version 1.0 and Version 3.0). Version 1.0 was then released as a single, with Version 2.0 as one of the b-sides. The song was a major hit in the electronic and industrial music scenes, and Front By Front subsequently became the top selling album in the history of Wax Trax! Records.
Version 2.0 was accompanied by a music video directed by Anton Corbijn. It depicted the bandmembers in an urban landscape of Brussels, including the Berlaymont building and the Atomium that had been built for the 1958 World's Fair,[1] and used eggs as a visual theme. According to bandmember Patrick Codenys this was because Corbijn accidentally heard that the song title was "Egg Hunter".
After a long hiatus from 1993 onwards, Front 242 regrouped to re-record the song in late 1999, releasing it with multiple remixes on the dual-CD single Headhunter 2000.
A character in the miniatures game Hordes is based on this song. Many of his abilities are drawn directly from the lyrics, including Bait the Line, Spread the Net and Lock the Target.
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The above tracks for Headhunter 2000 were split across four discs in another version of the release. Other versions of the release are listed here at FreeDB and at Discogs. Some of them include additional remixes:
Hot Tracks and Razormaid! (also known as "Welcome to...Headhunter") released remixes of the song to DJs. In addition, Danny Tenaglia, Eskimos & Egypt, DBS, Project 12:01 and Icon of Coil made cover versions. Aghast View also did a remix, and ThouShaltNot produced a parody version in a relaxed jazz/lounge style (in contrast to the pounding industrial dance beat of the original).