Iron Maiden - Brave New World

Band: Iron Maiden
Song: Brave New World
Album: Brave New World (2002)
Genre: Power Metal

It's my birthday, so I figured I'd take the time to do a throwback to one of my favorite bands from before I started blogging.  I don't have much to say since this is a crazy work day without much time off, but know that I appreciate all y'all.  Have a good one!

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Sabaton - Night Witches

Band:  Sabaton
Song:  Night Witches
Album:  Heroes (2014)
Genre:  Power Metal

This'll be the last post containing any of the bs from my vacation, I promise.

I'm kinda pumped is all since I don't often run into metalheads out and about, and even less frequently do I find ones that we connect immediately on a band.  Well we as a group were walking back to my friends apartment and this dude, Dave, mentions that when he saw Sabaton he stood in a line that went like, down 3 or more blocks.  We happened to walk right past where he had been standing.

This caused me to tell him about when I had seen them in Cleveland and we shot the breeze about Sabaton for a bit.  We both agree they're one of the best live acts we'd ever seen and we traded favorite songs back and forth.  I was gonna post the song he had said was one of his favorites, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.  It was on Carolus Rex though, and was one of the ones that was in Swedish.

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Powerwolf - Cardinal Sin

Band:  Powerwolf
Genre:  Power Metal

One of many bands I originally started liking for novelty reasons, Powerwolf is really one of the driving forces that got me interested in Power Metal in general.  That Latin thing they do is rather fun, and then there's the odd tune with a mountain of German in it.  All in all it's a good deal.

The singer is like a freaking opera singer, so they have a lot going for them, yeah?

Plus I'm sucker for bands whose core lyrical themes can be summed up as "Werewolves, Vampires, and Satan"

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Judas Priest - Painkiller

Band:  Judas Priest
Genre:  Power Metal

So yesterday our entire truck schedule at work was turned on it's head.  With that comes new drivers and that brings new stories.

I think my favorite guy so far was the dude that told us about he and his little cousin used to rob "the queers" at gunpoint till his cousin killed a guy and ended up in prison.  Fun stories, right?

Well this new guy today was much less weird, he just went and could hold out a Rob Halford note like nobodies business.  My brother has long hair and all so the driver was all "Hey man, you play music?" and after finding out he did he showed off with his singing abilities.

I was thinking he would be cool to have as our regular since he was just a stand in, but the more he talked the more I was worried he'd say a really offensive thing.  Or should I say a more offensive thing.

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Title Track Tuesdays: Sabaton - The Art Of War

Band:  Sabaton
Genre:  Power Metal

If there's one band that I'm really happy I discovered it'd have to be Sabaton.  There's a really inspiring power behind what their music that just makes you want to go.  The synth strings, the choir, the generally military patriotic theme, it all works together in a way that just works.

This album is a theme album even more so than their other stuff in the sense that it references Sun Tzu's book "The Art Of War".  The theme pervades throughout with little steps away to readings from the book itself and is usually accompanied with marching sounds as can be heard in the beginning of this track.  I'll rate this as a bang up representation of the direction the album is taking.

I hope you enjoy this song and band, they're some of my favorites.

Scorpions - Big City Nights

Band:  Scorpions
Genre:  Hair Metal, Power Metal, Hard Rock

"Ah hem..  *cough*  Ah...  The 80s."  *drop mic*

I feel like that's one of the primary feelings toward 80s music.  Some people call it the worst stuff on planet earth but I'd say that a large portion of the community is head over heels obsessed all over 80s music.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy a lot of 80s music.  It's got a very defining sound though that just sounds like the 80s in a way that nothing today has.  Even bands that try to mimic the sound like Steel Panther don't always manage to nail it.  Technology has simply advanced to the point that the crappy synths that we had back then just are gone.

Actually it's just the synths that we can kill.  The rest is killer and all that.

Anyway, please enjoy one of the anthems of the 80s, the glory of Hair Metal.

Pyramaze - Arise/Year Of The Pheonix

Band:  Pyramaze
Genre:  Power Metal

Yo yo, just discovered these guys while updating that playlist and mistyping a song name, but it's all good!

Power Metal is a fantastic style of music though.  Most people are familiar with Judas Priest as the traditional American Power Metal sound, but they all have their own sounds that make it special.

Except Blind Guardian.  They are the most Power Metal-y Power Metal band to ever Power Metal.

Sabaton - Carolus Rex

Band:  Sabaton
Genre:  Power Metal

This is currently my favorite song.  I'm not really sure why I'm attracted to music that I can't understand the lyrics of, but I am.  There's something about the European and Scandinavian languages that I really like.  I feel it adds to the majesty of the music.  Eh, whatever the reason it's a really good song.

Judas Priest - Living After Midnight

Band:  Judas Priest
Genre:  Power Metal

I feel like it's one of those unwritten laws that if you like Metal you have to like certain bands.  I was never really good at that, but Judas Priest isn't too bad.  I don't know much beyond what their radio songs were, but I've got plans to fix that soonish.

Week Of Evil: Powerwolf - Die Die Crucify

Band:  Powerwolf
Genre:  Power Metal

Oh yes, the Week of Evil is back.

I enjoyed this a lot last year, and even though I accidentally used a lot of my good songs up already I think we can swing this.

I've got some heavy hitters in the evil department coming in towards the end of the week, and some stuff that just sounds dark during other times.  I'm pretty excited about this, not gonna lie.  It forces me to look for stuff that usually outside of my standard music selection a lot of the time.

Here's Powerwolf again, I thought it would be a decent way to kick off the week.

Sabaton - For Whom The Bell Tolls

Band:  Sabaton
Genre:  Power Metal

If you don't recall Sabaton from the other times I've posted them then I don't really know what to say.  They're really good?

This is a Metallica cover though, and I think they did really freaking well with it.

Nightwish - Bye Bye Beautiful

Band:  Nightwish
Genre:  Power Metal, Symphonic Metal

This, as I have mentioned before, is a very good band.  The video on the other hand, is nothing short of hilarious.

You see, when Nightwish got their new singer a lot of the fans said that they picked her just to have a pretty face up there in front of everybody.  To counter that Nightwish released a music video where all the members of the band had been replaced by women.

I think it's funny at least.

The video claims it's not there, but if you click on it it will play.

Powerwolf - Kreuzfeuer

Band:  Powerwolf
Genre:  Power Metal
Themes:  Usually Werewolves, Vampires, and Satan

I posted Powerwolf almost exactly a month ago, but right after I posted that song I fell in love with this one.  Hey, I held off this long, so you're very welcome.

This song is in German and is about burning crosses.  I'm not sure what all else, but there's translations for you to look up on you're own later.

This is such a good song, I would call it well worth the 3:47 it'll take to hear it.

Powerwolf - Saturday Satan

I'm just gonna leave this here today.  Please look at the lyrics, just to see how ridiculous this is.

You may recall Powerwolf.  They're "evil Sabaton".  If you're into Power Metal you'll probably like these guys.

Sabaton - Swedish Pagans

I've posted Sabaton before, but that was like 3 1/2 months ago, so it's totally cool to post them again.

I probably said this before, but Sabaton is one of my favorite bands.  Their show is fantastic, they're funny, and they're a Power Metal band.  It really doesn't get much better than that.

All of their lyrics revolve around war, tanks, and victory, so there's really nothing to object to, ya know?  If memory serves they are clean too, so that's a major bonus if you're concerned about kids and such.

Sabaton - Ghost Division

I feel like it's poor form to talk about a band that's "like evil Sabaton" without actually showing you Sabaton.

This is Sabaton.  They sing about war and tanks.  The singer has actually said in an interview that he "Likes tanks so much that (he) figures if (he) sings about them enough (he'll) tun into one."  It's an interesting strategy, let's see if it plays out.

They're from Sweden if that means anything to you.

Also Power Metal is some of the best music.  It's right up there with Symphonic Metal for making epic situations more epic cause of things and reasons.

Studio:

Live:

I included the live version so you could see something very important.  Nuclear Blast.  Again.

Powerwolf - Sanctified With Dynamite

"Die.  Die.  Die tonight.  Sanctified with Dynamite.  Dy. Dy. Dynamite.  Hallelujah!"

With a chorus beginning in this way you know there's no way this isn't the best music ever.

I had Powerwolf described to me as "Evil Sabaton", which really doesn't mean anything to you if you don't know who Sabaton is, but that's not the point.

Powerwolf is a Power Metal band from Germany and have been around since 2003.  Their primary themes are Werewolves and Satan.  There we go, boring facts out of the way.

I want you to watch this stuff and seriously tell me that you don't like it.  At the very least you should find it amusing, I mean they're dressed like what a bunch of Cardinals would look like if they turned Goth.

On a side note, this would be the kind of music video filmed "live", which are really fun to film, but also kinda tedious since you will hear the same song something like 10 times in a row and you have to go crazy for it each time like it's the first time.

Children Of Bodom - Hate Me!

Children Of Bodom is a Melodic Blackened Powermetal band.  I think at least, it's kinda complicated because they're kinda a mix of all 3, but not really.

This is the band that Alexi Laiho is from.  You may remember him from the Amon Amarth song I posted a little while back as the guy that played the shredding face-meltingly fast solo.  In Bodom he is also the singer, so imagine the fact that he's playing most of these killer leads at the same time as singing.  Dude, that's intense.

Also they have a killer keyboard player who can follow the lead lines the guitar plays.  He plays them well enough that sometimes they switch out who's playing the lead and you might not even notice.

Hate Me! is one of my favorite songs too, because it has the best intro ever.  Seriously, that synth line makes me super ready to kick off the song.

Hope ya like this song like all the other.

Also, please comment, cause in the last week I got something like 60 views on this blog from somebody in France.  I'd love to chat with you, cause this is a kinda cool thing.

Judas Priest - The Hellion/Electric Eye

Judas Priest is a wonderful example of US Power Metal, which is ironic, considering they are a british band.

Forming in 1969, this makes them one of the oldest metal bands, only being beat out by Black Sabbath by 1 year.  Also they are the currently longest touring metal band, considering Sabbath took a 5 year leave of absence in 2006.  Judas Priest only took a 4 year leave of absence from 1992 to 1996.

Other than simply putting out some real quality music, these guys have helped refine the fashion sense of metal early on.  They were some of the originators of bringing leather and studs into the wardrobe of metal musicians everywhere.

So this song is one of their classics, but I figured I'd post it anyway.  No undiscovered classic, no hidden gem, just one of their solid hits.