Gloryhammer: Intentionally hilarious epic power metal "from Scotland"

DLM

I can't remember the last time I was this excited by a new band. It's the Alestorm frontman's new project, but he's got a proper power metal vocalist in from Switzerland, and just plays keys himself. I still don't "get" Alestorm, but this has really sunk its hooks in.

Best summed up by their producer, I feel: "I think what's so cool about it is that they're obviously really having fun and lampooning the whole scene (broken English, silly concepts, unicorns... packing in every possible clichee ... even the video is meant to look like a typical power metal video) ... and then, despite "not taking it seriously", they still have the audacity to completely kick the arses of  99% of "real" power metal bands and sound really authentic doing so, lol "

(My translation from http://www.musiker-board.de/hoerproben-metal/524206-ich-praesentiere-gloryhammer.html)

In many ways, it's like Steel Panther: ridiculous concept, but so good – great songwriting and musicianship

This song is so catchy I've just had to give it repeat plays every day since discovering it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlhQZFTvAn4

How can you not like a song entitled The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee?!

If you want a "proper" video to watch (and oggle at the fantasy costumes the band members wear!): http://www.youtube.com/v/VTW30Q4B3Go

I'd love to hear what this forum's large Scots contingent feels about this.

Dundee!

ICBM

I think Dundee deserves something a lot more apocalyptic than an invasion of unicorns, to be honest.

The song is mildly amusing though .

historyisjunk

The spirit of William McGonagall lives on, I think he'd approve.

(have no problems with Dundee personally & some unicorns, plus pandas in Edinburgh would make eastern Scotland a rare animal tourism magnet.)

RocknRollDave

Comedy metal bands? It was old when Bad News did it...and that's going back a bit

johnnyurq

On yonder hill there stood a coo, its no there noo, it must have shifted.

Add a death metal backing and hair rock solos and McGonagall lives again.

DLM

McGonagall is exactly where this is at! I love the authentically mangled "power metal English"!

@RocknRollDave, yes, but what sets these guys apart IMO is the quality of the songwriting, they have such great hooks! Plus, the musicianship is stellar.

What did the forum's metal-loving crowd think? I'm missing the takes of @bidley @bucket @fretmeister , etc. Guys?

Bidley

"despite "not taking it seriously", they still have the audacity to completely kick the arses of  99% of "real" power metal bands"

I think that's stretching it a touch far.

But yes, I've heard of them before, and they are brilliantly silly! The whole metal sub-genre parody is nothing new, but Gloryhammer are genuinely pretty good, if a bit generic.

Bucket

I am going to form a side-project band called "Army of Undead Unicorns"

Brilliant. I must concede, too, that the chorus is genuinely epic. Cool solo, and the key change at the end is gloriously clichéd. 

DLM

@Bidley, I dunno, I've been trying to find other power metal bands that I like as much as Gloryhammer and have really been struggling. There's Malmsteen, and that's about it. I've never managed to get into Maiden.

I did find this though, it's like a car crash, so terrible it was impossible to look away:



@Bucket, oh absolutely, I genuinely laughed out loud at the cliché key modulation the first time I heard it.

I blame withdrawal symptoms from Game of Thrones/the Song of Ice and Fire books for my current cravings for fantasy material. I've finished reading all the books and am quite likely to become a GRRuMbler soon.... ">

PolarityMan

Imho the actual "serious" bands in this space are so unintentionally hilarious that they take some of the effectiveness out of parodies. 

The keyboards in that song were particularly offensive though

Bidley

@DLM Oh dear, Unleash the Archers are dreadful. There are much better examples out there;











(BTW, I won't judge you if you laugh at Rhapsody :P)

Then there are the heavier echelons, which you may get on with a bit better.

DLM

@Bidley Thanks for posting all that, I've now listened to each of the videos. As you predicted, I liked the last three heavier ones most. I've tried all the other bands before and not "got it", though I'm perhaps closest with Blind Guardian, which I at least find an interesting approach. I still owe you thanks for introducing me to Coroner (ages ago, back on MR), I like them much more than any of these power metal bands, and for whatever reason I'd never listened to them before.

@Bucket, I see you've found a more receptive audience for this over at Sevenstring.org (not surprising really!). I'm not active there yet, I don't own a sevenstring, for starters!

Bidley

@DLM, you clearly have great taste - Blind Guardian are me favourites You may like their earlier stuff a bit more - their first 2-3 albums are classic Speed Metal, the era I'm posting here where they just start getting more epic with their compositions. You can really hear the Queen influences on their latter-era stuff (they even did an album called A Night at the Opera!).



And I'm glad somebody liked Coroner! Criminally underrated in the 80's, they broke up in the early 90's and have reformed due to a massive surge in popularity (thank you, internet!). I saw them live a couple of years ago, very tight and impressive for a 3-piece Thrash band!

DLM

One insightful chap on Sevenstring.org posted that Gloryhammer could be seen as invoking Poe's law (being indistinguishable from "non-parody" power metal). A great point, I thought, it's incredible how many people don't hear how firmly tongue in cheek their music is. For me, anyway, it *is* clear that it's a joke, but that doesn't detract at all from the awesomeness of the songs and the playing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

The solo on the Timelord song reminded me a little of Tony MacAlpine, which is a really good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Manticora have also clearly overdosed on early Shrapnel Records releases, just like me. >:D<

@Bidley, Yeah, Blind Guardian have been quite a big influence on the other guys in my band, so I was already checking them out. (The drummer's been getting double-bass lessons from Alex Holzwarth.) The Queen influence is really obvious with all the choral backing vox. I'll work my way through their back catalogue a bit, I think, to date I've only tried Imaginations from the Other Side 'cause I could borrow it from our old bassist.

Holzwarth has also played with Rhapsody, which is just too much cheese for me.

Still, all this stuff got me introduced to me Nanowar (of Steel), which is like an even-sillier Gloryhammer turned up to eleven. I'm not quite as into the songs yet.



How can one not love these lyrics?

Nanowar (Of Steel) said:

Save the village, fight the dragon,
Ride the big Station Wagon
Mighty warrior, come with me
Sail across the red sea!!

For the Power, for the Glory,
For the movie "Toy Story"
For the "Hell On Stage Live"
And Eiffel 65!
Fight! Fight! Fight!

Looca Toorilli, Odino and Valhalla,
Unite in the shower of Metal Lallalla
And join the gay dragon's party... With Lucio Dalla!

Our metal is true, and true metal wins
Leads us to fly on absorbent wings:
166 tampax are drowned in the blood of the queens

Going off-topic again: Coroner really do have a different sound to all the other thrash bands I've always listened to, I watched the Get Thrashed documentary the other day and was a bit disappointed they only got briefly mentioned when the Euro scene was discussed. I like them more than many of the US bands, actually. Would love to see them live, but I'm not built for festivals, which seem to be the only way to access many bands these days. Speaking of three-piece thrash bands, I've only just discovered Revocation (who now have another guitar player, but they started as a three-piece). I suppose they're as much tech-death as they are thrash, and I find it pretty exhausting to listen to, but really dig a lot of the elements they've thrown together in their sound.