Introduction
With this series, I am presenting a few bands that I like for one reason or other, and that I feel are often overlooked and worthy of discussion, and I just want to talk about. I’m planning to make a post a week in an individual thread, dedicated to a certain band or artist. The individual bands are from various genres, and their difference in quality is often quite dramatic! The length of each post will be somewhere between 500 and 600 words, or one page. This is often insufficient to introduce the band properly, so I am mostly concentrating on my very personal opinion, which I invite you to dispute, and leave the facts for you to research on sites such as Encyclopaedia Metallum or Wikipedia. Each post is concluded with a selection of my favourite tracks from those artists, which of course say more about the style than I ever could.
Bear in mind that these posts are often written in a tongue-in-cheek tone, and therefore are meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don’t want to dictate an opinion – I want to invite you to explore the vast undergrounds of the heavy metal world. In that sense: Enjoy reading, listening and arguing!
POWERWOLF - Never trust a werewolf from the east!
One of the scariest movies I ever saw as a kid was An American Werewolf in London. While the film is brilliant and hilarious, you can’t argue that there are a good number of absolutely chilling scenes, especially for minors. Just think of the classic transformation, the sheer tension of which just can’t be reproduced with modern computer technology. And when I got my first video cassette, containing the best of Michael Jackson’s videos, I discovered that the video clip for Thriller was done by the same makeup artist and I could experience the same horror again and again! I had nightmares for weeks and years. Somewhat ironically, this turned me into a huge werewolf fan.
So there’s this band called Powerwolf, from the remote German province of the Saarland, in the far west of the country. Every single person I met from this region turned out to be a complete nutcase, and this observation somehow also extends to Powerwolf. But what rocks about them is that they have a singer from Transylvania, and decided to completely exploit this for their gimmick. In fact, early in their career they even claimed the entire band was from Romania.
Effectively, this means that they celebrate their gigs like Catholic masses, with the little exception that they don’t pray to God or Jesus, but to Satan and werewolves (or are they werewolves themselves? Not quite clear). You wouldn’t believe how cool this can be. It’s always nice to see a band come up with a fairly original idea for an image and just go all-out on it. It makes them enjoyable to watch and listen to. But what actually makes Powerwolf special is their twisted sense of humour. Their song titles are brilliant: The Evil Made Me Do It, Mother Mary is a Bird of Prey (what the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?) and mostly, Resurrection by Erection. If you don’t pay close attention, some humorous details in the lyrics will be lost to you. For instance, in the song Moscow after Dark, there are passages which sound like Russian. In fact, they are German, sung with a fake Russian accent, and some Russian words like Brezhnev and Perestroika tossed in for good measure. To add further confusion, the lyrics in the booklet have those passages printed in Cyrillic script.
So what do Powerwolf sound like? First of all, they are catchy as hell. Riffs, choruses and vocal lines can be sung along to right after the first listen. While this doesn’t make them boring or devoid of re-listening value – their music is good enough - they may be a tad predictable. Perhaps their style, which is somewhere between heavy metal and bombast power metal, or Black Sabbath and Blind Guardian enhanced with church organs and the like, is not terribly original, but it contains a few nice twists and a good share of trademarks. One of those is certainly the voice of Attila Dorn, who is certainly inspired by Ozzy Osbourne, but has a considerable advantage over him: he is a trained opera singer! This allows for some breathtaking moments, such as In Blood We Trust (Hallelujah!), Lupus Dei or Mister Sinister. I only wish he’d cut out his spoken-word passages, because they are a bit awkward. Another thing I love about them is how they always take a random word, usually from the title, and chant it for no apparent reason towards the end of the song. Case in point: Kiss of the Cobra King (Cobra! Cobra! Cobra!) and Tiger of Sabrod (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!)
I’ve had the fortune to witness one of their rare live appearances at Wacken 2008 (which was recorded for a live DVD that was included as a bonus for the limited edition of the Bible of the Beast album), and I can tell you their shows are brilliant. Their stage set is complete with cathedral windows and frankincense imitate, and you would want to get used to seeing Attila Dorn on your pulpit.
All in all, Powerwolf are a more than fitting addition to my collection of werewolf memorabilia, and there is one very important fact I learned from them: Wolves don’t pray!
Samples
We Take it From the Living
Mother Mary is a Bird of Prey
Raise your Fist Envangelist
Catholic in the Morning, Satanist at Night
With this series, I am presenting a few bands that I like for one reason or other, and that I feel are often overlooked and worthy of discussion, and I just want to talk about. I’m planning to make a post a week in an individual thread, dedicated to a certain band or artist. The individual bands are from various genres, and their difference in quality is often quite dramatic! The length of each post will be somewhere between 500 and 600 words, or one page. This is often insufficient to introduce the band properly, so I am mostly concentrating on my very personal opinion, which I invite you to dispute, and leave the facts for you to research on sites such as Encyclopaedia Metallum or Wikipedia. Each post is concluded with a selection of my favourite tracks from those artists, which of course say more about the style than I ever could.
Bear in mind that these posts are often written in a tongue-in-cheek tone, and therefore are meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don’t want to dictate an opinion – I want to invite you to explore the vast undergrounds of the heavy metal world. In that sense: Enjoy reading, listening and arguing!
POWERWOLF - Never trust a werewolf from the east!
One of the scariest movies I ever saw as a kid was An American Werewolf in London. While the film is brilliant and hilarious, you can’t argue that there are a good number of absolutely chilling scenes, especially for minors. Just think of the classic transformation, the sheer tension of which just can’t be reproduced with modern computer technology. And when I got my first video cassette, containing the best of Michael Jackson’s videos, I discovered that the video clip for Thriller was done by the same makeup artist and I could experience the same horror again and again! I had nightmares for weeks and years. Somewhat ironically, this turned me into a huge werewolf fan.
So there’s this band called Powerwolf, from the remote German province of the Saarland, in the far west of the country. Every single person I met from this region turned out to be a complete nutcase, and this observation somehow also extends to Powerwolf. But what rocks about them is that they have a singer from Transylvania, and decided to completely exploit this for their gimmick. In fact, early in their career they even claimed the entire band was from Romania.
Effectively, this means that they celebrate their gigs like Catholic masses, with the little exception that they don’t pray to God or Jesus, but to Satan and werewolves (or are they werewolves themselves? Not quite clear). You wouldn’t believe how cool this can be. It’s always nice to see a band come up with a fairly original idea for an image and just go all-out on it. It makes them enjoyable to watch and listen to. But what actually makes Powerwolf special is their twisted sense of humour. Their song titles are brilliant: The Evil Made Me Do It, Mother Mary is a Bird of Prey (what the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?) and mostly, Resurrection by Erection. If you don’t pay close attention, some humorous details in the lyrics will be lost to you. For instance, in the song Moscow after Dark, there are passages which sound like Russian. In fact, they are German, sung with a fake Russian accent, and some Russian words like Brezhnev and Perestroika tossed in for good measure. To add further confusion, the lyrics in the booklet have those passages printed in Cyrillic script.
So what do Powerwolf sound like? First of all, they are catchy as hell. Riffs, choruses and vocal lines can be sung along to right after the first listen. While this doesn’t make them boring or devoid of re-listening value – their music is good enough - they may be a tad predictable. Perhaps their style, which is somewhere between heavy metal and bombast power metal, or Black Sabbath and Blind Guardian enhanced with church organs and the like, is not terribly original, but it contains a few nice twists and a good share of trademarks. One of those is certainly the voice of Attila Dorn, who is certainly inspired by Ozzy Osbourne, but has a considerable advantage over him: he is a trained opera singer! This allows for some breathtaking moments, such as In Blood We Trust (Hallelujah!), Lupus Dei or Mister Sinister. I only wish he’d cut out his spoken-word passages, because they are a bit awkward. Another thing I love about them is how they always take a random word, usually from the title, and chant it for no apparent reason towards the end of the song. Case in point: Kiss of the Cobra King (Cobra! Cobra! Cobra!) and Tiger of Sabrod (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!)
I’ve had the fortune to witness one of their rare live appearances at Wacken 2008 (which was recorded for a live DVD that was included as a bonus for the limited edition of the Bible of the Beast album), and I can tell you their shows are brilliant. Their stage set is complete with cathedral windows and frankincense imitate, and you would want to get used to seeing Attila Dorn on your pulpit.
All in all, Powerwolf are a more than fitting addition to my collection of werewolf memorabilia, and there is one very important fact I learned from them: Wolves don’t pray!
Samples
We Take it From the Living
Mother Mary is a Bird of Prey
Raise your Fist Envangelist
Catholic in the Morning, Satanist at Night
