For those of you who were with us under the experiment Indie Music Army, this should come to no surprise: I LOVE METAL REMIXES OF 80’s AND 90’s GAME MUSIC!
I cannot even begin to talk about metal remixes of game music without starting with probably the worlds most famous band in this rather specific genre, Powerglove. In 2003, the members former melodic death metal band disbanded and they decided to take it further with Powerglove, recording and releasing the famous Dr. Wily’s Theme from Mega Man 2, one that got famous outside of the gamer circle when other remixes popped up all over the Internet where people had put a line or just a word through a sound editor to sound like the song. A memorable example is the STFU Song (Very explicit lyrics) where Penn Gilette from Penn & Teller tells you to be quiet in a rather musical, but still very rude way.
After recording and releasing Storm Eagle from Mega Man X and the already awesome Power Rangers Theme, they went on to start recording their first EP, Total Pwnage. Total Pwnage would feature not only the three previously mentioned songs, but also songs from Tetris, F-Zero and Final Fantasy VI and VIII. They worked hard for the next two years and played many medium size stages around USA at the same time as they recorded their first full-length album Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man. They recorded the songs in the closest studio they could find wherever they were and brought the recordings back with them home to mix and master them. Shortly after the release of Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, which had been met with very positive reviews, they re-released Total Pwnage. By this time they had found their way to the bigger stages and into some major publications, such as Gamepro and Metal Hammer, both album reviews and interviews with the members.
Following the huge success of their album, they were invited along on their first major tour of the US, alongside bands like Psychostick and Look What I Did. During this tour, they met up with DragonForce and the lead guitarist Herman Li liked them so much that he offered them to open for DragonForce in the Roseland Theater in Portland. They later opened for DragonForce again in Ultra Beatdown, a US and Cannadian tour, alongside the Finnish band Turisas.
One year later, in 2009, they released plans for two new albums, the second album would continue the success of video game music, while the third album would branch off into popular cartoons. These plans were put on ice when Swedish Power Metal gods Hammerfall offered them to tag along for a North American tour alongside their Finnish counterpart Sonata Arctica. During this tour they were spotted by the record label E1 Music and signed the contract that enabled them to release the 2010 album Saturday Morning Apocalypse along with several demos that were potential songs for future albums. During this time they also recorded and released the Japan only album TV Game Metal, featuring remixed and re-recorded versions of their previous songs, released last year.
What will 2013 bring? We don’t know yet, but there are still rumors floating about that they will release their third album this year, and maybe even do a European tour. We can only hope to be so lucky, I know that if they come to my neighborhood, I’ll be first in line for the tickets.