Artist: Sonata Arctica Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Powerglove, Mutiny Within, Forever’s Edge Date: 4/5/2010 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Now that March Metal Madness had ended it was time for April to take hold of the flame and continue the process of delivering resounding Metal shows for the ardent fans. Given the time of year that we were in, I could honestly say that there was no better way to prepare oneself for tax time than by hitting a kick ass Metal show and thank the musical powers that be – Sonata Arctica was back in town to do this properly. One didn’t need a financial analysis to know that this would be money well spent and the ultimate way to enjoy a Monday night. Sonata Arctica would return to the headlining stage and bring with them Mutiny Within as direct support while Powerglove and one area local opener would get the whole thing started off. Here is how the night went down if you somehow missed this grand display of Metal powers. Continue reading Sonata Arctica @ Gramercy Theatre (4/5/2010)→
Artist: Powerglove Title: “Total Pwnage” (re-release) Label: Independent Artist Release Date: 9/2/2008 Genre: Video Game Metal Rating: 4/5
It seems as though your Folk, Math, Oriental, and Neo-Classical Power Metal have a new ally joining their ranks with the arrival of Video Game Metal and this amusing new genre is served up by a band that calls themselves Powerglove. The bands demo is entitled “Total Pwnage” and its essentially a number of popular video game themes reworked into a Power Metal framework. The CD begins with the themes from Tetris which is oddly enough the only game that I have ever played that the band tinkers with and it’s very interesting to hear as it’s rather well-executed in terms of the musical compositions. The band is a four piece with twin lead guitarists Chris Marchiel and Alex Berkson and finds drumming delivered by Bassil Silver-Hajo. The bass on this demo is done with a session player listed only as Spalding. The production is rather sound for a demo recording which was a nice surprise since its shows that the band is interested in their music making a difference. The guys certainly can play which was a positive and one that might actually make this kind of thing an unexpected hit on a much larger scale. Outside of the themes from Tetris I enjoyed both the Power Rangers and Final Fantasy VII numbers and it’s the kind of recording that you will play a couple of times in sequence since it’s a lot of fun. I wish the band well with this newfangled sound and who knows – they might be on to something here. Continue reading “Total Pwnage” (re-release) by Powerglove→
Artist: Hammerfall Venue: The Fillmore NY (New York, NY) Opener: Powerglove, Arctic Flame Date: 3/7/2010 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
The ringing in my skull from the righteous smiting that was delivered by Kreator last night had finally subsided and now it was off to do battle once again in the fields of Metal and face those Templar’s of the Metal way – Sweden’s Hammerfall. By my recollection it has been about five years since the band has been over to this side of the pond and that last show was with Germany’s own Metal harlequins EdGuy. That was an amazing event and one that found the Metal faithful hoping that it would not be too long before we saw Hammerfall return and sadly the span of time would be about five years give or take a month. Tonight the band would bring with them the local support of Arctic Flame who we have seen in action a number of times and Powerglove who would be an entirely new experience for me. March Metal Madness continues. Starting off the night would be Arctic Flame from Bayonne, NJ and we would run late to the show and end up missing their full set. We felt this was ok since we had seen them before and given them some solid attention and also because we were sure that they would be back around again. We did learn that there was a new singer in place and also a new guitar player. Good luck to you lads with your new members. Next up would be Powerglove. Continue reading Hammerfall @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza (3/7/2010)→
