Category: Media

Is there a more appropriate Halloween band than Lordi? OK, Rob Zombie may tie them simply because he’s also produced horror movies (seriously, that man take his horror theme to the next level). But most of Lordi’s music deals with horror themes and that’s basically the theme of the holiday. The Devil is a Loser was chosen by random and my choice has nothing whatsoever to do with the jack-o’-lantern that appears at the beginning of the video:

If I have to introduce Black Sabbath to you then you’re already dead to me:

Halloween is the most metal holiday. Skulls, corpses, zombies, demons, Death, and other ghoulish decor is put up everywhere. Children and adults are running around screaming. More fake blood is dispensed than at a GWAR concert. It truly is wonderful.

To celebrate this most metal of holidays I will be taking a break from my usual content. Instead I will be posting metal appropriate for the holiday. What? Was I up late and therefore unable to post actual content? Of course not! I would never do such a thing. Well, maybe a little bit. OK, I admit it, I had nothing prepared. Whatever, you get what you pay for. Now shut up and listen to Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden:

I’ve been pretty lax with the Monday Metal entries as of late. My weekends have been pretty busy and that has interfered with my traditional Sunday metal hunts. But I plan to make up for my slack by combining two of my favorite things: metal and anarchism.

Arch Enemy is a pretty awesome death metal band. Its actually one of the few death metal bands with a female vocalist that I enjoy listening to (no, I’m not sexist, I just tend to find women growling less than pleasant to listen to). But the awesome doesn’t stop there. Themes of anarchism run deep through the many of the band’s songs. This post will preset three of those songs from the Khaos Legions album.

First of all, we know that anarchists fly a black flag. The black flag is a sort of joke. It doesn’t represent an actual flag but the absence of a flag. By flying a black flag anarchists declare themselves without obedience to any country, which is the theme of Under Black Flags We March:

A common phrase used by anarchists is “No gods, no masters”. The phrase, at least in English speaking countries, gain popularity through pamphlets handed out by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). For those of you who don’t know, the IWW is a radical anarcho-syndicalist labor union. Unlike most of the labor unions we’re familiar with, the IWW actually practices what it preaches. All the talk about empowering workers is nothing more than lip service give by most unions in an effort to line the pockets of union bosses. The IWW doesn’t play such games. It only has a handful of (low) paid staff. While anarcho-syndicalism isn’t my thing, I respect the IWW for being principled. But I digress.

“No gods, no masters” isn’t a slogan I go by. As far as I’m concerned you can have as many gods as you want. My primary goal is to abolish masters. But the phrase is fun to say and makes for some great music:

The last video is about rebellion. Yesterday is Dead and Gone shows what most people think of when they hear the word anarchist. While violent revolution isn’t my thing it makes for some awesome videos:

Perhaps I’m partial to Arch Enemy because of their anarchist theme, but I really enjoy listening to the band. Its fast, loud, and has a message I can relate to.

Since I had a bit of time to actually write blog posts this weekend there’s actually a Monday Metal entry. I decided to go with something very nerdy again, which means power metal. This week’s entry is Angus McFife by Gloryhammer. GloryHammer was recently founded by Christopher Bowes, who is also the vocalist in the awesome pirate metal band Alestorm. Watching the music video will tell you everything you need to know about this band (namely, dragons are likely to be a reoccurring subject matter in its lyrics):

Do you like melodic death metal? Do you like the Lord of the Rings? If you’ve answered yes to both you’ll like this weeks entry. If you’ve answered no to either then you should give serious consideration to rethinking your life. Battlelore is a band that, sadly, is currently on a creative break. But the music they’ve already released is badass and their lyrics are always inspired by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s Middle-erath:

I’ve been in a super nerd science fiction kick as of late (Asimov does that do you). Such a mood lends itself perfectly to music by Star One, which is always science fiction related. This week’s Monday Metal is the song Starchild by Star One:

Last week I did a presentation on the chaotic nature of the market for an Austrian economics meet up. Included in my notes was Hordes of Chaos by Kreator. Yes, I like to include metal songs in my presentation notes. Although I primarily picked the song because it has the prerequisite word “chaos” in the title, I dig the song so it’s also this week’s Monday Metal entry:

I’m not in an overly serious mood so it’s time for some Gwar. This week we’ll listen to Let Us Slay, which is probably one of Gwar’s more “professionally” (relative to Gwar) produced music videos:

It’s Monday morning, which means it’s time for more metal: