Tonight: New Power Metal Spotlight 4/1/23!

Tune in to twitch.tv/mickkarnage tonight at 9 PM - 12:30 AM Eastern Time for New Power Metal Spotlight: 4/1/23, where you'll hear three new power metal studio albums plus one new power metal live album, all accompanied by sword and sorcery footage! \m/

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Helloween (Germany) - Walls of Jericho (Album, 1985)

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IT'S A WHOLE ALBUM OF HELLOWEEN!!! HELL YEAH!!! Walls of Jericho  is the debut album from German power metal legends Helloween, and it's a masterpiece! First of all, let's look at the cover: The title  Walls of Jericho  is a reference to the Battle of Jericho, which is written about in the Biblical Book of Joshua.  Wikipedia summarizes what happened  by describing it as "the first battle fought by the Israelites in the course of the conquest of Canaan. According to Joshua 6:1–27, the walls of Jericho fell after the Israelites marched around the city walls once a day for six days, seven times on the seventh day, and then blew their trumpets." Well, that was the traditional version of the story - in the Helloween version, Fangface, decked out in a kickass hood, singlehandedly destroys the walls with his bare fists, and the trumpet is played by some pumpkin-faced dude in a white T-shirt! I love the art and the concept is so outside the box yet so metal! The fr...
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Raven Payne (United States) - Demo (1987)

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WE MADE IT TO 1987!!! \m/ 1987 was an incredible year in the history of power metal. According to Rate Your Music's power metal page , 1984 saw 1 release, and 1985 and 1986 both had 3 releases, taking up 0.02% of the music that came out in those years. In 1987, the number of power metal releases was  37 - over twelve times as many as 1985 and 1986, and taking up 0.22% of the music from that year!   It'll take me over a month to get through each release, and what's even more amazing is that 37 is a small number compared to the incredible rate power metal releases will be coming out at in later years! Our first release of 1987 comes from Detroit's first power metal band: Raven Payne! (I love that they spelt it "payne" - NWOBHM masters like Tygers of Pan Tang, Tytan and Witchfynde would be proud!) Looking into their history, it turns out that the band was originally formed in 1983 under the name Vampirella - presumably named after the legendary comic book charact...
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Helloween (Germany) - Judas (EP, 1986)

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KICKASS, MORE HELLOWEEN!!! This time I'm looking at Judas , a 12" EP that Helloween released in 1986. Before we get into the music, let's check out the artwork: The front cover is really cool, and keeps the classic Helloween pumpkin theme going. The way it's designed to resemble a skull is so metal, and having the band's logo on a flag lodged inside the pumpkin is a killer creative touch. Let's check out the back! This time, we get a pumpkin count of four and a Helloween logo count of one! It's not as pumpkiny as before, but there's still plenty of pumpkins to go around, and the awesome pumpkin side numbers from Walls of Jericho get to make their triumphant return. I love the live shots of each member, and the way to photos are arranged is so eye-catching. The back also has a message that says "JUDAS IS DEDICATED TO ALL POLITICANS WHO TALK HUMAN BUT ACT LIKE MONSTERS" - something unusual to see on a power metal record, where the lyrics tend to...
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