Transcript
Speaker: Hello, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome to the Metal Mama podcast.
Speaker: My name is Candice.
Speaker: I'm otherwise known as the Metal Mama.
Speaker: And this, well, this is my podcast.
Speaker: Before we jump into things, because man, oh, man, do I have a lot of cool new stuff to talk about.
Speaker: Like there's been some great new music come out lately.
Speaker: But before that, before that, going to jump into some extremely quick housekeeping.
Speaker: I promise it won't take me long.
Speaker: First off, if you've not been to the website MetalMama.rocks, highly recommend you go check it out because there's content there now, like actual for real content.
Speaker: More reviews, more deep dives, going to be posting like some picks and recommendations as well.
Speaker: Reviews on singles, a little bit of news, whatever.
Speaker: Anyway, check it out.
Speaker: Check out the blog.
Speaker: You'll probably enjoy it.
Speaker: Another thing is, while I have said many times I do not like social media, still don't like social media, but I am actually active on Instagram now.
Speaker: Instagram is probably the only social media you're going to find me on because I just don't like social media.
Speaker: And Instagram at least is well...
Speaker: Kind of the lesser of the evils in my in my personal opinion.
Speaker: But anyway, I am active on Instagram now and going to be posting like, you know, content and videos and stuff like that.
Speaker: Of course, a little bit of overlap, a little bit of promo, any concerts that I go to the whole nine yards.
Speaker: The most important way you're going to kind of keep up to date, so to speak, with me is.
Speaker: is very much to sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker: I promise I won't spam you.
Speaker: It comes out once a week, and once a week I sort of give you an overview of, hey, here's what's been going on, here's what I've written about, here's the podcast, if there was one, because there's an actual schedule for the podcast now.
Speaker: Hooray!
Speaker: It comes out every other Friday.
Speaker: So you're getting it today, which is a Friday.
Speaker: Next Friday, there won't be one.
Speaker: And we just keep going from there.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm super excited that I finally have a good schedule for content.
Speaker: I'm actually going to really be able to dive into things because of that schedule and keep organized.
Speaker: And of course, a little bit of a content shift is the fact that we're talking about metal folks.
Speaker: And that's pretty much it.
Speaker: And now, now we get into talking about new stuff.
Speaker: There have been some new EPs that have popped out lately, some new singles.
Speaker: Some of them I haven't even reviewed, so you're actually going to hear it here on the podcast, and that's it, which is going to be awesome.
Speaker: Just yay, new everything.
Speaker: Heck, I even got a new tattoo yesterday.
Speaker: It was a Lord of the Rings tattoo, though, not a metal tattoo.
Speaker: But anyway, you know, yeah, new.
Speaker: New is awesome.
Speaker: And the first thing I'm going to talk about is something I did review on the website, so you can go check it out there.
Speaker: It is a band called Induction and their EP called The Power of Power.
Speaker: Now, this band is new, kind of on my own personal radar.
Speaker: I discovered them on Instagram.
Speaker: Don't remember how.
Speaker: I remember them coming across my feed and me going, oh, I got to check this out.
Speaker: And when I went to check them out, they were already advertising the upcoming EP.
Speaker: And I was pretty stoked for that and like, woo, yay.
Speaker: and got to listen to their new single and then went and listened to the EP.
Speaker: And of course, we just go from there because I like them.
Speaker: I really do enjoy what I heard.
Speaker: I loved the fantasy feel.
Speaker: I think we all know that with me, if it's power metal and I'm like, I want to hit it with my sword, I love it.
Speaker: So I really enjoyed kind of the fantasy feel of that EP.
Speaker: And I know some of the tracks on the EP or some of their older tracks that were
Speaker: put on there but I was happy about that personally because since I just discovered them I got to hear sort of like you know a variety of their work and I thought that was awesome I did hear some pretty cool influences in that EP and I don't know if I'm right on this because nobody told me this is true but I kind of heard like a little bit of Rhapsody maybe a touch of Dragonforce and again I could be totally wrong that's just kind of what I heard
Speaker: And kind of like a lot of things in modern power metal today, you're hearing some genre crossing a little bit.
Speaker: Definitely some great symphonic elements that show up throughout the EP, which I love.
Speaker: That is one of my favorite kind of genre crossers when it comes to power metal, when there's like a power metal and symphonic crossover.
Speaker: That sounds so damn good.
Speaker: The cool thing about this EP is it told a story, and I don't think they meant to do that.
Speaker: If they meant to do that, awesome.
Speaker: But, you know, some people, like I said in the past, I am not a fan when there's like a prologue, an epilogue on an album, because then I'm like, you'd better tell me a freaking story.
Speaker: And of course, that doesn't always happen.
Speaker: With induction, that's not what they did.
Speaker: They didn't like sandwich this stuff in between a prologue and epilogue.
Speaker: They just kind of told a story.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, I dig this.
Speaker: Very well done on that one.
Speaker: There were some tracks that I didn't feel like stood out as much as the others.
Speaker: Didn't make them bad.
Speaker: They weren't bad.
Speaker: They just didn't stand out.
Speaker: And that was kind of really the only criticism I have for that.
Speaker: But
Speaker: I guess that's not much in the scheme of things, but I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: I really enjoyed the power of power.
Speaker: I thought that, you know, it was great.
Speaker: As I wrote on my website, it probably inspired at least two new D&D campaigns, which is a fantastic marker on my end.
Speaker: And I'm really looking forward to hearing more from Induction.
Speaker: I believe what I'm gathering from their Instagram is they're working on a new album.
Speaker: And so I'm really excited about that because I will be super happy to listen to it when it comes out.
Speaker: As far as standout tracks for the EP is concerned, Set You Free, which is the single off of the EP,
Speaker: Very good.
Speaker: Definitely a standout track.
Speaker: It was not my favorite track, though, but it is most certainly quite good and highly recommend you go check it out.
Speaker: Of course, you're going to find all the links to this EP.
Speaker: In the show notes below, there's a track called A Call Beyond, which is the one that I think is my personal favorite.
Speaker: It just was so good, you know?
Speaker: It kind of had like this fairy tale feel to it, very clean, very melodic.
Speaker: And yeah, I enjoyed that one more than any other track.
Speaker: So yeah, I really hope that you go check out Induction if you're not familiar with them.
Speaker: If you are familiar with them, well, you should still go listen.
Speaker: Next, a new thing that I've heard lately, Temperance came out with a new single.
Speaker: And I didn't like it.
Speaker: I feel bad even saying that.
Speaker: I really do feel bad even saying that.
Speaker: So here's the thing.
Speaker: I'm not just going to stop there because I think we're all aware, especially with last episode, that's not me.
Speaker: That's just not how I treat things.
Speaker: I really like Temperance.
Speaker: They're so good.
Speaker: And now that they've got Kristen Starkey, who has this amazing voice, I'm super excited for their upcoming music with her.
Speaker: And yeah, but I didn't feel like the new single caught me.
Speaker: It didn't grab me.
Speaker: And it's a shame because everything that is good about Temperance is there.
Speaker: Everything, you know, beautiful voices, amazing instruments, really well done production quality.
Speaker: Like there's nothing in there that says like this is bad.
Speaker: But that single just didn't really grab me.
Speaker: Like, I don't know.
Speaker: I felt like they couldn't figure out what they were trying to do.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I feel terrible saying it because I hate criticizing a band that I really like and I think is so talented.
Speaker: I am pretty sure in the very near future, I'm probably going to come back around and be like, wait a minute.
Speaker: No, I loved everything.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: And that's how it's going to go.
Speaker: It's just this...
Speaker: This specific new single, which is called Daruma, because I didn't tell you that part, and that was silly.
Speaker: Why do I keep doing that today?
Speaker: Anyway, I don't even know what else to say because I don't like doing that.
Speaker: But I got to be honest, it wasn't a single that I was like, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm really stoked about this new album now.
Speaker: I didn't feel that way, but I am still stoked about this new album just because I know what temperance sounds like and I know what Kristen Starkey sounds like.
Speaker: And so obviously it's going to be great.
Speaker: So the other thing that excited me was the other night I was just on Spotify and Spotify was like, hey, there's a new release you haven't listened to yet.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, let me go check that out.
Speaker: And it was a new single from Serenity.
Speaker: And I was like, whoa, yay, Serenity, because I think they're wonderful.
Speaker: And then I saw featuring Roy Kahn and I was like, wait, what?
Speaker: No way.
Speaker: That's so cool.
Speaker: And so, of course, I immediately ran and listened to it.
Speaker: The single's called The Fall of Man, and it is very good.
Speaker: It is exactly what I expected and hoped for the minute that I saw who was featured on the track.
Speaker: If you don't know who Roy-Con is, he was Camelot's lead singer for quite a long time and little, about a decade ago, I think, maybe, he left the band and so their current lead singer is now there.
Speaker: And like both of them have just wonderful voices.
Speaker: And so I don't think we've heard too, too much from Roy Kahn over the years.
Speaker: So hearing him on this track with Serenity was like, yeah, this is exciting.
Speaker: And I know a few other people that I know were like, dude, yes, this is awesome.
Speaker: Even my roommate, who kind of refuses to listen to any metal released after like 2000, I was like, hey, there's this new single and Roy Kahn's on it.
Speaker: He's like, wait, what?
Speaker: This new track, The Fall of Man, is...
Speaker: what you want from Serenity.
Speaker: So the first album that I heard from Serenity was Lionheart, which was in like, I don't know, 2018, 19.
Speaker: Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker: I'm probably wrong.
Speaker: I jokingly called them Crusader Metal because obviously Lionheart and the title track, you can see where I'm coming from with that.
Speaker: And not that every album Serenity does is, you know, focused on the Crusades because it's not.
Speaker: But it just that's kind of the feel you get every time you hear a song from Serenity is like, you know, you want to go like turn on your copy of Crusader Kings and blast any given album of theirs while you go nuts taking over the civilized world.
Speaker: There's a touch of sadness to this single that I feel like is in the lyrics, and I'm not going to go too deep into it because I want you to go listen to it for yourself and you can decide whether or not you agree with me.
Speaker: But yeah, I really, really enjoyed listening to the new single.
Speaker: I've only listened to it probably two or three times.
Speaker: Probably going to listen to it a lot more because it is quite good.
Speaker: And I'm so looking forward to more new songs and content from Serenity because, well, they're awesome.
Speaker: I asked on Instagram this week, I asked people, I said, like, what's one what are some of the like the most underrated power metal bands, in your opinion?
Speaker: And my answer was indeed Serenity, because here in the United States,
Speaker: Those of us who are power metal fans, like anytime you're like, do you like Serenity?
Speaker: They're like, wait, who?
Speaker: Now, I know it's not the same in Europe, but I know here in the US, a lot of power metal heads are like, yeah, they'd never heard of Serenity.
Speaker: So I personally feel like in the US, they're a really underrated band.
Speaker: We also had some other interesting answers on that one.
Speaker: Somebody said Dionysus was one, which I had to agree that it was.
Speaker: Actually, that was Adrian Venegas who answered that question.
Speaker: And I had to tell him, I'm like, all right, dude, I got to admit, I've only heard like one song from them.
Speaker: And it's just this one.
Speaker: And he's like, what?
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, I know.
Speaker: Now you and my roommate are going to go bitch at me about it, which they both were like, yeah, you got to go listen to every album.
Speaker: So
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: I turned on one of their albums during my workout on Wednesday, and I was like, I am now ashamed for not having listened to this band more.
Speaker: Somebody else said that they thought Mirath was an underrated power metal band, and I'm going to argue that while I think Mirath is awesome, I really like them, I'm not sure they're power metal.
Speaker: And yeah, I could see them being a little underrated, especially if you're in the United States.
Speaker: Because once again, we sort of have this problem with power metalheads in the U.S. where there's a lot that we have not discovered yet because so much of it comes out from Europe and South America.
Speaker: And so we just kind of have to depend on the Internet.
Speaker: Someone else said that they felt like Seven Kingdoms was an underrated band.
Speaker: I agree with that.
Speaker: I don't feel like in, and I mean like here we are, we're in the United States.
Speaker: I know Seven Kingdoms is one of the very few US based power metal bands and they don't get enough love here.
Speaker: And so I agree they are underrated as far as power metal bands go.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: They're this really great band.
Speaker: They're female-fronted.
Speaker: And, you know, I've seen them live once.
Speaker: And they're so good.
Speaker: And she is so great live.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, they belong there with, like, you know, Unleash the Archers and Battle Beast.
Speaker: And, yes, I agree.
Speaker: Seven Kingdoms is quite underrated.
Speaker: That's kind of where I go with whenever I ask these kind of questions on Instagram and stuff, even though, again, I know most of you are from Europe and South America.
Speaker: But a lot of times that question is like, OK, but in the U.S., because it's so...
Speaker: It's a little different here.
Speaker: And it's not that we don't have power metal heads because I've seen sold out shows.
Speaker: One of the things I noticed with the metal heads here, it actually, yeah, yesterday's a perfect example of that, right?
Speaker: So I got my tattoo yesterday.
Speaker: First time meeting this tattoo artist.
Speaker: You know, we had many ads.
Speaker: So of course we chit chat a little bit.
Speaker: And like one of the first things that popped out of my mouth is I was like, hey, you're into metal because he was wearing a band T-shirt.
Speaker: And he's like, oh, yeah, I love metal.
Speaker: And I'm like, well, hey, what kind of metal?
Speaker: He's like, oh, I like all kinds of metal.
Speaker: Most of the times, and I'm not saying everybody, because I know some of you that are U.S.-based are going to be like, now, wait a second.
Speaker: Most of the time when you meet a metalhead in the U.S., they like power metal.
Speaker: But power metal is not the main genre that they jump into.
Speaker: They just like all kinds of different genres of metal.
Speaker: You know, just like Leo, my tattoo artist, he's he likes black and death and doom and thrash and speed and progressive and power.
Speaker: And so that's what you see a lot of in the United States when it comes to power metal.
Speaker: You don't see too many people that are like pretty serious power metal heads.
Speaker: But that also makes it super interesting because I think we're all aware that, you know, metalheads are metalheads and we are all more than happy to start like bonding over metal and trading bands and trading music and...
Speaker: Of course, anytime you meet a metalhead, what's one of the first things you start doing?
Speaker: So who do you like?
Speaker: And, you know, if there's a band you haven't heard of, it's like, oh, tell me about them or vice versa.
Speaker: And so I love that part of it.
Speaker: But at the same time, when it comes to like, yeah, I love power metal.
Speaker: And I'm like, so what about this band?
Speaker: And they're like, nope, haven't heard of them.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, it's probably because they're like out of Europe and never come to North America, which happens a lot.
Speaker: Also, I'm going to correct myself.
Speaker: I have said in the past, and I think the last time that this was talked about in depth was when Marius Danielson was on the show, that we could only think of like three power metal bands in the United States.
Speaker: There is one band that I discovered were American.
Speaker: which is Lords of the Trident.
Speaker: And I didn't know that they were American.
Speaker: I've heard of them.
Speaker: I've heard their music before.
Speaker: But I was checking out something on Instagram and their Instagram was linked.
Speaker: And I went and looked and I'm like, wait, they're American.
Speaker: They're American.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, that's for now American power metal bands I can think of.
Speaker: And no, Camelot still doesn't count.
Speaker: And yes, I know Lords of the Trident isn't exactly 100% power metal.
Speaker: They kind of genre cross, but they do count and they are American.
Speaker: And I had no idea that they were.
Speaker: I don't know why I thought that they were Canadian, but I did.
Speaker: I'm going to quickly jump into a little tiny Q&A portion, which is all metal-based, I promise, but I do get questions from people on Instagram, and sometimes I get repeat questions, so I'm going to answer a couple, and the reason why I thought about that is because I said kind of the now-running joke of Camelot doesn't count, and somebody was like,
Speaker: Do you hate Camelot?
Speaker: No, not in the least.
Speaker: But the truth of the matter is, guys, when we're talking about American-based bands, while Camelot was founded in Florida, these days I don't think they can count as an American band.
Speaker: One of the other things that I get asked pretty frequently is, how did you get into power metal?
Speaker: Which I have briefly explained that story.
Speaker: And so I guess I'm going to go a little more in depth on the story of how I got into power metal in the first place before anybody else was alive.
Speaker: Not really.
Speaker: But we're going to go back to the 1980s.
Speaker: So many of you were definitely not alive then.
Speaker: My mom was in a cult.
Speaker: And when I say a cult, I don't mean a crazy religious church.
Speaker: I mean a genuine actual cult.
Speaker: I have actually had to go through deprogramming therapy because of it and everything else.
Speaker: And I'm not going to go too into it because you don't want to hear the whole thing.
Speaker: Trust me.
Speaker: It's not great.
Speaker: And this does go with it, I promise.
Speaker: So my dad, my dad wanted nothing to do with that group my mom was a part of.
Speaker: He didn't like it.
Speaker: In fact, he kind of hated it.
Speaker: And a big part of my childhood was very strange because on one side we had, you know, my mom being really crazy and my dad being like kind of fighting against it.
Speaker: And one of the biggest things for me was music.
Speaker: Music was this really weird silent fight in my house.
Speaker: Like, very strange.
Speaker: So my mom, of course, it was so much that I could not touch, couldn't listen to, couldn't even look at.
Speaker: And I'm talking literally like going in record stores was forbidden, looking at album covers.
Speaker: You couldn't do it because you would become demon possessed, apparently.
Speaker: This was the thing.
Speaker: I'm not kidding.
Speaker: So my dad, he really loved music and he really loved kind of rock and early metal.
Speaker: And he would he would let my brother and I listen to it or he would have us come listen to it.
Speaker: when my mother was not around.
Speaker: Dad would kind of like, you know, be like, here, come listen to this, come check this out.
Speaker: And there was a whole bunch of really cool music that dad exposed me to at a younger age.
Speaker: Annie Lennox, who I think is amazing and awesome.
Speaker: And I love Annie Lennox.
Speaker: It was my dad who introduced me to Annie Lennox.
Speaker: There were some things that were kind of misses.
Speaker: Like my dad was a pretty big fan of like Chicago and Journey, which I do not like them.
Speaker: I appreciate their talent.
Speaker: I truly do.
Speaker: But they're not for me.
Speaker: But then there was the other side of things where a little bit of Judas Priest, a little bit of Ida Maiden.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, wait, but I like this.
Speaker: And so I had this really strange duality in my own home of music in general.
Speaker: Because to me, that music was forbidden.
Speaker: And there was certain music that I was very drawn to.
Speaker: And I wasn't drawn to it just because it was forbidden and just because it was terrible and bad.
Speaker: Because just going briefly into this, if you're not aware of how cults work, they use something called the bite model.
Speaker: And one of their biggest forms of control is fear.
Speaker: And as a child, that fear can be used against you in every way, shape and form.
Speaker: And trust me, it was.
Speaker: So I was legitimately afraid to listen to rock music and metal as a child because I, quote unquote, knew what would happen to me.
Speaker: And it was terrible.
Speaker: The consequences were horrible.
Speaker: So even though I was like, okay, I like this.
Speaker: I like this.
Speaker: This is good.
Speaker: But I was afraid to hear it.
Speaker: So as you get older and you become like kind of a younger teenager, preteen, you start forming your own sense of self-identity.
Speaker: as I did as well.
Speaker: And there was music that I was still drawn towards.
Speaker: And of course, you know, we're into the 1990s now.
Speaker: And I'm listening to some like, you know, alternative music and some rock and things like that, which again, it was this really strange duality because I was genuinely afraid to listen to some of it.
Speaker: I can remember just real quickly in 1990, I don't know, what year did Smells Like Teen Spirit come out?
Speaker: Holy cow.
Speaker: Was that 93, 94?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: I don't know the year.
Speaker: Anyway, I remember walking into my parents' bedroom and my dad had cable.
Speaker: I was not allowed to watch MTV or touch it, but I totally did.
Speaker: And so did my brother.
Speaker: And so did my dad.
Speaker: And I remember dad going, come here, come here, listen to this.
Speaker: And I said, what, what?
Speaker: And he said, this is going to change music.
Speaker: And it was smells like teen spirit.
Speaker: But that's, that's where my dad was with music.
Speaker: Like that's how much he loved music.
Speaker: And by that time I had already started like, you know, taking singing lessons and vocal training and things like that.
Speaker: And unfortunately I had some really shitty singing teachers as a kid, but that's a different story.
Speaker: So really,
Speaker: You know, rock, metal grunge, like all alternative, like kind of like that whole umbrella that one would think of, you know, like a teenager in the 90s would be listening to.
Speaker: That was what I was drawn towards.
Speaker: And that was what I liked.
Speaker: And I finally got to the point as I kept getting older to where I just totally rejected my
Speaker: the crap from my mom's group and realized that I asked too many questions.
Speaker: And I'm again, you know, kind of going into the mentality of a cult.
Speaker: You don't ask questions.
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: And when, when I started asking questions, well, I was suddenly the terrible person and a bad kid and the outcast and shunned started getting into like Marilyn Manson and you know, shocking everybody because teenagers.
Speaker: But then when I was 15 years old, my dad died.
Speaker: So that was in 1997.
Speaker: And that was a huge shift for me personally, only because of the fact that the loss of my dad kind of caused me to dig into some things that, you know, were influenced by my dad.
Speaker: And music was one of those.
Speaker: So there was some music that I hadn't touched in a while that I started kind of listening to again.
Speaker: And I sort of found this weird overlap with what I liked, you know, especially when it came to like the earlier rock and metal.
Speaker: But there was also this overlap with like some of the 80s new wave and stuff like and the post punk.
Speaker: Which that led me down this fantastic rabbit hole of discovering, you know, like a dark wave and future pop, which future pop was not called future pop then.
Speaker: It was called something else.
Speaker: And, you know, more post-punk and synth pop and all this amazing stuff that was quite gothy and quite dark.
Speaker: And I loved it.
Speaker: And so I got very entrenched as an older teenager and young adult into like the goth industrial subculture.
Speaker: Well, the goth industrial subculture has this fantastic bit of overlap.
Speaker: At least it did at the time.
Speaker: Not so much these days, but at the time we overlapped very well with people who were into like serious punk and, you know, more like subgenres of metal, like, you know, black and death and doom metal and power metal and things like that.
Speaker: And also a couple of other communities overlapped with us, which was super cool.
Speaker: Yeah, so here I am running around like, you know, goth clubs and everything else.
Speaker: And I'm like in corsets and long skirts and stapling my hand to my forehead because this is what you do.
Speaker: And someone I knew who was really into metal and came out to goth clubs and stuff sometimes introduced me to Blind Guardian.
Speaker: And I remember thinking to myself how much it reminded me of some of the stuff that my dad had introduced me to.
Speaker: And I was like, wow, this is really freaking good.
Speaker: So for a short time there, I only listened to Blind Guardian.
Speaker: I didn't know really much about any other power metal band or anything like that.
Speaker: Tiny bit later, we get into a point where two things happen all at once.
Speaker: First off, I'm playing an online game with a group of people from the UK.
Speaker: And we were on, I don't know, whatever voice service we use.
Speaker: Ventrilo hadn't even come out by then.
Speaker: And we were sitting there talking when the guys was saying how they didn't know what they were going to listen to.
Speaker: And somebody was like, well, obviously it's Metal Man.
Speaker: And, you know, so like they were talking about bands that they were going to listen to.
Speaker: And somebody mentioned Blind Guardian.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, hey, that's that's a band I actually like.
Speaker: And they were like, wait, you like Blind Guardian?
Speaker: I was like, yeah, yeah, I know Blind Guardian.
Speaker: And they were like, well, why don't you listen to anything else?
Speaker: I was like, I don't know.
Speaker: Like, I don't know what else is there.
Speaker: Like, help me out here.
Speaker: So they introduced me to Hammerfall and Falconer, which was like, oh, this is really good.
Speaker: And I'm happy about this.
Speaker: And at that same time frame, met a dude that I ended up dating for a short time.
Speaker: And we don't date anymore, obviously.
Speaker: We're still friends, though.
Speaker: And he's a guitarist super into power metal.
Speaker: And so when he found out about the three bands that I liked, he was like, hold on, I got this.
Speaker: and he just like opened the floodgates he was like well what do you actually like and i'm like well here's what i like he's like all right here's some bands for you try out night wish and trivium was kind of like where he started with with me which i know neither of those are power metal but we're getting there once i checked those two bands out he's like okay but you like you like playing guardian and and you like falconer and i'm like yeah actually really do he's like oh
Speaker: I got you.
Speaker: And he just went nuts after that.
Speaker: So between him and the group of friends that I played online games with, it was like, here, have everybody.
Speaker: And just all at once, I was exposed to power metal.
Speaker: And oh my God, I fell in love.
Speaker: Immediately fell in love.
Speaker: For me personally, it was everything that I loved ever.
Speaker: about music and then some thrown into one thing.
Speaker: You know, it was like these beautiful, clean, melodic vocals and all these wonderful soaring vocals and
Speaker: really wonderful instrumentals and you had these symphonic elements in it.
Speaker: And then on top of that, they threw fantasy in there, which by that time I was already knee deep into Tolkien and, you know, all my lovely fantasy stuff and playing D&D and everything else.
Speaker: And I was like, oh my God, this is like nerd heaven and I'm here for it.
Speaker: But at the same time, also, there was this reminder of some of the stuff that my dad had exposed me to.
Speaker: So this is at the time.
Speaker: I didn't know that these bands that I'm comparing them to were actually pioneers of the power metal sound.
Speaker: Of course, not much later, I found that out because I love diving into the history of the music that I love.
Speaker: And that's what I did.
Speaker: That made me kind of fall in love with power metal even more is to know that it was linked to something that my dad had exposed me to.
Speaker: At the time, he hadn't been gone very long.
Speaker: So I was still looking for anything to hold on to him, anything, even the smallest thing.
Speaker: These days, of course, my dad has been gone for a long time.
Speaker: So it's a little different.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: And then there was that tiny little rebellious side of me that was always reminded because looking at these album covers and stuff like these were the things that I couldn't touch when I was younger.
Speaker: These are the things that like I literally could not touch.
Speaker: Like I'm talking like don't touch that album cover because you'll get demon possessed.
Speaker: And that that was true.
Speaker: Well, it wasn't true, but it was truly said.
Speaker: So maybe there was that tiny little rebellious streak still going like, ha, here's the middle finger, even though by that time I didn't have to do that anymore.
Speaker: But I was still pretty young, so who knows?
Speaker: So I guess you could say that I was probably drawn towards metal and power metal even when I was young.
Speaker: I just didn't know that I was.
Speaker: There's a lot of sort of indicators of where I was moving towards as I got a little older.
Speaker: For me, music in general is something that I have fallen in love with many times over.
Speaker: Just because when I was young, music was my escape.
Speaker: You know, I'm not I'm not again.
Speaker: I'm not going to go too into everything that happened in my childhood because we don't have to.
Speaker: And I don't want to.
Speaker: But it really, truly was an escape for me to be able to get away from everything going on around me, a lot of things that at the time I didn't understand.
Speaker: And so any music I could possibly get a hold of that I felt that spoke to me, that I enjoyed, it was my escape.
Speaker: And I would, I remember being like, I don't know how old I was, but I wasn't very old.
Speaker: And I would record songs off the radio that I really liked on a cassette tape.
Speaker: Because that's what you did at the time.
Speaker: CDs weren't even a thing.
Speaker: I mean, they were, but we couldn't afford them.
Speaker: And so I would record songs off the radio onto this little cassette and I would hide it.
Speaker: And then I would go and I would go back and listen, you know, and I would just like play those cassettes to death because that was what I had.
Speaker: Even to this day, if I'm having a rough time or a hard day or whatever, man, I am going to pop earphones on and I'm just going to listen to music and zone.
Speaker: Even when I was younger, like having that escape and having that.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know how to really describe it.
Speaker: But music in general, because of that, means a lot to me, because it was my escape.
Speaker: And it was something that sort of helped me move through some really, really difficult times in my life.
Speaker: Like, I can probably associate most memories, good or bad, with a song.
Speaker: I could definitely say that there are some songs I don't like listening to because I know what they're associated with.
Speaker: There are other songs that I will go back to time and time and time again.
Speaker: And it's the same reason why.
Speaker: And so when it came to metal and then, of course, power metal, you had that whole thing of where like I fell in love with it because of how much I felt it.
Speaker: But at the same time, some of those earlier sounds that I didn't know were part of power metal, it was something that was a huge escape for me, or at least part of that huge escape for me.
Speaker: And now that we are all fantastically depressed from my story, and I don't really know how else to say that, because actually, I hope you're not depressed.
Speaker: I really hope that you took out of that the good and the beauty of it, because there truly is some really serious, like amazing things out of that story.
Speaker: And I know that it was kind of a story that came from some really depressing points in my life and some really rough points in my life.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: I want you to see it this way, as there's a few things to take from that.
Speaker: Number one, I found and discovered some amazing things in music that got me through those points in my life and continue to do that today.
Speaker: Number two, I discovered power metal, which we all know is important.
Speaker: And number three, my mom's okay now.
Speaker: Actually, yesterday, I don't remember anyway.
Speaker: Sometime the last couple days, my mom was asking me what I was up to this weekend.
Speaker: And I told her the concert I was going to go see.
Speaker: And she's like, OK, let me hear it.
Speaker: And I said, OK.
Speaker: So I actually sent her a song by Camelot and Battle Beast.
Speaker: And I'm not going to tell you what she thinks because my mom's not big on most music.
Speaker: She, you know, obviously she's OK now.
Speaker: She doesn't mind.
Speaker: She's like, yeah, let me listen to it.
Speaker: Let me see what you're here.
Speaker: Let me see what you're into.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: And I can safely say, and I will say this time and time again and continue to say this, that music probably saved me.
Speaker: More than once, more than once in my life.
Speaker: In fact, there is no probably about it.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, music definitely saved me.
Speaker: For me, having music there that has always spoken to me is something that most certainly saved me several times and, yeah, probably saved my life a few times.
Speaker: And that is the much more in-depth answer to that question.
Speaker: Probably not an answer anybody truly wanted to hear.
Speaker: I'm thinking many people who ask me that question is like, okay, so explain the full story.
Speaker: They probably expect like this great story.
Speaker: And now they're like, I'm so sorry I've ever asked that question.
Speaker: But don't be sorry about it because it truly did turn out very good for me.
Speaker: And obviously things are turning out even better for me these days.
Speaker: So it's okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'm wrapping up the show right here.
Speaker: And yeah, I want you guys to tune in next episode because I have this wonderful lady who is the lead singer of a symphonic metal project out of Portland.
Speaker: Cannot wait to talk to her about the music that she's got going on, about her band, about just all kinds of great stuff because she and I have chatted briefly on Discord and...
Speaker: we already have discovered that we are instantly friends.
Speaker: And so I am super looking forward to hearing from her.
Speaker: Band is called Terminal Dusk.
Speaker: If you have not heard of them, I will link them in the show notes below.
Speaker: And yeah, that is all for this episode, you guys.
Speaker: My name is Candice.
Speaker: You know me as the Metal Mama.
Speaker: You can find me on the internets at metalmama.rocks.
Speaker: I will see you guys next time.
