The Sword

Spectator

Mongoose
Neat Band, they incorporate the REH mythology into their music.They have a song called The Frost Giants Daughter.
I'm listening to them right now. They remind me of Black Sabbath w/ Ozzy, although a tad faster (not speed metal though).
Singer has the high pitched Ozzy voice, too. Kinda Cool.
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword

Enjoy, or not.
 
Mongoose Steele said:
You should also check out Hammerfall and ManoWar. Both are what I call "Fantasy Metal". :)

-Bry

You can add Malmsteen to your list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yngwie_Malmsteen
:)

W.
 
Fantasy Metal?

Rhapsody of Fire - e.g. Symphony of the Enchanted Lands
Luca Turilli (used to be a member of the above) - e.g. Kings of the Nordic Twilight
both are very bombastic, full-fledged orchestras etc.

Blind Guardian also comes to mind, e.g. Nightfall in Middle-Earth.

A bit on the rougher side, try

Summoning - Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame
Battlelore - Sword Song
Haggard - Tales of Ithiria (the first fantasy-themed album; their older stuff is more history-based)

(all of these feature part clean vocals, part growls)
 
Some cool bands, for sure. I intellectualize as I fantasize with a little Clutch. It's obscure and eclectic, but WOOF....do they rock!
 
The Sword are badass.

They are from here in Austin too :mrgreen:

They have been around a little while now, and are currently opening for Metallica on their tour so they have done pretty well.

My fave tunes are Freya are Winter's Wolves from their first album.

Saw them play a few weeks ago - truly righteous.

Hail the Riff! :twisted:
 
The sound is decidedly American. I can't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason American metal bands sound totally different than European ones. In this case, certainly the voice, but even the first three guitar chords are a dead giveaway.

Now for some nice German Pagan Metal:

Menhir - Hildebrandslied Pt. 1
Menhir - Hildebrandslied Pt. 2

This is truly awesome and deserves a closer explanation: the Hildebrandslied (Lay of Hildebrand) is one of the oldest works written in German language, dating from the 9th Century, i.e. over a thousand years old. This band took the actual, Old High German lyrics and shaped it into a melody.

It starts like this:

Ik gihorta dat seggen,
dat sih urhettun ænon muotin,
Hiltibrant enti Hadubrant untar heriun tuem.
sunufatarungo iro saro rihtun.
garutun se iro gudhamun, gurtun sih iro suert ana,
helidos, ubar hringa, do sie to dero hiltiu ritun.

I heard tell this tale
That challengers met
Hildebrand and Hadubrand, between two hosts
Son and father prepared their armour
readied their battle-gear, buckled their swords
the heroes, over their maille, as they rode to battle


(I've seen Menhir live on stage, just great, they all dress up in authentic Germanic garbs of that era, really impressive)
 
Let's stay on topic here - the other bands mentioned are all well and good but none of them have quite the narrow focus that The Sword does on its sound. You might even call it one-dimensionsal, but in this case it's a good thing.
 
This one is pure AWESOME!!!
headbang.gif
 
The Gates of Slumber base much of their sound on the sword & sorcery genre with blatant Conan artwork on their albums. They also happen to be among the awesomest doom-meisters of our age...

Riders of Doom:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xCU1tGFiT34

GoS's myspace...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=8067079

GatesCover_hi-res-1.jpg
 
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