Kansas City Power Metal Fest '09

Attendants of the Kansas City Power Metal Fest this weekend probably bought tickets far in advance. But if you live in the US Midwest, like old-school true metal, and don’t know about it — now you do. (See details here). Headlining are Manilla Road and Widow. It’s a trip seeing such a European-style festival in the US.

Lightning Swords of Death – Damnation Pentastrike
Ravage – Into the Shackles

Two highlights of KCPMF are on Metal Blade: recent signees Lightning Swords of Death, and Ravage. LSoD are odd men out as black metallers. It’s also mystifying how Metal Blade signed (1) an obscure band (2) that plays black metal and (3) doesn’t have a million MySpace friends. Maybe the label liked the “video game soundtrack” aspect (see here). I’d guess that someone from Metal Blade saw a killer live show. If so, bravo to the band. They deserve the exposure.

So do Boston’s Ravage. They write good songs and play them well. Remember when that was how bands got signed? Their blend of old-school power metal with modern chops feels like Painkiller-era Judas Priest. (They even cover “Nightcrawler.”) Earache has been trying to spark a retro true metal trend with the Heavy Metal Killers compilation (reviewed here) and various bands from it. Metal Blade might have won that war with Ravage, though. Look out for their album The End of Tomorrow, which comes out a week from today.

Pre-order:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
Metal Blade (CD)