Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Daniel Thomaschek asks Do you have a favorite metal band to listen to?

I would not say that I’m a heavy metal fan per se. I listened to Metallica and Black Sabbath in high school, but I actually listened to Black Sabbath coming from a blues direction, not a metal direction.

There are two bands I have a soft spot for, and again, I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of them per se.

The first is Rhapsody of Fire. Wikipedia calls them an Italian symphonic power metal band.

I discovered them in the weirdest way possible. Sometime, about 20 years ago, I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. When I woke up, I don’t even remember the channel it was on, I remember seeing a flaming skull on the screen.

It was a music video that also had Christopher Lee in it, who played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings movies. The song was Unholy Warcry, and the Band was Rhapsody, now known as Rhapsody of Fire due to a trademark conflict.

The other band is the Japanese band Baby Metal. It is a cross between a cutsie Japanese Kawaii band and heavy metal. It sounds ridiculous at first, but it actually works.