You can’t CMV. It’s quite clearly an anthem sung from the perspective of the revolutionaries amidst their struggles.
Let us examine the lyrics.
*On a cold winter morning
In the time before the light
In flames of Death’s eternal reign
We ride towards the fight
When the darkness has fallen down
And the times are tough, alright
The sound of evil laughter falls
Around the world tonight*
Clearly the stage is being set here - the communist forces have chosen to begin their revolution in the winter. The sound of evil laughter is a stand in for capitalism here. The “time before the light” is the pre-socialist period.
*Fighting hard, fighting on for the steel
Through the wastelands evermore
The scattered souls will feel the hell
Bodies wasted on the shores
On the blackest plains in hell’s domain
We watch them as they go
In fire and pain, now once again
We know*
Through the wastelands of capitalism, our revolutionaries choose to push on in their struggle, for they know it is just.
*So now, we fly ever free, we’re free before the thunderstorm
On towards the wilderness, our quest carries on
Far beyond the sundown, far beyond the moonlight
Deep inside our hearts and all our souls
So far away, we wait for the day
For the lives, all so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames, we carry on*
The prechorus and chorus describes the soul of the revolutionary - their bodies may be engaged in a war against the capitalist hordes, but in their hearts, they are free, for they have class consciousness, solidarity, and are working to change their world.
*As the red day is dawning
And the lightning cracks the sky
They’ll raise their hands to the heavens above
With resentment in their eyes
Running back through the mid-morning light
There’s a burning in my heart
We’re banished from a time in a fallen land
To a life beyond the stars
In your darkest dreams, see to believe
Our destiny this time
And endlessly we’ll all be free
Tonight*
The “red day dawning” is quite obvious here. On a more literal level, this verse depicts the capitalist frustration - these revolutionaries had been exiled, but are now returning to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The capitalists are throwing up their hands in frustration as they are being beaten back. The communists know they will win, and are winning here.
*And on the wings of a dream, so far beyond reality
All alone in desperation, now the time has gone
Lost inside you’ll never find, lost within my own mind
Day after day, this misery must go on
Now, here we stand with their blood on our hands
We fought so hard now, can we understand?
I’ll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can
For freedom of every man*
While the revolutionaries did not want to engage in violent struggle, it was necessary for their revolution. They may have blood on their hands in a quite literal sense here, but they know that their revolution could not have succeeded peacefully. The final lyrics to the song reaffirm their commitment to fighting for the people.
This is dialectics.
Through the Fire and the Emblem is a song about a great turn based strategy series with usually dodgy politics.
This is exactly what I did when I was 13 and tried to prove that every band was actually Christian
I was right btw
bit idea fedora athiest parents who think all rock music is secretly Christian and is indoctrinating their children
TBH power metal seems like it would be hyperreactionary given how much they talk about glory and power but there are relatively few that take public political stances on anything, especially when compared to like black metal. Maybe it’s just too cheesy.
Except for Sabaton, which is dudes rocking about History Channel documentaries
Here they are covering a song that someone wrote as a style parody of them that has some fun reenactments of Nazis getting merced by the Red Army
oh and also Powerwolf which is dudes rocking about their VtM campaign
Iced Earth is dudes rocking out about anti-Semitic centralized banking conspiracies. And Spawn. But mostly the anti-Semitism thing.
Yeah, but fuck that guy. At least Hansi washed his hands of Demons and Wizards without a second thought; he’s almost certainly a :LIB: but he’s at least not an open Nazi like Schaefer.
I don’t actually listen to any power metal but TBH this song is a banger. I also fully realize that I’m probably in a small minority that never played Guitar Hero, and thus never burnt themselves out on it.
hey if we’re recommending power metal
- the classic: Kill the King by Rainbow (it counts shut up)
- the long: Beyond the Space, Beyond the Time by Pathfinder
- the silly: Gabonzo Robot by NANOWAR OF STEEL (enable subtitles on this one)
- the Berserk tribute: Victory by Battle Beast
- the unironic: Thunder Rider by Majesty
I just think it’s neat
Rainbow absolutely counts - everything Dio ever did after “Carolina County Ball” counts in my book - and god I love Battle Beast with Nitte Valo. Good thing Beast in Black is out there.
ok well I’ll leave you some recommendations and you can check it out and see what you like
Power metal is basically built on three pillars that every band pulls from in one degree or another:
Play it fast and loud like Spread Your Fire by Angra
Big epic arrangements like Sacred Worlds by Blind Guardian
Sing about your D&D game in a continental European accent like Emerald Sword by Rhapsody
I fear that a lot of them are reactionary, and know of a couple who are: three members of Dragonforce used to be in a nazi band called Demoniac. The singer(?) from Iced Earth was at the Jan 6th riots (Iron Saviour’s social media told the band to stay out of Germany after this was revealed IIRC).
On another note, I read an interview once with Hansi from Blind Guardian where he said he suported Die Linke when asked about politics but didn’t really elaborate.
It was the guitarist from Iced Earth, and the powermetal subreddit were actually the ones that figured it out . I remember hearing about other 80s metal dudes who had that same strain of petty bourgeois Fox News brainworms, I think Tom Arroyo was like that too.
On the flip side there’s also A Sound of Thunder who support the Catalonian independence movement
:tequila-sunset: “The Man from Hjelmdall is communist”
Fighting hard, fighting on for the steel
This is an obvious reference to :stalin-pipe: