Powerglove (band)

This article is about the video game metal band. For the Nintendo product, see Power Glove.

Powerglove
Origin	Boston, United States
Genres	Nintendocore, heavy metal, Power Metal, speed metal
Years active	2005–present
Labels	E1 Music (2010 - present)
Website	www.vgmetal.com
Members	Chris Marchiel Alex Berkson Nick Avila Bassil Silver-Hajo

Powerglove is an instrumental American heavy metal band who play versions of classic video game themes. The band is named after the Power Glove, a NES controller accessory.

History

Total Pwnage and Metal Kombat (2005 - 2007)

The band records their music in various locations and mixes them in a home studio. The band recorded and released its debut EP, Total Pwnage, in 2005 (later re-released in 2008). The EP allowed the band to develop a kind of cult following. Over the following two years, the band arranged and recorded what would become their debut, full-length album, Metal Kombat fothe Mortal Man. The album met positive reviews and opened the band up to many oppurtunites.

Rising Fame and touring (2008)

Throughout 2008, following the release of the band's album, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, the band had found its way into many publications, such as Game Informer, Metal Hammer, and Gamepro, including interviews with the band members and album reviews.

In May 2008, the band embarked on their first U.S. tour with bands, Psychostick and Look What I Did. It was during this tour that extreme power metal guitarist Herman Li invited the band to open for his group, DragonForce, at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. After this performance, the band was invited to be a part of DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown U.S. and Canadian tour, which took place November-December of 2008 along with the Finnish metal band Turisas.

New albums, more touring, E1 Music (2009 - present)

Since then, the band has begun writing their third album, stated by the band on their MySpace page. It has been stated that they will most likely record their new album as they recorded Metal Kombat. At this point, the band had demos for three possible songs.

In July 2009, guitarist Chris Marchiel stated in a blog on the band's official MySpace that the band is about to record two albums. The first, Saturday Morning Apocalypse, will be centered around TV, cartoon, and movie themes the band grew up with. Some songs mentioned were the Pokémon theme song, Danny Elfman's "This Is Halloween" from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, The Flintstones, and more. The second album, which Marchiel hopes will be released in late 2011, will return to the band's brand of video game metal. The only possibility mentioned for this album was Snake Man from Mega Man 3. The band announced in late July of 2009 that they had begun recording.

In 2010, Powerglove toured the US and Canada with Swedish traditional Power Metal act Hammerfall and followed that tour immediately with another US / Canadian tour with Sonata Arctica and Mutiny Within.

The TV album, titled Saturday Morning Apocalypse, is completed and set to be released Fall 2010. Powerglove signed to notable record company E1 Music in May 2010.

Vocalist

At one point Powerglove was considering looking for a vocalist, but could never find the right fit for the music. Guitarist Chris Marchiel stated that if they had lyrics, they would be phenomenally stupid and they would be funny at first, but get old very fast. He stated that they are a joke band, but take their music very seriously, and there would be no way to write serious lyrics. In addition, Marchiel stated a general dislike for today's selection of metal vocalists, calling them mediocre and homogeneous.

Band members

Current members

• Chris Marchiel — guitar
• Alex Berkson — guitar
• Nick Avila — bass
• Bassil Silver-Hajo — drums

Session musicians

• Spalding — bass (2005)
• Matt Piggot — guitar, synth programming (2007)
• Simon Jeker — saxophone (2007)

Discography

Studio albums

• Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man (2007)
• Saturday Morning Apocalypse (2010)
• Powerglove's third studio album (2011)

Extended plays

• Total Pwnage (2005)

See also

• Vomitron, metal band soon to release full-length studio album featuring several popular NES covers
• The Minibosses, one of the very first game-music cover bands, focusing mainly on NES tunes.
• Coffin Caddies, A Pop-Punk band which plays original songs based on Video Game and Comic Books.
• The Black Mages, a metal band founded by Nobuo Uematsu to play Final Fantasy arrangements.
• The NESkimos, another band which plays covers of Nintendo music, but adds a very heavy style to it.
• MegaDriver, another band which plays covers of video game music, mostly of the Sega Genesis (or "Mega Drive" outside North America) but also plays Nintendo covers, with a heavy metal style.
• PRESS PLAY ON TAPE, another band which plays covers of video game music (Commodore 64 music, in the genre of rock).
• The Megas, a band which covers Mega Man songs, adding lyrics to expand on the game's story.
• Stemage, a band which covers Metroid.

External links

• Official site
• Powerglove on MySpace
• The 11 Best Video Game Cover Bands - SlobsofGaming.com - I are your favorite gaming website