{"id":47433,"date":"2014-12-16T08:47:10","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=47433"},"modified":"2014-12-16T08:47:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T13:47:10","slug":"powerlord-the-awakening-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/powerlord-the-awakening-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerlord | The Awakening<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Powerlord\"Now here\u2019s an underground heavy metal gem that is likely known only to the most die-hard collectors, or those who happened to witness the Oklahoma City metal scene in the \u201880s. Formed mainly by Los Angeles transplants, Powerlord made their debut in 1986 with the six-song EP The Awakening<\/em>. Aside from appearing on a bootleg compilation a few years back, this independent release had never been pressed on CD. Fortunately the metal archaeologists at the Shadow Kingdom label have remedied that.<\/p>\n

Powerlord\u2019s overall sound was in keeping with where the metal scene was going in 1986. It\u2019s rooted in the power metal (or what passed for power metal at the time) of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, but the emerging thrash scene obviously made a huge impact on the band, as high speed riffing dominates these songs. It\u2019s more speed metal than thrash, and with Dane Cook\u2019s high octave scream there are strong comparisons to Agent Steel and especially Exciter, as well as bands like Savage Grace, Helstar and Vicious Rumors. Powerlord wasn\u2019t quite at that level, quality-wise, but you can\u2019t help but wonder what they might have accomplished had they done more than just this record.<\/p>\n

The Awakening<\/em> is a totally solid power\/speed metal entry, but it\u2019s not surprising that it didn\u2019t make Powerlord stars. It just didn\u2019t have the impact and staying power that the average Slayer or Anthrax release had. Still, discovering it nearly three decades later is a real joy. It\u2019s a perfect time capsule of an era in metal where everything seemed possible, and the music was a lot more fun. Fans of \u201880s metal, particularly the American power\/speed sound, really ought to check this one out.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: Shadow Kingdom\u2019s 2014 reissue of The Awakening<\/em> is a pretty bare-bones release. The songs have been digitally remastered from the original master tapes, so that\u2019s a major plus. Apparently the band turned over a good deal of video material and vintage photos to the High Vaultage label back in the \u201890s for a reissue that never panned out, so there\u2019s very little in the way of extras here; just a few grainy band pics. Still, just having this album available on CD and sounding this good makes the whole thing worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal, Speed Metal, Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nBrian Massey (b)
\nBob Gourley (d)
\nTony Gourley (g)
\nDane Cook (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tMasters of Death
\n2.\tMalice
\n3.\tSilent Terror
\n4.\tThe Invasion of the Lords
\n5.\tMerciless Titans
\n6.\t(The Awakening) Powerlord<\/p>\n

Label: Shadow Kingdom<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 7.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Now here\u2019s an underground heavy metal gem that is likely known only to the most die-hard collectors, or those who happened to witness the Oklahoma City metal […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,2491,1097,10414,10310,1099,9020],"class_list":{"0":"post-47433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-heavy-metal","10":"tag-power-metal","11":"tag-powerlord","12":"tag-shadow-kingdom","13":"tag-speed-metal","14":"tag-the-awakening"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}