Blacksmith Legacy - Metal Never Dies

Blacksmith Legacy is a heavy metal group hailing from Angelholm, Sweden, which I think is pretty cool because I have friends there. It is a fantastic name, Blacksmith Legacy, the world has always correctly held the belief blacksmiths are strong workers. There has been many stories and legends about blacksmith warriors forging their own weapons and accomplishing great things. It is very easy to make a connection to such myths to metal music, power metal, and that is where my brain goes when I hear a name like Blacksmith Legacy.

There is not a lot of information about Blacksmith Legacy online. They have a website and a facebook page, but they are not entirely in continuity with each other. On their website they have the most recent news is the tragic passing of their front man Otto Ed Hanson. I know they have a new lead singer, but I do not know what his name is, but he looks awesome, he looks like a Rockstar. This is the sort of band I like to write about, mostly because they are largely unknown and thus are going largely unappreciated, but also any overlooked ignorance on my part is largely forgivable.

The band itself looks like a healthy mix of older and younger men, this could, and so far, has resulted in a good mix of experience and ambition.

To date Blacksmith Legacy has released one album, “Let the Game Begin” (2013), and one EP, “Metal Never Dies” (2015), and this year, they released the single “Time to Say Goodbye.” Based on the title of the single, you might have been able to guess that “Time to Say Goodbye” was written in memory of Otto. It is a lovely metal ballad, full of the sadness and joy.

Time to Say Goodbye:

As beautiful as the “Time to Say Goodbye” is, it is not the single track that I most appreciate, that accolade goes to “Metal Never Dies.”

On the surface “Metal Never Dies” should come across as a straight forward metal fanfare, and it does work for such a purpose. The core message is true, metal music is going to go on indefinitely, and there is everything to celebrate and forever to enjoy it in. However, based on what little I do know about Blacksmith Legacy, I feel there is something a little more going on.

As I mentioned before, Blacksmith Legacy is a combination of older and younger guys, and those older guys, they have a had a bit more of a taste of the forever, and this is surely not their first attempt at a metal band. When your dream is making metal music, and your band, presumably not your first, is relatively unknown, one of the best proclamations you can put forth is the very real truth that the dream is not dead, and we will never die. Dreams do not vanish, so long as people do not abandon them. Based on the apparent approximate age of Blacksmith Legacy, they did not let the dream die, and that is where my brain goes when I hear “Metal Never Dies.”

Which brings us back to Otto. It is doubtful, that “Metal Never Dies” is some sort of prophecy about an later realized death, but in hindsight, that is a take away that I am now fixated on. Metal will never die, and through his metal music, Otto will now live forever. So that is pretty great. I barely knew much about the man, but his face is the logo for his metal band, so his passing feels like a big deal.

I wish I had more to say, but what we need to know is that there is a rocking metal band out of Angelholm that deserves more attention. I do not know what fate awaits Blacksmith Legacy and I have yet to learn from whence they originated, but that is all part of the adventure. It is something to look forward to.

Until next year, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves 

The Moody Blues - Have Your Heard Part 1, The Voyage, and Have You Heard Part 2

In case you did not know, we legalized marijuana in Canada recently. Naturally, I have been doing my part, and consequently, I have been listening to a lot of progressive rock.

It has always been my belief that 1969 was the single greatest year of music. I talked about this back in 2013 while reviewing progressive rock band King Crimson: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2013/08/king-crimson-21st-century-schizoid-man.html

For that review I looked up basically every rock album that came out year and listened to them all. It was a lot of work, but highly rewarding. I gained greater knowledge and appreciation of those rock bands that I knew but only so well. The band my respect for, that grew the most, during that experiment was the Moody Blues.

The Moody Blues are probably best known for their song “Nights in White Satin” from their second studio album, the 1967 “Days of Future Passed.” A fantastic song with a highly personal tome of emotions, whatever experiences songwriter Justin Hayward channeled to write this song, it resonated with a lot people in their own personal ways and managed to climb the charts and remain popular from its inception to now. “Nights in White Satin” is the obvious launching point for any conversation about the Moody Blues, so I could not avoid it now. This song started the Moody Blues experimenting with orchestra sounds with the mellotron.

I would be lying if I acted like I knew much of anything about what a mellotron is, but thanks to the Moody Blues, I know a mellotron can do. Before the advancement of the synthesizer keyboard the creation of artificial symphony was created by other means, and one of those methods was the mellotron. With the power of this instrument I do not fully understand, the Moody Blues embarked into progressive rock. The albums that followed would become Moody Blues most psychedelic. A lot of drugs were consumed and luckily everyone seemed to come out of it with little to no damage. The only side effect, of their drug use, great music.

The Moody Blue’s forth album, the 1969 “On the Threshold of a Dream” has become my favorite. It is such a trip. The concept album flows from track to track seamlessly, almost as if it were recorded in a single shot. Performed as if it was meant to be one long epic song. The deepest this experience swallows the listener is at the end of the album, the trio of songs that wrap things up are really one song, in three parts, like the acts of play; “Have You Heard, Part 1,” “The Voyage” and “Have You Heard, Part II.”

As I write this, I am listening to the ending of this album, smoking some mix of blueberry kush and meridian, I just let the music take me away on a voyage. Cosmic and strange, alien but comforting. Good times are being had.

The three songs do work as a perfect set. “Have You Heard, Part 1” serves deliberately as an intro, calm and slow introducing the theme of discovery.

“Now you know that you are real.”

This is a helpful opening line, you know, just in case you forgot. Obvious this is a single line, but I believe it works wonderfully as the first step on this song trilogy. So lost in the progressive rock that if you had made it to this eleventh track, a soft reminder of reality is nice.

“The Voyage” is the rising action and climax of this play. The second “The Voyage” begins the sound hardens, and it rises to the piano that dances away with itself, and this is instrumental solo that serves of opening and exiting of the climax. The exact middle of these three songs is the soaring drums and strumming guitar battling each other. The rapid piano takes over once more, until he reaches the strong strings of a cello, which brings up back to continuity.

“Now you know how nice it feels.”

This is the first line in “Have You Heard part 2,” and much like the opening line in part 1, this works a calming reset. The voyage and its excitement are over, time to relax once more; and relax we should. It is real mellow experience sitting back and listening to “On the Threshold of a Dream.” Everyone knows The Moody Blues, and every knows “Nights in White Satin,” but have you heard of “On the Threshold of a Dream?”

Mike Pinder is a genius.

- King of Braves