Help A Hapless Bunch Of Nerds Up Their Hammers, Get You Some Stuff
A Hallmark Friday Sob Story.
With less than a few sobs.
A year or so ago, it came to be that a lone nerd, grief-stricken over Sharky Mark joining the funky bunch on the wildside, gave a vow, as only people in too deep do, to carry on his legacy. It was not long until he had assembled a group of similar minds, attracted by the promise of thrills, romance, adventures, riches and quests in the safety of his own home, over a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Or Dungeon Crawl.. Classics? Am I supposed to know this stuff? I don’t think I am. Anyways, after a long, hard and arduous session that wore out the last of their strength, and a nice, big cup of hot cocoa, they decided to call it a day. I mean a band, they decided to call it a band.
And people came and saw that it was a good, so they got signed. And more people came and saw that it was a good so they got signed on to play Up The Hammers XV, a heavy metal-centered festival in Athens, Greece. But you know, this group of tabletop RPG lovers—Throne of Iron—is US-based, so flights to Greece and other expenditures don’t come cheap. To help cover the costs taking this chance would set them back, they’ve released a special compilation CD, Year One – The demos, covers, splits, and singles, which features, much as the name suggests, their 3-song 2018 demo, both bonus covers recorded for its different editions (yes, there is Manilla Road, no, it’s not “Necropolis”), their half of the split with dungeon synth artist Hillsfar and “Xanathar,” a single originally recorded for an Indy Metal Vault compilation to benefit a program dedicated to helping middle/high school girls to start playing music of their own.
It will only be up for sale, digital and physical, until before the festival takes place—that’s to say until before March 13th. Though I’m almost certain the band wouldn’t mind if you were to purchase something not included on the compilation like the Roll For Metal single series, where tempo, feel and drum parts are picked using a standard D&D dice set with selected beats from Ugritone’s drum MIDI, over which the guitar and bass are improvised, with lyrics generated on Random Power Metal Lyric Generator. Or the live singles recorded at Rapid Fire III, featuring Ozzie Darden and Chris Millard of Children of the Reptile on second guitar respectively. Or the Dungeons With Dudes Podcast theme. It’s your pick, even if the compilation comes recommended.
Check up on Throne of Iron on Facebook and get shit at Bandcamp. All pictures courtesy of their social media and Bandcamp pages’ public sections.
