Bands

Indie Music, Miscellaneous

Legend of Zelda Inspired Band Master Sword Release Album “Shadow and Steel”

December 9, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

If you’ve never heard of the video game-inspired band Master Sword, then let me take a brief moment to educate you. Hailing from Washington, DC and taking their name from The Legend of Zelda and their music subsequently inspired by the series itself, this five-piece American progressive power metal band celebrates both the series and gaming in general with a hard rock edge. Coming into their own in the VGM community music scene and who recently performed at MAGFest Labs and BitGen, Master Sword released two singles earlier this year and and EP Epoch in 2015 and now are revving up to release their first full-length album.

Shadow and Steel was originally conceived as a Kickstarter campaign which made it’s goal, and the band got to work making good on their visions.

Shadow and Steel is Master Sword’s long awaited full-length album, featuring 10 songs inspired by Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series. Hear your favorite game melodies played in a completely new way, with screaming guitars, pounding bass, expressive keyboards, innovative drumming and the siren vocals of Lily Hoy serenading you with the lost stories of Hyrule.

<a href="http://masterswordband.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-and-steel">Shadow and Steel by Master Sword</a>

You can preview the album above for a taste of the band’s style, as well as check out their MAGFest sets for live performances of tracks from the album. Shadow and Steel is currently available for pre-order on the band’s Bandcamp page in both digital and CD formats. You can also stream their other music on Soundcloud.
Featured, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

Steel Samurai’s self-titled Second EP (Review)

August 17, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Steel Samurai’s self-titled Second EP (Review) Share this

Steel Samurai has been kicking around the Baltimore, Maryland scene since late 2013, making appearances at MAGFest and Bit Gen while contributing their brand of rock to an array of game music compilations. They specialize in power-rocking “the most ancient, unused and obscure video game compositions” and their second, self-titled EP definitely holds true to that mission statement.

Released on July 29th, Steel Samurai is a short EP but it rocks all the way through and covers a lot of rarely-revisited source material. The theme of the band’s namesake — the fictional TV hero from the also-fictional world of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — opens things up with a powerful rendition of the traditional Japanese-style tune from the DS game. But track two is what really pulled me into this album.

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Doujin, Game Music

Get Your Fill of Fun Straight Game Covers with Extra Lives

August 8, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 3 Comments Share this

We currently reside in a community filled with fantastic game music bands from all over the world that span almost all genres. When you have dozens (if not at this point, hundreds) of bands and musicians that dedicate themselves to covering and arranging game music from the Atari all the way through to the current generation of gaming, it can sometimes be a bit hard to catch everything. Extra Lives is a band out of Los Angeles that is a simple, straight cover band that doesn’t do anything fancy; they just do really fantastic covers of music from all sorts of games.

The four-man band has been releasing their covers regularly to Youtube for the past year, touching upon everything from Chrono Trigger to Final Fantasy 4 to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and more. One might be keen to wonder why, with all the bands out there doing remixing and arranging of game music into grand metal, rock or orchestral variations, should a band that just does straight covers be something to pay much mind to? There is a simple charm to bands that not only play covers, but play them well. Bands like The Minibosses became the legends they are breaking into the field of game music bands with straight covers, and sometimes it’s nice to go back to those roots.

It’s also nice to find new bands that straight their legs a bit and cover songs that might otherwise go completely uncovered, such as The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

The band recently performed with Kirby’s Dream Band during their first live performance, and hopefully will be doing more in the future. You can check out all of their video on their Youtube channel and check back for new videos regularly.

What are you opinions of straight cover bands as opposed to bands that do more arranged game music? Let us know in the comments.
Chip Music, Events, Game Music

Bit Gen Gamer Fest 12 Announced With Band Lineup

April 21, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Bit Gen Gamer Fest 12 Announced With Band Lineup Share this

Baltimore’s native game music festival Bit Gen Gamer Fest is returning for it’s 12th iteration this year on July 28th – 30th at the Ottobar.

Bit Gen Gamer Fest, Baltimore’s massive homegrown day-long video game music festival returns for its 12th year to explode your mind with a monstrous lineup of 16 musical acts from all across the country, collected under one roof for a full day of video game music MAYHEM! Enjoy a diverse selection of bands ranging from metal, chiptune, hip-hop, rock, and more while punishing baddies and setting the high score on a curated selection of home console and arcade games.

Launching the event with a solid lineup, the current performers scheduled to play are:

PowerGlove

Bit Brigade

Knight of the Round

X-Hunters

You Bred Raptors?

Rare Candy

Steel Samurai

The Mountain Chiefs

Stupid Idiot

Cowabunga Pizza Time

Garbage Masher

Unicorn Hole

Crunk Witch

Michael Zucker

Wreck The System

DJ Super Sonic

Started in 2005 in Baltimore as a small celebration of game music created by John DeCampos and Chris Baines of former VGM band Entertainment System, Bit Gen grew into a yearly local event. In 2013, it was acquired by MAGFest and became a subsidiary event of the brand, though it still remained under it’s own label.

You can check out more information about Bit Gen XII and purchase advance tickets on the event’s Facebook page.
Doujin, Game Music, Miscellaneous

VGM Band Spotlight: Moiré Effect

April 18, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on VGM Band Spotlight: Moiré Effect Share this VGM Band Spotlight: Moiré Effect

The video game music scene is a vast one, with a growing community that continues to bolster itself regularly. Certainly with events whose core is centered around video game music, such as MAGFest and Gamer’s Rhapsody, as well as the niche industry of game music expanding through both fan projects and composer collaborations, new names pop up in the scene regularly. This is especially true with new performers and bands that dedicate themselves to the celebration of video game music.

Enter Moiré Effect. What is Moiré Effect? Well, ask a visualist and it’s the spacing effect when two sets of patterns are laid on top of one another. So, what does this have to do with video game music? According to the band, it didn’t start out with a dedication to games music and beyond.

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Events, Game Music

Rockage 6.0 Free This Weekend in San Jose, CA

February 9, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 2 Comments Share this

Let it not be said that the east coast gets all the good VGM events. This weekend in San Jose, Rockage has returned for three days of gaming, music and fun.

Rockage: San Jose is a celebration of indie music & retro gaming. Rockage is more than just an annual event- we support indie musicians and gaming culture on the West Coast year-round.

Much like MAGFest (and a nice precursor to MAGWest later this year), Rockage features tons of retro and indie gaming, but also local VGM bands, artists and composers to rock out to while you attend the event. This year’s lineup includes two performances by FTL: Faster Than Light composer Ben Prunty, who had a killer set at the MAGFest Jamspace at PAX South recently.

The event will be Friday through Sunday at the AFKgg Gamer Lounge in San Jose, with free admission for all. You can nab more ongoing information on their Facebook and Twitter.
Miscellaneous

Bandcamp Artists Donating Today’s Profit to the ACLU

February 3, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Bandcamp Artists Donating Today’s Profit to the ACLU Share this
Over 200 artists and groups, including a good chunk of the VGM and chiptune scene, have gotten together with Bandcamp and are donating all profits from their sales today to the American Civil Liberties Union. The act is a response to current political strife, with Bandcamp donating 100% of their profits to the ACLU, and a large amount of musicians and music labels making additional donations of their profit cuts.

We hope that, as you listen to these albums, you’ll not only discover some great new artists, but will also gain a further appreciation and understanding for the way music transcends all borders, and remember that, even in the darkest of times, there is more that unites us than divides us.

Several video game cover bands and arrangers have thrown their support behind the movement. If you’re looking to purchase new music, beyond the Bandcamp portion, many of the following are making extra donations towards the ACLU:
Regardless of your affiliations, we suggest checking out these and several other VGM artists and bands today for the simple reason of expanding your library of awesome video game tunes.