Viking Guitar Live’s Legion Album w/ Exclusive Track

If you were at this past MAGFest 12, you might have been lucky enough to see Viking Guitar Live perform a face-melting set in the wee hours of the morning that managed to kick of the festival in just the right way. If you didn’t, well you’re still in luck, because the band named after Erik “Viking Guitar” Peabody is releasing an entire album featuring the tracks played at MAGFest in full glory. It may not melt your face, but it will probably cause auditory hallucinations; of awesome. And fortunately, we’ve got an exclusive tidbit of the upcoming album “Legion” to share before it’s drop this coming Saturday, June 28th.

Viking Guitar Live came about after years of Peabody being immersed in the game arrangement scene, with self-produced albums just as Made of Metal and the horror-themed Danse Macabre series, but also being involved in several collaborative projects like Spectrum of Mana (also featuring every other member of VGL) and Vampire Variations. Peabody also created Viking Guitar University to help promote instruction into the world of music recording and arrangement for those just starting out. He goes into detail as to how the idea for constructing a band came about.

“I’ve been doing video game covers as Viking Guitar since 2008. In that time, I’d had a chance to meet a lot of cool people with similar interests. I’d always thought about trying to make it a live band, but had always put it off because of logistical obstacles. However, in 2013, I’d been receiving enough ‘dude, just fucking do it’ comments to figure it was worth a shot. I was lucky enough to get my pick of the litter in terms of band members, and things just went from there. I’ve been in more than a few bands before, and this is by far the most talented, easy-going, awesome group of people I’ve ever gotten to play music with.”

The other members of Viking Guitar Live are no slouches either. Grant “Stemage” Henry is most well know as the creator of Metroid Metal, which released its newest in Other Album earlier this year. He’s also been on an overwhelming amount of other projects, including Saturday Morning RPG from musical legend Vince DiCola and collaboring with MegaMan composer Manami Matsumae on In Flux, as well as his own works. Ryan “Mega Beardo” Postlethwait just released his mini album Black Ice, which highlights ice-based levels in various video games in the most black metal of renditions, beyond the several albums he’s released previously. Bassist Travis Morgan released a wicked MegaMan 6 album in the spirit of game cover band The Minibosses a few months back, as well as just dropped some original Vaudeville works. Drummer Adam Henry is DJing across North Carolina and is pretty much involved in a little bit of everything.

Legion itself drops on the 28th, but OSV was fortunate to receive an early exclusive track to help drive the hype train forward. “They Call Me Axe Battler” is a live version of Peabody’s previous version of the Golden Axe arrangement released on his self-titled album.

Pre-orders of the album are available, with physical copies being close to upgraded to digi-pak rather than standard jewel case. The album’s release party will being going on over at Arecibo Radio later that evening for those wanting  to listen before they buy. Gotta keep the world metal, and these guys are the bannermen of the viking army.