Ever heard of "dwarf metal"?
The question almost isn’t “Did you know there was such a thing as Dwarf Metal” but rather “How did it take so long for this to come into being?”
Like mithril forming under the earth’s crust, Dwarf Metal (also referred to as Dwarven Metal) began in the mind of young Francesco Cavalieri, from Pontedera, Italy. Growing up on a steady diet of Tolkien, World of Warcraft, and MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, Cavalieri and his mates found a way to combine all their loves into a completely unique metal sub-genre.
. . .
Looking for a way to “stand out from the crowd,” Cavalieri and his bandmates tapped into their other childhood obsessions. “I played World of Warcraft. And then the Lord of the Rings movies were released in 2001. These years changed my life,” says Cavalieri. “I realized that I wanted to be a warrior!”
The band—now called Wind Rose after the way of graphically presenting wind and weather conditions for use in navigation—started out as a progressive power metal band, keeping its true intentions hidden while they established their cred.
. . .
Cavalieri, along with bandmates Claudio Falconcini (guitar), Federico Meranda (keyboards), Cristiano Bertocchi (bass), and Federico Gatti (drums), then began honing their stage presentation, enlisting the help of LARP costume-makers to create their dwarven armor. However, they quickly realized they needed to find a middle ground between cosplay and actual battle-ready armaments. “You see these people at Blizzcon and Comic Con with just the most beautiful armor,” says Cavalieri. “But it’s too big and fragile for us to use onstage. It’s not made for our kind of work!”
Wind Rose then recorded a cover of a 2010 parody song called “Diggy Diggy Hole,” written by UK-based comedy podcast YOGSCAST. The original song reached 50 million people worldwide on YouTube, and Cavalieri saw it as a way to give the band more visibility and show that they have a sense of humor about what they’re doing. “It’s a song about dwarfs! And it’s a funny song we can have some fun playing onstage.”
There's more at the link. Interesting reading.
We've played that original version of "Diggy Diggy Hole" here before, as well as Wind Rose's original version of it. In case you've forgotten, here's how it started.
Knowing that background, I was nevertheless amazed to see Wind Rose perform the song live as their closing number at the Legends Of Rock 2024 concert in Villena, Spain, in front of thousands of cheering metal fans complete with a circular mosh pit. The original composers of the song could surely never have dreamed of this!
Still recovering from that last one, I found that Wind Rose had gone so far as to record a combined metal/disco/techno remix of "Diggy Diggy Hole" during the COVID lockdown a few years ago. I've never encountered that mixture before, and I'm not sure I want to again: but, for posterity and completeness, here it is.
There you are - a uniquely "underground music" start to your Sunday!
Peter
5 comments:
The energy reminds me of Sabaton in some of their earlier efforts (Winged Hussars, for example). I almost wish I could unwatch that third video, though.
Axe and you shall receive!
Groan...
Thanks Peter, you &%##*/ bas%&#)). I cannot get that f??"*%$# song out of my head now. You NEED to issue a black box warning about it in the future.
The YouTube channel Clamavi De Profundis does their own cover of this song, along with their own original songs and some of Tolkien's poems set to music. Their version of A Lament For Boromir is particularly good.
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