The LGBT+ heavy metal podcast enjoys DragonForce’s biggest success accidentally looking far more gay than intended, explains why Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” (the 1987 version) sings to their queer side, and puts NYE albums from Spineshank and Unleash The Archers into HCGBs.
On new show ‘#60 – Inhuman Rumpage’, Hell Bent For Metal recall a time when Guitar Hero was a global phenomenon, and it made a London power metal band one of the best known bands in the world, gave us one of heavy metal’s first new hits, and crossed metal over into a new area of popular culture.
The song in question, of course, is DragonForce’s turbocharged “Through The Fire And Flames” from their excellent 2006 album ‘Inhuman Rumpage’. Not only did it have more notes than The Netherlands has bicycles or tulips, it also had a glorious video that was clearly trying to look brooding and metal – and that looks a tad more gay than the band may have intended. HBFM have some fun discussing why
The Camp Classic for the week is picked to be NYE-friendly, as Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” (the 1987 album version – the hair metal one) is the work of metal that the hosts explain why it spoke to them as queers. The discussion immediately spawns digressions about queer dating and how it has changed in the internet age (for the better… mostly), and how totally brilliant campness actually is.
But with the song itself, and with so many lyrics relevant to queer life, how could it not? Matt manages to find two angles all of his own (presumably by going down the only road he’s ever known), and Tom has two entirely different ones – and there is no disagreement on any of them.
The final visit to the Hate Crew Gaybar of the year sees the jukebox receive albums to ring in 2022 in party mode. Matt naturally goes nu metal, with the 2003 album that saw Spineshank ditch the industrial and tighten up the songwriting (according to Matt… Tom may or may not agree), ‘Self-Destructive Pattern’. Tom predictably goes for something more upbeat, muscular and melodramatic (not to mention recent), as he picks ‘Abyss’, the 2020 by Canadian heavy metal songsters Unleash The Archers.
Listen to Hell Bent For Metal on Spotify here, listen on iTunes here, or choose one of the other ways to listen here.
Sign up for the Knotfest Email List for exclusive access to news, tours, interviews, pre-sale codes, giveaways and more.