Powers Court comes at us with a self-titled album (or un-named, I didn't determine which). "Lord Of Winds And Breezes" starts it off with some driving riffs, heavy on the low end, and some growly, somewhat mechanical vocals, seemingly to introduce a very intense extreme album. However there are interludes on this song that are a simple shrieking / moaning, in a most annoying pitch. "Spellbinder" breaks the low end and goes for more of the classic metal appeal: guitar driven music, backed by a solid drumming and a simplistic bass track. It's odd to hear the soloing and lead guitar without any rythm guitar to back it up. The riffs on this song are quite nice, but they suffer from being repeated too much in places. The vocal style is also a little older style; a clean, somewhat reserved and stunted mid-octave singing.
The music, throughout, maintains a guitar driven sound. The vocals don't really change much, and although they are fine in their own respect, they don't blend with the music very well at points. Danie Powers should not attempt to do the high pitch thing, it doesn't turn out too well. Fortunately, most of the vocals stay in the mid range and complement the music quite nicely. Indeed the vocals remind me of the style that comes from classic doom, and if Powers Court wanted to head in that direction they could easily do so.
The music is also quite decent, there is a good assortment of riffs. As a nice bonus in places the bass is allowed to sound through and provide an intense support, almost lead at times, for the heavy music. There are some nice breaks from the fairly average sounding music, average sounding, but played at a much better quality. "Dying Embers" opens up with a very Iron Maiden "Fear Of The Dark" sounding intro (the song structure is also very similar to that Maiden song), accompanied with a higher pitched, less powerful vocal style. It's a shame the way they decided to mix the riffs on this song, for the transition riff from the verse to the first "chorus" section is incredible, and timed / played excellently. At about this point in the album Powers Court starts experimenting with some slower music. It sounds alright, but it begins losing all it's edge, and sounds a lot less original when they do so.
That brings us to our next point about originality. Powers Court definitely plays original music, but the uniqueness just isn't there. They are heavily influenced by classic metal of the 80's, and often share very similar sounding riffs to other songs. However, the heavy mixing, and more progressive song structure keeps it fresher than simply a rehash of old music. In addition the vocals sound most similar to classic doom, rather than classic metal. As I mentioned though, there isn't much unique on this album; possibly there is uniqueness but it's lost by not having a solid enough sound to hear it.
I think that a rythm guitarist would have rounded out their music and provided for the full metal feel, while letting Danie concentrate on doing lead. Powers Court is a very promising band that plays some very nice music, however they are lacking in some respects, and the mixing of this album could have been done a lot better. I'd definitely be intersted to see what direction their music takes on their next recording, and I'm positive they'll work out the details of the music and produce a great album, they are definitely capable of doing so.
Danie Powers - Vocals, Guitars
Steve Murray - Bass
Adam Schnieders - Drums
Powers Court
P.O. Box 2441
St. Louis, MO 63114
USA
Tell us a little about the history of the band.
This project was formed in 1988 by myself. I then had the moniker, "Equinox" which we changed as of 1994 I believe it was. Too many other bands with that same name, it became too confusing. Steve Murray (bassist) joined me in 1989, Adam (drummer) has been with us for about a year now.
-Tell us a little about what you did under the previous name Equinox.
We put out a 3 song demo under that name that due to fan response we're still distributing and we intend to put those three songs on the upcoming CD due out in the Summer of 1997.
-It seems that the core of the band started out in music in areas other than heavy music. How has the varying background provided for direction in the band?
Hmm....well I started out singing choir at a very young age and was exposed to various classical influences, then I graduated to hard rock, mainly Led Zeppelin, which some people will argue "is" heavy music, or the beginnings of it anyway. I still listen to all types of music, classical, hard rock, rock, middle eastern,(Ravi Shankar sitar type music), flamenco guitarists, classical guitarists, madrigal, bagpipes, Irish folk, medieval music, Native American chanting, anything and everything but rap and crap...my euphemism for the term "modern rock" (grin). Country also is NOT on the menu. Now how all this provides for direction I know not. I let the music tell me where it wants to go, I don't formulate songs. They come to me and demand to be written. I'm sure that my subconcious picks up on the influences, but the outcome is purely POWERS COURT.
What other bands/musicians influence you?
I prefer to say that they are my influences, not that they influence me. I say this because I'm not patterning myself after them, I'm not certain that is what you meant, but I wanted to claify that. Too many musicians I know WORSHIP a particular artist and merely become a pale comparison to the very idol they worship.
Those whom I find the most interesting and listen to on a regular basis would be: KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, ICED EARTH, DISSECTION, SLAYER, PSYCHOTIC WALTZ, SAVATAGE, SKYCLAD, DOOMSDAY, BLACK SABBATH, DIO, DEATH, YNGWIE, IRON MAIDEN, RIGOR MORTIS, KISS etc.
Hard Rock, '70s bands would be: LED ZEPPELIN whom I worship and adore, PAVLOV'S DOG, ANGEL, EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER I'm a huge fan of, SUPERTRAMP, obscure things like NEKTAR.
MOZART, BEETHOVEN, WAGNER, PAGININI...I mean I don't know how much of this you'll pick up on by what I do, but these are all very influential artists as far as burning things into my head goes, but again, what comes out of me and what I have or will listen to really has a minute part to play in the scheme of things...
What are some inspirations for song lyrics?
Past life flashbacks, occult experiences, mythology, relationships, classical literature, dreams and visions.
What has the crowd response been like at live shows?
Great! Sometimes we'll open for someone who is a Death metal band and I'm sometimes a bit apprehensive about if that crowd would be into our material or not but I'm never disappointed! They're always very verbal and supportive. It's melodic, but still has a lot of raw power and dark overtones that I think the death metal fans are responsive to. We're getting a lot of response from fans of the Gothic genre as well as people into the older hard rock, so it's really been great to know that when I write these songs to share with people, they're responsive to them and can relate and I'm especially happy to see that we're crossing over to fans that aren't "just" into power metal. I think it shows we've broken down a few of those cliches of what metal is all about.
-What are future touring plans?
Right now we have to concentrate on getting out this 2nd CD. We have to focus on one military strategy at a time (grin).
Are there any plans for a new album yet?
Yes, as I've stated above, we're working on the 2nd CD at present, it will be entitled, "Nine Kinds Of Hell" and features songs like, "Tragedy of Faust", "Agnostica", which has a Slayer guitar/drums edge to it, Conquistador which has classical/ flamenco style acoustic intro, then gets heavy, rather like "Dying Embers" off the 1st CD, dark and gloomy in keeping with the title of the CD, it will display nine different kinds of hellish instances.
-Any expected lineup changes?
NOT...
-How has Adam Schnieders been doing as part of the lineup?
Great, Adam is very talented and creative and has many influences as well so I'm not stuck with a one dimensional drummer that can only play sped up polka beats at the speed of light, that to me gets very boring...he's very open minded musically, which is what I've been looking for.
I notice that you give this image of being something very new to metal, "Metal With Class Has Arrived". How original do you feel your material is?
Well I feel it's very original, but this is my music we're speaking of, read any of the reviews we've gotten and that phrase is repeated over and over, "very original." I am me and it's not my mission to "clone" any other band. The same goes for my band mates. The bands that I admire were very unique, when you hear them, you immediately KNOW who they are. I feel we are the same.
My voice is my own, my guitar playing is influenced by many greats like Randy Rhoads, Yngwie, again I use the term "influenced", these two men are especially godlike to me... Richie Blackmore, Jimmy Page, Andy LaRoque, but I also played along with Steve Harris and imitated various other instruments when I was learning to play like violin, piano, sitar, I want my guitar to sound unlike any others while still maintaining that soul ripping metal sound you know? Haunting one minute, brutal the next. Again this isn't really a "game plan" per se, but just want the music urges me to do.
I notice a great deal of the music sounds very similar to the styles of many 80's bands. Can we suppose the metal bands of the 80's had the greatest influence on you?
The 80's produced a lot of great, great metal. Pure, aggresive, raw, thundering metal that knew it's direction and made no compromises for the sake of selling albums to the trendy MTV crowd. I greatly admire bands like IRON MAIDEN and only wish that here in America they would get the respect that they deserve and STILL get overseas. In Europe if they liked you 10 years ago, they STILL like you, Americans are always looking for something new and shiny and then casting it aside all too soon. I hope this changes, they're missing out on so much quality music for the sake of "fitting" in with a certain crowd.
In that respect, yes, the bands that dominated the metal scene in the 80's and really STILL do, were very influential and to label them as "80's" bands...what IS that exactly anyway? Metal of quality vs bands that tune down, shave their heads and worship Phil to the point of cloning themselves after the man? Most of the metal that is deemed "90's " metal to me has no substance, no staying power. No originality, Pantera, yes, they're brilliant, but no one else stands out in my mind and they're all so afraid to take a step in a different direction that they are amazingly droll and tedious to listen to.
"Lord Of Winds And Breezes" is a very different song from the rest of the album. Why was it included?
Lord of Winds And Breezes is based loosely on the Greek god Bellerophon and a dominating spirit that comes to offer you his world, "Come sail with me through time, I'll show you lands forgotten, share mysteries divine". Perhaps you're referring to the vocal effect we used? We wanted to give it that otherworldly feel. Each song is essentially different, "Dying Embers" with it's acoustic beginning is a decidedly different song than the rest as well. I have about 4-5 different "types" of songs that I write. Anything from somber, gloomy haunting songs to aggressive, progressive soul ripping songs.
What do you feel the future holds for this style of metal? -Do you feel many have abandoned the style too quickly?
Well, here again, I don't feel we are a "style", we are POWERS COURT. What the future holds for us I'm not sure, but it's certainly going well for us, sales are increasing, interest is increasing, which to me signals that people are bored to tears with what is currently popular. It's so lacking in integrity and true human emotions, there is more than just anger to express, that's a fav of mine too, but come on...that is so one dimensional to think that that is all people will respond to. And all this "genre" pigeon hole-ing is extremely tiresome, I think people are ready for something different, unique, a band that is like those bands I mentioned before, when the first few chords kick in, you KNOW what band it is, v.s., "Oh...they sound like Pantera..or Fear Factory"...or whatever flavor of the week is currently out there. If you like those type of bands, FINE, but people need to realize that there is more than one type of music out there, each band should have their own unique sound and persona, otherwise metal is going to end up on MTV following in Metallica's current footsteps, which I for one do NOT relish...
