Ty Christian, frontman of the power metal band Lords of the Trident and crazy mastermind behind Mad With Power Fest, keeps it real. From the very beginning, everything he has done has been 100 percent genuine DIY.
“Every video you see was shot and edited by me or my close friends,” Christian says. “Every song you hear was recorded down in our basement. We’ve grown a lot in the last few years, but a surprising number of bands still work this way. I think a lot of people have the mistaken impression that you can get signed by a label and suddenly everything is taken care of for you, and that’s simply not the case anymore. Every band is trying the best they can with the resources they have, and it’s a very difficult business to make any headway in.”
Given such a difficult situation, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise when bands take up an aggressive, competitive stance. But not Christian and his Lord of the Trident bandmates. Instead, they are on a mission to revitalize American heavy metal by — wait for it — being nice.
The New Wave of Nice Metal Buds
“We do our best to foster a spirit of working together instead of against one another,” Christian explains. “I strongly believe a ‘rising tide raises all ships.’ That’s part of the reason we’ve created the ‘New Wave of Nice Metal Buds’ (NWONMB) ethos.”
According to Christian, the goal of the NWONMB ethos is nothing less than a renaissance of the heavy metal genre in the US.
“If we can build a community of fans and bands working together in a spirit of friendship, then we can build an environment where the next generation of musicians sees this fun, loving community and says, ‘I want to be a part of that,’” he explains. “That’s how we can make power metal in the US bigger and better: by keeping the soil fertile for newer bands to sprout up. Our band and our festival try our hardest to carry the torch for this spirit.”
Christian first got the inspiration to start his own metal fest when he encountered two major festivals that turned out to be little more than predatory schemes.
The Making of Mad with Power Fest
“The first problematic festival had some major issues during our appearance and promised us a mainstage slot at next year’s fest to make up for it,” Christian remembers. “That was 10 years ago, and we still haven’t gotten that slot.”
The other festival’s behavior was even more egregious. “They ‘booked’ us, then ‘lost” our confirmation email,” Christian recalls. “They moved us to the next year, and then ‘something came up,’ so they moved us again. Eventually, they asked for $15,000 — paid to the promoter himself, under the table — to give us a spot! Of course, we said no, but we weren’t the first band this happened to either: another one of our close friend-bands got asked for $10,000 to play.”
These experiences prompted Christian to create an ethical festival, and Mad with Power Fest was born.
A new kind of Power Metal festival
“We’re a very band-and-fan-forward fest, striving to remove as much of the BS from the fest-going experience as possible,” Christian explains. “Ticket prices are low while camaraderie is high.”
Mad with Power Fest is also the first festival in the nation to display transparent pricing. “We lose nearly 25% of each ticket sale to fees,” Christian says. “We make much less money on tickets in order to provide a better experience to our fans.”
In the past seven years, Mad with Power Fest has grown to become North America’s largest power metal festival. This year, it will be held at The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin, during the first weekend in August. Based on suggestions from previous participants, the schedule will include a break in the lineup so people can eat dinner without missing a band.
“We’ll also have some additional special guests, and we’re tweaking the sound system to make things sound even better,” Christian says. “And of course, there’ll be a ton of fun (and rare!) arcade and pinball games you can play for free.”
Meanwhile, Lords of the Trident has gained international renown, particularly in Japan.
Gaining popularity abroad
Less than two weeks before Lords of the Trident’s first Japanese tour in December of 2022, disaster loomed. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Christian suddenly had to reschedule six of their 10 shows. “Thankfully, half of the shows completely sold out, and we had a wonderful time,” he remembers.
Lords of the Trident will return to Japan this December for an even longer run of shows in various cities: Tokyo, Sendai, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and more.
“We’re bringing along 40 fans from our Patreon to do the trip with us,” Christian says. “It’ll be a ‘sightsee by day, follow us on tour by night’ sort of package put together by our close friend Evan, owner of PacSet travel. We did the same thing with 25 fans in 2022, and it was a huge success. We’re very much looking forward to heading back to Japan, rocking some shows, and then dissolving into goo in the hot springs, haha!”
Christian attributes Lords of the Trident’s popularity with the Japanese to the band’s showmanship as well as the music. “The Japanese genre/style ‘visual kei’ fits what we do: big costumes, big stage shows, etc.,” he says. “A lot of the visual kei bands play rock or metal (oftentimes power metal), so that works to our advantage, too. Maybe a small part of the popularity is that I speak Japanese, albeit somewhat poorly, so I can have rudimentary conversations with our Japanese fans.”
Power metal’s thriving future
Thanks to Christian and Lords of the Trident, nice guys are taking over the power metal scene. As a result, the genre promises to thrive long into the future.
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