Sword & Sorcery Heavy Metal!

ROBERT E. HOWARD        AND HEAVY METAL MUSIC:  A HISTORY OF INSPIRATION

“Robert E. Howard is my favorite writer of all time.  I believe he was writing heavy metal back in the ‘20s and ‘30s – he was just expressing it through literature instead of music.  He put a lot of his own personal philosophies and anger into his writing.  He believed that barbarism is the true state of man, and that it would always conquer civilization in the end.  ”Howie Bentley in an interview for Den Of Iniquity (heavy metal fanzine / issue # 2  June 2001)

At the time that interview with me was published, my band, Cauldron Born, had just finished recording a partial concept album, inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn stories. This album is called ...And Rome Shall Fall, and is, to this day, a landmark in epic heavy metal and an album that I will talk about in further detail, a little later in this article.

Ten years have passed, and I still believe that Robert E. Howard was injecting the same aesthetic into his stories that is present in heavy metal music, long before this artistic expression of the wild and primal spirit of man was channeled through an electric guitar plugged into a Marshall stack.

Since I released ...And Rome Shall Fall in 2002, a growing number of bands have delved into the fantastic worlds and characters of Robert E. Howard’s works in an effort to capture some of the power, mystique and mayhem inherent in the iconic Texan’s tales of blood and thunder, and sinister sorceries carried out in weird spiraling towers.

Why do these bands write songs about barbarians who split their enemies’ heads open with swords and axes, wizards conjuring demons, and strange dreamlike worlds?  Why did man invent sports games?  To stop him from killing his fellow man, for the hell of it.  He could kick his buddy’s ass at lacrosse, football, or whatever, then help him up, and they could go have a beer.

When a guy isn’t particularly fascinated with sports, he sometimes finds more obscure interests to occupy his time.  We live in an age when you just don’t go out on a battlefield and swing a sword to take out your aggression.  Men are from Mars.  They are warlike by nature.  In this day and time an electric guitar makes a fine substitute for a sword.  If you don’t believe me, click on this link and listen to Heavy Load’s   “The Guitar Is My Sword”   – an obscure, old Viking-metal classic from 1982.

Now, take what I just said with a grain of salt,  as I am sure that if you ask ten heavy metal bands why they write about sword and sorcery, it is quite likely that you will receive ten different answers.  Maybe we should just consult REH himself on the matter:

"Musings”

The little poets sing of little things:
Hope, cheer, and faith,
small queens and puppet kings;
Lovers who kissed and then were made as one,
And modest flowers waving in the sun.

The mighty poets write in blood and tears
And agony that, flame-like, bites and sears.
They reach their mad blind hands into the night,
To plumb abysses dead to human sight;
To drag from gulfs where lunacy lies curled,
Mad, monstrous nightmare shapes to blast the world.
— Robert E. Howard

A MUSICAL AND LYRICAL PROGRESSION

While lyrics in rock music referring to specific examples of fantasy literature go all the way back to such proto-metal bands as Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic Records 1969), and a little later, Rush –  Fly By Night (Mercury 1975)  – the Howard influence didn’t come into play until 1982 with a band from Wichita, Kansas called Manilla Road.

Manilla Road was formed in 1977 by singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mark Shelton.  Thirty-four years later, fifteen studio albums, two live albums, and an assortment of splits, demos and compilations, and the band is still going strong. They released their first album titled Invasion, in 1980.  Two years later, they put out an album called Metal, which featured a song titled “Queen of the Black Coast”, which directly alluded to Robert E. Howard’s story of the same name, in the lyrics.  Ever since the release of Metal, Manilla Road has made references to REH’s works, on and off, throughout their career.

In this article, I would like to talk about my band, Cauldron Born and my own brand of Sword And Sorcery Heavy Metal, which is also the name of my forthcoming EP.  I will also talk about some other bands that tread the path of blood and thunder – a trail originally blazed by REH over eighty years ago.  The following time line includes the year, band (as well as country of origin of the band on the first entry of that band), the album title, and record label that the album was originally released on.

    
                                                            THE BANDS – A TIME LINE

1982  Manilla Road (USA) – Metal (Roadster Records).  The album features the song “Queen of the Black Coast”  with detailed lyrics, referring directly to the REH story.

1983  Manilla Road – Crystal Logic      (Roadster Records).  No titles are present alluding to REH stories, but “Volusia” (Valusia) is mentioned in the spoken introduction to the album (titled “Prologue”), which is clearly a reference to the Kull stories.  There is also a line in the song,   “Necropolis”   that says: “In the crypts of Atlantean Kings, I found what I was looking for,” – yet another obvious REH reference.

1983  Jag Panzer (USA) – Tyrants (Azra Records).  This album features a song titled “Iron Shadows,” and the lyrics refer directly to REH’s story of the same name.

1985  Manilla Road – Open The Gates (Black Dragon Records).  Though references to REH’s writings are made with the song titles  “Road of Kings” and “Hour of the Dragon,” neither song is about REH’s works.  The song “Metalstrom” does mention Crom, however.

1987  Taramis (Australia) – Queen Of Thieves      (Metal For Melbourne).  There is a song on this album called “Path To Aquilonia”, but nothing directly related to REH other than the song title.

1990  Manilla Road – The Courts Of Chaos     (Black Dragon Records).  Here we see titles such as “Dig Me No Grave” and “The Books of Skelos” – the former only related to REH in title, and the later referring mostly to H.P. Lovecraft’s works, as many other Manilla Road songs tend to do.

1996  Bal-Sagoth (UK) – A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria (Cacophonous Records).  Taking their name directly from the REH story “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” (also known as “ The Blonde Goddess of Bal-Sagoth”), this band is mostly related to Howard’s writing in name only, but the band’s lyrics are loaded  with the classic Weird Tales - like atmosphere.

1997  Cauldron Born (USA) – Born Of the Cauldron (Underground Symphony).   While the Howardian blood and thunder of   “Crusader”   are present in the opening track, setting the tone for the rest of the album, the only song to explicitly reference REH’s work is   “In Fate’s Eye A King”   – a song about Conan.   Born of the Cauldron owes just as much to H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith as it does to Howard.   At the time I recorded this album, I had never heard any of Manilla Road’s music and had not known that any metal bands had ever written a song referring to Howard’s works.

1998  Cauldron Born – God Of Metal (Underground Symphony).  This is really just a compilation of two earlier demos:  Beyond The Shade Gates (1993), and Swords, Sorcery, And Science (1995).  The song about Conan, “In Fate’s Eye A King”, was on the latter demo and, therefore, appears there in an earlier, slightly different version than the one on the debut album.

...AND ROME SHALL FALL:  THE BIRTH OF SWORD AND SORCERY HEAVY METAL

I am going to go into a little extra detail here about this album, because, when I am through, it will be evident why I think that this album is the inception of – and contains the very essence of – “Sword and Sorcery Heavy Metal.”

2002  Cauldron Born – ...And Rome Shall Fall (Underground Symphony).  This is a partial concept album about Bran Mak Morn and his Pictish tribes waging war on the Roman legions trying to invade Scotland.  The album kicks off with “By This Axe I Rule”  –a song about King Kull, who, REH tells us, was “...one to whom the emperor of Rome is as but a village headsman.”   Here is the first chorus to the song:

They try to poison me in my wine,

They try to kill me in my chambers at night,

But, I was a man before a king,  

By This Axe I rule!

If the hair on the nape of your neck isn’t standing up by then, turn the volume up and keep listening...It will!

The second song on   ...And Rome Shall Fall   is the title track, and we see Bran Mak Morn getting ready for one of the best battle scenes ever written in the genre.  Bran has rallied his Pictish tribes, along with the Irish Gaels, led by King Cormac of Connacht.  The success of Bran’s battle plans depends on a band of Vikings, whose chieftain (Rognar) died in a fight with a band of Roman scouts.  The Vikings are refusing to fight because it was Rognar who swore an oath to Bran.  With Rognar’s death, the Vikings would just as soon fight for Rome as the Picts and Gaels.  It turns out that the Vikings will only follow a king of their own race.  By sorcerous means, the Pictish wizard Gonar calls King Kull forth from ancient Atlantis  –  some 100,000 years fallen to dust, and submerged beneath the ocean.  The Vikings agree to follow Kull, an ancestor of their race, if he will fight for the leadership with their current chieftain.  Kull quickly destroys his adversary, and this legendary fantasy battle is on!  I won’t say anymore.  If you are already an REH fan, you have surely read “Kings of the Night.”  It is one of the greatest sword and sorcery tales ever written, if not THE greatest.  Anyway, the song “And Rome Shall Fall” tells the whole story in detail over a background of fist-pumping metal music that is quite likely to make you feel just as “ten-feet tall and bullet proof” as a fifth of Jack Daniels on a Saturday night.

The third track on the album references REH’s ultimate tale of vengeance, “Worms of the Earth”, with the song, “Finder of the Black Stone”.  Here, Bran Mak Morn has made an unholy pact with the demonic Worms of the Earth to take revenge on the Roman military governor, Titas Sulla, who had one of Bran’s own tribe crucified in front of him.

Next we have, “Blood Bath In The Arena.”  Here, I introduce my own character, Thorn–a demonic and barbaric godlike creature, summoned by an Irish sorceress in a diabolical, eldritch, runic ritual.  Thorn is the mascot for Cauldron Born and appears on the covers of  Born Of The Cauldron, as well as  ...And Rome Shall Fall.  I will tell more about Thorn in another installment, hopefully.  In the lyrics to this song, I borrowed heavily from Richard L. Tierney’s Simon of Gitta tale, “ The Sword of Spartacus.”  For future conceptual material involving Thorn, I have some of my own stories worked out.

Track five is “Dragon Throne,” and it tells the story of Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis, and how the exiled prince reclaimed his throne.

Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright had brought Kuttner in to try to fill the gap left by Howard when he took his own life in 1936, and as far as I am concerned, Wright could not have made a better choice.  No, Kuttner was not Howard, but he still was a damned fine storyteller in his own right.

Track six –  “Clontarf!”  -- was inspired by REH’s “The Grey God Passes” (AKA “The Twilight of the Grey Gods”).  We join High King Brian Boru in the final bloody battle that rid the Irish of the Viking menace, long plaguing the Emerald Isle.

Track seven is “Storming The Castle,” and it throws us into battle with Kane (Karl Edward Wagner’s legendary antihero) as he has a massive siege underway.

The album ends with “People of the Dark Circle” – a song that borrows from Howard in title (his story was actually called “ People of the Black Circle”)     but has more to do with H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Festival” than anything else.

 

 

THE TIME LINE CONTINUES : A GROWING INTEREST IN REH’S WORKS IN THE UNDERGROUND METAL COMMUNITY:

 2002  Manilla Road – Mark Of The Beast  (Monster Records).  This album was recorded in 1981 and was intended to be Manilla Road’s second album, originally titled “Dreams of Eschaton.”  Some of the material was released as a bootleg and floated around for about twenty years, before it was officially released in its entirety as Mark Of the Beast.  The album has a song on it called “ Black Lotus,” but it doesn’t refer to anything specific by REH.

2003  Battleroar (Greece) – Battleroar (Omicron Music).  Their debut album features a song called “Almuric ”  in direct reference to the Howard novel.

2003  Rosae Crucis (Italy) – Worms Of The Earth     (Scarlet Records).  This is a concept album that is entirely about the REH story of the same name.

2004  Domine (Italy) – Emperor Of The Black Runes (Dragonheart Records).   While Domine is primarily known for their obsession with Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga, they did have “The Aquilonian Suite Part 1", which makes direct references to the “Conan the Barbarian” movie.

2004  Iron Sword (Portugal) – Return Of The Warrior (Shadow Kingdom Records).  This album has Howard references all throughout, particularly in songs like “Way of the Barbarian,” “Nemedian Chronicles,” and “Dragons of the Sea.”

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Tann, Iron Sword’s founder, guitarist, and vocalist.  The interview was conducted by Sargon The Terrible (AKA Paul Batteiger), and was published at the Metal Crypt  website on May 4, 2004:

Sargon: You use Robert E Howard for inspiration a lot. (Which is great for big Howard fans like me!) Are you a fan of some other bands that do the same? Such as Bal-Sagoth, Cauldron Born, and Battleroar?

Tann: Yes, I am a big fan of Robert Howard and our bassist player Rick Thor as well. He's been my favourite writer for a long time, especially with the Conan stories, but also Bran mcmorn, cormac mcart, king kull. To tell you the truth I don't know too much bands that have Howard has inspiration, but I like very much Cauldron Born and Battleroar. Bal-Sagoth has also some good ideas.   (click here to read the complete article)  http://www.metalcrypt.com

 "Sargon The Terrible"  (AKA   Author  Paul Batteiger) at Robert E. Howard's grave site in Brownwood, Texas.

 

 
2005  Manilla Road – Gates Of Fire     (Battle Cry Records).  This is an album divided into three trilogies.  The first three songs are about the REH story, “The Frost Giant’s Daughter.”  The second trilogy is about Virgil's Aeneid, and the third trilogy deals with the story of the Spartan King Leonidas and the battle of Thermopylae.

2005  Battleroar – Age Of Chaos (Black Lotus).  Battleroar’s second album features two very direct REH-related songs: “The Tower of the Elephant” and “Sword of Crom”.

2006  Assedium (Italy) – Rise Of The Warlords (My Graveyard Productions).  This album features the song “Cimmerian Steel.”

2006  The Gates Of Slumber (USA) – Suffer No Guilt (I Hate Records).  The album has a song titled “Children of the Night,” but the track is an instrumental.  I included this album because of the instrumental title referring to Howard’s work, and the importance of their 2008 release, listed below.

2008  Iron Sword – Overlords Of Chaos      (Shadow Kingdom Records).  This album is loaded with such songs as “Cimmeria”, “Wrath of Crom”, and “Hyborean Hordes” –  all alluding to Howard’s works.  One of the most interesting things about this album, lyrically, is the fact that the band incorporates REH’s death poem into their song, "The Pyre Of Kings", – a fitting tribute to the man who is the father of a whole literary genre as well as a writer who is an ever-growing influence on epic metal music.

2008  The Gates of Slumber – Conqueror (I Hate Records/Profound Lore).  This is an album with several songs inspired by, and directly referring to REH’s writing.  Included in the album is the song “Dark Valley Suite,” which is presented in the following four segments:

1. Black River I
2. Lines Written in the Knowledge That I Must Die
3. Call of the Black Gods
4. Black River II

2009  Hyborian Steel (USA) – An Age Undreamt Of... (My Graveyard Productions).  This is Hyborian Steel’s debut album (and the only official release at the time this article was written).  An Age Undreamt Of...features several REH-inspired songs, such as “Hyborian Steel”, “Cimmerian”, and “Pirates of the Black Coast.”

2009  Solitary Sabred (Cyprus) – The Hero, The Monster, The Myth       (Steel Legacy).  One of the more interesting bands that is relatively new on the scene, their debut album has the Howardian track –   Anvil of Crom / Avengers of Set.  

Being from an island rich in mythology and legend like Cyprus, is there any wonder that a band like Solitary Sabred (roughly translated as “lone swordsman”) is totally immersed in fantasy literature.  In a recent email from the band, they told me about their relationship to REH and sword and sorcery in general:

“For us, Sword & Sorcery literature is one of the greatest and most underrated forms of art. As opposed to more "commercial" forms of writing, good s&s takes the human soul, strips it of all political correctness and civilized mannerisms, and throws it in a primal environment where only the strong shall survive, which in essence, is a reflection of how the world has always worked in its core, regardless of time, age or even species! Being immensely entertaining also helps! As with all good art forms, it helps you escape reality and explore worlds beyond imagination. Worlds where steel and magic collide, mythical beasts still roam the earth and the word HONOR (or lack of) actually means something!

We draw our inspiration from various authors. Robert E. Howard has been a HUGE influence both lyrics wise, and as a philosophy of life in general. I literally grew up on Conan comic books and novels. I still remember the first time I watched the "Conan the Barbarian" movie, must have been around ten at the time, and ten minutes in I was literally smitten by the sheer brutality of it all! Mind you I'd watched plenty of horror films by then (courtesy of my older sister), but the opening scene where Thulsa Doom's riders raze the village to the ground and Conan watches his own parents decapitated and mangled by Rotweillers was just hardcore! Fast forward 18 years later, and you have Anvil of Crom / Avengers of Set, based on that very same scene. While on the subject of the movie, I must say that I consider it one of the greatest films ever made regardless of genre. The imagery, the cinematography, characters, story, and of course the most EPIC music ever written by man, composed by maestro Basil Poledouris. The dialogue is scarce, but when it comes the lines are just deadly . Incredible stuff. Though "Avengers of Set" is our only song today directly derived from Howard's universe, we have drawn a lot of influence from it towards our new album.”


IF ANYONE GOT LEFT OUT...

If you notice that I have omitted any heavy metal bands from the time line, feel free to let me know.  As the influence of Howard’s works on lyricists grows, it becomes increasingly harder to keep up with all of the bands and recordings.  I did not include any bands without an official release on an actual record label.

Though a small handful of bands have cited my work with Cauldron Born as a musical and lyrical influence, I don’t profess to have influenced even half of the bands that claim REH as a lyrical inspiration.  I suspect a good part of it is merely a matter of convergence.  How do you keep two things so similar from eventually merging–heavy metal music and Robert E. Howard–a surge of  power, triumphant--the human spirit unchained!

“WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STUFF?”

Most of these albums that I have mentioned in this article have been released on European record labels and are available only as imports.  Echoes of Crom Records is a USA-based record label that imports and stocks many of the titles mentioned in this article.  Echoes of Crom specializes in releasing works by bands that have lyrical subject matter inspired by Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and related authors.

 © Howie Bentley
  February 18, 2011

mail@howiebentley.com 

 Cauldron Born

 Howie Bentley

 

 

SOJAN SHIELDBEARER: THE ORIGINAL ETERNAL CHAMPION By Matthew Knight “Instantly three ruffians appeared in the narrow doorway, and drawing their blades rushed at Sojan, causing him to release his grasp on the unfortunate man and turn to face this new danger.  Zatthum went down in the first minute with an inch of steel marking its path through his heart.  The remaining two were not so easily defeated.  Back and forth across the narrow street the three fought, sparks flying from their blades, the clang of their weapons resounding upon the rooftops…”  These exciting and epic lines came from the imagination of an aspiring, 15 year-old writer, destined to become one of the most influential Sword & Sorcery/Heroic Fantasy/Sci-Fi authors of all time... When most people think of Michael Moorcock, an image of an albino emperor named Elric with a soul-stealing rune blade named Stormbringer is often the first thing to come to mind…Or perhaps thoughts of Dorian Hawkmoon, the jewel-skulled Duke of Koln…Or maybe Corum Jhaelen Irsei, the Prince in the Scarlet Robe…It is unlikely, however, that one would think of Sojan Shieldbearer, Moorcock's first hero, who may actually be the first and original incarnation of the Eternal Champion… The Sojan stories were written when Moorcock was a teenager and were originally published between 1956 and 1957 in the weekly, British comic magazine, Tarzan Adventures.  The young writer was editor at the time and made weekly contributions with his work.  The stories were later published in 1977 by Savoy Books in an anthology titled Sojan.  Then, once again, in the 1984 DAW publication of Elric At The End Of Time, and now are more recently available from Planet Stories in the 2010 split-novella of Sojan The Swordsman and Joe R. Lansdale's Under The Warrior Star. The Sojan saga, entitled Sojan The        Swordsman is composed of 12 individual   short stories:  1.   Daughter Of A Warrior King  2.   Mission To Asno  3.   Revolt In Hatnor  4.   The Hordes Attack  5.   The Purple Galley  6.   The Sea Wolves!  7.   Sojan At Sea  8.   The Sea Of Demons  9.   Prisoners In Stone 10.  The Plain Of Mystery 11.  The Sons Of The Snake-God 12.  The Devil Hunters Of Norj These tales are action-packed and extremely fast-paced, much in the early tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett.  Being a “Sword & Planet” story, naturally there is much fantastic, swashbuckling adventure, violent fight scenes and otherworldly villains to stimulate and excite the reader. Sojan is a mercenary swordsman on the strange planet of Zylor.  It is a world with two suns, and continents that are separated by a great sea.  The people of Zylor ride strange, reptile-like beasts called Myats, and travel from land to land on air ships.  They are divided between civilized and barbarian nations and there are civil wars going on between many of the countries. Residing in the country of Hatnor, Sojan is leader of the Hatnorian war fleet, and   second-in-command to the War Lord, Noros Kad, whom Sojan is called upon by to perform important and dangerous tasks, which lead up to most of his adventures.  Much unlike many of Moorcock's later creations, Sojan is somewhat of a barbaric and reckless character.  He relies on his fast wit and superior fighting skills, as  well as his sword and air pistol.  Always quick to jump into a fight, often without thinking of the consequences, Sojan gets himself into all kinds of situations while traveling through the strange land performing tasks for the Hatnorian War Lord.  He is named Sojan Shieldbearer, as he carries a round, metal shield, which is an unknown and unique object on the planet of Zylor. Aside from fast, action-packed adventure, there are several supernatural elements contained in these stories as well.  In The Sea Of Demons, Sojan and his crew encounter a race of blood-thirsty sea zombies while at sea.  These creatures  attack and murder several of the crewmen.  Also in the same story, a strange, winged man named Banjar appears.  In Prisoners In Stone, there are reptilian guards which Sojan battles in the sewers of the Great Temple of Rhan.  The Plain Of Mystery contains a short scene where Sojan and his crew encounter a giant, demonic, flying monster known as a Shifla bird, while cruising the barbarian lands of Shortani in their airship.   For me, the additional supernatural elements in these stories often create a nice, mysterious mood and make them even more enjoyable than if it were just a standard adventure story. Besides the obvious similarities these stories have to the works of E. R. Burroughs and the like, I believe that the series was possibly influenced by a few others as well… For instance, in “Prisoners In Stone”, Sojan encounters a group of ancient, unknown beings, called “The Old Ones”, imprisoned in the Great Temple Of Rhan by the evil priests that reside there. This, of course, seems to be a direct H. P. Lovecraft-influenced idea. Also, when Sojan encounters one of these “Old Ones” in the temple, the ancient, weary prisoner tells him of how he and his kind were the old inhabitants of Zylor, before the shining ships of humanity came from the distant planets.  Fearing them, humanity turned against the Old Ones and imprisoned them.  Sojan eventually helps them escape and take vengeance on the members of the evil priesthood. This reminds me much of Robert E. Howard's story “The Tower Of The Elephant”, where Conan comes across the strange, cosmic being, Yag-Kosh, imprisoned in the tower.  Yag-Kosh relates to Conan how in pre-Cataclysmic times, he and his alien people came to Earth and also how he taught the evil wizard, Yara the art of magic, who then turned against him. Another possible Howard influence I can see is when Sojan and his crew encounter the demonic, Shifla Bird  while cruising in their airship.  The way Moorcock describes these flying creatures reminds me much of the harpies found in Howard's Solomon Kane story, "Wings In The Night". It is quite obvious that these stories do tend to suffer somewhat from the writer's inexperience at the time, as one might expect from one only in his mid teens.  The writing can seem pretty sketchy at times and there are a lot of vague character descriptions, as well as some moments of hasty transitions from one scene to the next.  Also, Sojan seems to have an excess amount of luck and convenience and somehow always manages to get out of sticky situations quite easily. Although it seems the Sojan stories are often criticized and not taken too seriously  because of this, I don't mind it very much at all.  I feel that the somewhat juvenile writing approach somehow adds to the explosive, savage nature of the story.  It is kind of like when I go back and listen to my band's early demos and EPs, that were recorded when my bandmates and I were little more than teenagers.  The albums are laden with imperfections and the musicianship is shaky, yet there is something about the raw energy and chaotic delivery of the music that gives the recordings a kind of spark or magic that I believe they would not otherwise have, had they been done professionally.  It is the same kind of  thing with Sojan.  Although some of the writing may be a little bit rough, the story lines are still great and for me, this has been a highly enjoyable series to read again and again. For those who aren't familiar, Moorcock's idea of The Eternal Champion is what     links all or most of his individual hero characters together and connects them in some way.  Each hero is chosen by fate to possess the same purpose; to fight for the Cosmic Balance in various layers of the Multiverse.  The characters are linked together, as different incarnations of the same heroic spirit - The Eternal Champion. I believe that my assumption (as the title of this article suggests) that Sojan is perhaps the “original” versison of The Eternal Champion is not too far off.  In Chapter Two of the 1973 novlette, “Pheonix In Obsidian” (Later published as “The Silver Warriors”), the 2nd book in the Saga of Erkose, it reads: “Was I John Daker or Erekose?  Was I either of these?  Many other names - Corom Bonnan Flurrun, Aubec, Elric, Rackhir, Sojan, Cornelius, Asquinol, Hawkmoon - fled away down the ghostly rivers of my memory…” These lines clearly show that Moorcock still considered Sojan one of the many Eternal Champion incarnations, even though the swordsman was his juvenile creation and not held with as much regard as his later works. Influence in Heavy Metal:  There have been several heavy metal bands who have used Moorcock's writings and themes as lyrical subject matter in their songs.  Some of these bands that I know of are DOMINE, CIRITH UNGOL, CAULDRON BORN, STORMBRINGER, BLACKSWORD, BLIND GUARDIAN and SKELATOR,  as well as 70s rock bands, HAWKWIND and BLUE OYSTER CULT.  Some of these bands have just touched on his writings and others more extensively. Although these bands and others have used Moorcock's characters  and stories as concepts in their music, all I've ever heard is the mention of Elric or another of the more famous Eternal Champions.  I have done much research and never have I discovered any band that bases any of their lyrics on Sojan. Because of this, I have begun writing an epic piece that will be based on the old, shield bearing champion, which will appear on a new ETERNAL WINTER EP in the near future.  The EP will also contain songs based on some of the more obscure S&S heroes, whom I feel have been far too “left out” in the Metal world. To me, Sojan The Swordsman is a great read and should not be overlooked by any fan of Michael Moorcock or Heroic Fantasy.  It should certainly be of interest to readers who wish to experience his writing in the rawest, purest form and to see how the young writer progressed and developed into the Fantasy grand master icon he is today. It is truly a shame that Moorcock never chose to continue this series, as I would loved to have read some Sojan stories written by him in his prime.  The later writings of Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, etc. are certainly regarded as his best, but let us not forget the savage adventures of Sojan Shieldbearer….The original Eternal Champion.

Matthew Knight is the singer/guitarist/songwriter of the American, True Power Metal band, ETERNAL WINTER, as well as an avid reader of Sword & Sorcery, Heroic Fantasy, Gothic Horror and many other genres of speculative fiction.  He has written several fantasy works of his own, and is co-writer of his band’s concept story, The Eternal Winter Saga.  For more information on Matthew’s music and writings, visit www.eternalwinter.com © Matthew Knight EMAIL:  matt@eternalwinter.com