Metal Injection has previously documented the various and sundry heavy covers of Game of Thrones's opening theme song. HBO's massive hit is easily the most metal show on television, so it's no wonder that a seemingly endless parade of musicians feel the urge to heavy up the show's already epic intro music. But, given metal's proclivity for adapting established literary works of fantasy, it's a bit surprising more heavy metal bands haven't gone a step further and used the sprawling story of Westeros as fodder for songs. For a well-known fantasy series that began nearly 20 years ago, not many musicians have gone to the Game of Thrones well for inspiration. The Sword, Blind Guardian, and Hammerfall have all written songs inspired by George R.R. Matrin's softcore, swords and sorcery soap opera, but Florida's Seven Kingdoms seem to be the only band to base their entire body of work on the fantasy series.
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Seven Kingdoms was founded in DeLand, Florida in 2007 – years before the HBO series premiered. Initially, the band was a fairly standard thrash infused power metal outfit fronted by vocalist Bryan Edwards. Brothers of the Night was the band's self-released debut album which was a decent effort marred by flat production and Edwards's lackluster vocals. If you can see past these flaws (or you're a Game of Thrones fanboy) you'll still get some enjoyment out of Brothers of the Night, though. Songs like "We Do Not Sow" and "Dragonflight" are fun headbanging anthems that don't require knowledge of the GoT storyline to enjoy.
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While Brothers of the Night was a decent first effort, Seven Kingdoms really stepped up its game after Bryan Edwards left the group in 2009. The band began evolving toward a more traditional power metal sound and replaced Edwards with Sabrina Valetine; a versatile vocalist who's emotive voice better matched the new musical direction Seven Kingdoms was moving in. With this new line-up, the band began recording their sophomore effort; the eponymously named Seven Kingdoms. Released in 2010 on Nightmare Records, Seven Kingdoms was an improvement over Brothers in every way. The production was better, the band's songwriting chops had improved, and the lyrics continued to heavily mine the Game of Thrones books for inspiration.
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By 2012, the year Seven Kingdoms' third album The Fire Is Mine was released, the band had begun making a name for themselves in Florida and abroad. They'd supported metal heavyweights like Queensryche and Kamelot and were handpicked to open for Blind Guardian during the power metal giant's 2011 North American tour. They also played a number of festivals including Atlanta's annual ProgPower. The increased touring schedule is reflected in the musicianship of The Fire Is Mine. The band sound much more self-assured and the complexity of the song compositions increased dramatically since Seven Kingdoms. Valentine's voice had gotten much stronger as well. Her voice is so persuasively emotional on tracks like "After The Fall" and "The King In The North" that she could easily command an army of Wildlings storming the Wall.
Since the release of The Fire Is Mine, Seven Kingdoms has toured Europe with Stratovarius and headlined an east coast tour. According to the band's website, they're currently gearing up for a co-headlining tour of Europe with Manticora and working on a fourth album. If their previous artistic development is any indication, the next album should be the best one yet. If you're a metal fan who also enjoys Game of Thrones, you're definitely going to want to investigate this band further.They aren't the best power metal band out there and they don't have much of a following despite opening for some high profile power metal bands, but they're getting better with each album and the music is a lot of fun. Amazon sells all three of the band's albums in CD and digital format or, if you're a Spotify user, you can stream their albums through that service as well. Get busy listening.
