The internet was supposed to do all sorts of things for music, like blow away the old gatekeepers, make all sorts of weird little genres somehow magically palatable to the public, and liberate the listening public from the tyranny of the evil old tastemakers.

All true enough, if you’re a huge music nerd. For the rest of the world, music seems more homogeneous than it ever was: a small carousel of the usual suspects writing, mixing, mastering tunes which all sound like they came to life on someone’s hard drive (albeit a nice fancy expensive hard drive).

But! For the music nerd with time and inclination to play internet Mulder/Scully, ridiculous things are out there.

Ridiculous like a bunch of Germans dressed up like Black Metallers playing plodding Teutonic Power Metal while selling t-shirts adorned with anthropomorphic wolves in priest’s garb.

Powerwolf. Even the name is terrible. I have no good reason to ever recommend listening to this group unless you are a Power Metal aficionado (in which case you are already well-acquainted with the majesty that is Powerwolf) or you need something ridiculous to play for friends who may not quite believe that what you’re playing for them is real (and plays at Wacken).

However – if anyone knows where I can get a Preachers of the Night t-shirt (size hefty man’s – we’re talking USA Large, or Euro XXXL), lemme know.