Demons & Wizards
Demons & Wizards is a Heavy Metal supergroup formed by Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian and Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth, who originally became friends when their bands toured together. "Demons and Angels" was suggested by Schaffer's wife as a description of the difference between Schaffer's demon-like guitar and Kursch's angel-like singing. Kursch disagreed and said it would be more accurate to describe him as a wizard. Also seen as a reference to the darker, theology-inspired subject of most Iced Earth songs as compared to the more swords-and-sorcery style of Blind Guardian. In general, the music is written by Schaffer and the vocals by Kursch, though some of the guitar solos were done by Jim Morris. Their music tends to be fairly dark, aggressive power metal.
Not to be confused with the Uriah Heep album of the same name.
Albums:
- 1999 - Demons & Wizards
- 2005 - Touched by the Crimson King
This band has examples of:
- A Storm Is Coming: "Winter of Souls"
- Ancient Astronauts: "Spatial Architects"
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Or everything sounds more ominous whispered in German.
- Filk Song
- God Is Evil: The trilogy that ends the first album.
- Heavy Mithril: Just look at their name.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: "Rites of Passage", "Heaven Denies," "Chant", and "Crimson King"
- Perspective Flip: Many of their songs.
- Shown Their Work
- X Meets Y: Blind Guardian meets Iced Earth, unsurprisingly.
They have songs about:
- The Crusades: "Poor Man's Crusade"
- Death: "Fiddler on the Green"
- The Dark Tower: "Crimson King", "Seize the Day", "Terror Train", and "The Gunslinger"
- King Arthur: "Winter of Souls"
- Moby Dick: "Beneath These Waves"
- Paradise Lost: "Heaven Denies"
- The Picture of Dorian Gray: "Dorian"
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin: "The Whistler"
- Der Ring Des Nibelungen: "Blood on My Hands"
- The Silmarillion: "Lunar Lament"
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: "Wicked Witch"