Now before you venture on to read this there is a thing you should know; I listen to a lot of power metal and pretty much every kind of *cough*true*cough* good metal there is.Yes and I spend some time with www.metalstorm.ee; that’s where I found this list which is just delicious, provided you know what it is about.

Hope you enjoy it and find it at least as half as funny as I did; oh and beware for the epic sequel: the other 101 rules of power metal. Read these ones and you’ll see what that’s about.

1. You have one goal: be epic.
2. Let no sound be lonely. If there’s a guitar solo, harmonize it. If there’s singing, make it a choir.
3. Keyboards offer a way to add thousands of different textures to a song. Find two of those that you like and use them on every song you write.
4. In a power metal world, everything steel is good, and anything good must be compared to steel.
5. You are not bound to sing about Satan, evil, and/or darkness.
6. You are bound to sing about dragons, freedom, and/or power metal.
7. Remember how no sound should be alone? Same goes for albums. Everything can have a sequel!
8. You are allowed to be blonde.
9. Swords enhance your credibility and your performance. Be sure to carry one regardless of whether or not you know anything about using one.
10. Pick a theme and stick to it. Manowar are warriors of true metal, and they don’t get to sing about anything else. Rhapsody has their Algalord chronicles. Hammerfall has their steel, hammers, and templar. Running Wild has pirates. Blind Guardian has Tolkein. None of them are allowed to sing about anything else.
11. If you have to sing about something else, put together a side project to do it. Avantasia is the perfect model.
12. Ballads are permissible.
13. That doesn’t mean your ballads can suck.
14. The longer a song is, the more epic it is. See rule #1.
15. More solos means more epic.
16. If at all possible, be Michael Kiske.
17. If this is not possible, pretend to be Michael Kiske.
18. Your album cover should include at least one of the following: fire, steel, weird glowing magical items, irregularly muscular men, fists thrust into the air, weaponry, magic creatures (preferably dragons), or bright beams of light around somebody/something.
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As of today every Wednesday we are going to write an article about something funny or what we think is funny or just what we think you would find interesting. It could be fascinating or just damn silly but in case you smile just a bit after reading the article or during the time you read it means we did it right.A few months ago I had the opportunity to go to a Rolling Stones concert which I passed not because of their age or something but because quite frankly I have never been a fan of theirs. Just about everybody was making jokes about their age (some were actually pretty good but that is not the point here) and it turned out to be a fantastic gig thanks to the band which played very good and also thanks to a big part of the audience which was very enthusiastic and I was thinking that 50% of a good concert is the audience. Just think that you have and extra band member which is represented by 50.000 people singing in the background.

Those who think a concert is going to be lame should just stay at home in the first place; and there is another category which should stay at home. Yes I am talking about those which are too old; now this in fact is not about old at age but rather old at spirit. In case you still cannot tell how somebody could be too old to go to a concert well here are the signs:

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First of all we hope you had a very good year and enjoyed Christmas (in case you are Christian) and may you have a happy new year. Kudos to those who still find the time to read us in these days; you made our year good. For us it was a very busy yet rewarding year with lots of good music to choose from. We tried to give props to those who deserved it and we spoke our mind when we believed something was bad. At this moment we are awaiting for the following year when undoubtedly more and more records and songs are going to be released and we shall do our best to give the best to you.

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“They just kicked out another band member? Is there anybody left?”
“What in the name of all that is good would possess him to move in with Courtney Love?”
“Is THAT really metallica?!”
“So they are finally releasing Chinese Democracy…. again?”

These questions say a lot about recent years, as well as this one, in music. We could not think about one to sum it up as it was an amazing year, musically speaking, from numerous points of view despite the fact that reunions are definitely in the center of attention; some gods of music got back together while other bands argued or even disbanded. Some released masterpieces while other disappointed. There is no doubt about the fact that reunions are the headline of this year so they are going to be the center of our attention here but other interesting things that happened.

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Boy does time fly, we just can’t believe it how this year went by so fast, well ZME Music’s been around for only 6 months, but that’s not important. Actually this year was so busy, that we hardly could face the large amounts of new releases every week, especially in the summer time and believe us we don’t complain. Due to this, 2007, was the year in which new music was making it’s comeback; we’ve never listened to so much new (quality) music in a year, but what’s more amazing is the diversity of new and old acts, coming round with new music to enchant our ears. Despite all this, the year of 2007, will probably remain in history as a year of reunions; so many past classic acts have reformed, blown away the dust off of their instruments and kept on rocking. Bands like The Police, Van Halen, Eagles, Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin and many other, all have settled their past differences and hit the road together, while others actually made new albums, proving that good music resembles the finest wine.

Yes, it’s been a good year and there’s no better way to summarize it, then by compiling a list. We’re not the biggest fans of lists, as we don’t believe in the term of ‘best of,’ it’s really relative, what’s trash to someone, is gold to someone else. The following list is what we believe to be the most representative, known to us, albums from 2007.

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The legendary underground duo Smif-n-Wessun have put out their highly anticipated album, Smif-n-Wessun: The Album, and have been moving like work horses to promote it. Receiving positive reviews and being called “a breath of fresh air in hip-hop” they sure have a lot to boast about. Debuting over 10 years ago and steadily putting out new material whether that be with their group the Boot Camp Click, the regular appearances on mixtapes, or the albums they push themselves, this group is never standing still. I recently talked with one half of the group, Tek, as he talked about his reasons for a single producer, his legal happenings, and future plans for Smf-n-Wessun.

ZME Music: What’s up?
Tek: Everything is beautiful now that the albums out.

ZME Music: First off Congrats on the new album.
Tek: Good looking. It’s great to be back.

ZME Music: How do you feel about this new album?
Tek: We’re ecstatic with it right now. It’s our baby so we’re runnin’ right with it. It defiantly feels good to have new material out that touches in every way.

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