RELEASES BY BLIND GUARDIAN AND GRAVE DIGGER MAKE LIST OF “10 NERDIEST LITERARY INSPIRATIONS FOR CONCEPT ALBUMS”

If you consider yourself a geek (as I do) and you’re not reading Topless Robot, you’re really missing out. Proprietor Rob Bricken covers all things nerd on a daily basis, ranging from comics to movies and television to video games to toys, and he is one funny motherfucker; even when I don’t agree with his opinions (he’s pro-Tron but anti-Nolan… fuck that jazz), I love reading his stuff ’cause it’s just so damn funny.

His latest master work is a list of the “10 Nerdiest Literary Inspirations for Concept Albums.” And it will shock no fan of the genre to learn that multiple metal bands made the list.

Blind Guardian, a band whose appeal I will never, ever understand for as long as I live, are on there for Nightfall on Middle Earth, which is apparently a prime example of a concept album inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (another dude I don’t get… I tried to read Lord of the Rings once, and, y’know, after about 150 pages about midgets with hairy feet and how much they like to eat and smoke and zzzzz…, I gave up). Bricken praises the record for being “steeped in Silmarillion and powered by the gnarled screams of frontman/songwriter/black turtlenecker Hansi Kürsch, who namedrops Valinor, Noldor, and the Silmarils among others.”

Meanwhile, Grave Digger are on there for using Arthurian legend as the basis for their album Excalibur. Proto-metal band Blue Oyster Cult also made the cut.

I was kinda bummed to see that Mastodon’s Leviathan didn’t make the list, but I guess a seven gajillion page allegory about the whaling industry isn’t considered nerdy enough. I mean, we all know that Melville got more tail than Tom Jones and Warrean Beatty combined, right?

ANYWAY, you can check out the full list here. And let us know if there are another other nerd-text-inspired metal concept albums that you think should have found a home there in the comments section.

-AR