99-837: Powerwolf (often stylized in all caps) is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim . The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as " Attila Dorn ", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as " Matthew Greywolf ", bassist/rhythm guitarist David Vogt as " Charles Greywolf ", keyboardist Christian Jost as " Falk Maria Schlegel " and drummer Roel van Helden . The group uses religious themes and images, contrary to traditional power metal music, as well as corpse paint , gothic-tinged compositions and songs about werewolf and vampire legends. They released their debut album, Return in Bloodred , in 2005. Their second album, Lupus Dei ,
198-505: A double bass pedal ; using them to play a constant stream of sixteenth notes (semiquavers) with snare drum accents on the beat, a style not restricted to, but most often associated with, power metal. The style was used by drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg of Helloween , setting a blueprint for many other drummers to follow. Others, such as the drummers of Blind Guardian and Iced Earth , use a more thrash metal style of drumming with rapid bursts of double bass that involve three to six beats with
297-638: A pub and invited him to join their band. Dorn, a student of classical opera at the academy in Bucharest , moved to the band's hometown Saarbrücken , and became the frontman of Powerwolf. With Dorn's love of Romanian werewolf legends, the band created their debut album, Return in Bloodred , which used these same legends as the basis for many of the lyrics. After the album's release, Powerwolf went on their first tour titled Europe in Bloodred Tour. In 2007, they followed up with their second album, Lupus Dei ,
396-544: A "heavy metal mass". Their stage setup was designed by Matthew Greywolf. Power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal , often within a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contrast with the heaviness and dissonance prevalent in, for example, extreme metal . Power metal bands usually have anthemic songs with fantasy-based subject matter and strong choruses, thus creating
495-421: A competitive threat to its new Myspace Videos service, the site in late 2005 banned embedded YouTube videos from user profiles, which was widely protested by Myspace users, prompting the site to lift the ban shortly after. There were a variety of environments in which users could access Myspace content on their mobile phones. In early 2006, mobile phone provider Helio released a series of mobile phones utilizing
594-447: A concept album starring a wolf as the main character and his rise from bloodlust to enlightenment. Powerwolf supported Grave Digger during their tour. In 2008, Powerwolf released their first video album The Wacken Worship . It contained live footage of their show at Wacken Open Air 2008. In the same year, they went on a Metal is our Mission Tour together with Brainstorm and Pagan's Mind . The single "Raise Your Fist, Evangelist"
693-566: A day. A year later, it was registering 320,000 users a day, and had overtaken Yahoo! to become the most visited website in the United States. ComScore said that a key driver of the site's success in the US was high "engagement levels", with the average MySpace user viewing over 660 pages a month. In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of MySpace. During 2006, MySpace launched localized versions in 11 countries across Europe, Asia and
792-605: A distribution outlet for Fox studio content and missed the US$ 1 billion mark in total revenues. This resulted in DeWolfe and Anderson gradually losing their status within Murdoch's inner circle of executives, as well as DeWolfe's mentor Peter Chernin , president and COO of News Corporation, departing the company in June 2009. Former AOL executive Jonathan Miller, who joined News Corporation in charge of
891-413: A greater emphasis on guitar leads. USPM is also notable for its widespread (but not universal) use of high-register operatic vocals, a trend which would continue with the rise of European power metal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This style is not exclusive to North America, as European bands such as Sacred Steel , Majesty , and Australian band Pegazus later adopted a style inspired by USPM bands in
990-648: A harsh, thrash metal style, including Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger , Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray , Peavy Wagner of Rage , and Wintersun 's Jari Mäenpää . Many power metal vocalists, most notably Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian , record multi-layered vocals reminiscent of Queen , creating a choral effect. Themes that frequently feature throughout other metal subgenres, such as religion and politics, are comparatively rare in power metal - albeit not unheard of. Power metal's lyrical themes often focus on fantasy and mythology , camaraderie and hope, personal struggles and emotions, war and death, or combinations of
1089-411: A high register, and the singer's vocal range is usually wide. The majority of the genre's vocalists sing in the tenor range and are capable of hitting very high notes, for example Timo Kotipelto of Stratovarius , Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica , Michael Kiske ( Helloween ) and Andre Matos (ex- Angra ). There are many exceptions who sing in either baritone or bass range. Some vocalists sing in
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#17328918522831188-427: A higher price for the website, and the purchase was seen as a good investment at the time. Within a year, MySpace had tripled in value from its purchase price. News Corporation saw the purchase as a way to capitalize on Internet advertising and drive traffic to other News Corporation properties. After the acquisition, MySpace continued its exponential growth. In January 2006, the site was signing up 200,000 new users
1287-469: A majority of their tour dates taking place inside of Europe. They also change their costumes for every album. Over the years, a theme has developed which personifies the band members as werewolves, leading fans to refer to the band affectionately as "The Wolves". Powerwolf was formed in 2003 by the members of the stoner rock band Red Aim . When the band was founded, the members decided to take on pseudonyms and build up backstories around those. Officially,
1386-548: A new redesign was announced, with no date given, making Myspace more visual and apparently optimized for tablets. The redesign was publicly released on January 15, 2013; by April 2013 (and presumably before), users were able to transfer to the new Myspace redesign. In June 2013, the redesign deleted all previous blogs, angering many users, and destroying information that would have been useful history in later years. VP, Business Development 2006–2009 VP Communications & Policy 2006–2007 Since early 2006, Myspace has offered
1485-425: A new site design on a limited scale, with plans to switch all interested users to the new site in late November. Chief executive Mike Jones said the site was no longer competing with Facebook as a general social networking site; instead, it would be music-oriented and would target younger people. Jones believed most younger users would continue to use the site after the redesign, though older users might not. The goal of
1584-493: A quadruple headline tour with Sabaton , Grave Digger and Skull Fist . In 2012, Powerwolf released two albums. The first was the Wolfsnächte 2012 Tour EP , a split EP with Mystic Prophecy , Stormwarrior , and Lonewolf. This EP featured a previously unreleased Powerwolf track, "Living on a Nightmare". Copies of this EP were originally distributed along with the purchase of tickets to Powerwolf's Wolfsnächte Tour 2012 but since
1683-529: A read-only mode of sorts, as no new articles have been published since early 2022, but media uploads seem to be working now. MySpace's official account has also sparked some new activity. However, most images on the site still seem to be broken, and existing songs also cannot be played. The terms of service of Myspace have not been changed by Viant. The privacy policy was last revised on 24 June 2024. From YouTube 's founding in 2005, Myspace users could embed YouTube videos in their profiles. Considering this
1782-402: A recommendation engine for new users that suggests games, music and videos based on their previous search habits. The security on Myspace was also enhanced, with the criticism of Facebook , to make it a safer site. The security of Myspace enables users to choose if the content could be viewed for "friends only", "18 and older" or "everyone". In October 2010, Myspace introduced a beta version of
1881-863: A religious band, but rather call themselves spiritual. When asked if he was a Christian or a Satanist , Matthew Greywolf answered: "I am a metalist, a metal fan. Metal is my religion. Look at all these people, what unites them? I can tell you, it's the fucking metal." In one of the interviews, Matthew is quoted saying: Some people are confused because we never make a point of saying the silly words of which side we are on. A lot of people ask us, "Are you Satanists? Are you Christians?" And we never say anything about that, and we never will, because in what we do in Powerwolf, it's not important what we as individuals believe or stand for. We sometimes describe religious history, we sometimes write about Satanism, Catholicism, or whatever, but we never judge anything. I think on one side, this
1980-579: A service known as Myspace Mobile to access and edit one's profile and communicate with and view the profiles of other members. Additionally, UIEvolution and Myspace developed a mobile version of Myspace for a wider range of carriers, including AT&T , Vodafone and Rogers Wireless . In August 2006, Myspace began offering classified ads, a service which grew by 33 percent during the following year. It previously had an instant messaging tool called MySpace IM . Myspace used an implementation of Telligent Community for its forum system. Shortly after Myspace
2079-503: A space. The logo change was announced on October 8, 2010, and appeared on the site on November 11. In the same month, Myspace integrated with Facebook Connect – calling it "Mash Up with Facebook" in an announcement widely seen as the final act of acknowledging Facebook's domination of social networking. In January 2011, it was announced that the Myspace staff would be reduced by 47%. User adoption continued to decrease. In September 2012,
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#17328918522832178-446: A team of programmers and resources provided by eUniverse. It was during this early period in June 2003, just prior to the birth of MySpace, that Jeffrey Edell was brought on as chairman of parent company Intermix Media. The first MySpace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign up the most users. eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to breathe life into MySpace and move it to
2277-518: A theatrical, dramatic and emotionally "powerful" sound. The term was first used in the mid-1980s and refers to two different but related styles: Anthropologist Sam Dunn traced the origins of power metal back to the late 1970s, when the groundwork for power metal lyrical style was laid down by Ronnie James Dio . The fantasy-oriented lyrics he wrote for Rainbow , concentrated around medieval, renaissance, folk, and science fiction themes, directly influenced modern power metal bands. According to Dunn,
2376-498: A way to get users back. However, this may have backfired, as users generally disliked tweaks and changes on Facebook. In March 2011, market research figures released by Comscore suggested that Myspace had lost 10 million users between January and February 2011, and had fallen from 95 million to 63 million unique users in the previous 12 months. Myspace registered its sharpest audience declines in February 2011, as traffic fell 44% from
2475-462: A year earlier to 37.7 million U.S. visitors. Advertisers were reported as unwilling to commit to long-term deals with the site. In late February 2011, News Corporation officially put the site up for sale for an estimated $ 50–200 million. Losses from the last quarter of 2010 were $ 156 million, over double the previous year, which dragged down the otherwise strong results of News Corporation. The deadline for bids, May 31, 2011, passed without any above
2574-457: Is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it was the first social network to reach a global audience and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music. It also played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube and created a developer platform that launched companies such as Zynga , RockYou , and Photobucket , among others, to success. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace
2673-499: Is catchy as hell. On 28 May 2011 the band announced on their website that Tom Diener was replaced by a new drummer Roel van Helden from the Netherlands . The band released the single " Sanctified with Dynamite " on 24 May 2011 and the second one on 5 July 2011 titled "We Drink Your Blood", to which Powerwolf recorded their first ever music video. It was shot in an ancient monastery church. Falk Maria Schlegel commented that "Shooting
2772-437: Is confusing people, but on the other side, a lot of people do understand that we only describe or write lyrics about something, not to deliver a message. Audience engagement, and pyrotechnics are important parts of Powerwolf's stage show. The vocalist Attila Dorn often speaks directly to the audience and engages them in various activities, such as singing or shouting, before announcing the next song. The band calls their concerts
2871-421: Is significant in defining power metal just as the fast rapid chord changes often define traditional thrash metal . Power metal often makes use of Major chord progressions as well as circle progressions. Some of the most influential and acclaimed power metal guitarists are Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray , Michael Weikath of Helloween , and Timo Tolkki formerly of Stratovarius. It is a common trait in power metal for
2970-489: Is today associated with fast guitar riffs and drumming, twin melodies, operatic singing. The sound is tempered by characteristics of speed metal , power metal's musical forerunner. Power metal is highly focused on the vocalist, with "clean" vocals being much more prevalent than the growling vocals often associated with extreme metal . Inspired by Ronnie James Dio , Bruce Dickinson , Rob Halford , Geoff Tate , and other heavy metal vocalists, power metal vocals are often in
3069-499: The COVID-19 pandemic . On 16 January 2020, Powerwolf announced their greatest hits album titled Best of the Blessed . Initially set to be released on 5 June 2020, it was later scheduled to be released on 3 July 2020. On 28 April 2020, Powerwolf announced work on a new studio album, to be released in 2021. On 19 January 2021, Powerwolf announced their new album will be named Call of
Powerwolf - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-575: The NWOBHM , emerging in late 1980s, particularly in Germany, with Helloween , Running Wild , Rage , Grave Digger , and Blind Guardian . The second and third Helloween albums; Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I (1987) and Part II (1988) are usually considered the first proper European power metal albums. Alongside the early German bands came Finland's Stratovarius in late 1980s. These bands pioneered
3267-453: The epic doom metal band Cirith Ungol ); or even with thrash metal elements, e.g., Iced Earth . US power metal saw a sharp decline in popularity at the beginning of the 1990s, though the style has rebounded somewhat in the past decade, with bands such as Liege Lord or Heir Apparent reforming for live performances and many, such as Helstar and Omen , still releasing new material. European power metal originated from speed metal and
3366-523: The "MySpace Dragon Hoard". Since early 2022, music upload and playback have been disabled on the website. On May 16, 2007, Myspace partnered with news publications National Geographic, the New York Times and Reuters to provide professional visual contents on its social-networking Web site. On June 27, 2007, Myspace launched MySpaceTV. On August 8, 2007, Myspace partnered with satire publication The Onion to provide audio, video and print content to
3465-415: The "second wave" of power metal since its spread was in the late 1980s and especially the mid-late 1990s rather than proliferating throughout the 1980s, and the widespread influence and development of the genre that came in its tow while US "first wave" style markedly declined. Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace ; also myspace ; and sometimes my␣ , with an elongated open box symbol )
3564-539: The $ 900 million three-year advertisement deal with Google, while being a short-term cash windfall, was a handicap in the long run, as it required MySpace to place even more ads on its already heavily advertised space, which made the site slow, more difficult to use and less flexible. MySpace could not experiment with its own site without forfeiting revenue, while Facebook was rolling out a new, clean site design. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe reported that he had to push back against Fox Interactive Media's sales team, who monetized
3663-595: The 1990s. The early releases of progressive metal bands Queensrÿche and Fates Warning , such as The Warning (1984) and The Spectre Within (1985), heavily influenced a number of bands that were to develop a common sound towards the late 1980s. Among the better known representatives of the style, such as Manowar , Vicious Rumors , Virgin Steele , Riot , or Jag Panzer , a small number of bands enriched their sound with progressive and epic elements (the most obvious examples being Crimson Glory , Savatage , Sanctuary and
3762-578: The Americas, including MySpace China with Solstice. At the time, Travis Katz , senior vice-president for international operations, reported that 30 million of the site's 90 million users were coming from outside of the United States. The 100 millionth MySpace account was created on August 9, 2006, in the Netherlands. That same month, MySpace signed a landmark advertising deal with Google that guaranteed MySpace $ 900 million over three years, over 55% more than
3861-584: The Dead". On 16 July 2021, Call of the Wild , the band's eighth album, was released. On 4 October 2022, the band announced that they are set to perform their first North American shows in New York City and Montreal in February 2023. On 28 November, Powerwolf announced that their ninth studio album, Interludium , would be released on 7 April 2023. On 4 April 2024, Powerwolf announced that their tenth studio album, Wake Up
3960-509: The Google deal. The remaining 50% came from display advertising sold by MySpace's in-house sales team. In November 2006, Myspace announced a 50-50 joint venture with Softbank to launch the site in Japan. In mid-2007, MySpace was the largest social-networking site in every European country where it had created a local presence. By July 2007, Nielsen//NetRatings reported the company's "active reach", or
4059-622: The Night in 2013. It has debuted at No. 1 in Germany. Their sixth album, Blessed & Possessed , released in 2015, was certified gold in the Czech Republic. Their seventh album, The Sacrament of Sin , was released in 2018. Their eighth album, Call of the Wild , was released in 2021. Their ninth album, Interludium , was released in 2023. Their tenth album, Wake Up the Wicked , was released in 2024. Powerwolf has embarked on several tours, with
Powerwolf - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-432: The Night was released on 18 July 2013. The album has entered the official German album charts at position 1. In 2014, Powerwolf released The History of Heresy I and The History of Heresy II , the second of which included several orchestral versions of Powerwolf songs. Powerwolf began working on their sixth album in June 2014. They announced their new album on their Facebook page on 5 December 2014. On 8 May 2015,
4257-416: The Night", "We Drink Your Blood" and "Sanctified with Dynamite", a festival documentation "A Day At Summer Breeze" and a tour documentation movie "Kreuzweg – Of Wolves And Men". On 10 October 2017, Powerwolf announced on Facebook that they had completed writing for their seventh full-length album, promising its release to occur sometime in 2018. In January 2018, the band entered the studio to begin recording
4356-399: The United States, drawing influence primarily from traditional metal and the NWOBHM . Though very close to its roots, US power metal (often abbreviated USPM) is often faster and more energetic than traditional heavy metal, with a more riff-driven approach and a relative lack of keyboard usage compared to its later European counterpart. However, it is often more melodic than thrash metal , with
4455-476: The Wicked , is set for release on 26 July 2024. Powerwolf's sound has primarily been described as power metal and traditional heavy metal . Powerwolf's musical style is different from other power metal bands. In addition to the classic metal instruments, organ sounds are used. For the studio albums, a church choir was recorded. The band states that their main influences are Black Sabbath , Mercyful Fate , Forbidden and Iron Maiden . The dominant language of
4554-469: The Wild . Later on 20 May 2021, the first song of the album, "Beast of Gévaudan", was released. On 9 June 2021, a re-recorded version of " Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend " featuring Alissa White-Gluz on vocals (from Missa Cantorem , the bonus cover album included with various special formats of Call of the Wild) was released. On 23 June, the band released another new song of their new album called "Dancing with
4653-781: The aforementioned. For example, Finnish band Sonata Arctica have been known for focusing their lyrics of their songs on fantasy but also have many songs based on reality, love and relationships. Many power metal bands based their concept albums on fantasy books and national epics ; Blind Guardian based Nightfall in Middle-Earth on Tolkien's The Silmarillion , while Kamelot based Epica and The Black Halo on Goethe's Faust . Some bands have even written their own imaginary stories, like Rhapsody of Fire 's Emerald Sword Saga and The Dark Secret Saga , Iced Earth 's Something Wicked Saga , or Avantasia by Edguy 's Tobias Sammet . Historical themes have also seen usage in
4752-460: The album won a German Metal Hammer "Best album of the year" award. A limited edition mediabook version of The Sacrament of Sin featured a second disc named Communio Lupatum , which featured Powerwolf songs covered by other artists selected by the band members, such as Epica , Saltatio Mortis , Caliban , Battle Beast , Heaven Shall Burn , Kadavar , Kissin' Dynamite , Mille Petrozza , Marc Görtz, Amaranthe and Eluveitie . In support of
4851-508: The album, due later in the year. The title of the album was later announced as The Sacrament of Sin , which was released on 20 July 2018. It was Jens Bogren 's first production work for Powerwolf. The album was rated positively by the critics, highlighting mainly the new elements that Powerwolf put in the music. The album also flourished commercially, ranked first in the German charts, and also ranked in several other countries. On 14 September 2018,
4950-559: The album, the band performed in Europe during 2018 and 2019. On 11 January 2019, Powerwolf re-released their cover album Metallum Nostrum . On 1 November 2019, the band released their single of their re-written and re-recorded version of " Kiss of the Cobra King ". In 2020, Powerwolf went on their first Latin America tour along with Amon Amarth . They had to cancel the last three concerts due to
5049-473: The band are characterized by the treatment of Christianity and ancient Romanian legends. Powerwolf, however, do not consider themselves a religious band, but rather call themselves spiritual. Power metal guitarists and bassists generally play rapid streams of notes, but change chords comparatively slowly, with a harmonic tempo of once per measure or slower. Fast and technically demanding guitar solos, however, are almost guaranteed. The slow changing of chords
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#17328918522835148-835: The band released their single "Army of the Night" and "Armata Strigoi" on 5 June 2015. Their new album Blessed & Possessed , which was released on 17 July 2015. They embarked on a tour supporting the album into 2016. Boxset and earbook editions of the album featured a bonus CD Metallum Nostrum , which contains 10 songs of different artists that Powerwolf's band members selected to cover, such as Judas Priest , Running Wild , Savatage , Chroming Rose, Gary Moore , Ozzy Osbourne , Amon Amarth , Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath . Powerwolf released their second video album The Metal Mass – Live on 27 July 2016 in Japan and 29 July 2016 in Europe. It contained live footage of three shows: Masters of Rock 2015 , Summer Breeze 2015 , Wolfsnächte Tour 2015, music videos to "Amen & Attack", "Army of
5247-422: The bass guitar to take a back seat, so to speak; often simply providing the chord root notes and being drowned out by the more prevalent rhythm guitars. However, some power metal bands incorporate bass that is more audible with colorful patterns distinct from the rhythm guitars, such as Helloween, Hibria , and Symphony X . Many power metal drummers play double bass patterns with either two bass drums , or utilize
5346-476: The brothers Charles and Matthew Greywolf had been playing together for years when they decided to create a band, and so Powerwolf was started. Soon the brothers added German drummer Stéfane Funèbre and German keyboardist Falk Maria Schlegel to the band, but could not find a suitable singer to complete the line-up. In the meantime, the band started writing, and on holidays in Romania, Charles and Matthew met Attila Dorn in
5445-716: The climb up—and signal to flee when it's time to get out." The volatility of social networks was exemplified in 2006, when Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal launched an investigation into children's exposure to pornography on MySpace. The resulting media frenzy and the site's lack of an effective spam filter gave the site a reputation as a "vortex of perversion". Around that time, specialized social media companies such as Twitter formed and began targeting users on MySpace, while Facebook rolled out communication tools that were seen as safe in comparison to MySpace. In addition, MySpace had particular problems with vandalism, phishing, malware, and spam, which it failed to curtail, making
5544-574: The company for approximately $ 35 million. On February 11, 2016, it was announced that Myspace and its parent company had been purchased by Time Inc. for $ 87 million. On January 31, 2018, Time Inc. was in turn purchased by Meredith Corporation , and later that year, on November 4, 2019, Meredith spun off Myspace and its original holding company (Viant Technology Holding Inc.) and sold it to Viant Technology LLC. In August 2003, several eUniverse employees with Friendster accounts saw potential in its social networking features. The group decided to mimic
5643-545: The departure of key personnel (Myspace's COO, SVP of engineering, and SVP of strategy) to form a startup. Furthermore, the opening of extravagant new offices around the world was questioned, as Facebook did not have similarly expensive expansion plans but still attracted international users at a rapid rate. The changes to MySpace's executive ranks were followed in June 2009 by a layoff of 37.5% of its workforce (including 30% of its U.S. employees), reducing employees from 1,600 to 1,000. In 2009, MySpace implemented site redesigns as
5742-517: The digital media business, was in the job for three weeks when he shuffled MySpace's executive team in April 2009. MySpace president Tom Anderson stepped down while Chris DeWolfe was replaced as CEO by former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta . A meeting at News Corporation over the direction of MySpace in March 2009 was reportedly the catalyst for that management shakeup, with the Google search deal about to expire and
5841-409: The double kick. Power metal bands often incorporate keyboards into their musical arrangements, something popularized by Jens Johansson of Stratovarius (though their prominence varies). Some power metal bands also record with symphonic elements, and as such, they utilize a full orchestra to fill the role usually played by the keyboardist. The American branch of power metal emerged in early 1980s in
5940-414: The earliest who combined elements of power metal and an early form of melodic death metal . European-style power metal became widespread in comparison with US style as of the mid 1990s, with numerous North American bands such as Theocracy , Borealis , Forgotten Tales , Avian , Pharaoh , Circle II Circle , and Kamelot demonstrating the style. This European style of power metal is sometimes considered
6039-456: The emergence of Facebook did little to diminish MySpace's popularity; at the time, Facebook was targeted only at college students. At its peak, when News Corporation attempted to merge it with Yahoo! in 2007, Myspace was valued at $ 12 billion and had more than 300 million registered users. On April 19, 2008, Facebook overtook MySpace in Alexa rankings. In May 2009, Facebook surpassed MySpace in
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#17328918522836138-421: The first 10 characters of the password converted to lowercase and stored without a cryptographic salt ). The exact data breach date is unknown, but analysis of the data suggests it was exposed around eight years before being made public, around mid-2008 to early 2009. In March 2019, Myspace lost all content before 2016 after a faulty server migration. As of October 5, 2024, Myspace has still been placed in
6237-427: The genre's precise stylistic origins are often contested, acts such as Cirith Ungol , Jag Panzer , Manilla Road , Omen , Riot , Savatage , and Warlord are generally believed to have influenced the earliest development of the style. More concretely, in 1987 German band Helloween released their second album, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I , cited by AllMusic as "a landmark recording that remains arguably
6336-409: The genre, but took it in somewhat different directions. Helloween, followed by early Gamma Ray , mixed fast palm muted speed metal riffs with high-pitched clean vocals, and with a strong focus on melody and uplifting, positive themes. Stratovarius further developed this melodic direction by making heavy use of keyboards , with lyrics dealing with emotions and personal issues. Blind Guardian utilized
6435-419: The head of the pack of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen, who helped stabilize the platform when Greenspan asked him to join the team. Co-founder and CTO Aber Whitcomb played an integral role in software architecture, utilizing the then-superior development speed of ColdFusion over other dynamic database driven server-side languages of the time. Despite having over ten times
6534-420: The keyboard sound of Deep Purple 's Jon Lord , which was further incorporated into the genre. Manowar 's mythological sword and sorcery lyrics influenced a number of power metal bands. Throughout the early 1980s (especially during 1982 and 1983), the US power metal style first emerged from traditional heavy metal, the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), and thrash / speed metal backgrounds. Although
6633-509: The late 90s and early 00s, power metal spread over Europe especially as well as the rest of the world, often incorporating new influences. Italy's Elvenking , Sweden's Falconer , Spain's Mägo de Oz , and Denmark's Wuthering Heights integrated elements of folk music with power metal. Angra , Kamelot , and especially Symphony X are known for combining progressive and power metal. Some bands are known for combining power metal with more aggressive musical forms; Children of Bodom were one of
6732-498: The lyrics is English, but they also use Latin ("Werewolves of Armenia", "Lupus Dei", "Kreuzfeuer", "Stossgebet", "Sanctus Dominus"), and rarely German ("Moscow After Dark", "We Take the Church by Storm", "Werewolves of Armenia", "Kreuzfeuer", "Amen & Attack", "Stossgebet", "Glaubenskraft"). The lyrics of the band are characterized by the treatment of Christianity and ancient Romanian legends. Powerwolf, however, do not consider themselves
6831-426: The main characteristics of power metal. The twin-guitar sound promoted by Judas Priest's duo of K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton also highly influenced this subgenre. Another British band, Iron Maiden , brought epic and melodic sensibility to metal, creating anthemic, singalong music, an approach widely embraced by modern power metal musicians. Referred to as the "main prototype" of the power metal genre, Iron Maiden
6930-483: The more popular features of the website. Within 10 days, the first version of MySpace was ready for launch, implemented using ColdFusion . A complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise, bandwidth , and server capacity was available for the site. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's founder, chairman and CEO), who managed Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's starting CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson (MySpace's starting president), and
7029-457: The number of developers, Friendster , which was developed in JavaServer Pages (jsp), could not keep up with the speed of development of MySpace and cfm . For example, users could customize the background, look and feel of pages on MySpace. The MySpace.com domain was originally owned by YourZ.com, Inc., intended until 2002 for use as an online data storage and sharing site. By late 2003, it
7128-421: The number of unique U.S. visitors. From that point, Myspace saw a consistent loss of membership. There are several suggested explanations for its decline, including the fact that it stuck to a "portal strategy" of building an audience around entertainment and music, whereas Facebook and Twitter continually added new features to improve the social networking experience. A former MySpace executive suggested that
7227-492: The option to access the service in different regional versions. The alternative regional versions present automated content according to locality (e.g., UK users see other UK users as "Cool New People", and UK-oriented events and adverts, etc.), offer local languages other than English, or accommodate the regional differences in spelling and conventions in the English-speaking world (e.g., United States: "favorites", mm/dd/yyyy;
7326-595: The percentage of the population that visited the site, was anywhere from 10 to 15 times higher in Spain, France and Germany than for runner-up Facebook; in the United Kingdom, MySpace led Facebook by two-to-one in terms of reach. On November 1, 2007, MySpace and Bebo joined the Google-led OpenSocial alliance , which already included Friendster, Hi5 , LinkedIn , Plaxo , Ning , and Six Apart . The alliance's goal
7425-607: The price News Corporation had paid to acquire the business. In exchange, Google received exclusive rights to provide Web search results and sponsored links on MySpace. When the deal was signed, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said, "When we looked at what was growing on the Web, all our internal metrics pointed to [MySpace] [...] It's important to move Google to where users are, and that is where user-generated content is." By October 2006, MySpace had grown from generating $ 1 million in revenue per month to $ 30 million per month, half of which came from
7524-399: The property before MySpace and its parent company eUniverse (now renamed Intermix Media ) were bought. In July 2005, in one of the company's first major Internet purchases, News Corporation purchased MySpace for US$ 580 million. At the time of the acquisition, the company was seeing 16 million monthly users and was growing exponentially. News Corporation had beat out Viacom by offering
7623-468: The redesign was to increase the number of Myspace users and the time they spent on the site. BTIG (.com) analyst Richard Greenfield said, "Most investors have written off MySpace now," and was unsure whether the changes would help the company recover. In November 2010, Myspace changed its logo to coincide with the new site design. The word "my" appears in the Helvetica font, followed by a symbol representing
7722-426: The reserve price of $ 100 million being submitted. It has been said that the decline in users during the most recent quarter deterred several potential suitors. On June 29, 2011, Myspace announced in an email to label partners and press that it had been acquired by Specific Media for an undisclosed sum, which was rumored to be as low as $ 35 million. CNN reported that the site sold for $ 35 million, and noted that it
7821-520: The same number of visitors, but somewhat more global users than MySpace. In May 2009, Facebook surpassed Myspace in its number of unique U.S. visitors. Since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily despite several redesigns. By 2019, the number of monthly visitors to the site had dropped to seven million. In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 people. In June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased
7920-406: The single most influential power metal album to date. Its volatile combination of power and melody would inspire an entire generation of metal bands". This release influenced a European power metal style to evolve, which proliferated throughout the globe and since the start of the 1990s is still the most commonly heard style of power metal. Power metal "bears all the hallmarks of traditional metal"
8019-446: The site seem inhospitable. These have been cited as factors why users, who as teenagers were MySpace's strongest audience in 2006 and 2007, had been migrating to Facebook, which started strongly with the 18-to-24 group (mostly college students) and has been much more successful than MySpace at attracting older users. News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch was said to be frustrated that MySpace never met expectations as
8118-472: The site without regard to user experience. In 2012, Katz described how News Corporation had put significant pressure on MySpace to "focus on near-term monetization, as opposed to thinking about long-term product strategy," while Facebook focused user engagement over revenue. Danah Boyd , a senior researcher at Microsoft Research , noted of social networking websites that "companies might serially rise, fall, and disappear, as influential peers pull others in on
8217-692: The site. On October 22, 2007, Myspace launched its first original web series, Roommates , which intended to give its users a television-like experience with the interactive benefits of the Internet. On February 27, 2008, TMZ launched its web channel on MySpaceTV. On April 21, 2008, Myspace signed a deal with Byron Allen 's Entertainment Studios that brought programming such as the syndicated series Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen , Entertainers with Byron Allen , Beautiful Homes and Great Estates , and Designer Fashions & Runways to MySpaceTV. On March 10, 2010, Myspace added new features including
8316-646: The site. In late 2007, the site launched The MySpace Transmissions , a series of live-in-studio recordings by well-known artists. On March 18, 2019, it was revealed that Myspace had lost all of its user content from launch until 2015 in a botched server migration with no backup. Over 50 million songs and 12 years' worth of content were permanently lost. In April 2019, the Internet Archive recovered 490,000 MP3s "using unknown means by an anonymous academic study conducted between 2008 and 2010". The songs, which were uploaded between 2008 and 2010, are collectively known as
8415-593: The songs "Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black" from the 1976 album Rising , as well as "Kill the King" and "Lady of the Lake" from the 1978 album Long Live Rock 'n' Roll , might be among the earliest examples of power metal. In his 2011 documentary series Metal Evolution , Dunn further explained how Rob Halford of Judas Priest created a blueprint for power metal vocal delivery. His almost constant high-pitched singing became one of
8514-454: The technique of vocal and guitar overdubbing to create an epic atmosphere, with lyrical content strongly based on fantasy novels, myths and legends. The symphonic and neo-classical elements also found their way through power metal with bands like Rhapsody of Fire (Italy), Serenity (Austria) and Nightwish (Finland). At the same time, bands such as HammerFall simplified their power metal to bring it closer to traditional heavy metal. Over
8613-551: The tour's conclusion, copies have been available in the Powerwolf webstore. The second of Powerwolf's 2012 releases was Alive in the Night , the band's first live album. It contained 10 tracks and was just over 45 minutes in length. It was released with the April 2012 issue of the German edition of Metal Hammer . On 13 August 2012, Powerwolf signed a deal with Napalm Records . Powerwolf released their EP The Rockhard Sacrament on 22 June 2013. The band also released their single "Amen & Attack" on 28 June 2013. Preachers of
8712-531: The video in such a special and atmospheric place was incredible. The combination of the sacral interior of the church, including altar , confessional box and a church organ with a lot of fire, fog and metal insanity was the perfect set for a Powerwolf video." Their fourth album, titled Blood of the Saints , was released on 29 July 2011 in Europe and 2 August in the United States. In September 2011, Powerwolf went on
8811-741: The works of bands, most famously Sabaton , whose lyrics extensively focus on historical wars, battles, and individuals that received notable recognition for their wartime accomplishments. Examples include World War I , World War II , Vikings , Samurai , and much more from around the world including the American , Swedish and German militaries . Serenity , an Austrian (symphonic) power metal band, focuses mainly on historical figures and events, including Sir Francis Drake , Marco Polo , Galileo , Beethoven , and Napoleon . Contrary to traditional power metal music, Powerwolf focuses on Transylvanian werewolf and vampire legends and dark myths . The lyrics of
8910-503: Was "far less than the $ 580 million News Corp. paid for Myspace in 2005." Murdoch went on to call the Myspace purchase a "huge mistake", and Time magazine compared it to Time Warner 's 2000 purchase of AOL , which saw a conglomerate trying to stay ahead of the competition. Many former executives have gone on to further success after departing Myspace. On February 11, 2016, it was announced that Myspace and its parent company had been bought by Time Inc. On January 31, 2018, Time Inc.
9009-483: Was heavily influenced by Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules (the first two albums of Black Sabbath 's Dio-era ), which would also go on to influence modern power metal. The emergence of the early German power metal scene in particular was made possible by Scorpions and Accept . Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen made a significant impact on many future power metal guitarists, with his accurate and fast neo-classical style. His bandmate Jens Johansson modernized
9108-513: Was in turn purchased by Meredith Corporation , who went on to sell a number of Time Inc.'s assets, including (as it announced on November 4, 2019) selling its equity in Viant , the parent company of Specific Media, back to Viant Technology Holding Inc. In May 2016, the data for almost 360 million Myspace accounts was offered on the "Real Deal" dark market website, which included email addresses, usernames, and weakly encrypted passwords ( SHA1 hashes of
9207-528: Was released in 2007. The band entered the official German charts for the first time in 2009 with their third album, Bible of the Beast . Shortly after its release, their first drummer Stefan Gemballa (stage name Stéfane Funèbre) left the band. He was replaced by Tom Diener, who was replaced in 2011 by Roel van Helden. In the same year, the band released their fourth album, Blood of the Saints . In 2012, Powerwolf signed with Napalm Records and released Preachers of
9306-460: Was released on 19 March 2009. Powerwolf's third album Bible of the Beast was released on 24 April 2009. The record was able to place as the band's first album in the German charts and reached number 76. They embarked on a tour supporting the album in 2010. "Raise Your Fist, Evangelist" was nominated for the Metal Hammer "Metal Anthem 2010" award. On 2 March 2010 Stéfane Funèbre left the band and
9405-459: Was replaced by Tom Diener. Powerwolf announced it on their Myspace blog. In November 2010, Powerwolf organist Falk Maria Schlegel stated about the group's new material: We spent the last three months in the rehearsal room working out stuff for the new album. Even though it's still in the making, we can already promise the songs are 100% POWERWOLF, taking off where Bible of the Beast ended. There's furious stuff, there's epic stuff — and all of it
9504-591: Was sold to News Corporation in 2005, the website launched a record label called MySpace Records , with JD Mangosing as CEO, in an effort to discover unknown talent on Myspace Music, a service onto which artists can upload songs, EPs and full-length albums. As of June 2014, over 53 million songs had been uploaded to the site by 14.2 million artists. Artists including My Chemical Romance , Nicki Minaj , Lily Allen , Taylor Swift , Lady Gaga , and Katy Perry gained fame and recognition through Myspace. As of 2010 over eight million artists had been discovered by users through
9603-433: Was the largest social networking site in the world. In July 2005, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation for $ 580 million; in June 2006, it surpassed Yahoo and Google to become the most visited website in the United States. During the 2008 fiscal year, it generated $ 800 million in revenue. At its peak in April 2008, Myspace had 115 million monthly visitors; by that time, the recently emergent Facebook had about
9702-496: Was to promote a common set of standards for software developers to write programs for social networks. Google had been unsuccessful in building its own social networking site Orkut in the American market, and was using the alliance to present a counterweight to Facebook. By late 2007 and into 2008, MySpace was considered the leading social networking site, and consistently beat out its main competitor Facebook in traffic. Initially,
9801-756: Was transitioned from a file storage service to a social networking site. A friend who also worked in the data storage business reminded DeWolfe that he had earlier bought the MySpace.com domain. DeWolfe suggested they charge a fee for the basic MySpace service. However, Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping the site free was necessary to make it a successful community. MySpace quickly gained popularity among teenagers and young adults. In February 2005, DeWolfe held talks with Mark Zuckerberg over acquiring Facebook , but rejected Zuckerberg's offer to sell Facebook to him for $ 75 million. Some employees of MySpace, including DeWolfe and Berman, were able to purchase equity in
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