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Ty Christian, aka Fang VonWrathenstein, frontman for “the most metal band on earth.”
When Ty Christian arrived at UW-Madison in 2006, he didn’t even listen to heavy metal. So how did he end up adopting the so-cringey-it’s-cool stage name Fang VonWrathenstein and fronting Lords of the Trident, self-branded as “the most metal band on earth”?
Lords of the Trident — whose five band members wear armor and hooded cloaks, and play with pyro and fake medieval props onstage — is one of Madison music’s unheralded success stories.
The long-winded “legend” on the band’s website begins thusly: “Fang VonWrathenstein was born when a volcano containing metal and steel erupted at the beginning of time.”
The reality, though, is that Lords of the Trident formed in a UW-Madison dorm room. Christian’s then-roommate and now longtime lead guitarist for the Lords, known by his stage name “Asian Metal,” introduced him to the music of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio in 2006. With other kindred metal spirits, they proceeded to upload to Facebook some demos with Manowar-style lyrics and vocals — including a propulsive ditty titled “The Virgin Vault,” which ultimately appeared on Death or Sandwich, Lords of the Trident’s first full-length CD in 2009.
“I thought metal was all about screaming guitars and being angry at your dad,” Christian, 33, says. “But there’s such great diversity of styles.”
With a theatrical background and a knack for marketing, Christian helped Lords of the Trident establish not only an immediate identity but also a reputation for playing memorable heavy metal rooted in the genre’s iron-clad traditions but with surprising twists.
“The word ‘metal’ is incredibly polarizing,” Christian says. “If we were going to exist in Madison, Wisconsin, we were going to have to do something that was more eye-catching than getting on stage wearing black T-shirts and jeans. We wanted to create a show you’d be curious about and remember — even if you hated the music. So we created the image. By our third show, at The Frequency, we somehow packed the place, and people were singing the lyrics. I still don’t know how that happened.”
A dozen years after Fang and Asian Metal dreamed up Lords of the Trident, the legend lives on, despite no fewer than seven previous members coming and going.
Lords of the Trident — which also includes Baron Taurean Helleshaar on guitar, Pontifex Mortis on bass and Master “Herc” Hercule Schlagzeuger on drums — will release its seventh album, Shadows from the Past, on Aug. 24. The next night, the band will headline the second edition of its annual Mad With Power Fest, an eight-hour, seven-band headbanging extravaganza with free pinball and arcade games at The Red Zone, 1212 Regent St.
“This is a fest created out of spite,” Christian says, explaining that Lords of the Trident have struggled over the years with false booking promises at metal festivals around the country. “It’s been really frustrating for us, so we said, ‘You don’t want us? We’ll make our own festival, and it’ll be better than yours, and we’ll have arcade games!’”
Last year, 160 people attended the inaugural Mad With Power Fest; this year, Christian hopes to double that with a lineup featuring Madison’s Subatomic (stoner metal), Iowa’s Green Death (thrash), Washington, D.C.’s A Sound of Thunder (female-fronted power metal) and three other power-metal bands (Stagecoach Inferno from Kentucky, Zephaniah from Indiana and Mega Colossus from North Carolina).
“It’s tough being a metal band these days,” Christian says. “We trying to showcase a number of lesser-known bands we’ve played with that make amazing music and put on amazing shows but are in the same spot we’re in.”
Lords of the Trident nevertheless have plenty of gigs under their armor, including opening slots for Helloween, Steel Panther, Skeletonwitch, Puddle of Mudd, Mushroomhead and bizarrely, indie popsters Of Montreal.
The key to the band’s success, according to Christian, is that members don’t take themselves too seriously. “Our tongues are all the way through our cheeks,” he says referencing one piece of the band’s merchandise: a pink T-shirt depicting a teddy bear riding a unicorn with a skull impaled on the horn. “I think anybody who takes themselves completely serious in the metal genre is missing out, because there’s so much to laugh at and make fun of.”
Lords of the Trident’s next step on the way toward world domination involves reaching the point where at least one member can quit his day job and financially sustain himself and the band with funds from the online-membership platform Patreon (which currently brings in about $850 per month, mostly in small donations, Christian says).
Additionally, Shadows from the Past is the third Lords of the Trident album supported by a Kickstarter campaign. The month-long fundraising effort yielded almost $12,000 to help cover recording and production costs.
The direct-funding model is the future of these Lords — and they show no signs of slowing down.
“I want to be a band that everybody will always remember,” Christian says.
