Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Gloryhammer

Go To


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Zargothrax believes his actions will "liberate the multiverse from slavery and fear." This is expanded upon with "Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernathy" where he had his home replaced by the Prince of Fife and may be affected by his Deal with the Devil.
  • Anti-Climax Boss: Played for Laughs with the Deathknights of Crail, who are the focus of Masters of the Galaxy and make a dramatic entrance in The Fires of Ancient Cosmic Destiny, only to be wiped out immediately after when Ralathor fires missiles of nuclear justice.
  • Ass Pull: While the Star Lords have been mentioned many times before, the fact that bringing their three artifacts together would make them appear comes out of nowhere as a rather blatant Deus ex Machina and Diabolus ex Machina at the same time. It's also not explained why they spare Angus but destroy the universe around him.
  • Awesome Music: A hallmark of Gloryhammer's style is how their songs are somehow still absurdly epic in spite of also being flat-out absurd. There are too many specific examples to name, but perhaps the best example of this is The Fires of Ancient Cosmic Destiny, which incidentally features audible stylistic parodies of fellow absurdly-awesome bands Rhapsody of Fire, Blind Guardian, and Sabaton.
  • Catharsis Factor: After two albums of Zargothrax being nigh-invulnerable, including an album of him winning, Angus and the Hootsman finally kill him dead at the end of the third album.
  • Complete Monster: Zargothrax, the Dark Sorcerer of Auchtermuchty, begins by raining fiery death on the populace of Dundee, raping and kidnapping its fair princess, and proclaiming himself Dundee's dark emperor. Freed from his icy prison a thousand years in the future by his loyal Chaos Wizards, Zargothrax throws the galaxy into a bloody war to set the universe on fire by setting free Kor-Virliath, Elder God of the 18th Hell Dimension, allowing it to destroy all life in the universe. Zargothrax then flees to an alternate dimension which he takes over and corrupts utterly, corrupting the noble warrior Proletius and his Knights of Crail into the Deathknights of Crail—aka the Knights of Evil—and having them massacre peasants with aplomb. Zargothrax, finally destroyed moments away from becoming a god, even manages to plunge his Knife of Evil into the heart of Angus McFife, forcing him to throw himself into a volcano to prevent Zargothrax's evil from taking him over.
  • Crazy Is Cool:
    • The Hollywood Hootsman, the King of California, who is an immortal cyborg with a heart forged of a neutron star! He later becomes a Deity of Human Origin in an alternate universe.
    • Angus McFife, the Prince of Fife, who wields a mighty hammer and does effortless battle with the Evil Sorcerer Zargothrax, and his descendant Angus McFife XIII, who does the same in space!
    • Zargothrax's army, composed of undead unicorns, demons made of feces, cannibal robot zombies, and an Eldritch Abomination. Every fantasy trope, and some that don't even exist (but still want to act like they do), are thrown into the mix.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: The Robot Prince of Auchertool seems to have enraptured the band's official Reddit, despite only appearing in one song (albeit with very brief mentions in a few others) and existing entirely to be a jobber for the Double Wizards.
  • Memetic Mutation: "He is the prince of the land of Fife..."
  • Misaimed Fandom: Occasionally you'll encounter a Gloryhammer fan who somehow missed the memo that they're a parody.
  • Narm Charm:
    • Very much intentional. As an Affectionate Parody of power metal, it takes the cheesy parts of the genre and turns them all the way up. Despite lyrics that are incredibly silly, it still manages to be some pretty awesome music. Power metal fans in particular know that it's all just for fun, but enjoy it regardless. Notable lyrics include "A hero cannot be defeated, simply by making him die" and "Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain, chaos will triumph this day."
    • Parts of "The Epic Rage of Furious Thunder" are actually plagiarized from the poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster" by William McGonagall, the last two lines of the poem are also the last two lines of the song.
    • "The force of unicorns makes Zargothrax fight great!" Aside from being grammatically tangled (intentionally, making fun of awkward English by power metal bands whose lyricists aren't native speakers), the line has little to do with the rest of the song it appears in (though he does have an army of evil unicorns).
    • Zargothrax's Army of Evil is so ludicrously over the top that it wraps around from scary to silly and then all the way back around to scary. It includes cannibal robot zombies and demons made of feces. Not to mention Kor-Viliath.
  • Nightmare Fuel: ''Masters of the Galaxy' is a mix of Narm, Narm Charm and this trope. Parts of the song are demonic growls that are borderline Black Metal and it has a much more dark and somber tone than what's usual for Gloryhammer.
    Leading the charge is the mightiest scion of evil
    (Mighty indeed)
    Proletius his name, grandmaster of death and decay
    (Worship or bleed)
  • The Woobie: Angus the Second more or less ends up screwing up every single attempt to stop Zargothrax's clone. From "Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernathy"'s music video where he damages Zargothrax's prison onward to getting his universe destroyed, he's a major Failure Hero. Which actually makes him very likable to the audience.

Top