Music Review: Angus McSix and the Sword of Power

Winning the breakup with unbridled style

Chances are that if you’re you have a law degree, you try to find a job somewhere in that field. At least that’s how it works in America.

Europe, though…they like to do things different, especially in the case of Swiss musician Thomas Winkler, who has a Master’s in Law from the University of Bern.

Regular lawyers wear a suit and tie to the office.

Here’s how Winkler dresses for work:

Naturally, there’s a story here. To tell it all accurately, we need to go way back to 2009, to the very start of his career, his workmanlike rise with Gloryhammer, his unexpected fall in 2021, and his heroic return in 2023 with his new band, Angus McSix.

The Rise!

Winkler started out with Euro power metal bands like Emerald and T-Rage. He’d dabble with them for a few years, and even auditioned for better-known bands like Dragonforce, but it wasn’t until 2012 that he got his big break. Winkler was approached by Scottish musician Christopher Bowes to do the lead vocals for a group called Gloryhammer.

Gloryhammer really committed to the bit of telling fantasy stories with their albums. Each member of the band was a character in the story, which usually wasn’t too complicated: there’s a prince, an evil sorcerer, a land in trouble, a hero rising, etc. With each successive album the story got a little more complicated, and the music got a little better. Gloryhammer released its best album ever in 2019, “Legends from Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex.”

This is where it’s useful to know the character Winkler played, a heroic warrior prince named Angus McFife, of the Land of Fife. In previous albums he dueled with the evil sorcerer Zargothrax, who he would defeat, only to have to face him again in the next one. It’s a simplistic story that lends itself well to the song structure and creates an excuse to lean into the heavy fantasy aesthetic. Gloryhammer did this extremely well and had no qualms about cranking the gonzo factor up to eleven with their work.

However, at the end of Terrorvortex, Angus McFife dies by falling into a volcano after he kills Zargothrax. This was a gut-punch to the fans as Angus McFife/Winkler had become a beloved favorite and the story left his future in question, even for a series of stories that had multiple versions of Angus across multiple centuries.

The Fall!

Now we step out of the story and peek behind the curtain: at some point in 2021, Gloryhammer parted ways with Winkler over “creative differences.” This was done over an email, of all things. Fan theories abound as to what really happened and why. Groups break up all time, sure, but was Winkler overshadowing Bowes, the true founder of the band? Was he ejected out of jealousy or pettiness?

There wouldn’t be any satisfying answers, at least not right away. The larger issue was that Gloryhammer was suddenly without its front man, and Winkler was adrift in the landscape of Euro power metal…

…but not for long.

Enter Sebastian Levermann, formerly of Orden Ogan, who approached Winkler with the idea of putting together a “super band” made of veterans from other groups. Thalia Bellazecca (Frozen Crown) would play guitar and Manu Lotter (Rhapsody of Fire) took over on drums, with Sebastian on bass and Winkler once again on the mic. Would they have costumes? Absolutely. Characters? You bet. Aesthetics? Off the charts.

Bellazecca became Thalestris, the queen of Amazons. Lotter was Skaw, the berserker, and Levermann played the villain Seebulon. But for Winkler there could only be one mantle, that of Angus, though he couldn’t be McFife. As the story goes, Sebastian pitched him the idea of McSix, because Fife sounds like ‘five,’ and six is ‘one better.’

The Comeback!

The table was set, and in 2023 the group released their first single, “Master of the Universe,” a track riddled with jabs at what happened with Gloryhammer.

I have drowned in the fires, but haven’t lost my soul…

Glory left my hammer, but now I wield a sword…

My body was dead, I couldn’t have been deader, but I came right back…

…one better.

Even the song title was a punch at his former band, who had a track called “Masters of the Galaxy.” Winkler’s new album was determined to go a level above them wherever they could, not just with the lyrics, but the look, the sound, the story, all of it.

And so the debut album “Angus McSix and the Sword of Power” released to incredible acclaim. Concerts filled up all over Europe, albums flew through the mail, and the view counter on the music videos continues to rise.

Granted, some of the videos are short on production quality, like they were rushed through MS Paint and Adobe Flash, but the style is at least consistent enough and comedic enough to work with the overall tone of what the band is going for. Just check out their other hit single “Laser-Shooting Dinosaur.”

There’s a charming quality to it that just makes me smile, and it’s addictive enough to make my kids play it on repeat at home. While I’m personally new to this whole ecosystem of metal (I only started listening to Sabaton about a year and a half ago) it’s been a delightful ride to learn about all of it, and to know that guys like Winkler are making the kind of music that I didn’t know I needed all this time.

As for Gloryhammer, well, they also released an album in 2023, but at this point their style and tone was heavily dependent on Winkler’s unique talents. They sound like an entirely different group without him and while the new direction might work for the diehards, it’s clear that something is missing.

Maybe in the future they could patch things over and do a crossover album, but for now—speaking just for myself—I’m glad Winkler landed on his feet, and that he really gets to cut loose with this new venture.

It’s got to be more satisfying than spending your whole career in a courtroom.