3 Headed Monster
3HM, or 3 Headed Monster was an instrumental band from New England from 2001-2009. They broke up after releasing one full-length, due to all the members having different projects that they wanted to focus on instead. Too bad, I wouldn’t have minded a few more albums like this to keep in my collection, but as far as video-game influenced metal goes, I’ve got a few other bands to keep me happy. Unlike some in the genre, 3HM merely reminds me of videogames by including that tone in their original songs, instead of covers of old NES scores, which is a bonus in my book.
I always call this type of band “Megaman music” because they remind me of hopping through the levels of Megaman 1,2 & 3 as a kid. And an adult, let’s face it. (skip this part if you aren’t an NES nerd) My sister and I always argued about the sequence in which to beat Megaman 2. I say: Woodman, Airman, Metalman, BubbleMan, Heatman, Crashman, Flashman, then Quickman. She says to do Airman first, then Bubble, then Wood. She’s crazy. Also, Dr Wiley’s castle in MM2 had the best videogame music of all time. Anyone remember how hard Gutsman was in the first Megaman?!
Oh yeah, I was reviewing 3HM, not regaling my glory days. Sorry. Besides reminding me of Megaman, the album has samples from various movies scattered throughout. From viewing the Myspace, I assume they are from the old B monster movies. I have too bad a memory to place quotes, personally. Despite all the pop culture references, this is some pretty good prog/power metal. It’s pretty clear from the start that these guys are more about creating good technical metal than paying homage to anything. The production is very nice, and each instrument is prominent in the mix and well-executed.
As expected with speed metal, there is some pretty amazing guitar work throughout the entire album. I’m always amazed at the sheer talent of these speed metal guitarists, despite being generally more of a fan of guitarists who convey emotion more prominently than just technical skill. I’d prefer SRV over Yngwie any day, but that isn’t to say Yngwie doesn’t blow me away.
My only complaint is that it all just gelled together into one big song for me, but that could be due to my really limited attention span and a pretty consistent tempo throughout all 8 songs. I hesitate to call it boring, because there’s a lot of stuff going on at any given moment, but I would say they didn’t experiment much with different styles throughout the record, unlike the last few bands I’ve reviewed.
Best of all, this album is really perfect for getting work done. I love instrumental bands because they are perfect to have on in the background while playing games, working, studying, etc. I’m pretty sure the only reason I was able to concentrate long enough to write this entry is because the music made it easier for me to focus.
I tried to find an interview, or some interesting sites about 3HM to make this entry more interesting, but didn’t find much. I’d be interested to see these guys reform and bring new life to the band, perhaps by going a bit outside the boundaries of this album. I suppose time will tell! As of right now, the CD is still available for purchase via their record label website if you’re interested.
3 Headed Monster on Myspace
3 Headed Monster on Metal Archives
Interesting stuff. I like these guys more than Power Glove and other classic video game Metal cover bands because of material is original, given heavily influenced. It reminds me immediately of Machina Supremacy without the weak lead vocals.
Christ, Tyrant, you are putting a damn knife in my wallet with all these awesome bands I have to check out. Fuck you. A million times. FUCK. YOU.
how do you think I feel? I know fuck you is just your way of saying thank you.
YOU’RE WELCOME! 
I’ll have to check these guys out. I love me some VG metal. Although I’ll be impressed if I like them more than Powerglove. I view Powerglove as the gold standard for VG metal.
I’ll have to check these guys out. I love me some VG metal. Although I’ll be impressed if I like them more than Powerglove. I view Powerglove as the gold standard for VG metal.
Since they don’t do covers, I hesitated to even call them VG metal, but they sounded so damn much like it, and seemed to indulge in the association like with the picture in the entry, that I figure they must be.
I was just searching for this information for some time. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your site. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this type of informative websites in top of the list. Generally the top websites are full of garbage.