The Prophecy – “The era of metal has begun, and metal shall prevail for we know what they have done. Five legends of our realm have fought to follow the path of their dark musings, but they did not know what they had summoned, Pentakill. To these creatures there is but one thing left to do… Heavy metal!”
For anyone familiar with the popular multiplayer online battle arena PC game League of Legends, the term pentakill should be a familiar one. For those who don’t know, a pentakill is when an individual kills five enemy players (the entire opposing team) in rapid succession, but more importantly it is also the name of an in-game fictional band comprised of five characters. Although originally starting off as a recurring joke, an excuse to have certain characters able to be dressed up in rock band garb, earlier this week this fictional band got very real with the release of their debut album Smite and Ignite.
Pentakill walks a very fine line between being really awesome and extremely cheesy, with each song drawing influence from in-game lore and being named after weapons and armor that can be obtained. Even though the album tends to air on the side of cheesy, that was entirely intentional and was to be expected from the very start. Probably the most surprising aspect of the album though, besides it actually being a pretty solid album, is the use of Jørn Lande (Jørn, ex-Masterplan) and ZP Theart (ex-Dragonforce) to sing the vocals for fictional character Karthus.
Smite and Ignite clocks in at seven songs, is 30 minutes long, and is a blend of industrial and power metal that is so intentionally over-the-top that you can’t help but love it. Two of the character models, Yorick and Olaf, were heavily influenced by famous musicians Slash and Vinnie Paul Abbott, respectively. Although it may have just started off as a joke, Pentakill shows a lot of potential if they decide to move forward with future releases.
Pentakill is Karthus the Deathsinger (vocals) voiced by Jørn Lande and ZP Theart, Mordekaiser the Master of Metal (guitar), Yorick (Bass), Olaf (Drums), and Sona (Keyboard).
Pentakill’s debut album is available for stream and free download here, as well as the full band history and biographies of each member.
