It’s been minute since we had a dose of new music from metal luminaries, Iron Maiden, so YouTuber/tech wizard, Funk Turkey has taken it upon himself to help bridge the gap, with a little help from Artificial Intelligence.
Funk Turkey (real name Kirt Connor) composed "Power Gravy" using lyrics.rip – a program that scrapes the Lyrics Genius database of an artist’s entire catalogue, a Markov chain mathematical system to splice together the results using predictive algorithms, and his own musical talent, even singing the computer-generated lyrics in the soaring style of Bruce Dickinson. Somehow, the end result sounds surprisingly … like Maiden.
"All music and vocals were performed, mixed, and mastered by me," says Funk Turkey. "In my kitchen, on a white Epiphone Flying V, a crappy mic, and an old copy of ProTools."
"Bruce Dickinson is very hard to emulate/impersonate," he continues. "So, I just did the best I could and hope it's not awful. That man has golden pipes. It sounds like a South Park parody, but then again, it is a parody, so... uhhhh... don't take it too seriously." Check out A.I Maiden’s "Power Gravy" below…
A.I. Maiden | "Power Gravy"
Artificial Intelligence certainly makes for a baffling lyricist – the anthemic chorus seems to tell a story of a life and death battle over the greatest Sunday Roast of all time: "After all go to the gravy / It’s always there bleeding to the sky / Now it seems the power of the gravy / Woe to say, I know you’ll be a God" – but musically, the track has all the right ingredients for a hard-hitting power ballad, soaring twin guitar solos included. And the Matrix-esque music video, featuring cuts of the metal icons rocking the type of massive live performances that we can currently only dream of, buried under layers of running code, brings some epic metal urgency.
Altogether, "Power Gravy" makes no sense, but somehow manages to sum up this moment in a strangely satisfying way. If you prefer the real thing, listen to Iron Maiden on Spotify:
Listen to Iron Maiden on Apple Music:
