Powerman 5000

"Spinning complacently in the darkness, covered and blinded by a blanket of little lives, false security has lulled the madness of this world into a slumber. Wake up! An eye is upon you, staring straight down and keenly through, seeing all that you are and everything that you can never be. Yes, an eye is upon you, an eye ready to blink. So face forward, with arms wide open and mind reeling. Your future has arrived..... Are you ready to go?"

Powerman 5000 are a slightly unorthodox industrial rock band based out of Boston, Massachusetts, fronted by vocalist Spider One and a revolving door lineup of musicians. Making their major label debut with Mega Kung-Fu Radio, the band soon emerged with their trademark high-energy sound, used to good effect on the follow-up and their most famous album, Tonight The Stars Revolt! These albums established their obsession with themes of Science Fiction, and the band were even known for performing in space suits.

The band had a new album, Anyone For Doomsday? primed for release in 2001 but Spider One, afraid of being pigeonholed in this sound, aborted it just before its release (also due to some band members jumping ship at the time). The eventual new album finally arrived in 2003 and was entitled Transform, which was released to mixed reviews due to the band ditching their sci-fi gimmick and adopting a slightly punky flavor, as well as a new focus on social commentary. The band have continued to mine their energetic trademark sound to the present day, with the albums Destroy What You Enjoy and Somewhere On The Other Side Of Nowhere. Copies, Clones & Replicants, a covers album, appeared in August of 2011.

Spider One's older brother is involved in heavy metal. You might have heard of him.

"Now what the fuck are you; some kind of half-assed astronaut?"
 * Anime Hair
 * Careful With That Axe
 * Cover Version: "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "Good Times Roll" by The Cars.
 * Copies, Clones & Replicants is entirely a covers album, of bands such as Twisted Sister, Devo, T-Rex, Van Halen, David Bowie, INXS and The Clash.
 * Epic Riff: "Supernova Goes Pop."
 * Face of the Band: Definitely Spider.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Shadow the Hedgehog fans should recognize these guys; they did Shadow's "Pure Evil" ending theme, "Almost Dead."
 * Hidden Track: Tonight The Stars Revolt and its weird techno freakout.
 * Missing Episode: The aforementioned Anyone For Doomsday? was this for years, although it circulated on the internet for some time, and finally saw release on iTunes by the end of the decade.
 * Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Usually around a 6.
 * New Sound Album: Transform was obviously supposed to be this.
 * Precision F-Strike: Tonight The Stars Revolt! has one, and only one, curse word, on "System 11:11."


 * Sampling: This band loves sampling old horror movies.
 * Signature Song: "When Worlds Collide."
 * Something Completely Different: Piano ballad "Watch The Sky For Me." "Piano" and "ballad" are words that are never usually associated with Powerman 5000.
 * That Man Is Dead: The first lyric on Transform is Spider declaring that "I'm not a spaceman!"