Nanowar of Steel (stylised as NanowaR of Steel by the band) is an Italian comedyheavy metal band. Their name is a pun on the metal bands Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire, and represents their tendency to satirize "true metal", the primary focus of their music. Their work mainly aims to make humorous references to and jokes about the genre, often parodying the way in which power metal bands are perceived to take themselves very seriously.
In 2006, the band changed their name from Nanowar to Nanowar of Steel,[1] as a parody of the Italian power metal band Rhapsody changing their name to Rhapsody of Fire after a legal dispute.[2] On their logo, the "of Steel" part was made to look like it was quickly and carelessly scribbled behind the main name as an afterthought.
History
The 2005 album Other Bands Play, Nanowar Gay! was published on Jamendo under the Creative Commons-BY-NC-SA licence.[3] The 2010 album Into Gay Pride Ride was published on the same platform under the Creative Commons-BY licence.[4]
In April 2012, they released the videoclip for a new single entitled Giorgio Mastrota, which reached over 100,000 views on YouTube in just two weeks (currently over three and a half million). The song became extremely popular in Italy, being broadcast by several radio stations and also appearing on national television on several occasions. In 2013 they started cooperating with Feudalesimo e Liberta’, a well known Italian pseudo-parody political movement which advocates the return of the Empire and Feudal Rights in Europe. They released a music video in August of the same year, which was covered by mainstream newspapers (such as La Repubblica) and echoed through the whole Italian peninsula.[5]
In July 2019, they released the song Norwegian Reggaeton. The video received 800,000 views on YouTube within the first 5 days, and 2.8 million views within the first month and is currently (March 2022) at over 10 million views. The song combines heavy metal and reggaeton and includes the collaboration of Charly Glamour, the singer/frontman of the similarly-themed parody heavy metal Spanish band Gigatron (band) [es]. The group performed Norwegian Reggaeton at Spanish television show Got Talent España; two of the four judges said "no", one of them before the band even started playing, after hearing the words "metal" and "reggaeton". Later the band announced their intention to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest.[6]
In October 2019, they signed their first professional contract with Napalm Records. [7]
In May 2020, they released Sneeztem of a Yawn, a song about their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Italy, with scrambled lyrics.[9]
In early 2021, they announced a new album Italian Folk Metal, which was released on July 2, 2021.[10] As the name suggests, the album combines folk music with metal music. Also, while they have released songs in Italian before, this is their first full-length album in the Italian language. The name of the album was likely inspired by the Indian heavy metal band Bloodywood, who often describe their music as "Indian folk metal".
In March 2023, the album Dislike to False Metal was released, preceded by the singles Winterstorm in the Night and Disco Metal.
In December 2024, the album XX Years of Steel was released, a recording of their live performance at Alcatraz, Milano in October 2023, along with additional nine studio recordings.[12]
In February-March 2025, they toured across Europe with Dynazty.[13]
Members
Potowotominimak (Carlo Alberto Fiaschi) - lead vocals
Mr. Baffo (Raffaello Venditti) - co-lead vocals, miscellaneous sound effects
Mohammed Abdul (Valerio Storch) - guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
