Friday Morning Metal – Xandria – The Shannon’s Home

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Oooh symphonic lady vocal metal! This week The Shannon’s Home, care of Xandria. I hope it’s pronounced Cross-Andria, like X-Mas. You know a band is going to be epic when there’s an old dude in a beret playing a fife, and Xandria has one! These guys have been belting out songs about inner struggles and “feelings” since 1994. Figure they’d have their feelings all figured out by now, but maybe it’s a life long process. Apparently their current singer, Ambre Vourvahis, is their sixth. Usually bands go through bassists like it’s no big deal, not singers.

Plinky plunky pianos and Mr. Beret lead off the song by playing the melody before the rest of the band kicks in. Ambre’s voice is pretty solid, able to fill out the melodies without sounding operatic. I’m not the biggest fan of overtly operatic vocals in my metal. There is a heavy breakdown halfway through. I bet if the song came out in like 2002, this is where a guy with a bunch of piercings would rap about feelings. The guitar solo is short and sweet, riffing on the main themes of the song, before Mr. Beret gets a chance to shine leading to KEYCHANGE. The song closes out with some grampas guitars before Mr. Beret gets a fife solo. Rules he gets to do that; you don’t see many fife solos nowadays. At five and a half minutes, the song fits into the symphonic zone pretty easily. I think if it cracks the six minute mark it becomes prog metal. I don’t make the rules, I just reiterate them poorly.

The video cuts between the band playing in a giant clock and then the singer and Mr. Beret in an enchanted glade. I think if you’re a symphonic metal band, you have to be in front of a clock in at least one song, otherwise the metal gods make you play a different genre. Pretty sure I read that in Harper’s Bazaar.

Friday Morning Metal – Fugitive – Spheres of Virulence

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Happy Friday, here’s Spheres of Virulence from a band I’m pretty sure didn’t kill their wife. Tommy Lee Jones still doesn’t care. It’s Fugitive, who have members from Power Trip in them. The internet really wanted to get across that Blake Ibanez from Power Trip started Fugitive. I wonder if he plays Ibanez. Or is related to Raul. Would be funny if he played like… a Gretsch Falcon. I’m not sure if those guitars can make thrash sounds. I bet they can.

The song is a pretty balls out standard thrash fest, featuring chugga rhythms and driving drums. The vocals have a pretty solid growly edge to them, definitely fits in the sound well. There’s a solid noodly solo about halfway through, but not long enough to really let the guitarist shine, which is a bit of a bummer. But also the song’s like 4 minutes long so I’m sure they didn’t want to waste time. I’m sure there are dudes lifting weights and drinking from a gallon jug of water to this song. Or a one-armed indy wrestler uses it as their walkup music.

The video cuts between live shots, shots on a sound stage, and weird clips from odd videos. They also put a rad filter on it to make it look like you’re watching cable in the 90s and are on a channel you’re not supposed to watch. There are a couple cuts where there’s no filter at all and the resolution looks really weird. Like the opposite of public access TV. It’s too bad they didn’t play in a gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse within a six mile radius.

Friday Morning Metal – Nunslaughter – Unsacrament

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Happy Friday, here’s some Nuns Laughter, with Unsacrament. I’m sure it’s Nun Slaughter, but Nuns Laughter just seems fun. These guys have been shredding all over since 1987, bringing what they call Devil Metal to the masses. Their themes are Satanism, Death, Anti-Christianity, and Blasphemy. So pretty on the nose there for their self-proclaimed genre.

There’s not much laughing in this song, but there is a lot of shredding. The song kicks off with frenetic drums and super shreddy guitars. The main melody is pretty interesting, and would be a great backdrop to smashing watermelons with a microwave. The vocals are pretty growly, and definitely fit in with the vibe of devil metal. There’s a killer breakdown toward the end, a perfect spot for big slow headbanging. Oh dang the breakdown ends with them saying they shit on god. I doubt god would enjoy that. Or maybe they do. Who am I to judge!

The video itself is mostly tour and live footage, which is fun. They got a ton of fans who really dig what they’re doing. And it looks like they play a ton of festivals big and small. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been shredding for 40 some years. I wonder if they ever did an April Fools’ Day joke about changing their name to Nuns Laughter and their style to like… religious parody songs. I bet they’d do a killer cover of Jesus is a Friend of Mine.

Friday Morning Metal – Amon Amarth – Gjallarhorn

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Happy Friday! Here’s Amon Amarth singing about my favorite rocket launcher in the Destiny series! It’s Gjallarhorn! Gjallarhorn is an Exotic Rocket Launcher. It is also the only rocket launcher that has tracking missiles that each function separately from the warheads. Or it’s about Heimdall’s kickass horn that lets people know Ragnarök is about to happen. Amon Amarth’s been around forever, so you’ll know what you’re getting into: big epic guitars and crazy vocals and songs about vikings doing viking things! Gjallarhorn’s tracking rockets are pretty great when trying to shoot down dropships and such. It’s a bummer Density has effectively ended, that game was pretty fun.

The song kicks off with some epic harmonized chanting before a killer guitar chugg and bigass drums blast your face off. The singer talks about drinking from Gjallarhorn, but I thought it was a music horn, not a drinkin horn. Or a badass rocket launcher one should not drink from. Regardless, the song is big and bombastic and full of Norse mythologizing. The guitarmonies during the verses are pretty great, while the riff on the chorus is bound to get stuck in your head. FILL THE. GJALLARHORN.

The video cuts between the band in some badass locations and an older fella walking around being mystical and magical. Ooh it’s Odin trying to drink from Mimir’s well to get wisdom. Way to go Odin, being all mystical and magical for wisdom! I wonder if the band portion was done in the Volume™. Because it really looks like they’re out on some windswept craggy fjord. Can’t imagine fjord fog is good for guitars and drums.

Friday Morning Metal – Mountain Witch – Back from the Grave

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Enjoy some stoner Hamburger metal! This week it’s Mountain Witch’s Back from the Grave. These guys have been playing old timey doom metal since 2008, with themes of Occultism, Horror, and/or Doooooooom. It’s good to know that doom metal can come from everywhere including Hamburg, Germany. They sound like they could’ve opened for Sabbath in the 70s. Also these guys should not be mixed up with Witch Mountain, who played Mayrmoor festival in Radmond in 2025 and are also a doom metal band. I wonder if they’d ever double bill, that’d be pretty rad. Maybe there are bands called Witch Witch and Mountain Mountain so we could have every combination on the bill.

The song kicks off with big guitars setting the tone. It’s not quite as drony as other doom/stoner metal bands, with a solid chord progression going through the verses. Felt almost like a more ominous Iron Butterfly. Vocals don’t kick in until a minute in, letting you soak up the solid riffs. I also dig that the walking bass is up enough in the mix that you can actually hear it. I thiiink there’s some synth going on in there, but Encyclopaedia Metallum doesn’t mention a synth player in the band. Regardless, it gives a good haunting vibe to the song. Like it should be played in a shlocky horror movie! There’s a solid noodly solo toward the end, to finish em off, can’t go wrong with a closing solo.

There’s not much to the video, aside from the band name and song title, but they did add some pops on the screen to make it look like you’re watching a really old film or something. I kept waiting for the hand to move or something, but no dice. Much like I mentioned earlier, if they had set up the video to look like a horror movie that starts with someone dying, getting buried, then coming back from the grave for vengeance on those horny teenagers, it would’ve been wild. Like I Know What You Did Last Summer of Sixty Nine. Or something.

Friday Morning Metal – American Sharks – Overdrive

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Happy Friday, here’s some punk-metal from way out in Austin, it’s Overdrive from American Sharks. These guys apparently did a tour with Red Fang, which sounds incredibly apt, as this song has solid Prehistoric Dog vibes. They don’t have an encyclopedia metallum entry which is a shame. I bet their themes are party, fast, and beer. But I can’t be sure.

The song wastes no time before mashing your face in with chunky riffs and heavy drumming. The vocals are that great level of shouting that fits with their catchy hooks. I think he says half a brain a lot. There’s also a solid guitar solo right off the bat. Being punk-metal, their sound is reallly straightforward but great to hear. The song clocks in at like two minutes, because you don’t need more time than that to kick someone in the head with a great party anthem.

The video starts with the band stealing some “beer” before we see house show performance stuff. There’s a lot to see in there, gotta really pay attention to the crowd, or watch it a few times. And it’s only a couple minutes so it’s not like you’re out of luck if you watch it twice. Then some dudes in hazmat suits show up to investigate their RV. Their glowing RV. I think one of them farted extra hard in it and it turned nuclear.

Friday Morning Metal – Crying Steel – You Got the Look

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Oooh this week we’ve got some Metal Bolognese, it’s You Got the Look from Crying Steel. They’ve been playing metal as long as I’ve been around, and that’s pretty cool. You can tell they aren’t baloney. The band has a solid classic sound and apparently sing about love, feelings, and sadness. Those are good vibes to draw on. Waiting for Encylopaedia Metallum to cite a band’s themes as “carpet installation, dog training, and vcr repair” like they learned to rock via Sally Struthers.

The song starts off with some solid hooky guitars and stompy drums before the singer gives us a good falsetto AWWWWRIIIIIIIGHT. You can’t go wrong starting a song with guitars and AWWWWRIIIIIIIGHT. The chorus is fun, you can tell they’re Bolognese when the singer says “You got the lewwwk.” About 2/3 through there’s a pretty solid solo which transitions into another solo. Double solo! This song rips and shreds and feels very much like it’s from 1985. Which is cool, there was some good metal back then.

The video is a lot of almost like animatics of a space lady trying to find a band to sign. There’s some shots of the band playing live on her viewscreens, so you can see just how awesome these guys are. In her effort to find the most rocking band ever, she happens upon a dork playing a grandspas guitar next to a campfire, which definitely does not rock. Eventually she finds Crying Steel and realizes they’re the band she has to sign to whatever space music label she represents. Their sound is pretty out of this world.

Friday Morning Metal – Battlesnake – I Killed Satan

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Here we go, some more Battlesnake, this time it’s I Killed Satan! This is much bigger and more bombastic than I am the Vomit, which is fun to hear. They’re stretching out! Or they were already stretched out, and I just wasn’t paying enough attention. Regardless, they’re bringing some more Australian cheek with this song and video combo.

The song starts with some soaring guitars and synthy sounds, definitely gives vibes of the intro to a Saturday afternoon movie. The general sound of the song is that kind of big power metally vibe similar to Dream Evil or Hammerfall. The vocals have a solid edge to them, not leaning on the operatic vibe of the rest of the song. After the breakdown there’s a solid guitar riff that sounds like a car revving, and then we’re back to the races of yelling about how they killed satan. This would be pretty rad live, getting the crowd to yell I killed satan. No solos, but that’s fine. Also the song is three and a half minutes long. Probably don’t need to do much more after describing how they killed satan.

Like I am the Vomit, the video has some great visuals, but now it looks like a movie that would’ve been on channel 11 at noon on a Saturday or something. I guess they also kill satan with an automatic gun! There’s some interesting green screen stuff they do to look like they’re out in this map from Hexen. Interesting in that they don’t line up the camera angles perfectly so it’s all janky and silly. All in all these guys look like they’re having a hoot making these videos and I look forward to more of them.

Friday Morning Metal – KK’s Priest – One More Shot at Glory

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Here we go, One More Shot at Glory from KK’s Priest. Apparently it’s KK Downing’s band, not KK Slider. Though if Animal Crossing had him play this song on one of those weekends it would’ve ruled. KK Downing used to play guitar in Judas Priest, and you can hear some of the parallels between the two. But a little dog dude shredding a flying V and singing in the Animal Crossing gibberish, that’d be the stuff right there.

The song starts with a bass intro before the guitars join in and we eventually get the main melody of the song. Wouldn’t you know, it sounds an awful lot like a Priest song but not necessarily One Shot at Glory. The galloping rhythm does give a bit of a Maiden vibe to me. Oh hey the singer is the guy they got to replace Halford for a few years. Man this really is like “we have Judas Priest at home.” It’s still fun and shreddy and has solid metal hallmarks. Downing’s solos cover the gamut, from noodly and frenetic to intimate and mildly soaring. Four and a half minutes for the song is a little long; a couple spots felt kind of draggy, but they weren’t unnecessary.

The video cuts between the band on a soundstage and a big epic battle scene. It’s fun how much fire they got on the soundstage, it must have been extra toasty. Oooh synchronized guitar posing! After the big battle, all seems to be lost, but then main sword guy goes for his one more shot at glory. The band is sufficiently leathered up, aside from the drummer. They even do some slow mo Downing shots, just to let you know how epic he is.

Friday Morning Metal – W.M.D. – Eyes of a Killer

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Well this band has Canadian markings, it’s Eyes of a Killer by W.M.D. The youtube comments say they’re from Vancouver, but Encylopaedia Metallum claims they’re from Calgary, Alberta, Canadaaaaaa, so I guess that’s a point of debate. Hah their demo was called ‘DEMO’lition, that’s pretty clever. Gotta appreciate that.

The song starts off with some spooky whispers before a drum fill and chuggy guitar kicks into gear. You can hear the bass in the mix, which doesn’t seem like something thrash bands do. But these guys do it, and it’s springing and slappy and awesome. Dang the drums in this song are badass, super driving but with a couple solid breakdowns for the crowd to fist pump before crashing the pit. The solo is shreddy and soaring and completely deserving to be played on a flying v. There’s even a key change toward the end! The screams give off a solid Slayer vibe, and the vocals fit in pretty well. Despite being from Canada, they don’t say aboat, so that’s interesting.

The video cuts between the band playing in a forest, and a lady hiding in the woods or running from a killer? Or a dude in a hoodie? Or the guitarist? There’s a bit where he’s standing on a road and walking toward the camera. The video ends before we figure out what happens to her. Hopefully she makes it to safety.