Friday Morning Metal – Wucan – Pipe Dreams

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I guess I’m in a throwback metal kick lately, this week it’s Pipe Dreams from Dresden Germany’s own Wucan. So no need to dust off your frilly jacket, it’s probably still ready to rock from the last few posts. According to the Wikipedia, they’re hard rock or stoner rock or doom rock. Those are all genres, but they sound a lot like early 70’s proto-metal to me. Like the bands that would tour with Deep Purple or Sabbath or something. They dress the part too. It’s nice that they’re keeping the style going. I heard a thing that Christopher Cross sat in as guitarist for a Deep Purple tour in the 70s. That’s a hell of a juxtaposition.

The song itself starts with a synthy intro that sounds like it should be in a John Carpenter film. Or something Stranger Things cribbed to make the show feel more 80’s. The vocalist, to be crass, is fuckin great, adding her tremendous range and a big powerful voice on top of some fancy shreddy guitars. And oh man during the dueling solo you can hear the bass getting slappy. Slappy bass is some great bass. All in all this is a fun band. There’s some classic rock vibes, but I’d still say it’s fast and technical enough to be good throwback metal.

The video itself is a band performance on sound stage, though the singer does get some solid directed wind to tease out her hair. I’m pretty sure the bassist taught music with my dad in 1975. It’s a great look, especially the spotlight really highlighting whoever is performing.

Friday Morning Metal – Revocation – Cronenberged

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HAVE SOME WICKED BRUTAL METAL! Straight from Boston, it’s Revocation, and their new song Cronenberged. I’m not sure if they went to college near Boston, no, not tufts, but they do shred pretty hard.

I’ve probably heard Revocation before, but they’re pretty shreddy. Jonny Davy from Job For A Cowboy does guest vocals on it, so perhaps they don’t always sound like this? I’ll have to listen to more of the songs. It’s got a good groove to start, plus slappy bass. Much like the video, it could be great over a montage of an evil scientist doing some evil science. The frenetic guitar solo is pretty fantastic. Overall it kind of reminds me of Dethklok, just with different vocals.

The video is very Cronenbergie. Cronenbergerian? Cronen the Barbarian? Regardless, the lead singer wakes up in a lab that really looks like a place for someone to get tortured and/or killed, but instead some creep in a jumpsuit injects him with stuff and he starts growing eyeball and teeth all over. I think the lyrics even say “eyeballs where they should not be.” And a weird tentacle arm. They really lean into the gross body horror, so if you’re not a fan of that definitely switch to a different tab after you start.

If you want to avoid the visuals, you can choose to Spotify, here’s the Spotify link.

Friday Morning Metal – Vindicator – Thirst for Violence

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Vindicator Vindicator! Vindicator! Vindicator! They’ve got a new album coming out, and this is one of the tracks from said album! WHOAH OH OH, THIRST FOR VIOLENCE! These guys have been melting faces since 2005 and are not to be confused with Glen Burnie, Maryland’s Vindicator. Nor Northern California’s Vindicator. And definitely not Vyndykator from Jersey City, New Jersey. Maybe they don’t teach spelling in Jersey City. Who am I to judge.

True to form the song is frenetic and kicks you in the rocks from the get go. The vocals are a bit growlier than I remember, a bit more like Darkthrone, which is interesting and fits over the rest of the band well. They have a couple bits early on where there’s maybe heavy guitar syncopation and it causes an interesting sense of unease, at least for me. It wasn’t something I was expecting in the song, and I remember a professor teaching pop music history saying that’s important. So they did the important thing! The solo around the halfway point is quick but noodly and dueling and very fun. And then ANOTHER very noodly double solo! At 6 and a half minutes long, it does feel like it could be truncated or segmented. But what would thrash metal be without 6+ minute long shred fests. I guess it’d be speed metal.

The video is an “Official Visualizer” which I guess means the song is on top of stock footage of wars and stuff. Plus some wolves fighting over what appears to be a dead rabbit. If your music is fast and aggressive, I guess that’s what the visualization of it would be. Oooh and a big fat snake! Personally I would’ve liked to see some session or live footage interspersed with the visualizer but that probably is difficult to do. At least it wasn’t AI slop, am I right?

Oh also here’s why I said Vindicator so much.

Friday Morning Metal – Margarita Witch Cult – Diabolical Influence

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Time to get your frilly leather jacket out of storage, it’s doomy/groovy 70s metal from Margarita Witch Cult! Coming straight out of Birmingham, West Midlands, England, they’ll wallop you in the nugget with their groovy hooks.

Diabolical Influence starts with the main hook right off the bat, and if you’re not bobbing your head or drinking a cheap lager, you might not be as into metal as I previously thought. I guess you could also use this as the background music for your basement D&D sesh, or playing with a Ouija board and “seriously I’m not moving the planchette it’s doing it on its own!” The song itself is pretty straightforward with the hook, but there’s a proper 70’s-style noodly solo that really ties things together toward the end. Doesn’t waste too much time at 4 minutes and change, and I imagine you can only say Diabolical Influence so many times before it loses meaning. Kinda like saying Angel Witch 26 times.

The video even gives huge throwback Sabbath vibes, with double exposures and that weird melty overlay that makes it look like the projector is getting a little too hot. The band lives up to the vibe with their hair and outfits, as though they were plucked out of a bar in 1972 and dropped in the nowadays. It’s a good look for them, they don’t look uncomfortable in their getups, which is important. Though it would be funny if like the drummer was dressed up like a time traveler from 2522, or like a Starfleet reject.

Friday Morning Metal – Svartsot – Midsommer

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Oooh Danish folk metal! Svartsot’s been around since 2005, though they were previously called Skoll. I don’t think they had issues with the chewing tobacco company but Svartsot is a pretty cool sounding name so why not switch it up. According to Encylopedia Metallum, Svartsot means “Black Sickness,” which is apt for metal.

Overall it’s a pretty cool sound. There’s a dude playing bagpipes and/or a fife for a bit, which helps lean into the folky part of things. The vocals are the big burly growl like you’d hear from Amon Amarth; I wouldn’t say I generally dislike it, but I do prefer clean vocals. But also the vocalist makes goofy faces when he sings, as though getting that growl requires similar muscle use to taking a big poop. He does some screechy stuff too, which is interesting. They pick up the pace around 2/3 of the way through the song, I really hoped it would transition to a shreddy solo, but we do get some bagpipe solo so there’s that.

The video cuts between the band performing and a village hauling lumber back to town. The bassist has a wild goatee, it flings around when he headbangs. It’s a wonder he doesn’t get it caught in his strings or a copy machine, that’d be really dangerous. Anyway, the village hauls all the lumber back to set up for a big bonfire, then they light it and have a dance. I was a little worried at some point it would become a Midsommar or Wicker Man bonfire, but it was just a regular-ass bonfire. Seems like a good way to celebrate with your neighbors.

Friday Morning Metal – Iron Spell – Curse of the Ushers

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Chilean heavy metal! Much like their seabass, Iron Spell is delectable and full of… heavy metals? I don’t think that’s the case. But Iron Spell peddles in horror heavy metal, and Curse of the Usher is no variant there. Sadly, there is no actual Usher in the song to sing yeah or good good. Maybe he’s in another version of the song. I’m not sure. The band is pretty good at guiding you to big guitar riffs, heavy solos, and fun vocals, maybe that’s their ushering.

The song is a pretty solid shred fest, and they even do a tempo change about halfway through and you get even more variety of shred! There are a lot of close ups of the bassist’s axe. Because it’s shaped like an axe. To let you know he’s playing his axe. This does lead the way into a couple soaring and noodly solos, though they did let the bass shake out a bit in there. It’s nice to hear the slappa bass. The vocals are alright, I think his falsetto is pretty good but it also feels like he’s straddling the line between growly thrash vocals and clean power vocals. If he swung one way or another I imagine the band would have a very different feel, but would probably be pretty rad.

The video cuts between band footage and then like… 1950s set pieces from a spooky movie. Maybe that’s the usher. And his curse is that he has to be in spooky movies. Maybe it’s the portrait of Dorian Grey. Was he an usher? Did he ush? Oooh and a portrait of Edgar Allen Poe. I’ve always wanted to get him in a headlock, that thing is like a pumpkin!

Friday Morning Metal – Mac Sabbath – Pair-a-Buns

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They’ve been around forever, and they’ve played the Shakedown at least a few times, it’s Mac Sabbath with Pair-a-Buns. It’s a pretty solid riff on Paranoid, and given the recent passing of Ozzy I thought it’d be cool to put something Sabbath-related up. So here we go.

Not sure how much I need to devote to the video, it bounces between the band being out in the world and then a claymation Ronald Osbourne taking out the fast food mascot competition. Mascompetition? I think that’s a new one there. They also talk about how fast food is the devil and as much as that’s true, cheeseburgers are good. The band does a great job matching the original music, and then the spoof lyrics get things going.

Oooh and Ozzy got to meet them and got a kick out of it!

Friday Morning Metal – Ovary Axe – Rise up to Fall

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Ovary Axe, now that’s a metal band name! This is a project fronted by Canadian singer Emm Gryner, who calls herself the Gryndmother for Rise up to Fall. According to a music life magazine article that felt like half AI and half press release, she was a pop singer for a while and released some work and then decided to be metal. And that’s pretty cool, metal is a vital nutrient in one’s musical upbringing. Also Ovary Axe, that’s just brütal.

Starting a song with a metal scream is a great way to let people know you mean business. It’s a pretty standard chuggy hard rock/metal melody, and the vocals are layered pretty well over it. The guitar solo is pretty solid, fitting in with the general melody while adding some noodlin. It transitions to a good breakdown that I could see getting a crowd shouting RISE UP TO FALL and whatnot. And at just under 3 minutes, it’s a good proof of concept of a solid metal band getting going.

The video itself pops between her singing in front of a projector of the lyrics and then some studio work. They added some glitchy stuff to the projector plus some aging to the video to give it a rough edgy look. All in all I’m digging on the song and look forward to more OVARY AXE.

Friday Morning Metal – Skräcken – House of Greed

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Oooh Swedish metal! Skräcken got their start in 2022, pumping out big riffs with occult flair. Gotta include the umlaut in the name, as the umlaut is one of the most metal accents, up there with that o with the line through it. This guy: ø. According to the metal encyclopedia, their themes include occult, witches, and dark spirits. I assume they mean ghosts and not like… rum.

The song is pretty straightforward, with some solid riffs driving drums. The vocalist is solid, apparently she was in Night Viper previously, so that explains the great chops. Everything meshes well, giving a good throwback vibe while maintaining spookiness. At 3 minutes and change, the song doesn’t dawdle too much. There’s a cool breakdown toward the end, when the spooky lady in the video starts walking backward. All in all it’s pretty great and I’m looking forward to listening to more of their stuff.

The video is primarily a spooky lady wandering around a farm or something, plus old spooky photos. It’s quite spooky. I don’t think I’d want to live at that farm, it looks like it needs a lot of work. And probably some ghost bustin. Though that does make me feel good. It’s wild how black & white filming and adding scuffs to the video can make something spookier. But it helps set the tone of the song definitely.

Friday Morning Metal – Helms Deep – Flight of the Harpy

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Ooooh a metal band named after a Tolkien thing, now we’re talking. Helms Deep is based out of Florida, and I don’t think they have songs about swamps, gators, or Bortles, but they do have a big metal sound, and a new album, Chasing the Dragon, featuring Flight of the Harpy. According to the Metal Encylopedia they don’t have themes. But right now I’m getting a lot of harpy. Oh and now I know why they seemed familiar, there’s a Helm’s Deep from Seattle and I’m pretty sure I saw them play with Red Fang at the Shakedown. They were pretty good times.

Like a good throwbacky metal song, we kick off with some chuggy guitars and a kickass falsetto scream. I enjoy that the vocals bounce between growls and falsetto, feels nice and raw-ish or something. The escalating dueling guitar melodies before dropping into the solo is a fun amp up. And some plinky plunky xylophoniness for a breakdown! It’s a pretty bombastic breakdown, gives off Phantom of the Opera vibes, before cutting back to the main riff coupled with some good falsetto. It’s also great to hear the bass up in the mix, really technical stuff toward the end too,

Unfortunately I couldn’t find music videos for them, hopefully they can crank one out because the lyrics have enough going on you could make a video about a harpy flying around at night, eating like… I donno… evil children or goats or something. Maybe some dude tries to fight the harpy but he can’t fight the flight of the harpy, due to her razor claws, so he loses, only for the harpy to keep eating stuff.

And I’d be remiss if I talked about harpies so much without referencing the Queen of the Harpies.