Tag Archives: friday morning metal

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.

Friday Morning Metal – Paradise Lost – Silence Like the Grave

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I got a little excited when Paradise Lost’s bio said they’re from Halifax, thinking Nova Scotia. These guys could be descendants of the Knights Templar who buried all that treasure here? on Oak Island? But they’re from Halifax West Yorkshire which is a different place. Might still have buried treasure though. Can’t know for sure. Wikipedia says they’re Gothic Metal, and in fact named their second album Gothic. It sounds kinda like Amon Amarth, who are melodic death. Man there are so many sub-genres of metal. Either way, Gothic metal’s pretty rad.

The song has a good chugga rhythm to it, would be great for keeping cadence while forging steel and making swords and shields and other things. There’s a couple quick guitar solos that noodle very dramatically then back away for the gothicness or gothicality to step up. Honestly, if Niklas Isfeldt was singing about being metal on this, it could make for a Dream Evil track too. This is a pretty rad song, go listen to it.

Lotta sword making. Then an old guy is telling campfire stories to some kids, it looks like it links to the battles of his youth, of stabbing fools and laying waste to the countryside. He’s a kindly looking old fella, I bet he’s got some hard candies in an enchanted satchel that he hands out while telling stories. The video has interspersed bits of the singer in profile with like… mud or dirt falling behind him. Maybe he’s getting buried in a silent like grave.

Friday Morning Metal – Leverage – Shooting Star

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I don’t know if I’ve heard Leverage before. They’ve been around since 2002, and bring a pretty big power metally sound. So powerful that they have an electric violinist in the band. Can’t go wrong when there’s non-standard instruments in a metal band, like a hurdy gurdy. According to encyclopedia metallum, they delve in themes of life and nature, and I guess Shooting Star is leaning on life.

The song has a bit of a twangy country vibe to the melody before diving headlong into a big metal chug. Kinda has Blind Guardian vibes with the vocals. They do a good job shifting from standard power metally vibes to the twangy melody. The guitar solo shreds mightily and transitions to a combo guitar/keyboard noodlefest. At four and a half minutes, the song doesn’t waste too much time while still being chock full of great metal staples. All in all it’s a rad song and I look forward to more Leveraging.

The video starts with the singer getting kidnapped or something? So they send their electric violinist to go find him and pay the beefy ransom. While she’s looking for him, the singer makes eyes at some lady, who ends up helping the violinist find him. Talk about good fortune there. And with him freed they’re able to get back to the studio to record! They don’t really indicate why he got abducted. He also left his kickass hat in the sorta jail. Maybe he got abducted so they could steal his hat. Or he stole someone’s hat and they made him leave it. But the rat really likes the hat, so that’s nice.

Friday Morning Metal – Castle Rat – Wizard

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Oooh I had not heard of Castle Rat before. But they’re on a mission to expand and defend the realm, so that’s good to support. They’re fantasy doom metal coming straight out of Brooklyn, and this new song Wizard is pretty killer if you’re into those kind of vibes. Definitely feels like something D&D nerds would listen to in 1978. They’re also playing the Clock-Out Lounge in Seattle on September 16th, in case you want to get your doom fix live.

If you’re into doom or sludgy metal, this song is going to kick you right in the solar plexus. There’s a couple shifts within the song, makes it feel like three different movements within 5 minutes, which is kind of fun. Personally, I can dig on slower melodical doomy stuff, but it can get stale for me after a bit, so the shifts are welcome. The vocals are awesome, very haunting and fit into the vibe well. Definitely sounds like she could lead a seance or a cult. In the second shift is when things pick up and we get a really noodly solo, with up close zooms on the fingers and sweeps pickings! Can’t go wrong with that.

The video’s got total 1978 Canon Film vibes to it. Like it could be scenes that were cut from Conan the Destroyer, or one of those Italian Hercules movies starring like Lou Ferrigno or something. It bounces between the band playing and a wizard who looks like the blond dude from Die Hard. He gets in a fight with a bald wizard and things get pretty magical. I don’t want to get into more than that, gotta watch the video to figure out what happens! Very great look with the trippy quasi-green screen stuff going on.

Friday Morning Metal – Phantom – The Tower of Seth

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Coming from Guadalajara and ready to shred your face off, it’s Phantom! This is The Tower of Seth, off their album Tyrants of Wrath. That’s a good album title right there. Also I had a buddy in high school named Seth who was really tall. He’s not the subject of the song, despite being a towering fella. These guys play the kind of speed/thrash metal that would fit right in as opener for Anthrax or Metallica.

The song has a good chuggy intro, giving vibes of early Metallica or 3 Inches of Blood’s Metal Woman. The intro having separate channels for lead/rhythm guitar is pretty fun, makes it feel like you’re in the middle of the band. It’s too bad the vocals are tuned down so much in the mix. It does give the rest of the band an opportunity to shine, but it also makes it sound like the singer is way in the back like “HEY GUYS I’M HERE TOO.” Maybe they mistook the vocal track for bass. There’s a pretty killer solo leading up to the video’s climax, plenty chuggy and throwback-adjacent. All in all, a really solid speedy metal song.

The video takes place out in the woods. It’s fun to see the drumsticks kind of get that rubber pencil vibe while he’s playing, I haven’t seen that before in a video. The band is playing in a stream which can’t be too comfortable, but then it’s interspersed with some like druids walking by a water treatment plant and a guy in a cape. Our caped crusader seems to be on a mission to take out a black metal band, or the druids. Except the druids have magic and summon Celtic Frost to fight him. Sadly, despite being from the band Phantom, we don’t see any Ben Affleck nor Billy Zane, he’s a cool guy.

Friday Morning Metal – Venator – Steal the Night

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Oooh throwback metal from Austria. Venator’s Steal the Night sounds straight out of NWoBHM. Or I guess classic heavy metal at this point. These guys have been around since 2016 and have a good sound. Also apparently their themes are Fighting, Rebellion, and Horror. Encyclopedia Metallum has a lot of detail about bands. Including themes.

The song is off their album Psychodrome, which I think is the drome that Krang’s cousin used in Ninja Turtles. They didn’t show it in the cartoon because it was way more psychotic than the Technodrome. The song itself is pretty down the fairway chugga guitars and driving drums. The vocals have a bit of edge but fit in well, gives the song a lot of its classic feel. There’s a kickass not too wild solo 3/4 of the way through the song, definitely had the same feel as something you’d hear in 1983.

There’s a live version of the song so you can see just how well these guys time traveled from the 80s. Leather pants, high tops, they’ve got it all! But also they look like they’d be fun to see live so maybe they’ll come to the US at some point! So dust off your battle jacket, put one your fingerless gloves, and hop into your camaro! It’s time to rock.

And if you want to hear the album version, they got that too. Drums sound a lot better than the live one.

Friday Morning Metal – Primal Fear – Far Away

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More Primal Fear! Melting faces and belting vocals since 1997, and they’re still at it. This time it’s Far Away, which is much nearer than the September 5th release of their next album. But wherever you are, this song shreds!

This has all the hallmarks of a good Primal Fear song, with Ralf Scheeper’s vocals soaring over big fast driving drums and awesome guitar work. It’s pretty awesome that they do the ultra combo of super noodly guitar solo, back to back guitar poses during a breakdown, then a followup guitar solo or two. And there’s a lefty lady guitarist kicking ass. Her name is Thalìa Bellazecca and is bringing some awesome lefty representation to metal!

The video is a combo studio session and green screen performing, so they look like they’re rocking out in a star destroyer hanger. It’s fun watching the bassist in the video, he’s kinda lackadaisical, or it looks like he’s hitting every other note. Or his hand is so fast I can only see some of the strums. It’s a pretty solid look, and thankfully doesn’t feel like AI nonsense behind the band. I don’t need that AI nonsense in my metal.

Also here’s a recap on the difference between near and far.

Friday Morning Metal – Warkings & Orden Ogan – Genghis Khan

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Oooh a song about the guy who’s related to around 16 million dudes on earth, it’s Genghis Khan by Warkings featuring Orden Ogan. These guys have been rocking faces since 2018, and this is off their upcoming album ARMAGEDDON! Oh dang, here’s a link to Warkings’ website: https://www.warkings.rocks this is a perfect use of that TLD. I may have heard them previously, but I don’t think I saw them before, their getups are fantastic.

The song kicks off with a bit of throat singing, reminds me of Tenngar Cavalry, then changes gears to a pretty down the fairway call and response epic power metal song. It’s got a good driving beat, perfect for riding into battle and slaying enemies. You can’t ignore the super noodly sweeps picks solos, played on a very apt flying v. There’s a killer breakdown toward the end of the song would be perfect for a cutout in the live performance for the crowd to sing along. At three and a half minutes long, they don’t waste much time and spend most of it rocking faces off, which I enjoy.

The video rips. It splits between the band playing all dressed up like warriors and shots of an epic battle. I guess that’s how the band looks all the time, which is wild. Their masks are badass, like they’re wearing the skulls of their enemies. It’s unfortunate that the battle shots look more like medieval battles in England and not, like, a Mongol Horde™ laying waste to the countryside, and totally ravaging Oshman’s. Need more crazed archers riding horseback and taking stuff out. Or at least a couple shots of Xanadu!

Friday Morning Metal – Deathchant – Chariot

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Oooh 70’s throwback metal. This week it’s Chariot, by Los Angeles’s own Deathchant. I don’t think the name of the band is an indicator of the vocal stylings. I assume death chants would sound like they’re done by Christopher Lee or a bunch of monks or something. But these guys sound like they should have big sideburns and suede jackets and an El Camino.

I guess the song does start with what sounds like chanting, maybe that’s the death chant. But then it kicks into gear and preps you for some solid guitar work. The fuzzy noodly guitar solo fits in like a pair of boots what have goldfish in the heels. The song itself is proper fuzzy with shouty vocals, something that would be on rotation Structures brewing’s old location. In fact I probably have heard these guys there. At just under 4 minutes, the song doesn’t waste much time

The video is just them rocking out by some train tracks. It looks like it’s shot at 120 hz or something? Like it gives off telenovela vibes on the video quality. But it’s backlit and you can kinda see Los Angeles somewhere in the background, so it’s pretty solid. Does feel like there should be like interspersed video of a guy driving an El Camino across death valley, in search of retribution for the people who stole his death chant. The El Camino is his chariot of retribution. See? I feel like I should be a music exec with these kind of high minded ideas!