Tag Archives: friday morning metal

Friday Morning Metal – Löanshark – Electric Shocking Waves

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Pretty sure if I see an umlaut or the o with a line through it in a band name, I’ll try to get a Friday Morning Metal for it. This time it’s Löanshark, straight out of Catalonia, and willing to let you borrow some cash, for a price.

They are very much a throwback band, all the way to the tight jeans, leather vests, and big hair. Sometimes it’s fun to kick back and listen to shreddy old school metal. The vocals are interesting; they put an echo effect on it, so it sounds like he’s singing in a well, or on speakerphone. And the speed up about 3/4 of the way through is great for getting one amped to rip the sleeves off their t-shirt. All in all it’s a pretty fun song!

The video is straight up them playing in an empty room, no fuss, no muss. But apparently it was directed by Juli Bazooka and I’d like to see more from the Bazookaverse. Also kind of reminds me of Airheads in a way. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the guitarist. I think he gives off some Brendan Fraser vibes.

Friday Morning Metal – Hazzerd – ThArSh ‘TiLl DeTh

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More tharsh! More crazy fast metal from those wild guys in Hazzerd. According to their youtube description, this is the silly song. Despite it being “silly,” it’s still a kickass shred fest perfect for the times you’re breaking a microwave because it keeps wrecking your frozen burritos.

The song kicks off with some killer shredding before the rest of the band jumps in to get it going. True to thrash form, it’s frenetic, chuggy, and a blast! I think I mentioned it last time I covered Hazzerd, but it’s wild the drummer is lead vocals. I’d imagine he’d get tired drumming, but adding singing on top of it? Madness! The guitar solo, with the distortion they use or more finger picking or something, it gives off a twangy country-esque vibe. Pretty fun to hear.

The video itself is pretty goofy, with the guitarist following a dude around and being generally weird. Also the bassist teabags the camera after they beat it up, Office Space style. Can’t pass that up. It also seemingly ties into microwave destruction at the end! More music videos need appliance destruction, it’s just fun to watch. So enjoy some tharsh!

Friday Morning Metal – Veonity – The Fifth Element

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Power metal straight from Sweden! It’s Veonity, singing about the fifth element, which in this instance is not Leelu Dallas Multipass.

It’s very epic and noodly, using rad guitar work to bridge verses. The vocals are solid, very apt for a power metal act. Apparently this is a new singer, and he’s got a great voice. There are a couple thematic changes within the song, not just a coda, but like almost feeling like a different song. I guess it’s to highlight the epicness of the power of the fifth element. And going from singing chorally into a drum solo for the coda is pretty rad.

It’s a lyric video, but there are some additional visuals, like of a guy wandering around and a king. But it looks like it’s AI-generated, which is kind of a bummer. Just pay someone to actually make visuals, or shoot an actual video. AI videos just look like borderline uncanny valley nonsense; I’m sure there’s even stock videos of this kind of stuff they could use. Hell, use clips from The Fifth Element and pay Luc Besson some money. I bet he’d dig it.

But otherwise it’s a pretty solid song, so give it a listen!

Friday Morning Metal – Mythbegotten – The Heedless Horseman

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Lifting a Friday morning metal band from Angry Metal Guy, this time it’s Mythbegotten, a folky proggy metal band from Central New York & New England. Not sure how long the band’s been around, but they did release this album on Halloween, which is fitting. If you wanna check it all out, they have a bandcamp for the whole album.

The song has a great intro, almost like something that’d be in Fable or some other cheeky RPG, before kicking into the main riff. I dig the vocals, when combined with the quasi-campiness of the folky sound, it gives a musical theater vibe. Which seems apt, metal is theatric as all get out. The song does kind of bound between genres, sitting in a heavily syncopated folk vibe during the main verse, and kicking into a higher intensity metal sound for the choruses. And then sprinkle in some noodly solos and you’ve got a stew goin.

Five and a half minutes is a bit long for a song, but the lyrics are telling the tale of the Heedless Horseman. He doesn’t heed at all. You yell at him to look out for chasms, he pays no heed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find full music videos for these guys. Hopefully they’ll be able to make some of those in the future. The lyrics alone paint a great picture of what the video could be.

Friday Morning Metal – Labyrinth – Moonlight

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Happy throwback to 1998 power/prog metal! Labyrinth comes straight from Tuscany, and under that sun in 1994 they were formed. Apparently in 2002 they changed style and themes, but this is a 2016 performance of a 1998 song so I don’t know how big the changes were?

The song has some great chuggy progressions and fast-paced drums. The vocals soar over the harmonies really well; this is definitely something I’d want to see live with like Dream Theatre or maybe even Dragonforce. Just great tight technical work. The dueling guitar solos of slow noodly then fast super noodly is fun. Though the guy could use a big fan to make his hair look more majestic.

This is a live performance, but it sounds about as great as the studio version. The singer looks like a badass magician, which is important for metal vocalists. Like he’d work Vegas and make the Stratosphere disappear. Unless that already happened, then his work here is done. Unfortunately there’s no music video. I bet if there was, there’d be a ton of werewolves like playing kickball or something.

I tried listening to some of their more recent stuff, it’s a bit more aggressive/less soaring than the old stuff, but doesn’t feel like a major departure. It’s a bit more synth-heavy, but there’s solid keyboard presence in the old stuff too. Regardless, it’s a solid band in 1998, 2003, 2016, and 2021, so give them a listen, maybe even add them to a playlist so Bjørn Sportify will recommend it to you constantly.

Friday Morning Metal – Havok – Death is an Illusion

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Havok dropped an EP! New Havok! Can’t pass that up. Sidenote, whenever I have to really focus in on work stuff, like if a client’s decided that my work didn’t actually do anything, or a third party marketing firm has decided SEMRush estimates are more accurate than actual Search Console data, I’ll fire up Havok and use their big powerful thrash to help me put together proof that I’m right. It works like… 95% of the time.

Much like all the best thrash metal, the song starts off fast, keeps the pedal to the floor, and gets out quick. Three and a half minutes is almost a perfect amount of time to get to the point. The solo is shreddy and soaring and fan damn tastic, with some dueling guitarmonies in there for good measure. There’s a lot more bass in this than in previous Havok songs. You don’t normally hear bass-forward thrash, so hearing it riding through the song is a great addition.

The video is a lot of close ups and shot through water or something. Gives it a dreamy vibe that’s a contrast to frenetic pace of the song. So if you’re ready to get amped up, give it a spin!

The EP also features a cover of Metallica’s Eye of the Beholder, so today’s a double feature Friday Morning Metal! They’re pretty true to the original, though you can actually hear the bass. And Justice for Jason after all!

Friday Morning Metal – Grand Magus – Skybound

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Swedish throwback metal! Shirtless singers! Cool vocals! Skybound from Grand Magus has it all! The band’s been kicking it since 1996, and they have a great tight sound that comes from years of working together.

I hadn’t heard them before, because I’m a sheltered baby man metal head. But the singer has a great voice, and might be allergic to shirts. The main riff on the song is catchy as hell, and the solo reinforces it really well. Properly noodly while still following the progression, just a tight solo.

The video is a studio shoot interspersed with some live shots. I think JK Simmons could play the guitarist if they did a biopic of the band. And it’d be pretty rad. Given the size of the crowds in the shots, I don’t know if the US could contain them. Or they have contained them and the band currently isn’t coming back to the US anytime soon. Regardless, I’d want to see them live. Then go drive a trans-am covered in skulls into battle.

Friday Morning Metal – Star One – Fate of Man

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Excuse me, according to Sportify, this is Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s Star One. This is a Dutch supergroup started by one Arjen Anthony Lucassen, of Aryeon. Oh also the singer is the lady from Unleash The Archers, so that’s probably why it rocks so hard.

The organ-sounding keyboard intro is pretty badass, and the keyboards give a spacey vibe to the whole thing. It’s nice they toss the lyrics on top of the video, so it’s not just a regular video and not just a lyric video. The true Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup video. Brittney Slayes does some awesome rock goblets while she’s belting out the lyrics, also she’s just a phenomenal singer so there’s that.

The guitar solos are fantastic, going from the tall hippie dude to the shredmaster general. Just super noodly shredding all around. Warning: Merciless Shredding Overload was a great pop up during the second solo.

I think is a song about the Terminator? Oh wait, it says that in the video description. It is a song about the terminator. And it’s also a video about the terminator coming back in time to watch this band shred their faces off, which I guess saves the fate of man. I don’t think the terminator can handle that much shred. That’s probably how humanity won.

Enjoy some metal!

Friday Morning Metal – Hellripper – Fork-Tongued Messiah

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Scottish speed metal! Hellripper is a one-man band started by James McBain. I bet he was mad because Scoey & Mendoza wouldn’t join him, but he shreds nonetheless. I wonder if there’s a metal band what has a member named Troy McClure. That’d rule.

Anyway, the song is a speed-fest with a killer shreddy intro. The song is tight and at a bit over two minutes, Fork-Tongued Messiah does not waste time. It runs into the room, kicks you in the rocks, gives you a Stone Cold Stunner, then runs off giggling. They still manage to stuff both a killer guitar and drum solo into that time. Plus a keychange before the solo!

The video is mostly live footage but then heavily downsampled to look like an old VHS. Or maybe Scotland doesn’t have HD technology. Or McBain doesn’t. I bet he lost his HD film video camera when the chief took him off the case. It’s nice that it isn’t just him in front of a brick wall for an hour and a half.

So listen to this song. It’s ice to see them shred so much. Then get up and at them and listen to more Hellripper. Then speed metal it up some more!

Friday Morning Metal – Innerwish – Sea of Lies

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Greek power metal featuring the singer from Blind Guardian? Well that’s gotta be a good portent. I hadn’t heard of Innerwish until checking out the video, they’ve been shredding and blasting beats since 1995. And they have a really tight sound that comes with being a nearly 30-year-old band.

The song has a ton of bombast, and Hansi Kürsch’s soaring vocals pair well with George Eikosipentakis’s growl. Hansi kinda looks like Steve Lemme, too. I dig the dueling guitar solo after the breakdown, it’s not crazy noodly but it stands out, especially when both guitarists are in split screen. Gotta have a good split screen. The drums and bass really drive the song along such that you don’t notice it’s six and a half minutes long. Gotta imagine it’d be great for keeping a swift pace on a run or bike ride.

The song’s about traversing the seas as a refugee, from the perspective of a child. The lyrics cover the uncertainty of traveling to a new unkown place. It also has video from refugee camps, so if that’s a bit too much for you to see today, I put a Spotify embed below.