Tag Archives: Gypsyhawk

Friday Morning Metal – Gygax – Draw Breath

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So I guess Gypsyhawk isn’t a band anymore, which is pretty unfortunate. I saw them open for Alestorm a few years ago and they were amazing. I think I posted a link to one of their videos back then. They were a 70’s rawk/proto metal sounding band, with songs a bit focused on things like D&D & wizards & stuff. Also when they played live they brought their own sound guy and played through their own Marshall stacks instead of using El Corazon’s system. Which meant they sounded clean, balanced, and not the wall of sound that tends to emanate from El Corazon’s speakers.

But members of the band have created a new band, Gygax, with the similar kind of early 70s rawk fused with nerditry that is amazing! I’ve only heard Draw Breath so far, and it sounds like something that’d play on a jukebox in a dirty biker bar in a 1980’s Cannon Film. Like it’d start playing either before the female lead dances next to a pool table, or right as Jean Claude Van Damme starts beating jabronis with his mullet.

The harmonized guitars are fantastic, especially during the chorus. I can always go for guitarmonies. And the vocalist sounds like the same dude from Gypsyhawk, with a kind of gravelly dirty rawk voice that is necessary to the sound.

In all this is a really tight band and I am looking forward to what their whole album sounds like.

Friday Morning Metal – Gypsyhawk – Hedgeking

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Last weekend was a metalpalooza. Friday I saw Witchburn and 3 Inches of Blood lay waste to the Wild Buffalo, then Saturday I saw Trollfest, Alestorm, and a band I hadn’t heard before destroy El Corazon. That much metal in that short a period would take down lesser men.

That band I hadn’t heard before, Gypsyhawk, was pretty interesting. I was in the bar area, and they don’t pipe music in through the audio system, so all I could hear was muffled grooves. It was like an AM radio playing KISS at first. But when we got out to the stage, I was able to hear them in all their glory. Pumped out from a couple Marshall stacks was a brand of late 70s hard rock that smacked of awesome proto metal. So awesome. Also, they sang about goblins & dungeons & dragons & shit. So they’re metal.

The guitarists are pretty awesome, and even during the set you could hear the locked in guitarmonies and whatnot. Very fun stuff, I totally recommend them.

Here is “Hedgeking”