For the first Metal Monday of 2023 we're keeping it on the lighter side. Metal can be a dark and depressing place, with themes of depravity, mayhem and wanton bloodshed filling its tomes... and we haven't even touched on the anti-social stuff yet! So instead of finding the evilest, meanest-sounding bands I could, I'm offering you a short list of artists who have a sense of humor and humility. More than that, these bands are fun (imho)! This is the fun metal list. Welcome to 2023! The fun year!
Belushi Speed Ball - What, Us Worry (SonaBlast! Records)I had heard rumors of Louisville's Belushi Speed Ball and their misdeeds and misadventures for many a year. It's honestly kind of shameful that I didn't take the time to listen to them until about three weeks ago. From what I can tell, they've been around since at least 2014, doing a kind of sonic parody thrash-punk hybrid in the vein of Lich King, who are themselves more of a "fun-guy-at-a-bar-fight" blending of VIO-LENCE and S.O.D. I anticipated a party band with some riffs. I did not anticipate that Belushi could convert some semblance of a shenanigan-fueled jamboree with any sort of life-like fidelity to a record like What, Us Worry. I'm struggling to find parallels with other "funny" thrash bands like Gwar and Ghoul, because as much as those other bands commit to the bit, they lack Belushi's raw (and even, at times, distressing) sense of spontaneity. I am encountering a kind of delightful consternation with this album. I want to shout, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?" about every three minutes. But I am counseled by the sage advice which the album's title evokes. Honestly, you kind of have to be along for the ride with this one. All the knuckle-scalping, side-winding riffs that you'd expect from a modern thrash album are here, but the wild energy and genre-twisting antics of What, Us Worry is without a genuine pear, plunging like a trust-fall mixed with a head-first stage-dive into the jaws of death, they bungee between biceps-flexing hardcore and pickled-brained ska, while somehow still managing to cram in an entire grindcore album worth of material into the last four minutes of runtime. I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that there is song length riff on a Spongbob bit, too... and it kind of slaps. This album also contains some of the weirdest fucking skits I've ever heard. Like, they kind of have the structure of psychotic episodes or mass delusions. It all seems to work because the band makes you feel like you're in on the joke, which beyond the musicianship, is a true feat of showmanship (or possibly a sign that I'm susceptible to professional-grade malarkey [Or both!]). My poor brain and my liver feel bruised and abused after imbibing to this record multiple times, and yet I still feel obliged to recommend it to you. Is it possible that I've become such a glutton for punishment that I'm compelled to divert the overflow of my anguish downstream to you? Or maybe, just maybe, Belushi really is just that fucking good at what they do. Either way- THINK FAST! 'cause here comes a Speed Ball, center plate and up your nose!
Australia's Foot earnestly have one of the better takes on the whole stoner/ dessert rock thing that I've heard in a while. This area of rock and roll really only has two speeds, either gunning for a land speed record or hitting the emergency break and letting things grind out at a lurching crawl- either way you're going to be in danger of heatstroke from all the microwaving feedback the guitars give off. Foot's innovation on their latest album You Are Weightless is to strike a balance between the two oft-elected gears and keep things buoyant and discernably temperate. While a lot of stoner rock intends to be set in space, very few actually illicit the sensation of floating in the void, something the band accomplishes consistently with overlapping and oscillating grooves, skyward punching organ riffs, and satellite signaling electronics a la latter-day Cave In. They also freshen things up with cool, mucky distortion and mirky, smooth, determined and oddly ominous melodies that trace a kabbalistic thread between Alice in Chains and Ghost. There is also a cover of Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Gold Lion" situated in the middle of this baby, which is alright by me!
Limousine Beach are cruising at their own delightful pace on their self-titled for Tee Pee Records. The album harkens back to a simpler time in rock and metal's storied past, to an era when everyone lived for the weekend, tights were a wardrobe option for all sexes/genders, and a big enough riff could take you anywhere you wanted to go. I love that the band is reviving Phil Lynott's playing and guitar tones with the record and bending them to a simple kind of hook structure that you'd expect from one of Kiss's jaw-dropping smackers. It's kind of the best of both those worlds. They then mix it up a bit more with some Deep Purple propulsion on the likes of "Black Market Bus Pass," then stir up some proto-hair metal entanglements with "Hear You Callin'" and even let in a light breeze of Styx-esque whimsy on the opener "Stealin' Wine." In the dead of winter, everyone needs a get-away, and Limousine Beach is offering as good of a destination as any to escape from the ice-box doldrums of January.
This isn't strictly a metal album, but it kind of gets the vibe right. Especially, if you're into the more cosmic-sounding stuff, or like me, are a huge nerd. Mortal Relic's Lair of the Dungeon Lord is a dungeon-crawler-themed synthwave record that sounds like it is attempting to soundtrack a documentary on supernova formations. Just as often, though, it is an acoustic, medieval folk album... that is also attempting to soundtrack a documentary on meteorites that periodically tour our corner of the galaxy. Did I mention this thing sounds like it's from outer space? Well, it does. It's also pretty wholesome and cozy feeling at times, which is not what I would expect for an album that takes as its premise the plundering of tombs and the mass slaying of Kobolds. If you're going to be up late for any reason, particularly doing something creative, this is hard to beat. Also, there is one black metal track. It's near the end and it's called "Battle Magic." So it counts for the list, after all. I bet feel silly now for having doubted me.
