NECROCOMICCON: LIKE ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES, ONLY WITH BLACK METAL

If you don’t know Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, they’re this supergroup that played punk versions of non-punk songs — usually songs that you wouldn’t ever in a million years consider for punk covers, like “Mandy” and “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.” I knew a dude who was way, way into them, but the appeal was always lost on me. ‘Cause the band didn’t really do anything but take non-punk songs and play them fast. That was the group’s whole “unique spin” on the original material. As an intellectual exercise, that might be kinda interesting — ’cause it proves that great hooks are great hooks, period — but as an ongoing musical endeavor, I find it pretty boring.

Now the reader known as “devin townsend’s lost skullet” has alerted us to the existence of Necrocomiccon (Facebook, Bandcamp) a band featuring Bill Henderson (ex-Thursday) that basically does the same exact thing as Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, only with black metal instead of punk. And, as is the case with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, the appeal is pretty much lost on me.

Okay, so there’s a Comic Con joke in their title… and their album art has pop culture references that people my age will recognize (Lionel Richie on the cover of a Venom album! The crappy computer-animated dudes from the Dire Straights “Money for Nothing” video, only with corpse paint!! HOW LULZY!!!)… and… yep, that’s what Hall & Oates’ “Maneater” would sound like if it were played by a black metal band.

Um… so? The joke gets old real fast, I actually had no problem with Tears for Fears the way they already sounded, and you know who else did a metal cover of “In the Air Tonight?” Fucking Nonpoint. So, yeah.

Check out the band here, and see if you enjoy this more than I do. If anyone can give me a better reason to care about this than “it’s a funny idea,” I will send you a jar of Vince’s farts.

-AR