Editorial: Every Non-Metal Band Should Have A Metal Member
During this past spring’s public disagreement with his band, Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter mentioned that he wasn’t in a metal band, he was the metal ingredient in the band. It made me think about all the interviews I’ve read in which frontman Chino Moreno had excitedly talked about his love for bands like The Cure. I listened to their track “Doomed User” and imagined it being played without any metal in it, without that distortion and punch and sonic negativity. And I thanked whatever Gods may be for Stephen Carpenter, for keeping the band heavy. Otherwise, it’d all be a bunch of whine rock.
It made me think: why doesn’t every band have a metal member? And I don’t mean every metal or hard rock or hardcore band, I mean every band, every big pop singer’s backing band and every little two-person folk act playing on a coffee shop riser. Whatever music they make, there is something about having one member of your band in touch with that kind of hard-working dramatic darkness that adds to your musical experience, and the listener’s.
As I often do, I’m obviously talking about ‘metal’ in a broader, more abstract way, a la our That’s So Metal! show. It would be silly as Hell to believe that every band required a member in full corpsepaint and spiked leather (though that might work for some bands—looking at you, One Direction). It’s more about having a metalhead member, a bandmate who knows something about what’s being done within the genre; a band that’s aware of what’s being done at the fringes of modern rock usually sounds a little more informed. But it’s also as much about having that headbanger, that musician who’s ready to put their fist in the air and wear an occult symbol, as it is having a member who listens to too much metal. You know, like Animal from The Muppets.
There’s something kind of cool to a rogue’s gallery, where every member has their own specialty and purpose. It’s how the best superhero and buddy comedy teams work—you’ve got your leader, smart guy, strong guy, weird guy, and maybe a bad guy-turned-friend who you can never fully trust (anyone who’s watched It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia knows a similar breakdown). This adds texture to any group, and allows them to explore things that they might seem silly and ingenuous delving into otherwise. Nothing’s worse than hearing a band without metalheads trying to play “metal” (same for most other genres, too, really). A metal player immediately gives access to a corner of music otherwise out of reach.
Fictional bands do this well. Cartoon alternative rockers Gorillaz are led by their bassist Murdoc Niccals, an inverted cross-rocking metalhead mixture of Ozzy and Keith Richards. The Commitments, the working-class Dublin soul band from the movie of the same name, have a violent hardcore fan behind the drum kit. Both are examples of how adding that chaotic member, that one guy who’s into rock music for all the reasons that make evangelists scared of it, can round out a band in a very satisfying way. It’s fun, more than anything else, but it’s very vital in a certain way.
A modern band that comes to mind is the Brooklyn-based theater rock group Sky-Pony. Sky-Pony’s lead singer is Tony-nominated Broadway star Lauren Worsham, and they’re currently putting on a sold-out live rock opera called The Wildness (so, you know, the typical Brooklyn pop band rap sheet). Their music, though nuanced, is super-catchy and easily digestible. But on guitar is Kevin Wunderlich, also know for his work in Epistasis and Couch Slut. When you watch Sky-Pony live, amidst all the choreographed dance moves and matching outfits will be Wunderlich, headbanging to the especially kinetic moments throughout. Without Kevin, the band could be in danger in getting lost in the production and window dressing, but his presence keeps them grounded, as much a rock band as anything else.
There’s also strength in reversing this, though that obviously shines a light on my pro-metal bias. Do I think every metal band should have a member who’s not a metalhead? Nah. I love bands like Impiety, who are metal as fuck down to their toenails. But if you have a whole band of Stephen Carpenters, throwing a Chino Moreno in there might help your sound grow out of traditional genre boundaries. Many of the best bands are the ones that undeniably play metal but do so outside of the box, without sounding like a new iteration of the same old bullshit all over again. We sometimes forget that that was initially part of even metal’s most overdone subgenres. In Jason Netherton’s incredible book Extremity Retained, many of death metal’s forefathers lament the loss of individuality that used to be present in the scene—Morbid Angel, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, these artists all sound discernibly different. Why not shake things up, see what happens?
This isn’t to say every band should be a metal band. Metal should be one part of the musical palette, not the entire thing. But as a metalhead who has lived deep in the genre’s confines, I don’t see any form of music as too heavy or evil or too much to bring into the fold. If anything, that overkill is one of the most necessary parts of rock music. So, bands: bring in a metalhead. Get metal. Even if you play, I don’t know, electric pop mixed with big band swing, a metalhead on your team could add an edge you didn’t know you could have, and hey, you might increase a metal musician’s abilities and musical spectrum. Everybody wins, especially the fans.
