Weezer Will Release a Metal Album; Hear the First Single Now

While it’ll likely come as a shock to many casual fans or naysayers that Weezer are planning to release a metal album, those paying attention know that mainman Rivers Cuomo has always been very vocal about his love for the dark arts. What’s more, the band’s logo is an unabashed knockoff of Van Halen’s, fer chrissakes! These dudes worship at the altar of classic metal.

With that in mind, “Weezer will release a metal album” means “Weezer will release a dad metal album,” but that’s totally fine; we were never expecting these guys to suddenly go all Cattle Decapitation or Pig Destroyer on us.

The album will be titled Van Weezer, and the band’s now put out its first single, “I Need Some of That.” It’s maybe, like, a touch heavier than standard Weezer, but hardly… if I’m being honest, even with my caveat in the preceding paragraph, I expected it to be a wee bit heavier, or at least faster.

That said, it’s still a good song! I’ve got nothing bad to say about Weezer, ever, and this song delivers with a big ol’ hook, and yes, plenty of distorted guitars.

Here’s Mr. Cuomo (no relation to scumbag New York governor Andrew) on the decision to go heavy this time around:

“We just noticed over the last few years there’d be these moments during the show where I’d accidentally bust out a few harmonics or a whammy bar dive or a little tapping just because I can’t control myself.

“And we noticed unlike in decades past, now the audience would go ballistic whenever they’d hear even a hint of that style. So I started doing it more and more. And soon I’m just like shredding through the whole show and we’re like, ​‘Jeez, we should make an album like this.’”

Listen to “I Need Some of That” below. Van Weezer comes out on May 7 via Crush Music/Atlantic Records.

Three singles released over the past couple of years, “Hero,” “Beginning Of The End,” and “The End Of The Game” — which we’ll post below as well — will also appear on the record. Of those, “The End Of The Game” is by far the most metal, with a two-handed tapping intro and a whammy dive in the opening section.