Trollheart

Last year we took a look at the lighter, less serious side of metal, and also what happens when it crosses over into genres not normally associated with it, when it treads unfamiliar and unexpected ground. This year I want to expand on that, by looking at albums that have either been made by people who you would not expect to be into metal, or who skew the idea of metal into other areas. Originally I had this featured as part of "A lighter look at the Darkside", and while pretty much everything here qualifies as being funny, and certainly gave me a few chuckles to say the least, I want to swing away from that and allow this its own section, something I will be returning to in future years. It's not that the albums aren't funny --- some or most of them are, some hilariously so --- but then you have one or two occasions where someone from the Metal world wants to seriously or semi-seriously crossover into an unfamiliar genre, or vice versa, and while we may laugh at their efforts, or the very idea of two such genres meeting, I think a little respect is due them for trying, so while much of this is funny, some of it needs to be treated with a little bit more seriousness, as we watch what happens

Such as this, the first one I want to examine, which on the face of it sounds pretty amusing, but as we will see is actually a serious effort to pay respects to a totally different genre than that in which the artiste usually works.

Welcome to Carcass Cuntry --- Jeffrey Walker Und Die Fluffers --- 2006 (Fractured Transmitter)

Jeffrey Walker is of course best known as vocalist and bass player for death metal band Carcass, and is not someone you would in any way, shape or form think of when considering who might cover some of the Country greats. Yet here, this is exactly what he does, bringing in assistance from members of Faith No More, Anathema and H.I.M., to place his own slant on some of the greatest songs given us by one of music's most maligned (and often, rightly so) genre.

The interesting thing is, unlike the guys who got together to “pay tribute” to Frankie in the album Sin-Atra, here Walker does not piss all over these songs or caricature them. He says himself “The idea was hardly original, but I don't think anyone from my background has done it, and done it with a bit of respect, not making a piss-take out of it”. So here he is really and sincerely covering what I assume to be his favourite songs from the golden age of Country and Western.

It kicks off with Cash's classic “The man comes around”, complete with Biblical quote and acoustic guitar, with Walker sounding sort of like a cross between Earle and Lemmy, electric guitar biting in now and giving the song of course a metal tinge, picking up speed as it goes but still retaining the basic feel of the original. I'm not a fan of Hank Williams (I, II or III) so I don't know “I can't help it if I'm still in love with you” but it's fun to hear sharp electric guitar where I assume pedal steel would be, and what sounds like fiddle (?) plus a great guitar solo that really metals up the track. As it happens, Walker seems to have the perfect voice for Country, that gravelly, wretched, whiskey-soaked drawl that so many of the genre's legends have attained. I also don't know “You're still on my mind”, but it's a good hillbilly rocker and it's nice to hear piano for once, played by Cradle of Filth's Les Smith. Great fun.

Now I certainly do know “Sunday mornin' comin' down”, and it's underpinned by a great snarly guitar from Anathema's Danny Cavanagh, a barely restrained anger vocal from Walker, and the whole thing just smoulders and gives a whole new feeling to the song made famous by Kris Kristofferson, with a great guitar solo from Cavanagh and I'd swear again there's fiddle playing, though I can't find a credit for one. “Mississippi”, meanwhile, flies along really nicely on a sweet guitar line and really is I think the closest Country comes to pop on this album, so we're almost seeing a death metal Country version of a pop song. Trippy! The “hoo-hah-hoo-hah!” backing vocals are hilarious, even if they're not meant to be, and when he lets himself go for a few seconds with a vocal more familiar to Carcass fans and a sudden burst of death metal guitar, I almost wet myself laughing.

It's of course better if you know the songs, and I could have wished for Walker to have picked some more famous ones, though there are classics here, but “I just dropped in (To see what condition my condition was in)” is not one of them. Or at least one I know. It is interesting that they use a sitar and there are female vocals from ... I don't know. Doesn't say. Quite a heavy song, though again as I say I don't know the original at all. Everyone of course knows “I'm so lonesome I could cry”, and the guys really ham this one up --- intentionally or not --- so that it really sounds like a crying-into-your-beer song, and proceeds on heavy slide guitar (which again I assume is normally pedal steel) contributed by Walker's Carcass bandmate Bill Steer, then it's heads-down boogie for “Once a day”, which was apparently Connie Smith's first hit, but I don't know it. It's good fun though and gives the guys a chance to kind of rock out. Steer even gets on the lap steel for this.

Skeeter Davis's “End of the world” is next up, driven on a beautiful piano by Les Smith, and it really sounds sort of like one of those songs you sing when you've had too many beers with your mates and you're just jamming. Fun though. Great guitar solo halfway from Mikko Lindström from H.I.M. Very cleverly, the song ends on the word “ended” and the sound of footsteps walking out. Acoustic guitar from Cavanagh and steel guitar from Steer take in John Denver's “Rocky Mountain high”, the longest track on the album at just over five and a half minutes. They do a great job on this, and while I wouldn't quite consider Neil Young to be Country, you can't I guess blame them for wanting to include his “Keep on rocking in the free world” and it ends the album really well, even bringing in keyboards from Cavanagh as well as Hammond Organ (!) from Santeri Kallio and allowing the boys to close on a more rocking note.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. The man comes around
2. I can't help it (If I'm still in love with you)
3. You're still on my mind
4. Sunday morning comin' down
5. Mississippi
6. I just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in)
7. I'm so lonesome I could cry
8. Once a day
9. The end of the world
10. Rocky Mountain high
11. Keep on rocking in the free world

It's nice to see someone pay their dues. Often, these things turn into parody, where either the attempt is too comical to succeed or the artiste tends to lampoon rather than cover the songs. Sometimes, albums like this are used as a sales ploy, a device to prop up a flagging career. Carcass are as popular with their own fans as they ever were, so this is certainly not the case with this album. It genuinely seems like Walker was trying to give respect to some of the men and women who have blazed a trail in whose wake bands like his have, consciously or not, followed, and though sometimes the idea of these serious metalheads crooning Country love songs sounds too ludicrous to be taken seriously, when we laugh at them we're not ridiculing them, rather sharing a joke that is probably not meant to be one, but can't help coming off that way.

I enjoyed the treatment of the songs and, for those I knew, they seemed to stay true to the original and yet inject each one with new fire. What Carcass fans thought of this record though I can only guess.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018