Tom’s band of the day: Wolfcrusher

NAME: Wolfcrusher
THEY ARE: Slimey death metal crossed with soulful stoner rock
FROM: Manchester, UK
FOR FANS OF: Kyuss, Obituary, Down
LATEST RELEASE: ‘Virgin Tapestry’ (Casket, 2011)
SONGS TO CHECK OUT: Skeletonizer, All Shall Pass, No Chance
WHERE TO FIND THEM: Website, Facebook, ReverbNation, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace

It’s not as often as you’d like that a band comes along doing something brand new and are already fucking fantastic at an early stage of their existence. Wolfcrusher are just one such band, and they’re well worth getting excited about already. Mixing bluesy Southern stonerisms with death metal isn’t an obvious recipe for success, but Wolfcrusher have made it work thanks to a fine array of riffage and some fantastic vocal hooks. They’ve also managed to genuinely mix them, rather than simply having a “stoner bit, death metal bit, stoner bit” formula.

The band came together in 2009 when guitarist Daniel Mucs had a set of ideas he wanted to explore that he couldn’t fit in the other bands he was in at the times. Over the course of a year, he assembled a band around him, and had their first gig on November 17 last year, releasing their amazing debut album ‘Virgin Tapestry’ on July 18. And completely won me over, the mixture of extremity and rich, soul-drenched Southern-style vocals making it abundantly clear this a band to watch for the future, and are already writing fantastic songs.

I spoke to Daniel to find out more.

You’ve got an interesting mix of sounds going on. How did you find it?
“At the time when I came up with the project/song ideas, I was listening to Gojira and Black Label Society a lot and I thought, ‘I wonder if you could get away with doing the brutality of death metal, but at the same time have some good Southern grooves going on too’. Of course the instrumental part is just one thing, the sound has a lot do to with Gary [Harkin]‘s vocals as well. He can really cover all the bases vocal style wise, plus he came up with some really diverse and amazing vocal ideas on the songs.”

How did you manage to mesh the two halves of your sound?
“The backbone of the music is rooted in the bluesy stoner groove and every now and then the spicing is provided by the growling/screaming vocals and some death metal sections. I’m not a huge fan of pure death metal, but I do like death metal bands who I can still nod along to, like Gojira. I think they are a fine example of what you can do with simple arrangements even in death metal. Putting the songs together was really quick and reactions seem to be pretty positive as well, so I can safely say it works for us.

“Oddly enough, mostly its not death metal fans who seem to like us, but rather the sludge/stoner/thrash metal audience. We are not extreme enough for the death/black metal crowd I guess.”

What have you got planned for the future?
“A headlining Spring 2012 UK tour is in the works, plus of course preparing for the festival seasons. Working on new material has started as well, there are around 7-8 songs in the works already, so we might be doing an EP later this year, but that is further down the road.”

What’s behind the name?
“Gary came up with the name, when we were trying to find a replacement for [original name] Orange Warlock (that was too close to Orange Goblin). I think he originally thought of it because of some stone crushing machinery. Everyone seemed to like it, plus it sounded ‘exotic’ enough to get people’s attention. From the experience so far we can safely say it does the job more than well. If anybody is worried, I can assure you no wolves were harmed in the making of ‘Virgin Tapestry’.”

Wolfcrusher have a show with Daywalkers, Dirty Habit and Ten Foot Wizard at Moho Live in Manchester on December 21. Make sure you get down there to check them out!