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Unearthing the Metal Underground: The New Orleans Metal Scene, Part 2

Just one Unearthing for my fair city of New Orleans wouldn’t work. We have so many bands here, they’re breaking the levees! Here’s three more incredible bands to give you a NOLA fix. There is an amendment to the previous Unearthing the Metal Underground: New Orleans; Tire Fire is not crustpunk. “We hate crusties,” vocalist Matt Muscle told me at the Pentagram show. But whatever they are, it’s fierce and Matt is a madman on stage.

A Hanging

Hardcore band A Hanging has the rarity of being fronted by a woman. Before any male chauvinists start whining, their brutality is not compromised in the least. The blonde, tattooed vixen Alix growls like the best of them while guitarist Scorilla riffs along. Akin to Arch Enemy except more thrashy and extreme. A few crowd-pleasers are “Minotaur” and “Reason Vs Arson.” A Hanging is not content to sit and wait for notoriety; they play regularly around the city so that every metalhead here has an image of the band burned into their memory. Your memory can be burned by watching the video below. Visit A Hanging's Myspace for more information.

Flesh Parade

Flesh Parade has been very active lately, playing with Eyehategod, Crowbar and Exhorder to mention a few. This grindcore band has been around since the early 90s. Throughout lineup changes, breaks and record label mishaps, Flesh Parade is still together and still murdering the eardrums of the citizens of New Orleans with songs like “Bout Had It.” With four demos and an album under their belt, they will soon be releasing the full-length album “Dirty Sweet” sometime this year. A sample of their dizzying, blazing fast metal can be seen in the video below. Visit Flesh Parade's Myspace for more information.

The Great Void

The Great Void plays music that is hard to classify. Their style ranges from doomy sludge to death metal with moments of grind mixed in. But it all sounds good to me! They describe their sound as,” much like the food [in] N.O.L.A....it has a ‘lil dash of everything.” The Great Void plays constantly around the city; it’s hard to find a week that they aren’t playing somewhere. And through all of the shows, lineup changes and new faces couldn’t stop them. 2010 will probably see the band performing just as much with songs like “A Proverb Scrawled in Shadows.” A video of their performance can be seen below. Visit The Great Void's Myspace for more information.

See my first installment of Unearthing the Metal Underground: The New Orleans Scene for more New Orleans metal bands to check out.

Emily is an avid supporter of the New Orleans scene, often filming shows and conducting interviews with local bands to help promote their music. She also runs her own site dedicated to the New Orleans scene, Crescent City Chaos.