This isn't exactly new news, but we stumbled across the article on The Daily Beast and we just had to share. Even if you're repelled by the loudness and rawness of metal vocals/metal music in general, you're sure to get a kick out of Hatebeak. The band's frontman is a 25 year-old African Grey Parrot named Waldo.
Yeah, it's funny. But it also makes more sense than you might think. The species is noted for being able to mimic the human voice, and metal bands rarely require a stunning vocabulary. Waldo and his human backing band have released a number of tracks that will humor metal fans, including "Number of The Beak" and "The Thing That Should Not Beak." The band tends toward death in its instrumental approach, but Waldo's wide range of death growls, shrieks and rasps are 100 percent black metal.
Most of the "lyrics" are inaudible, but at one point during "The Thing That Should Not Beak," the word "Satan" is heard clearly. Pretty par for the course in extreme metal.
Fans seem to approve.
"You can tell the vocalist knows his s--t," wrote one commenter. "I just wish the band could get on his level."
Although that comment was probably meant in jest, the other members of Hatebeak do, in fact, "know their s--t." Guitarist/bassist Mark Sloan is an audio engineer, and drummer Blake Harrison also helms electronics for well-established Richmond grindcore group Pig Destroyer.
Alas, certainly biological factors mean that Hatebeak can't tour. Waldo records his vocals separately from the instrumentals because such high decibel levels would be "torture" for his ears, according to Harrison.
Better to have rocked and not toured than to have never rocked at all.
Check out the video for "The Thing That Should Not Beak" below.
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