Wacken Metal Battle USA Winner… Corpse Hoarder!
For those that need a refresher — since it has been a couple of weeks after all — the final round of the inaugural Wacken Metal Battle USA was this past weekend (May 20th) down in Philadelphia. The event took place at the Whiskey Tango and featured Philadelphia-based finalists Corpse Hoarder and Power Theory, while Boston was represented by Goblet and Upheaval. Well, after numerous regional rounds featuring a wide variety of impressive local metal, the time has come to celebrate the victor. Let us all congratulate Corpse Hoarder on winning their spot at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival later this summer!
The regional rounds of this competition began over three months ago, so the fact that this has been an extensive journey for all who managed to make the finals goes without saying. Every artist that performed in this competition has done something groundbreaking and has reason to be proud… but today it’s time to celebrate the winner. While it would have been nice to see Boston represented at Wacken (because I’m a homer in at least that sense), there is no doubt that Corpse Hoarder was fully deserving of this opportunity. Having witnessed the international Wacken Metal Battle in person back in 2014 under one of those massive Wacken “tents”, the hard work and effort will surely prove worthwhile once they take that stage in August, if it hasn’t already (it probably has).
How about a little background on our winners? If you aren’t already familiar with the death metal/grind group out of the Philly, cruising over to their Facebook page and noticing the Rolling Rock and Jameson right off the bat should put them in good standing immediately. Power and energy, some fun and plenty of brutality… these themes create the onslaught that they bring to their music. But you don’t need take my word for it, the Bandcamp link can be found below. I’m not personally the biggest fan of these particular metal genres, but there is more than enough to enjoy in what these guys have put together over the years. They’ve been around since late 2012, so the experience is certainly there and can be uncovered in the form of a 2014 demo, 2015’s full length, and plenty of live performances throughout. Check out “Release The Hounds” below and you’ll understand how this take on extreme metal certainly deserves a spot among the Wacken ranks this coming summer.
To wrap up this competition on a more note, I would like to express how incredible it is to not only have this competition branch out to the United States, but to be involved in the coverage as well. You all know my appreciation for the European giants of the metal festival world, and there is none bigger or better than Wacken. Attending it as a fan was an experience like no other, so I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to take one of those many stages as an artist. Wacken Metal Battle USA was a blast to cover and follow through these early stages of 2017 and it’s a bit of a bummer to see it already reaching its conclusion. Good news though! It looks like the competition will reach our shores again in 2018, and I’m obviously already excited about it. But before we get ahead of ourselves too much, let’s take this last chance to say congrats to Corpse Hoarder one more time. We all look forward to hearing about your destruction of Wacken 2017… best of luck in your travels ahead!