Haggard Wulf are a 2-piece band from Morgantown, West Virginia and before you ask how can a punk band rock out with only two members, well, they're a mix of rockabilly and blues with a punk punch. One member of the band, Frank Gunner, is the main vocals who also takes care of the drums and his pal Leeroy Jenkins does backing vocals with the guitar. They have toured with and opened for bands such as Deniz Tek, Joe Buck, and Guttermouth across the nation, as well as touring with different regional bands. This LP was released on the 21st of August, so it's a very new mix of stuff from the band.
The LP plays around 12 minutes, with a couple of 1 minute songs added in there. Overall, it has a very rockabilly, country, blues, and garage rock theme with some splashes of punk rock every now and then. It's still quite a heavy LP, and don't let the country guitar playing fool you, it's sort of like listening to Radiohead, you get some moody feelings and shit when you listen to this. Their opening song, "You Come To Us" opens with a bluesy riff that is obviously influenced by American traditional folk music. The vocals follow up the same way, and lead up to a heavy loaded chorus akin to Metallica's. I liked the screaming vocals because it transformed the song from an awkward folk song to a fully rocking, metal mixed with blues one. If you like punk music however, you might be a little disappointed. Besides the vocalist's liberality when he sings, often letting some parts go loose like in many punk bands, and the thrashy breakthrough riffs, this is at most- a blues dominating punk track.
If you like blues music and even enjoy a little garage rock and country music, I think this LP is like a solid mix of all of these and brings a lot of these genres to the table. It's hard to place a finger on the genre of Haggard Wulf, but i'd say if you like punk music but you might feel a little tired of hearing the same sounds- Mourningside will make you feel a little new again. Check it out, it's kick ass! |