Saturday, March 15, 2008

CANINUS - Dogs Sing Heavy Metal

Caninus are a Brooklyn based metal band who say about their music: "Vocals are executed by two pit bull terriers. Both were rescued days before euthanization from refuges. Caninus - all strict vegans. It has come time really to allow the animals to have their say."

Caninus: "Victim In Pain"

Metal is funny. I didn't used to think so. I used to hate it as a kid before eventually realizing how hilariously kitschy much of it is and started enjoying it on that level. Of course, I wasn't the first - metal has to be the most satirized music in history. But most metal satire isn't, like "Spinal Tap," focused on the music. It's target is the fans. Think "Beavis & Butthead," "Wayne's World," "Bill & Ted" etc. And that is key to metal's camp appeal - the fans take it so seriously. Anyone else who samples dog barks would just play it like a goofy novelty record, like the Singing Dog's "Jingle Bells." But the utter sincerity of headbangers, the straight-faced psuedo-political justification of something so ridiculous - now THAT'S funny!

Caninus: "United States of Emergency"
Caninus: "Brindle Is As Brindle Does"

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha, this is great.

As someone who never bothered to investigate metal deep enough to find the funny stuff, is there anything else yuk-worthy out there that you can recommend, fab?

Mr Fab said...

"Black Funeral" - Mercyful Fate. Actually anything by Mercyful Fate is pretty hilarious.

"God of Thunder" - Kiss

"O.F.R." by Nitro is so great but I can't find a copy.

Anonymous said...

Hey now, dont front on Mercyful Fate. Nobody sings about grandmothers harder than King Diamond. On the topic of "yuk worthy metal" I would have to recommend Cookie Mongoloid. Crotchduster is also quite funny, but not in an ironic way. On the topic of bands with animal vocalists, be sure to check out Hatebeak. The lead singer is an African Grey parrot.

Unknown said...

if you love caninus, you'll love hatebeak. i remember anxiously awaiting the first caninus album, but then finding the hatebeak 10" and getting immediately distracted.

Mr Fab said...

hatebeak are great! thanks guys, I smell a future m4m post ahead....

Andrew Christopher said...

This is brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Huge metal head here. Caninus really got me good. I swore I wouldn't sit at the comp all day doing this, but here I am. Thanks for posting!