If you have more brain cells than some of the riffs on this record, then you may have noticed Aaron Bruno, the face of AWOLNATION that produced that one hit ‘Sail’, is part of the heavy as fuck band The Barbarians of California. Capitalisation of band, record and song titles going forward is key to note here once you take in 10 seconds of the brutality. Joining forces with his longtime engineer Eric Steinman, they brought THE BARBARIANS to life, and with this, their second record and tours supporting the likes of Deftones proving that amongst the silliness they should be taken seriously.
‘BACK TO THE VALLEY’ takes you straight in with heaviness… “heavy” is an obliteratedly overused word in rock, so replace that with “thickness”. This is the first thick chapter of a densely populated novel. The population being riffs and good times. The latter being brought by cheeky additional vocal parts here and lyrics like “I’m the greatest you have ever known.” And we are only one song in to this epic. They certainly set the scene for the MEGATONS of confidence on the record.
Never missing a beat or letting you up for air, THE BARBARIANS hit you with four singles that led to the release, each one hitting you to the head with “the weight of this song” as referenced in ‘THE GNARLYCORE CLASS’. A tongue in cheek look at capitalism and society quickly follows in an uppercut with ‘VANILLA LATTE’ with “People drinking vanilla lattes making big decisions”. A definite dig at the ‘suits’ in this world.
‘BOMB TO A KNIFE FIGHT’ sounds exactly as hard as its title, yet somehow you will be singing “put a hat on” for weeks after due to the outrageous hook. Whilst “REALLY REALLY RAD” really is that rad when they flip from riffs to electro disco, emphasising the ridiculousness. ‘EARTHQUAKE’ is like Gojira but if played by a bunch of gym bros with a protein shake in hand. Shouting “EARTHQUAKE EARTHQUAKE EARTHQUAKE, YEAH!” but somehow not sounding totally ridiculous. There is something behind all of this outrageousness that brings it all together to make it cohesive and not a gimmick.
More hijinks on ‘THIS IS SHREDICAL’ (what a song title) is filled with what can only be described as a nod to Mario, surely, with “Wahoos!” throughout. ‘SHARK OUT OF WATER’ is the only reprieve really from the chaos. A nod to all of those classic rock or heavy metal bands that pop in an acoustic track towards the end of a record. It fits perfectly before the closer ‘I AM THE SUBMARINE’ with a marching drum beat, moving into that rock ‘n’ roll 4/4 beat from the 80s whilst you imagine the drummer stick twirling, asking the crowd to clap along.
THE BARBARIANS don’t dress like your standard hard hitting metal or hardcore band, and why should they? They let the music talk rather than their modern fashion. This is not necessarily something breaking the mould, but why should that matter when you could be laying hundreds of pounds of TNT and setting off a large enough explosion to take down the Golden Gate Bridge? Now go smash something to ‘Sail’ by AWOLNATION while you listen to this (you know the one, from that Vine video).