Maryland heavy genremelders High Noon Kahuna released their debut album, Killing Spree (review here), last November. The new video for “Danger Noodle,” the second cut on the record, presents a cautionary tale of what happens when religious fanatics handle their serpents in traffic — and no, that’s not euphemism. Snake-handling as a religious practice is mostly a US thing, more specifically mostly an Appalachian thing, and of course has been somewhat exaggerated in terms of the numbers of people who actually do it, but that’s only because it’s so fascinating and seemingly random. Yeah, I know there’s a snake in the Bible who’s kind of a big deal. But there are lots of animals. Remember Noah?

Nonetheless, somehow snakes are the thing, and to be perfectly honest with you I’m too terrified of American religious culture to dive into why that happens — presumably something about the devil and rugged individualism — but if it makes people feel special for five minutes out of their day, well, the rest of life can be pretty crushing and miserable, so I won’t say I don’t understand being part of a weirdo community with practices that seem odd to outsiders either as I’ve worn a black t-shirt almost every day of my life for at least the last 25 years and I woke up at 4AM to start writing this post. Religion, whatever you worship and however you practice, dogma or not, is bizarre. You ever read about what happens in the brains of people speaking in tongues?

So yes, sometimes faith comes back to bite you, be it in unresolved trauma or with literal teeth. Made by Chaos Cartoon and Design, the “Danger Noodle” clip reminds of this and offers as well a chance to dig back into Killing Spree as a whole, which was the proverbial ‘these guys are onto something’ debut album tucked away amid the onslaught of releases late last year, the band combing a desert of sound and finding remnants of black metal, surf rock, heavy riffing and shover-prog in order to attain some individualism — rugged, of course — of their own amid a flood of acts. Their pedigree in bands like Internal Void, Akris and Admiral Browning is welcome context, but High Noon Kahuna‘s style is something else almost entirely, and as “Danger Noodle” shows, their approach is loaded with potential. With a sound that stretches so far and stays cohesive, they can go just about wherever they want, and they do on the record, from the almost Kylesa-esque jabbing rhythm of “Parachute” to the low-end fuzz that precedes the freakout in the second half of closer “Sand Storm.”

It is my sincere hope that Paul Cogle, Tim Otis and Brian Goad keep the band going, and continue to explore outward from the foundation they’ve constructed; as intentionally wobbly as it can seem in places, that’s the point. The record’s only 34 minutes long and if you haven’t heard it, please consider this gentle encouragement to dig in (the Bandcamp stream is down there somewhere) after you watch the video. They’ve got live dates coming up as well, including playing a VHS expo in Hagerstown, MD, which fits somehow.

Enjoy:

High Noon Kahuna on “Danger Noodle”:

We have always loved the irony that one of the most poisonous creatures on earth can be given such a cute name.

Lyrically, the song speaks of the dangers of obsession; be it money, religion, or power.

We have been friends with Troy at Chaos Cartoon and Design for a long time. When he approached us about doing an animated video we got very excited. We briefly discussed Serpent Handling factions of Christianity and shared a few gory images of preachers who were bit. Mostly those of Cody Coots from Kentucky, there is an amazingly violent video of him getting bit on youtube. Troy took it from there!

High Noon Kahuna is a trio of veteran heavy music musicians based in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. region of Frederick, Maryland. With Tim Otis on guitar (Admiral Browning / Akris), Brian Goad on Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys), and Paul Cogle on Bass and Vocals (Akris / Black Blizzard).

HIGH NOON KAHUNA – Live shows:
– March 25 – Frederick MD – Cafe 611
– April 23 – Hagerstown MD – Captian Adam’s VHS Pirate Ship VHS EXPO
– May 6 – Frederick MD – Olde Mother Brewing Company
MINI-SPREE-TOUR:
– May 25 – Harrisonburg VA – Crayola House
– May 26 – Asheville NC – Shakeys
– May 27 – Marryville TN – The Bird & The Book
– May 28 – Lexington KY – The Green Lantern Bar

High Noon Kahuna:
Tim Otis: Guitar
Brian Goad: Drums
Paul Cogle: Bass / Vocals

High Noon Kahuna, Killing Spree (2022)

High Noon Kahuna on Linktree

High Noon Kahuna on Bandcamp

High Noon Kahuna on Facebook

High Noon Kahuna on Instagram

High Noon Kahuna on Twitter

High Noon Kahuna on YouTube

Frederick, Maryland-based trio High Noon Kahuna self-release their debut full-length, Killing Spree, this Friday, Nov. 18, and yes, the headline here is the stylistic blend. If you find yourself thinking something along the lines of “Morricone-infused heavy black metal surf punk? really?” and wondering if such a thing could exist, the answer is a resounding “sure.” Come on, it’s the year 3000 or some such. We’ve got all kinds of crazy shit now.

The real story of High Noon Kahuna isn’t so much that they did the thing in terms of mixing disparate styles, but that they did it and made it work. And in what’s probably a fortunate turn for them, the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Paul Cogle (Nagato, Akris, Black Blizzard), drummer Brian Goad (Nagato, Internal Void) and guitarist Tim Otis (Admiral Browning, Akris) are less experimental and less outwardly wacky in their presentation than one might think. That is, Killing Spree, which runs six tracks and 34 minutes, nine of which are dedicated to closer “Sandstorm” alone, is surprisingly light on chicanery. But that turns out to be the key. Perhaps the band was born out of a desire to do something different, to find a niche to which no one had yet laid claim, and their success in across these songs is as inarguable as Cogle‘s rumble beneath the Dick–Dale-but-from-Norway guitar line of “Sharktooth,” but if they had come out of the gate with some asshat goofball nonsense, in all likelihood, Killing Spree would’ve fallen flat. It very much does not.

Now, I’m not about to accuse High Noon Kahuna of taking themselves too seriously — even their moniker makes doing so idea ridiculous, let alone the music — but going into the album, opening cut “Parachute” makes it clear at the outset these songs are not a joke. Frenzied and shouting over its tense verse in a way that’s post-hardcore in the way Kylesa was, the lead track informs the audience, crucially, that they mean it. And “Danger Noodle,” which follows immediately, is an album highlight that rises from its initial fade to chart a way forward for the band as a whole in its clearheaded stylistic blend. With Satyricon-style swing-riffing at its foundation, it nails the balance of tone and rhythm, and in another context could probably be positioned as goth or high-art post-punk or some such critical wonder, but as is still sets itself on fire with its late guitar solo and cares less for where you put it than for its own declarations, which are resonant. The aforementioned “Sharktooth,” in instrumentalist fashion, leans toward the surf aspect and plays a bit with effects in the second half, but stays on target ultimately and is shortly over three minutes long like a classic 45RPM on a juke box in your alternate reality malt shop. All nostalgia is false nostalgia anyway; you might as well change the past.

There’s an element of shimmer in Otis‘ guitar throughout “Another Way Around,” which feels born of ’90s punk and maybe even a bit of alt-rock and runs a current of distortion almost as a drone line beneath its brighter melodic verses, which seem to answer “Danger Noodle” in showing a bit of influence from Michael Rudolph Cummings of Backwoods Payback — or else they just both really like Neil Young — while the penultimate “Black Lodge” takes hold with a broader seven-minute runtime in lead-up to the band’s finishing move, taking its guitar line for a swaggering walk early in surfly meander while gradually building toward the noisier assault that resolves in intertwining layers of feedback. And when “Sandstorm” arrives, it does so in a hurry of call and response guitar and bass leading into its verse, coherent like “Another Way Around” and less about mashing these (somewhat; because let’s be honest, we’re still basically talking about things-you-can-do-with-guitar here) differing aesthetics together one into the next than creating a genuine meld from them and coming out of it with something individual.

The first movement of “Sandstorm” culminates shortly before four minutes in — more feedback! — and High Noon Kahuna harness big-slowdown doomly crashes for a couple minutes before Otis squiggles out the guitar over the lumbering. The noise is the last thing to go and there’s plenty of it, but it’s important to note that even as Killing Spree seems to be setting the parameters of who High Noon Kahuna are as a band, it’s also willing to bend its own rules. What should be taken away from that is the sense that Killing Spree isn’t a one-off so much as the beginning of a larger creative progression. One never knows for certain what the future will bring, but even in their instrumental stretches, High Noon Kahuna seem to have more to say and in addition to everything else they accomplish in these tracks, the sense that they’re interested in exploring further comes through plainly.

To bottom line it for you — because we’re just about there — there are two things you need to know. One, the band isn’t a joke. Two, they pull it off. I’ll not predict where they might go from here, end up in terms of sound or songwriting or style or anything else, but not knowing that is part of what makes the material so exciting, since the potential avenues spread out like the stinging tentacles of some giant prehistoric jellyfish. Weirdness über alles. Not universal in its appeal, but searching to commune with fellow open minds.

Give it a shot and see where you land. You can stream Killing Spree on the player below. If you do and have any thoughts either way, I’d love to know about it in the comments. Thanks for your time.

And please enjoy:

High Noon Kahuna on Killing Spree:

“While difficult to characterize, the High Noon Kahuna sound is a 100% organic blend of influences from Surf, Noise, Punk, Western, Shoegaze, Black Metal, and Doom. Our vibe formed naturally via freestyle jamming and has grown into its own unique force. We are so excited to release these jams to the world! We love what we do and hope you will, too.

We’d also like to thank our team (who are absolute professionals in their field) Kevin Burnsten from Developing Nations, James Plotkin from Plotkinworks, Leanne Ridgeway from Mettle Media PR, and the unbelievable art of Jon Moser, who all helped make this dream a reality!”

Preorder link: https://highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com/album/killing-spree

–Links for the credits in the quote:
https://www.instagram.com/developing_nations/
https://www.plotkinworks.com/
http://www.mettlemediapr.com/
https://www.jonmoserjraws.com/

High Noon Kahuna is a trio of veteran heavy music musicians based in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. region of Frederick, Maryland. With Tim Otis on guitar (Admiral Browning / Akris), Brian Goad on Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys), and Paul Cogle on Bass and Vocals (Akris / Black Blizzard).

With the vivid cover art created by Jon Moser, ‘Killing Spree’ was recorded in the Spring of 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland, at Developing Nations by Kevin Burnsten. Mastering was done by James Plotkin at Plotkin Works.

Killing Spree – Tracklist:
01. Parachute
02. Danger Noodle
03. Shark Tooth
04. Another Way Around
05. Black Lodge
06. Sandstorm

High Noon Kahuna:
Tim Otis: Guitar
Brian Goad: Drums
Paul Cogle: Bass / Vocals

High Noon Kahuna on Linktree

High Noon Kahuna on Bandcamp

High Noon Kahuna on Facebook

High Noon Kahuna on Instagram

High Noon Kahuna on Twitter

High Noon Kahuna on YouTube

New stuff out of Frederick, Maryland’s ever-vital underground in the form of High Noon Kahuna upcoming debut full-length, Killing Spree. Tim Otis and Paul Cogle have circled each other for years on show and festival bills as members of Akris, Admiral Browning, Black Blizzard, and others, and together with Brian Goad of Internal Void — also Nagato with Cogle — their coming together feels organic in a bound-to-happen kind of way, and High Noon Kahuna‘s sound is suitably nuanced around a heavy rock foundation. These dudes have been at it long enough, together or not, that to expect something individual here is not at all unreasonable, especially given pedigree.

They’re streaming “Another Way Around” — it boggles the mind how you don’t automatically make a song called “Danger Noodle” your lead single; not a marketing major in the bunch — now ahead of the release on Nov. 18, and preorders are, of course, a thing. The PR wire brought the following, because who else would:

HIGH NOON KAHUNA Shares Details Of Upcoming ‘Killing Spree’ Album

High Noon Kahuna is a trio of veteran heavy music musicians based in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. region of Frederick, Maryland. With Tim Otis on guitar (Admiral Browning / Akris), Brian Goad on Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys), and Paul Cogle on Bass and Vocals (Akris / Black Blizzard).

These three cats have been acquainted for many years and, throughout their accord, have consistently supported each other in all their various bands. At the onset of 2022, this crew found themselves with the fortunate opportunity to jam.

And jam, they absolutely did! When like-minded musicians converge, something mystical happens. By bringing years of influence and admiration for all musical genres, High Noon Kahuna has created an unusual style that disobeys the rule of music categorization. Drawing on influences from Surf, Noise, Punk, Western, Shoegaze, Black Metal, and Doom, it’s hard to confine the diversity into a specific box at any given moment.

With their new release, ‘Killing Spree,’ due out November 18th of this year, the band fuses a collective sound from noisy and fuzzy to clean and sparkly, with every gleam in between.

Killing Spree – Tracklist:

01. Parachute
02. Danger Noodle
03. Shark Tooth
04. Another Way Around
05. Black Lodge
06. Sandstorm

With the vivid cover art created by Jon Moser, ‘Killing Spree’ was recorded in the Spring of 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland, at Developing Nations by Kevin Burnsten. Mastering was done by James Plotkin at Plotkin Works.

Have a listen to the first single, “Another Way Around,” from the Killing Spree album and pre-order now via Bandcamp: highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com

Out November 18th, 2022.

High Noon Kahuna:
Tim Otis: Guitar
Brian Goad: Drums
Paul Cogle: Bass / Vocals

https://linktr.ee/highnoonkahuna
https://highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HighNoonKahuna/
https://www.instagram.com/highnoonkahuna/
https://twitter.com/HighNoonKahuna

High Noon Kahuna, Killing Spree (2022)