R.I.P. Will Mecum of Karma to Burn
Posted in Features on May 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
After crisscrossing rumors and speculation, the April 29 passing of founding Karma to Burn guitarist Will Mecum has been confirmed. Mecum suffered a fall and resultant head injury. His death — even before it actually happened — has caused and outcry of tributes and love that only emphasize the community to which he and his work were so important.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and Karma to Burn were the straightest line to heavy rock and roll one could imagine. Between 1994 and 2014, the Morgantown, West Virginia-based outfit would release some seven full-lengths, including a re-recording of their first. Their influence, like their final lineup, was international, but the band always maintained a forwardness of their approach — instrumental, with Mecum on stage, his hat pulled down over his eyes, hitting it hard — nothin’ too fancy, in a great Appalachian folk tradition embodied no less by the working class riffs that, titled largely by number, populated their records.
The band had this to say about Mecum’s passing:
Dear friends, we come with very heavy hearts to tell you that Will Mecum is no longer with us. Earlier this week, Will suffered a traumatic head injury from an accidental fall. On the evening of April 29th, Will passed on to the next realm. His spirit will live on through his music, and as an organ donor his spirit will live through others who may need help. Words cannot describe how much we appreciated the amount of love and support all of you showed the band throughout the years, it was truly an honor to share the experience of celebrating Will’s riffs all over the world. Rest in Power, Will.
Karma to Burn made their debut in 1997 with their self-titled album, and the transition the band underwent between that record and 1999’s landmark Wild Wonderful Purgatory might be the most enduring key to their legacy and influence. Fronted by Jay Jarosz at the behest of Roadrunner Records, Mecum, then-bassist Rich Mullins and then-drummer Rob Oswald jettisoned their singer and decided on no permanent replacement. Over the years they would flirt with various vocalists, including John Garcia (ex-Kyuss, etc.), Daniel Davies of Year Long Disaster, and others, but when they took the stage and for the vast bulk of their recorded work, they were instrumental. Pointedly so.
And in that, they did no less than set forth a blueprint of how to do heavy rock without a singer that others continue to build on more than 20 years later. Karma to Burn became the model for others to follow, and many have. The band ceased activity for a few years after their third album, 2001’s Almost Heathen, but returned in 2009 following the success of their Mountain Mamas box set and rededicated themselves to the cause of writing music and touring, resulting in 2010’s declarative Appalachian Incantation, 2011’s V and 2012’s Slight Reprise, the latter a prior-alluded fully instrumental redux of their self-titled debut.
That string of records set them on tour for years, largely in Europe. They would also issue a string of splits with friends and tour mates, including Sons of Alpha Centauri (three splits, in fact, recently compiled into a box set) and ÖfÖ Am, as well as live records, a self-titled EP on Heavy Psych Sounds, work with the side-project Treasure Cat and what would be Karma to Burn’s final full-length, 2014’s Arch Stanton. Their most recent release, Thee Rabbit Hole, brought the band full circle in remixing and remastering their earliest demos circa 1995.
H42 Records’ Juergen Berndt, who released the outing, said of Mecum, “Got to know Will since 2014 and got in contact with him while working on the first split 7” together with Nick [Hannon] from Sons Of Alpha Centauri. Three more and a compilation box followed in the last seven years. In the last few months I phoned a lot with Will ’cause working on the album Thee Rabbit Hole (released April 2nd). Of course sometimes it was difficult to work with him when it came to production/art questions but at the end he never put himself in the foreground and at least you just couldn’t be angry with him. I will remember that he had a very special sense of humor, sometimes mostly naturally under the belt line.”
The final incarnation of Karma to Burn continued to tour, featuring Mecum alongside drummer Evan Devine and bassist Eric Clutter, and their status and influence met the waiting eyes and ears of a new generation of fans at club dates and festivals alike. Through it all, the band remained singularly humble — treasured by an international underground fanbase but largely unknown outside those circles — and set themselves to the work that needed to be done.
Mecum is a standalone figure in underground heavy and his contributions will continue to ripple out across generations of artists and listeners. On behalf of myself and this site, I offer condolences to his friends, family, bandmates, and all who knew him. He will be and already is missed.
