Chosen by Monk
Well, it looks like the rays of light at the end of the dark tunnel that has been the past 13 months of isolation and generally being shit upon from great heights may be growing brighter day by day, with the vaccination programme being rolled out with increasing pace and the various roadmaps seeming to actually present some form of direction and pathway back to at least a semblance of the normality we enjoyed before the pandemic wrecked chaos on our collective and individual lives.
But, despite all the doom and gloom which has prevailed upon us over the past year and a bit, one positive has remained constant – and that is the amount of terrific new music which has come our way, as artists the length and breadth of the Überverse rise to the challenge of entertaining us and raising our spirits higher than the International Space Station at the peak of its orbit… And there definitely is the promise of plenty more to come, if the inbox here at ÜRHQ is anything to go by…
In that context, as the rock ‘n’ roll year that is 2021 enters its second quarter, with its DMs firmly planted in the mire and muck of the chaos around it, there has been a healthy slew of new music pinging itself our way, and especially the continuing tsunami of submissions we receive for our coveted ‘Video Of The Week’ award… Yes, another constant throughout the vagaries of inconsistent and often hard to stomach lockdowns is the amazing level of adaptive creativity that bands and video directors have continued to show, often in the most adverse of circumstances.
After viewing all of the entries – and,yes, we did watch each and every one of the almost 200 submissions we received this past week alone – at the end of the day (or night, depending on where you are in the Überverse), there could be only one winner… And this week’s champion of champions comes from a band who are making it a hat-trick of VOTW accolades – a band always guaranteed to bring smiles and grimaces to our faces in equal measure… We are, of course, talking about Italian parody metallers Nanowar Of Steel, and their latest hysterical offering…
Having earlier this year announced that they were eschewing their traditional power metal sound to transform themselves into a “boy band”, they’ve now decided that it’s a much better idea to return to their roots, and they do so in truly (in)glorious style with a single that can only be described as a tribute to that most maligned of childhood favourite foodstuffs, the humble fish finger, in the form of this rambunctious glorification of the man responsible for making them such a stable of our dinner tables for generations, the seemingly ageless Captain Birdseye – or Capitan Findus as he is called in Italy. The song is actually performed entirely in German (in which the cod captain’s name translates as Kaptn Iglo) by NoS bassist Gatto Panceri 666, who told us a bit more about the track, which is taken from their forthcoming ‘Italian Folk Metal’ album, being released via Napalm Records on 2 July:
“We sailed long and hard throughout the seven seas to tell you the story of the most merciless, the most terrific, the most crispy and crunchy pirate that ever lived: Capitan Findus/Kaptn Iglo! Are you ready to fry a school of cod, grill some shrimps and roast a salmon with us on our quest for a treasure wrapped in golden breadcrumbs?”
Well, there you go. That’s our latest ‘Video Of The Week’ winner in what promises to be another traumatic year for the music business. But, as ever, we at ÜRHQ will continue to do our best to shine a light into your darker corners by bringing the brightest new rock ‘n’ roll sounds to lighten your mood and uplift your soul. So, until next week, #StayAtHome, #KeepTheMusicAlive, #CrankItUp and #StayTheFuckSafe…
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