Saturday evening I headed out to Lola’s Saloon (2736 W 6th St) for the 817 Watts launch party, a new for-fans-by-fans magazine that is being put together by local photographer Kasi Daine. The magazine will be released monthly and cover the DFW music scene. It will feature reviews by local music fans, photographs from the photographers who attend the shows, and will be edited by Daine as well. Based on the lineup from Saturday, I expect the coverage to be metal as fuck, but I guess we will have to wait and see.
The launch party lineup included four of Fort Worth Weekly’s eight nominees for best heavy metal band, including Southern Train Gypsy, The Cosmic Trigger, Huffer, and winners Panic Volcanic. During her acceptance speech Sunday, frontwoman Ansley ‘The Destroyer’ Dougherty thanked “all the actual metal bands that were nominated,” begging the question, is Panic Volcanic really metal?
Even the three-piece’s sound check was badass on Saturday. It began with a bass and drums intro that continued until Dougherty jumped down from an amp in a catlike manner, grabbing the mic, cooing some haunting oohs to end the sound check. “Just a little preview,” she teased the crowd. The group immediately launched into “Johnny Rebel,” an up-tempo song that will be on the band’s next album.
No matter what you label them, the band definitely has a hard edge that has captured the attention of both metal and indie rock fans. Panic Volcanic’s sounds consist of primal, propulsive drumming from Chris Cole, wooly mammoth bass tones by Zach Tucker, and belting vocals from Dougherty. An audience member remarked that their song “Animal” reminded her of Sex Bob-Omb, the fictional band featured in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The band’s Dead Weather’s influence was apparent in their newest song, “Black Rooster.” The tune ended with all three band members harmonizing a cappella, showcasing their voices.
While the band has a mostly modern sound, you can also hear subtle classic rock influences in the vein of Deep Purple or Black Sabbath, pioneers of heavy metal throughout their set ––the three-piece covered those bands at the two most recent Fort Worth Rock Assemblies.
Regardless of what genre you place them in there are a few things you’re certain to experience at their shows: Panic Volcanic is heavy, there is always head banging involved especially by Dougherty, who once head banged her retina out of place. They are loud and will catch your attention. Not only is Dougherty a powerhouse vocalist, she also owns the stage interacting with Tucker and Cole in carefully constructed routines that draw attention to the talent of the two guys.
The band plays sans-guitar, but Tucker’s lead bass does an excellent job of filling the gaps. Because of their proclivity for straight-ahead, tight, dirty sex-rock, they don’t really need a guitar gumming up the gears of their rawk machine.
After Panic Volcanic’s set, I left the launch party for a while to go check out The Phantom Sensation and Holy Moly at the Aardvark and returned to Lola’s just in time to catch previous years’ heavy metal winner, Southern Train Gypsy. Now that is a band that is clearly metal with shredding guitar riffs and in-your-face vocals. I’ll save that review for another day.
But to answer my original question: Is Panic Volcanic heavy metal? Comparing them to heavy metal of the 1970s, sure. Today, maybe not. Or maybe, they’re just too complex to categorize and crossover a few different genres –– and that’s definitely a good thing.
