“There’s an electricity that happens in your body when you hear a great song, a great lyric, a great riff. It rings down to your soul, changes your DNA, and vibrates you for the rest of your life. There are songs that you remember like a first kiss, a well-cooked meal, or a perfect sunrise.” That’s how Chip from Florida’s No Coffin describes the songs that made him into the metalhead he is today. I don’t think there could be a more perfect way of describing that electrifying feeling, especially when it’s metal you’re discovering.
He goes on to say, “As metalheads, what tends to unify us is our path into metal, something special captured our attention at the right age, and it’s something we’ve carried with us every day. Music is wild, music is the last real magic on earth. We all have similar stories of gatewaying in with a Metallica riff, before bumping Slayer, and later on main-veining insert ‘obscure death metal band of choice’.”
When thinking about the songs that made us into the metalheads we are today, they might not always be what we started with. This week, Chip skips over the mainstream songs that got him through the door, and shares the 5 milestone tracks that contributed to his metal evolution.
5 Songs That Made Me A Metalhead: Chip From No Coffin & Cowards And Thieves
Don’t forget to listen along with today’s episode of The Versatile Virgo Podcast.
“Wolverine Blues” – Entombed (1993)
From 1993’s Wolverine Blues
“A year prior [to this], X-Men the Animated Series came out. I’m just around 10 years old, and this wild video with Wolverine comes on during the music video segment of Beavis and Butthead. [It was] pictures of Wolverine chopping dudes in half, with the wildest looking band I’ve ever seen. (I also bought Drake’s Cakes + Pizza Hut due to the same marketing strategy). Within a few months of that, I stumbled across a copy of Wolverine Blues at Sam Goody. I grabbed it, played it, and hated it because there was too much yelling. 19 years later in 2012, my best friends in Homestretch(Miami) covered that song, bringing my entire life full circle. For our EP ‘All Life Must End’, we entirely ripped off the intro to this to write “.45″.
“I Died Twenty Times In 1986” – Rifles at Recess
From 2003’s To Whisper In Tongues
“In 2001, I was super [into] rap metal before stumbling into a wild hardcore fest known as Furnace Fest in Alabama. That was my transition into hardcore / metalcore (but that good metalcore). This record bangs hard as fuck, its the best part of both worlds, exaggerated leads, heavy chug parts, wild vocal range, loud parts into quiet parts, and breakdowns slathered across the entire record. Everything is in good taste, and I think this is an underheard record for that early 2000’s metalcore genre. From Rifles, we stole that part into part into part mentality.”
“Falling Unknown” – Neurosis
From 2001’s A Sun That Never Sets
“My buddy gave me a copy of Times of Grace in 1999 and I hated it, later opting to go watch Coal Chamber that Ozzfest instead of Neurosis. Around 2010, I was falling out of love with hardcore and metal, and was looking for something new. Doom really filled that void. In 2010, I started a doom band, and A Sun that Never Sets was one of the first records I found during that time. Every song on the record tells a story through its musicality and lyrics. Later tracks on the record begin to subvert the listener by sounding like the “tape” is literally falling apart on the track. Very cool record. A lot of the instincts on this record reflect into No Coffin to make all tracks feel part of a whole, even though we only present 10 minutes of music at a time.”
“Abandon All Life” – Nails
But really, the entire record. From 2013’s Abandon All Life
“Nails bangs hard. Three loud-ass humans and short songs with urgency. Everyone should learn a lesson from Nails.”
“Apparations of Gloom” – Worm
From 2020’s Gloomlord
“Grabbed this tape from Technique Records in Miami just cause the cover looked death-metal-as fuck. Turns out they’re from Florida. Florida is the metal capital of earth. I’m sure other places bang hard, but Florida is entirely its own thing. This record plays like a horror movie. If you see a copy of this in the wild, please grab it.”
Where To Find Chip & Listen To No Coffin
Chip plays bass and “does yelling” for the bands No Coffin and Cowards and Thieves. Both bands have records coming out in 2021. In the meantime, stream No Coffin’s 2020 debut EP Ugly, Broke, Decayed or order a tape copy here. And don’t forget to follow No Coffin on Instagram, so you won’t miss out on future releases.
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