Do you know: Coroza Posted: 14/06/2019 by Philip Morrissey
For those of you who know, Saturday marks the debut of Metal United Worldwide in Cork. For anyone unaware, this is an event which takes place around the globe on the very same day. Gigs are being hosted in various countries including Australia, Thailand, Brazil, USA, Indonesia, Poland, Albania, Mexico, China, Germany and many more.
The Irish of this event is due to take place in Cyprus Avenue on Saturday 15th from 1.PM on-wards. It is scheduled to be a huge show with many different bands performing at it. Some may be familiar to you. Some may not. Here is an introduction to the many bands due to lineup.
Building up a serious rep over the few two years has been Cork natives, Coroza. A ferocious work-rate, an extreme dedication to the riff, plus an incorporation of the best elements that the genre has to offer has impressed all of who has borne witness to them so far.
It all kicked off for them via a failed audition for a cover band. Ciaran Coghlan and Jonny Canning got together with a drummer and guitarist and set to work. Jack O’ Neill entered the fray shortly. A permanent drummer joined in the guise of Ollie Cunningham. This was following the recording of a well-received demo last year. The last piece of the jigsaw saw Tomas O’ Brien replace Canning on bass.
The name refers to a hat placed on the heads of heretics before being burned alive by the Spanish Inquisition. As the lads stated, “It just sounded interesting but means nothing. Ask most Spanish people and they won’t know what you’re talking about.”
They all stated to having fairly varied and diverse musical influences. “All 4 of us combined would be a pretty eclectic representation of music genres. We set out a rule early on to not to try and copy any one band’s sound. For our upcoming debut album, we jumped from stoner rock to doom to sludge and prog, as well as some blues.” Their commitment to the music is clear to see though. “One thing is certain in all that we do – try to craft the perfect set of riffs. Something that moves people and connects with them on a visceral level.”
Favourite/biggest shows so far?
Again, two shows stood out as being key for them. “Two that stand out would be Walpurgis in Galway and supporting Conan in Cork.” If Walpurgis is an up and coming fest in Ireland, The Siege is an institution. Many bands use it as their drop off point. “The Siege is a rite of passage for a lot of bands in the country and we collectively felt that we put on a good show and got some great feedback from that night.”
The Conan show above was one of those dream gigs to play and another is when they will support Slomatics in September. Not that they would turn down shows in the future with the bigger names. “A few just out of the blue that we would love to support would be Yob, Mastodon, Down, Sleep, High on Fire, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, Sumac, etc. We could go on for a long time.”
They are confident regarding the health of the stoner/doom genre. And huge praise was given to many of the bands operating here at home. “In Ireland, we’re lucky – we’ve got quite a few that stuck to their guns but again, put out an original sound. From fuzz-laden stoner bands like Slung From a Tree to other amalgamations of metal/sludge/doom and punk/crust like Zhora, Ten Ton Slug, The Magnapinna, Tooms, Steiner, Iona Death Cult, etc, etc. We’re all in a good place.”
Unsurprisingly, they are extremely keen on the concept of this event coming up. “Metal United Worldwide is an excellent opportunity for each participating country to showcase the incredible bands they have operating within their borders. It’s also a way to show that with heavy metal – borders really mean fuck all. We’re all in this together – each scene is built up of people who all need each other to survive and to struggle with – it doesn’t matter what sub-genre of metal you’re into – if you love heavy metal then you are among some of the best people in a growing community and all of us are here to watch bands rip up stages, head bang and forget our 9-5 jobs and all of our problems.”
They are looking forward to seeing all the bands in question but some in particular. “We may be biased here as we’ve played with all them before at one point or another – are Mendicant, Slung From a Tree, Elder Druid, God Alone and ZhOra. We know them, we’ve shared stages to them, and we love all their music.”
There is plenty on the horizon for the band to look forward to. “We’ve got our debut album, ‘Chaliceburner’, coming out in the next few weeks – we’re still ironing out the finer details. We’ll be playing with Elder Druid, Tooms and Iona Death Cult on June 28th in Fibber Magees and on October 19th we’ll be supporting Slomatics with Wild Rocket and Grey Stag in An Spailpin Fanach. We have a few other plans that we’ll no doubt be announcing in the near future too – so stay tuned.”
Coroza are set to come on at 16:45, just after the break. Lets hope that you are all suitably refreshed for the juggernaut to hit the stage.
https://www.facebook.com/CorozaBand/
https://coroza.bandcamp.com/releases
