The search throughout Texas to discover the band that could possibly perform at heavy metal’s largest annual festival this summer finally yielded its Lone Star on Saturday night.
Hanna Barakat, a melodic metal quartet from Austin, reigned supreme at the Wacken Metal Battle state final inside its home venue Come And Take It Live, edging five candidates to advance to the national final Saturday, May 9, at The Viper Room in Los Angeles. The winner of that event will play Wacken Open Air from July 31-Aug. 2 in Germany.
Valkyrie was the lone Alamo City band represented in Austin after advancing, along with El Paso natives Texas Voodoo Stomp, out of the San Antonio regional Feb. 8 at Fitzgerald’s (coverage here). They were joined by Houston regional winners Gran Andes (who sing in Spanish) and metalcore act Of The Fallen, plus the other band to join Hanna Barakat out of the Austin regional, death-metal act Scrap Pile from Eagle Lake.
But ultimately, Hanna Barakat impressed the three judges the most (watch ATM Facebook Live footage of the announcement here and 58-photo slideshow below). Fueled by the group’s namesake and vocalist, Hanna Barakat released its debut album Siren last August and gained nearly a six-figure following on Facebook on the strength of the record being produced by Disturbed bassist and Austin native John Moyer.
Barakat, who graduated from the Berklee College of Music and spent time performing and honing her craft in Lebanon, joined guitarist Anthony Basini, bassist Ali Martin and drummer Lisa Fazenbaker in putting forth their best effort as each band was allotted 20 minutes to strut its stuff. Judge for yourself with ATM Facebook Live video of the title track here and below of “Wanting to go Home.”
The evening was already crazy enough given the ongoing fears of the global Coronavirus, which kept the turnout to 45-50 people at its peak. As if the dearth of humanity for this special event wasn’t enough, the worldwide issue’s staggering impact wasn’t lost on whoever was in charge of playing music between each band’s set, which included “Pandemic” by Accept, “The Virus of Life” by Slipknot, “Sick as a Dog” by Aerosmith and Disturbed’s “The Infection” (conspicuous by its absence was “Down With the Sickness”).
Bands performed alphabetically, so the crowd was even smaller when Gran Andes went on at 7 p.m. sharp. The Espanol-singing quartet was only able to fit in three songs during its veinte minutos, but got the evening off to a fine start on “Tu Mentira” and below on “Muriendo por Dentro.”
The night’s crunchier sounds were provided by Of The Fallen and the Pantera-influenced death-metal offerings of Scrap Pile. Meanwhile, the 10-band San Antonio regional, which was originally scheduled with 15 bands, had one of the largest regional contingents, and Texas Voodoo Stomp and Valkyrie demonstrated again how they earned their advancement to Austin.
The former group, easily the loudest band at Fitzgerald’s during the regional, vied for the same unofficial honor at Come And Take It Live behind tracks such as “Muddy Banks” and “Release Me” and the finale below of “The Walking Dead.” The group is fronted by singer/bassist Joe “Razor” Rodriguez of an even more well-known El Paso outfit Pissing Razors. Texas Voodoo Stomp literally stomped its way to deserved consideration of advancing to nationals with its raw, thunderous sound and musicianship. Hell, at the very least, the guys deserved a medal for making the 16-hour round trip on two separate occasions just to play 20 minutes apiece.
Valkyrie, of course, was not to be outdone in terms of storyline and ability to impress. The San Antonio natives struck gold at the regional by not only winning it but doing so despite that gig being the first time in 33 years vocalist Joe Gregory and guitarist Scott Stine shared the stage. Having recruited Under No one members in bassist Al Kelly and drummer Rich Gomez a little more than a year ago, Valkyrie gave Wacken a shot and advanced to state. The shrill of Stine’s guitar licks coupled with Gregory’s high-pitched screams can be seen on first three songs “Valkyrie, “Screams of the Aggressor” and “Reign of Violence” plus fourth song and finale “Choosers of the Slain” below. Valkryie is scheduled to play a regular set Friday, June 12 when it returns to Fitzgerald’s — epidemic notwithstanding (tickets here).
Had the state final, like the regionals, selected two bands to advance to the next round, Texas Voodoo Stomp and Valkyrie would’ve been hard pressed to beat in joining the eventual victors. But it doesn’t work that way. Each round of competition gets more difficult, and that’s when it’s time for each artist to let its allotted 20 minutes be the best set of its lives given what’s at stake.
While a little home cooking certainly didn’t hurt, Hanna Barakat proved to be the band that reaped the reward of its hard work. Their Wacken Metal Battle may only be half done. But in a contest that has seen most if not all of the state’s bands support one another in the midst of competition, Hanna Barakat can always claim bragging rights throughout Texas for 2020. And perhaps the chance to bring it on home — all the way to and from Deutschland.
