SpiritWorld and Creeping Death Crashing Into HQ Wednesday

Somewhere south of heaven and east of hell, a band called SpiritWorld is dispelling what it means to be a metal band in 2022. Wrapped up in Western imagery, from pearl snap shirts to cowboy hats, the Las Vegas outfit looks more country than anything at first glance – especially with Eddy Arnold’s “Cattle Call” always signaling the start of a proper SpiritWorld set.

But after that ditty is done, what follows is straight-up metal. “We’re playing Eddy Arnold’s ‘Cattle Call’ at all these thrash shows and shit, then we come out and people have no idea,” says frontman Stu Folsom. “They think we’re going to be a mariachi band. Usually a couple songs into the set you start seeing people be like, ‘I don’t know what this is, but I’m fucking digging it.’ Like, ‘This band is hard as fuck.'”

Folsom’s vision of the self-described “death Western” band is certainly one of a kind in a subgenre saturated with brooding dudes in vintage long-sleeves.

“The main thing is I’m just trying to tap into all my favorite heavy music,” Folsom says, professing his affinity for punk rock and hardcore, 1990s thrash from Slayer and Sepultura, and Florida death metal from Obituary, Six Feet Under and Morbid Angel. “We really like all types of music. There’s a lot of country-and-Western and blues stuff that works its way in there. I write most of the songs on a Telecaster [guitar]. As much as it is a heavy-metal project, we can’t help but infuse it with all of that stuff, too. We try not to do the chaotic solos like [Slayer guitarist’s] Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, but try to do more of a bluesy Stevie Ray Vaughan or Danzig shit.”

If that sounds like a weird mix, that’s because it is. SpiritWorld’s Warren Zevon-meets-Slayer sound is loud and proud on 2021 album Pagan Rhythms, and it works more than you can properly wrap your head around. Folsom knows it works, too. But seriously: Listen to “Armageddon Honkytonk & Saloon” right now.

“I like the challenge,” Folsom says. “When we were trying to figure out how we were going to present Pagan Rhythms live, it would have been real easy to get up there in our cool death-metal long-sleeves and just leave it at that. But I really wanted to push it and do stuff that’s interesting to me. I like really aggressive, violent, extreme music, but I also like bands with really huge production value like Tame Impala. … When it comes to playing little metal clubs, we can’t do what I want to do yet. My vision is to have something really grand – more of a theater stage show. We’re trying to work into the set like the foundation to have some sort of aesthetic that on one hand makes you unique, but on another it also makes metal people look at it like it’s crazy.”

See SpiritWorld for yourself on Wednesday, August 31, at HQ – but don’t be surprised if a “From Dusk Till Dawn” vampire blood feast breaks out at some point, with the band playing the broken bodies of unsuspecting concert-goers like guitars. The band is opening for Creeping Death; Tribal Gaze, 200 Stab Wounds and Plague Years are also on the bill.

For Creeping Death guitarist Trey Pemberton, putting together a lineup with diverse bands was crucial before hitting the road for a headlining tour.

“We come from a hardcore punk background. I think that’s where the diversity with the lineup comes from. One, you don’t want to listen to the same stuff every single night over and over. And two, you also want to tour with bands that you enjoy listening to yourself. I think we did a good job in choosing a very diverse group for everyone from metal fans to hardcore kids and everyone in between,” he explains.

They definitely did – 200 Stab Wounds and Tribal Gaze are two of the new modern death-metal slaughterers, while the crossover of Plague Years manically cuts across genres. Then there’s Creeping Death, a band that’s been mixing death metal, thrash and hardcore for nearly a decade at this point. The band is also touring with Ingrown, Vomit Forth and Age of Apocalypse on the current run.

Cutting their teeth in the “flourishing” Texas metal scene, Pemberton and Creeping Death operate under the adage “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

“It’s always been a thing to build up the bands that are coming up,” Pemberton says, recalling how modern-thrash titans Power Trip helped his band out before the untimely death of lead singer Riley Gale on August 21, 2020. “We want to pay it forward.”

With lineups like this one, it’s safe to say metal is in a good place right now behind bands such as Creeping Death and SpiritWorld.

“People can expect a lot of energy. It’s straight-up just fun energy. We’re all just having a good time. We’re laughing and smiling as we’re playing,” Pemberton says.

Creeping Death and SpiritWorld, 7 p.m. Wednesday, August 31, HQ, 60 South Broadway. Tickets are $15.