Photo credit: Meredith Rice
Knaaves to play an all-ages show on Saturday, Feb. 29 at X-Ray Arcade with Dead to Fall, Frail Body, Snag, Cuss and Miak.
The Serpent’s Root, the debut LP by Milwaukee-based metal act Knaaves, was one of the best records of 2019 that you probably didn’t hear. While a host of national websites and publications gave The Serpent’s Root stellar reviews, local music outlets overlooked the album upon its release in September. Thankfully, fans of heavy metal have slowly been finding out about the record. “It’s been a bit of a slow burn,” guitarist Jamie Kerwin notes about the album’s reception, “as more and more people hear about it.”
What people are hearing is a band that expertly toes the line between heavy metal and hardcore; Knaaves would fit perfectly on a bill with such seminal acts as Converge, Today is the Day, Integrity and Bloodlet. Like such acts, Knaaves marries a brutal sound with a somewhat dark, violent worldview. The Serpent’s Root is named after a series of sermons given by infamous cult leader David Koresh, who led his Branch Davidians into a bloody standoff with the United States government. “The end is near,” vocalist Andy Parmann sings on the album’s eponymous opener, “They’ve come on pale horses/But these sheep don’t fear wolves.”
“A lot of the lyrical content is dark, apocalyptic,” bassist Amanda Daniels admits. “The word is really a dark, messed-up place. Our kind of thing is: ‘All of this is really shitty, but that’s OK to admit.’ What’s that cliché, it’s OK to not be OK?” In fact, standout track “Down in Flames” specifically addresses the trauma of mental illness, a fact that Parmann mentions when he introduces the song during live performances. As Kerwin notes, “Andy has said that every time he gives that speech, somebody comes up to him after the show and says, ‘Thank you for saying that.’”
Such emotional nuance is rare in heavy metal—and it’s one of the things that sets Knaaves apart from many of their peers. The Serpent’s Root probes such intense topics as suicide, depression and violence, but not in a way that glamorizes these things. Speaking on the band’s approach to writing lyrics, Daniels explains that “None of the bad things are going to be sugarcoated, but they are going to be presented in a way that’s not glorifying the negative, not romanticizing suicidal idealism and not turning cult leaders and serial killers into a revered phenomenon.” The Serpent’s Root does not revel in the violence it documents; instead, it serves as a timely warning to the damage wrought by unchecked aggression.
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Knaaves perform in an all-ages show with Dead to Fall, Frail Body, Snag, Cuss and Miak, 6:30-11 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29, at X-Ray Arcade, 5036 S. Packard Ave., Cudahy.
