10 Viral Metal Bands That Didn't Stay Popular
7. The Native Howl
Another group to take two genres that probably shouldn’t go together and putting them together anyway, The Native Howl sought to bring together bluegrass and thrash metal for their 2016 banger "Thunderhead".
While you might cynically mistake their sound as bluegrass country but with double-kick drums, the union was something of a hit online, worming its way through YouTube and Facebook algorithms. They would self-coin their sound with the groan-inducing label “thrash grass”, a term which itself has spawned a micro-scene of its own, with the likes of DaysNDaze, Blackbird Raum, and Mischief Brew all being associated with the term. TNH then doubled down on the new micro-genre, with it becoming the namesake for their 2016 album.
Despite that initial early promise and multiple wins at the 2017 Blue Water Music Awards, you'd be forgiven for thinking the COVID years have been uneventful for the Leonard, Michigan natives. However, they in fact resurfaced in 2022 on the TV show No Cover, winning season one and a contract with Sumerian Records, meaning that The Native Howl is now labelmates with the likes of Slaughter to Prevail, Poppy, Animals as Leaders, and Between the Buried and Me.
The thrash grass revival scene is going to hit very different.