After 7 years of being inactive, the punk rock supergroup OFF! signed with their new label Fat Possum. But the label is not the only thing that changed for the band. The lineup changed too, at least partly; Steven Shane McDonald (bass), who is also known for playing in Melvins and Redd Kross, left the band in 2020 and is now replaced by Autry Fulbright II.
Fulbright also plays bass for the hardcore band …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. Longtime OFF! drummer Mario Rubalcaba also is no longer part of the band. Rubalcaba is/was part of multiple rock/metal bands, like Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Earthless and the emo band Clikatat Ikatowi.
Rubalcaba is replaced by none other than Justin Brown, known for his work for Thundercat and Herbie Hancock.
With a partly new lineup, OFF! takes on the massive Metallica cover album project. Because of the 30th anniversary of their Black Album, Metallica teamed up with a list of musicians and bands to release a major cover charity album called The Metallica Blacklist Album. Various cover versions have been released, like Miley Cyrus’ (featuring producer Andrew Watt, Elton John on piano, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Robert Trujillo on bass and Chad Smith on drums) cover of “Nothing Else Matters,” St. Vincent’s cover of “Sad but True” and now OFF!’s “Holier Than Thou.”
The 6minutes video starts with an intro story. The band’s manager (played by Angelo Moore) sends them off to perform at a “Rock and Roll Mass” in church. The preacher at this church (played by David Yow) is pretty unchristian, and he is abusing his position to lust on women, stealing money from the collection and curses quite a bit. Generally a pretty unlikable character. As the band starts performing their song, “Holier Than Thou,” the preacher slowly turns into the devil, who then tries to stop the band from performing. The power through song is revealed when “Rock Jesus” (Derrick Beckles) appears and repels the preacher/devil. The song itself is pretty hardcore and heavy; you can still hear it’s a Metallica song as the cover stays close enough to the original.
The cover album itself will have a whopping 53 tracks, with multiple artists covering the same songs. The LP will also be released as a giant collector’s box including a lot of collector items for fans of the band, like “a remastered 180-gram double LP, a remastered CD, a ‘Sad But True’ picture disc, three live LPs, 14 additional CDs and six DVDs of live performances, rough mixes and demos, among other rarities. It will also come with MP3 downloads for all of the music, guitar picks, a lyric folder, a 120-page photo book and various other bits of merchandise.” The album is set to be released on September 1st.
Photo credit: Owen Ela