Sad news in the Stoner Metal world this week when Will Mecum, guitarist & frontman for the band Karma To Burn, passed away on April 29th after a sudden accident. During the ‘90's and into the ‘00's, KTB were basically an honorary Columbus band. They played here more often than some of the locals. I was fortunate enough to go all the way back to the beginning with them as a fan. When I heard the sad news, the memories flooded in.
In 1993 I was singing for a band called Unconfined. We had gotten a lucky break, and were booked for a big gig at our favorite club, opening for an up & coming band called Clutch. In the month or so leading up to the show, a then locally-unknown band from West Virginia called the club owner incessantly, saying that they were friends with Clutch and wanted to play the show as well. The club owner explained that the show was set, but the band was persistent, agreeing to drive up from Morgantown and open the show for no pay. That's how Unconfined found ourselves in the unenviable position of being sandwiched between two bands who would later go on to become two of my favorite bands to this day.
When they took the stage, the 3-piece launched into some of the densest, most compact riffing I had ever heard. All three members locked into a three-chord groove, with the guitarist nodding his head in time with his right arm as he crouched down in a Johnny Ramone meets James Hetfield stance and lost himself completely in the wall of sound he was creating. In the forty minutes they played, no one stepped up to a microphone to sing. We were surprised to learn that Karma To Burn were an instrumental band. We stood with our jaws in our laps as they riffed song after song, like a Stoner Metal version of The Ventures. They didn't need vocals to convey some of the heaviest yet catchiest tunes that I had ever laid ears on. Our bassist, a front-man/vocalist for some other bands himself, at one point exclaimed "I want to sing for this band!"
That band was Karma To Burn, that guitarist/front-man was Will Mecum, and I became a massive fan from that evening forward. They were doing more with three people, three chords, and a couple of amp stacks than my own five-piece band with two guitars and a singer was capable of. I felt woefully inadequate.
Soon after that show Karma To Burn signed a deal with Roadrunner Records and released their debut major-label album. At the label's insistence they recruited a vocalist, and so that self-titled release does feature singing. But once they hit the road again they resumed their wordless conquest of audience after audience. Soon Karma To Burn were legends within the burgeoning Stoner Metal scene, garnering the attention of scene forefathers Kyuss's lead vocalist John Garcia, who cut some demos with the boys while his former guitarist was forming a new band called Queens Of The Stone Age. Nothing came of the attempted supergroup, but one of the songs with Garcia's vocals was released years later on the Karma To Burn album Live In London/Cat Got Our Tongue, with John being credited as guest vocalist.
After splitting with Roadrunner, Karma To Burn resumed their instrumental-only approach, going so far as to not even bother to title their compositions. Each song was named with a number, as in "One," "Three," etc. I have never confirmed this theory, but I have always assumed songs were titled in the order they were written. That premise mostly held out as they released subsequent albums, with the numbered titles ultimately reaching the sixties on the most recent releases. Their first two instrumental-only full-length releases are considered bona-fide classics of the Stoner Metal genre -- the albums Almost Heathen and Wild Wonderful Purgatory (both plays on West Virginia state tourism slogans).
Some people never knew how to react to a band with no singer. Years later I saw Karma To Burn open another show for Clutch. This time at a much larger venue and with no Unconfined mucking up the works. I watched gleefully from the pit and had a laugh when the guy next to me asked if Will was "...ever gonna sing?" I answered "nope" with a huge grin as the guy shrugged his shoulders and lost himself in the riffs. Years later again with a subsequent band, I was lucky enough to play another show with West Virginia's finest...a show in which two other instrumental bands were on the bill. I was the only person who sang that night. Talk about feeling out of place. The audience looked at me like "Who the fuck is this guy and what's he doing here?" but I didn't care. I got to share the stage with Karma To Burn.
There were a few other attempts at incorporating a vocalist into the KTB sound, including a stint with Daniel Davies, son of Dave Davies of The Kinks. But these forays were always half-hearted. They were at their best when stripped down to just the riff, pummeled into your skull with a force that no lyrics could properly convey, and Will knew it. He was the constant force in KTB throughout many changes in lineup. He WAS Karma To Burn. His loss looms large as he was still a relatively young man with many years ahead of him. I always hoped he would one day write the score for a major motion picture. I think the instrumental thing was looked at by music-biz bigwigs as a gimmick, and in doing so, the business may have missed out on the vast licensing potential that a band with no words could deliver. And with Karma To Burn, no words didn't mean a lack of hooks. After a few listens, you can seriously find yourself humming their riffs the same way you would hum the words to any hit song.
With his passing as a relatively obscure "star," it's safe to say that the Rock & Roll Universe doesn't even realize what it has lost. But here's a hint: In the world of THE RIFF, there's Tony Iommi, there's James Hetfield, and there was Will Mecum. Godspeed.
Kevin Montavon is a Pencil Storm contributor.